News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificit... by timr on Monday May 11, 2020 @03:44PM (#23146136)
MERS and SARS are not a huge concern (they never achieved wide circulation), but coronaviruses make up ~40% of what we know as the common cold.

That said, if the false positive rate were that high, the specificity of the test would be low.

Re:New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificit... by Scipio_Afri on Monday May 11, 2020 @04:05PM (#23146364)
These tests are not FDA approved, they're being allowed under emergency use authorization. They're not subject to the same rigger as tests normally allowed on the market and the manufacturer's specifications may be overstated.
Re:New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificit... by timr on Monday May 11, 2020 @04:49PM (#23146880)
"They're not subject to the same rigger as tests normally allowed on the market and the manufacturer's specifications may be overstated."

"rigor"

Also, the error bars on these may be wider than is usual for an approved test, but they are just as likely to be understated as overstated.

Re:New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificit... by rswail on Tuesday May 12, 2020 @03:31AM (#23151401)
"rigour" :)
Re:New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificit... by arcticbull on Monday May 11, 2020 @07:57PM (#23148916)
> ...but coronaviruses make up ~40% of what we know as the common cold.

Up to 20%, and I've seen numbers as low as 15% [1].

[1] https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca...