Rapid tests do not provide reliable protection: “Anyone who sits down in a restaurant now risks an omicron infection” – policy
Virologist Isabella Eckerle pointed out the weaknesses of the rapid antigen tests in an interview. In Geneva, she is currently researching the reliability of quick and self-tests. Initial results from the laboratory showed that “many tests do not even detect highly positive samples, although the dying patients from whom the samples were taken were very likely already contagious,” said Eckerle in an interview with the “Wirtschaftswoche“.
She confirmed that it was possible that someone who did a quick test in the morning, the negative failure, was already infectious in the evening while visiting a restaurant. She therefore emphasized: “Anyone who sits down in a restaurant now risks an Omicron infection despite all the hygiene measures.”
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This also applies if all guests had taken a daily quick test in addition to vaccination or recovery. Because people talk aloud there, eat and only wear a mask, infection is not unlikely, according to Eckerle. Nevertheless, rapid tests are useful. They could relieve the laboratories and break the chains of infection.
In Geneva, the omicron wave is currently leading to rapidly increasing numbers. “Infected people are everywhere,” writes Eckerle on Twitter. “You go out of the house and meet someone who has the virus”. You have had your last third contact within a very short time.
On the subject of vaccination, she said in an interview that a booster vaccination protects against infection for a while and, in the case of illness, against a severe course. “But what is also part of reality: sooner or later Omikron will probably catch everyone.” She suspects that Omikron will lead to “basic immunity” because either everyone was vaccinated or infected. “This basic immunity will be the first step towards endemic.” (TL)