I recently tested negative for coronavirus. I was told instead it was probably a “viral upper respiratory infection,” which meant spending a few days married to my nebulizer machine. But now reports of false negatives have me paranoid, wondering if I have a false sense of security.
It all started a week ago with a cough, which I dismissed as asthma. Then came the body aches, which I attributed to hitting my thirties and bleaching the tile kitchen floor on my hands and knees. Then the nausea and subsequent vomiting, which I figured was a result of hitting the quarantine cheese too hard without a Lactaid pill. I couldn’t taste my coffee on Saturday morning, but just thought it was just the crappiness of the emergency stash of old grounds I had in a cupboard.
But the fever and chills set in, up and down for six days, and a cough that went from dry to bloody by Sunday. I’m usually cavalier about illness, since respiratory infections happen so often for me. But when a new symptom, chest pain, set in Monday, I called my doctor. She called back within a few hours, went through a list of questions, and immediately sent me to Mass. General Hospital’s emergency room. There was an EKG, a chest scan for pneumonia, and flu swabs, all coming back negative. There was a nausea pill to stop the vomiting. Then came the swab up the nose for COVID-19. Less than 20 hours later I got an emailĀ ā”negative.”
But now medical experts are worried that close to 33 percent of people testing negative for the coronavirus are actually infected. As officials rush to “flatten the curve,” accelerated testing capacity is also throwing in some incorrect results, which lead people to believe they don’t have the virus, and keep them from quarantine.
A primary care doctor in New Jersey experienced that problem when swabs run through a Quest Diagnostics Inc. test kit came back negative for a health care worker, only to have it come back positive at a later date. Her concern ā the person came in contact with many people after testing negative. The ramifications for medical workers, who are on the front lines of helping others, are even greater than for those of us working from home.
“Our materials for providers, including our test reports, make clear that while these tests are designed to minimize false negatives and false positives, such results can occur,ā said spokeswoman Wendy Bost to the Wall Street Journal.
Similarly, LabCorp told the paper that a “negative result does not definitively rule out infection.” Accuracy, a spokesman said, can be affected by how the specimen is collected, and how long the individual has been infected prior to testing. Both LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics are conducting tests for COVID-19 in Massachusetts, with roughly half of all of the tests processed so far going through Quest in Marlborough.
Quest told the Boston Globe that while the tests are āconsidered generally accurate, no lab test is 100 percent perfect.ā
The US Food and Drug Administration relaxed requirements for testing companies in late February, allowing labs to start testing without approval and submit studies later. The FDA said this addressed the need for more testing, a key priority. One recently approved test delivers positive results in five minutes, and negative results in 13.
In a harrowing local tale, a pregnant woman tested negative initially for coronavirus, but then positive when she was tested again at Mass. General Hospital’s emergency department. Her husband, who is critically ill with COVID-19, was only tested after he was rushed to the hospital, and is now in a medically-induced coma, intubated on a ventilator.
Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, said the test issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is very sensitive in detecting the virus, with a sensitivity of greater than 95 percent.
False negatives are the medical community’s worst kept secret, and something that hasn’t really turned heads as public officials like Gov. Charlie Baker seek to get as many symptomatic people tested as possible before the predicted mid-April surge of patients in hospitals. Our medical system doesn’t currently have the capacity to run swabs twice — it’s hard enough for many to meet the qualifications for even one test.
Dr. Harlan Krumholz, director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, outlined his concerns in a New York Times op-ed, saying anyone with coronavirus symptoms should assume they have it, even if they test negative.
āThe best the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can say is that if you test negative, āyou probably were not infected at the time your specimen was collected,āā he wrote. āThe key word there is āprobably.ā”
SARAH BETANCOURT
BEACON HILL
The Baker administration is projecting somewhere between 705 and 2,580 people in Massachusetts will lose their lives to COVID-19. As preparations go on for the surge, Partners HealthCare helps bring in a Battelle facility that can disinfect medical-grade masks so they can be used many times, extending the stateās supply. (CommonWealth)
The Massachusetts House passes a bill pausing evictions and foreclosures, which must still be reconciled with a Senate version. (MassLive) A bill to let restaurants provide alcohol with take-out is on Gov. Charlie Bakerās desk. (State House News Service)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The trailer was released for a mobile-streaming only documentary series that will begin on April 6 on the rise and fall of former Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia. (Herald News)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Some kind of guidance urging broader use of masks is expected from the White House. (Washington Post)
LIVING WITH CORONAVIRUS
In a New York Times op-ed, four health care and data experts, including Boston health center founder Bill Walczak, urge a national policy recommending that everyone wear masks or other face-coverings when out in public. CommonWealth raised the issue earlier this week.
Three residents have died at Jewish Healthcare Center in Worcester and 16 residents have tested positive for COVID-19. (Telegram & Gazette)
Polling shows a political divide over COVID-19, with Democrats more likely to view it as a very serious threat than Republicans. (CommonWealth)
The Patriot Ledger takes a look at what quarantine is like when both parents are teachers.
How area Jewish residents are planning for Passover amidst the coronavirus epidemic. (WGBH)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers estimates that the unemployment rate when all types of workers are considered is already 13 percent, higher than at any point since the Great Depression, and rising rapidly. (New York Times)
Danvers is limiting big box stores to 50 customers at a time other stores like Market Basket take similar steps voluntarily. (The Salem News)
Massachusetts health insurers say theyāll run into trouble if the federal government doesnāt target aid to businesses so they can keep up with health care premiums. (Boston Globe)
Massachusetts jobless claims are continuing to skyrocket. (Eagle-Tribune) Meanwhile, local dairies are seeing a jump in demand for home delivery of milk. (Telegram & Gazette)
The coronavirus has hit physical therapy hard, but rehab work continues on the SouthCoast using two very different methods. (Standard-Times)
National Grid is sequestering employees voluntarily in camper trailers on-site so they stay healthy and ready to work. (Telegram & Gazette)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The New England Patriots jet, dispatched by the Kraft family to China as part of a plan to quickly get 1 million protective masks to Massachusetts, arrived last night in Boston. (Boston Globe) Joe Battenfeld highlights the fact that Gov. Charlie Baker thanked the Kraft family, two governors, and Chinese officials — notably omitting any praise for the Trump administration with which heās been sparring over supply-chain issues for health care workers. (Boston Herald)
Virus notes: COVID-19 is emerging as a real threat at state long-term care facilities as 78 clusters are identifiedā¦. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Suffolk County more than doubles in six days…More cases at the Tā¦.Unemployment claims soaring. (CommonWealth)
Dr. Jarone Lee, an ICU doctor at Mass General, reminds people that ICU beds wonāt beat COVID-19, only the actions of everyone making sure the disease doesnāt spread will. (CommonWealth)
In the battle against COVID-19, physician assistants are giving the medical field generals a lot of flexibility. (CommonWealth)
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is being transformed into a field hospital to care for more than 500 people infected with coronavirus who donāt require full hospital care. (WGBH)
Advocates for seniors say there are problems with the stateās plan to transfer nursing home residents in order to use facilities for COVID-19 patients. (The Salem News)
UMass Memorial Medical Center creates a phone triage center, where nurses and clinicians are taking patient calls about coronavirus and delivering test results. (Telegram & Gazette)
Western Massachusetts lawmakers are calling for a separate, legislative investigation into the management of the coronavirus outbreak at Holyoke Soldiersā Home. (MassLive)
The National Guard is dispatched to Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley after the assisted living facility failed to properly respond to a coronavirus outbreak there. (MassLive)
Interest in home births is surging as women look to avoid going to hospitals where COVID-19 patients are being cared for, but doctors are raising concerns about the trend. (WGBH)
Tufts Medical Center furloughs or cuts hours of 2,000 employees. (Boston Globe)
ARTS/CULTURE
Cultural institutions are taking a beating. The Museum of Fine Art says it has already lost $1.4 million and the number is likely to grow much higher. (State HouseĀ News)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Despite concern over the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, Holtec is forging ahead with plans to transfer radioactive spent fuel from a pool above the reactor at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to steel-lined dry casks. (Cape Cod Times)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A man incarcerated at the Massachusetts Treatment Center in Bridgewater died of COVID-19, and eight Billerica jail employees test positive, raising fears about correctional facility outbreaks. (MassLive) The Brockton Enterprise has more details on the death.
A federal judge indicates he plans to release some ICE detainees at the Bristol County Jail. (CommonWealth)
Although crime appears to be dropping amid the pandemic, the police are seeing an uptick of calls about domestic violence and mental health issues. (Telegram & Gazette)
MEDIA
The coronavirus pandemic is laying waste to already dramatically thinned out newspapers across the region at a time when people are hungry for local news on its effects. (Boston Globe)
On social media, a bunch of Boston Herald staffers say goodbye, including columnist Jessica Heslam, Steff Geller and Adriana Cohen. Bruins reporter Marisa Ingemi is also gone.