Great Article on Specificity and Sensitivity..... .....and why the improvements to AcuVid were so important. Thanks again, YInvext1 for correcting my mistake. Actually when I went back and looked at the NR I found even more reason to be excited about AcuVid.
At 100% Specificity AcuVid can detect all those that are covid negative ....so in theory there would be no false negatives ie. you're sending someone back out onto the street who is infected.
At lower viral loads AcuVid has a sensitivity of 86%. That means it is possible to have false positives ....and one of the reasons rapid antigen tests have been slow getting ramped up. The solution to that problem has been to have individuals testing covid positive to have a PCR test for confirmation.
At very high viral loads AcuVid is also 100% sensitive ....at least in a lab setting.
Therefore, if testing provides the same results, AcuVid would be the first rapid point of care test to require only a saliva sample and would fall within the range (83% to 94%) of sensitivities for tests already approved. Inexpensive, accurate, fast and easy to acquire the sample.
https://www.siemens-healthineers.com/laboratory-diagnostics/assays-by-diseases-conditions/infectious-disease-assays/specificity-matters