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Covid-19: What you need to know today
There’s a theory doing the rounds that because rapid antigen tests recognise only moderate to high viral loads, they identify the truly infectious patients — a completely misguided and dangerous theory.
That the Sars-CoV-2 virus has got the most powerful man in the world is yet again proof that no one is safe. Sure, it’s not kryptonite, he’s not Kal-El, and in every possible way, US President Donald Trump has no one to blame but himself, but still, if it can get him, it can get anyone.
Trump mocked his rival in the US presidential election next month, former vice president Joe Biden, for always wearing a mask in a debate last week, emphasising that there was no need to wear one in safe environments such as the one where the debate was being held — the Western Reserve University’s Health Education Campus in Cleveland, Ohio, with a live studio audience, largely the entourages of the two candidates, officials of the university, and reporters. Everyone had been tested, Trump said, and there was social distancing.
Subsequent reports, and also video footage shows the first family violating the rules by taking off their masks during the debate, and keeping them off. And subsequent reports also mentioned, citing White House officials, that the President, his entourage and their guests, underwent a rapid antigen test ahead of the debate.
These are the new Abbott Laboratories rapid antigen tests that perform as well as molecular tests (such as the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR) in the laboratory, but which have a false negative rate of 20% in the field, according to some studies. That is still a whole lot better than the up to 50% false negative rate of many other rapid antigen tests. Indeed, Abbott’s tests, fast (15 minutes) and cheap, were considered a breakthrough among antigen tests, all of which (including those used widely in India) were fast and inexpensive, but with a high false negative rate.
I’ve written a lot on rapid antigen tests. There is a context for their use — in a containment zone for instance, where cases are peaking; or in an airport, to test passengers before they board a flight, or test those who have just alighted from one; even ahead of a public or publicly private event (such as the debate). But to use them in any other context is downright foolish.
There’s a theory doing the rounds that because rapid antigen tests recognise only moderate to high viral loads, they identify the truly infectious patients — a completely misguided and dangerous theory. There’s another theory doing the rounds that molecular tests such as RT-PCR are bad because they have a high rate of false positives. A false positive is when a test identifies an uninfected individual as infected — something that, no doubt, causes anguish to that person and also results in them being placed in some sort of quarantine. A false negative, on the contrary, identifies an infected person as uninfected, allows them to move around freely, and perhaps infect others, including those from vulnerable sections of the population who, in turn, may succumb to the disease. It’s easy to see which is more harmful.
But back to the debate: media reports say that after people in the Trump camp took off their masks (the minute they were seated; no one was allowed in without masks), they were approached by a health worker from The Cleveland Clinic who offered them masks, only to be shooed away. Trump and his supporters have made the mask a political issue in the US; the President has also encouraged large campaign rallies and meetings with utter disregard for social distancing; and he is rarely seen wearing a mask when with his inner circle. This behaviour, US media reports say, extends to other White House officials.
There are anti-maskers in India as well, but they are a fringe group, best known for a video posted online and pamphlets inserted in newspapers distributed in a few Mumbai neighbourhoods (and both were widely criticised).
Trump’s infection — there are conflicting reports on how serious it is, although he has been hospitalised — is a reminder to everyone that testing (using the right kind of tests,ideally), wearing masks and social distancing hold the key to staying safe from the virus.
