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As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues with global cases nearing 2.5 million, clinicians have raised questions about the accuracy of available COVID-19 tests. After in-house testing of different available tests, one physician found that Abbott’s assay using its ID NOW device, which can provide results in 5–13 minutes, has a false-negative rate that nears 15 percent. The full results, first reported by NPR, have not been published or peer-reviewed.
Gary Procop is the chairman of the commission of science, technology and policy for the American Society for Clinical Pathology, and is currently heading up COVID-19 testing at Cleveland Clinic. He and his team took 239 patient samples known to be positive for the virus and re-tested them using five products available through the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use authorization. The test that turned out to be the least accurate is the one known for ...
