Some patients are testing negative for the coronavirus even though they have it, and a D.C. doctor says it’s unavoidable but exceedingly rare.
鈥淲e鈥檝e done hundreds of tests now, and we鈥檝e seen a couple of negatives that when retested were positive,鈥� said Dr. Gary Simon, chief of the at The George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
And while they do occur, “statistically, you鈥檒l always see a false negative in any type of population. It鈥檚 impossible to say it鈥檚 100%.”
As a result, someone who comes in with classic symptoms of the coronavirus but tests negative will be tested again.
Simon said the current thinking is that the nasal swab test could be more reliable than the oral test. But he stressed there鈥檚 not much data to back that up.
鈥淚t鈥檚 believed 鈥� without really good evidence 鈥� that nasopharyngeal testing is a little better than oropharyngeal testing,” Simon said.
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