while a false negative means a covid positive person is acting like they don’t have it.
big difference between literal false negative and practical one
virus count drops quickly. Many people are undetectable by the time they start feeling sick. If the tests repeatedly come up negative, that means YOU ARE NOT SHEDDING VIRUS, even if you have COVID.
It's technically a false negative in that you have COVID and you tested negative. But it is practically, for the purposes of contagion and controlling the epidemic, the same thing as being ACTUALLY negative and COVID-free.
By the time illness actually comes on, roughly 50% of people will already have undetectable levels of virus in their body. I got tested 1 week after I felt sick, 3 times within the month that I got sick, and 13 times in the few months after that. Literally every single one came up negative, and I definitely had COVID.
big difference between literal false negative and practical one
virus count drops quickly. Many people are undetectable by the time they start feeling sick. If the tests repeatedly come up negative, that means YOU ARE NOT SHEDDING VIRUS, even if you have COVID.
It's technically a false negative in that you have COVID and you tested negative. But it is practically, for the purposes of contagion and controlling the epidemic, the same thing as being ACTUALLY negative and COVID-free.
By the time illness actually comes on, roughly 50% of people will already have undetectable levels of virus in their body. I got tested 1 week after I felt sick, 3 times within the month that I got sick, and 13 times in the few months after that. Literally every single one came up negative, and I definitely had COVID.