After a recent COVID-19 exposure, Dr. Christina Astley tested positive on an at-home test—but just barely. The line signifying a positive result was so faint that Astley, an endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, took a picture and applied a camera filter to confirm it was there at all. Further complicating matters, Astley later tested negative with a different manufacturer’s kit. Even for a physician who is “hyper-vigilant” about COVID-19, Astley says, the results were hard to interpret. Experts say ambiguous results like these may be more common now—but not because rapid tests aren’t working. In fact, these confusing results could actually be a good thing, at least as far as your immune system goes. When a rapid test is clearly positive, with a dark line showing up almost immediately, that means there’s been “a failure of the immune system,” says Dr. Michael Mina, chief science officer at home-testing company eMed and a former Harv …
Confusing Rapid COVID-19 Test Results Are Getting More Common – TIME
