Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced today that results from Covid testing will be reported in different ways based on what test was used.
Gov. Abbott said those who test positive to a rapid test, known as an antigen test which show results in 15 minutes, won’t be labeled as COVID-19 positive in the state’s eye. They’ll be considered COVID-19 probable. He said only people who take the PCR test, what the state has used from the start with the long cotton swabs given nasally, and test positive will be labeled as such.
“Only someone who goes through a viral COVID-19 test, and tests positive, will be categorized as a person who tests positive for COVID-19,” Gov. Abbott said. It was unclear how people who tested positive in rapid testing situations would then be considered positive without having to take another test.
Is the antigen test less reliable than the nose test? I can’t help but get the feeling that this is a way to keep the positive numbers from going up simply by deciding which data to use. The state recently changed the way it reports Covid deaths, basing it solely on the death certificate and whether or not the doctor specifically wrote “covid” on the certificate.
Maybe this is good science, but the cynical side of me feels like it’s all about controlling the numbers to make things look better than they are.