COVID: why are people testing positive on lateral flow tests then negative on PCR?

By Christian Yates, Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Biology, University of Bath

In the UK over the last few weeks, there have been a growing number of reports of people testing positive for COVID on a lateral flow test (LFT) but then negative on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. This stands out because we’ve been led to believe that PCR tests are the “gold standard” and LFTs are crude mass-testing devices – that PCRs should pick up cases LFTs miss, not the other way around.

A number of explanations have been put forward. Some have suggested a faulty batch…

Read complete article

~	‘D voters’ remain a key issue in Assam during India's general elections

~	Elon Musk, superhero of the Latin American right

~	A Sydney council has banned books with same-sex parents from its libraries. But since when did councils ban books?

~	Politics with Michelle Grattan: James Paterson on prospects for passage of the government’s deportation bill

~	South Africa will be president of the G20 in 2025: two much-needed reforms it should drive

~	Translating Taiwanese queer sci-fi literature into Spanish: Interview with Alberto Poza Poyatos

~	Forging bonds: People-to-People diplomacy between Taiwan and Somaliland

~	Yes, Australia’s big supermarkets have been price gouging. But fixing the problem won’t be easy

~	Senate report on lobbying passes the buck on improving transparency or legislation

~	The government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its deportation bill. Given the findings, it’s easy to see why