A single omicron antigen test is good after showing symptoms, not before (Table 1). The good news is antigen doesn’t miss randomly (of course not) - it misses lower viral load cases (Figure 1a). But we can’t be sure those cases are at a steady-state of viral load, so it doesn’t necessarily ensure that missed cases remain low viral load. Asymptomatic cases tend to be lower viral load than symptomatic cases (makes sense), but it’s by no means a guarantee (Figure 1b-c, median Ct of symptomatic is ~25 while median Ct of asymptomatic is ~30, higher Ct means lower viral load). https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.08.22268954v2.full.pdf+html
A single omicron antigen test is good after showing symptoms, not before (Table 1). The good news is antigen doesn’t miss randomly (of course not) - it misses lower viral load cases (Figure 1a). But we can’t be sure those cases are at a steady-state of viral load, so it doesn’t necessarily ensure that missed cases remain low viral load. Asymptomatic cases tend to be lower viral load than symptomatic cases (makes sense), but it’s by no means a guarantee (Figure 1b-c, median Ct of symptomatic is ~25 while median Ct of asymptomatic is ~30, higher Ct means lower viral load).
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.08.22268954v2.full.pdf+html
Is it accurate to say that Ct count is similar to the # of zero bits of the density of RNA in the sample (expressed in binary)?