U.S. Government Says Coronavirus Test is Not Accurate

Posted on January 31, 2020

The U.S. declared the coronavirus (2019-nCOV) a public health emergency today. The virus has also been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The declaration was made during a press conference from President Trump's new coronavirus task force, which is led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. During the press conference a reporter asked a question of the accuracy of the CDC's coronavirus test.

It turns out they are not very accurate, or at least not as accurate as Dr. Anthony Fauci would like.

Dr. Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. As the Washington Examiner notes, Fauci said, "We don't know the accuracy of this test. It isn't like it's a horrible test, but it's not a test that's absolute."

Fauci also says that an HIV test would give a 100% accurate result. The current coronavirus test cannot. This combined with the face that infected asymptomatic people have been proven to transmit the disease makes control considerably more complex. It will likely lead to people being quarantined that don't need to be out of safety concerns. It also means infected people may pass by screens and infect others because they are not showing symptoms and the test also may fail to identify them as being infected.

Image: CDC

Here's a video of the latest coronavirus briefing:

COVID-19