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Rapid Home COVID Antigen Tests May Have Severe Limitations

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Rapid Home COVID Antigen Tests May Have Severe Limitations
In this photo illustration a man uses a COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit at home in Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 29, 2021. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Updated:
Commentary
Many millions of these rapid antigen tests at a cost of billions of dollars are now in most homes. The federal government and many local organizations have been making them available without charge. But newly published research from the UK sheds a dark shadow on their usefulness. The initial hope was that making rapid home tests widely available would help curb COVID-19 transmission, and probably some officials thought they would motivate more people to get COVID-19 vaccine shots if people tested positive.
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Joel S. Hirschhorn
Author
Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn, author of "Pandemic Blunder" and many articles and podcasts on the pandemic, worked on health issues for decades. As a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he directed a medical research program between the colleges of engineering and medicine. As a senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association, he directed major studies on health-related subjects; he testified at over 50 U.S. Senate and House hearings and authored hundreds of articles and op-ed articles in major newspapers. He has served as an executive volunteer at a major hospital for more than 10 years. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, and America’s Frontline Doctors.
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