The standard test for infection with the coronavirus looks for a genetic fingerprint. Laboratory errors, including contamination, can lead to false results, a problem seen with environmental testing.
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesDrivers line up for COVID-19 testing in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles in May.During the coronavirus pandemic, many scientists who usually have nothing to do with viruses or infectious disease are turning their attention to COVID-19. For example, one wildlife biologist is raising questions about the accuracy of tests that detect the coronavirus.
Scientists were using a clever technique to find them. They'd take a water sample and then look for the tiniest traces of genetic material from these mussels. They used a test called PCR , which vastly amplifies genetic material to look for mussel DNA. This is the same technology used to diagnose COVID-19.
Cohen wanted to understand why these tests were going awry, so he could spread the word to the labs that were using them."I eventually turned to the medical literature to look at assessments that had been done of medical diagnostic labs that used PCR-based testing in humans." "I began wondering whether these asymptomatic carriers weren't in large part or in whole part the human counterparts of those false-positive results of quagga and zebra mussels in all those water bodies across the across the West," he says.
So, Cohen updated the survey of medical testing he'd done to explore the cause of false-positives in wildlife testing. He Most errors are caused by poor sample handling or other errors even before a sample gets to the lab, she says.
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