Alyssa Milano tells how she kept getting negative tests when she had CV, until finally an

[tblue37]

antibody test proved she'd had it after all.

(I added paragraphing to make it easier to read.)

This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks. I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep food in me. I lost 9 pounds in 2 weeks. I was confused. Low grade fever. And the headaches were horrible. I basically had every Covid symptom. At the very end of march I took two covid19 tests and both were negative. I also took a covid antibody test (the finger prick test) after I was feeling a bit better. NEGATIVE.

After living the last 4 months with lingering symptoms like, vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise, I went and got an antibody test from a blood draw (not the finger prick) from a lab. I am POSITIVE for covid antibodies. I had Covid19.

I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we don’t know the real numbers. I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying. I will be donating my plasma with hopes that I might save a life. Please take care of yourselves. Please wash your hands and wear a mask and social distance. I don’t want anyone to feel the way I felt. Be well. I love you all (well, maybe not the trolls. Just the kind people.)

[Karadeniz]

1. Awful!

[OhNo-Really]

13. Here is link to orig story in People Mag

https://people.com/tv/alyssa-milano-tests-positive-for-covid-19-antibodies-after-negative-coronavirus-results

You all know to erase everything after & including the ? Mark right?

[smirkymonkey]

2. Scary how behind we are in this country. I am glad she has recovered.

This virus is really frightening and I think things are going to get even worse.

We were supposed to go back to the office this week on an alternating week basis, but 3 people out of 30 on our team went in on Monday and left before noon and nobody has gone back. I haven't left my apartment building at all since my birthday dinner in an (almost) empty restaurant in mid-July. I think people are anticipating that we are in for another surge and are just trying to wait to see what happens.

And they want us to trust a hastily prepared, under-tested vaccine pushed by a greedy, heartless government that doesn't care how many people die or are harmed in irreparable ways, as long as they can get the economy going again? F**k that!

[tblue37]

4. Actually, she is still experiencing long term effects from her illness. nt

[certainot]

24. greedy heartless AND murderous. if kushner managed testing strategy to 'hurt' blue states then

it is naive for americans and media to ignore other signs that at some level the trump admin delayed action to let it get worse. there would be different rationalizations for doing nothing or managing it to hurt some more than others.

from the beginning limbaugh called it a dem hoax to push big govt socialist solutions. that was probably their biggest fear - that progressive programs would be emphasized and americans would get used to them. limbaugh would not have led that propaganda without coordination with the trump admin. at some level they were likely comparing it to using ebola as an october surprise in 2014 when rw media blew it up in oct and then dropped the story completely right after they got 9 senate seats in the elections. trump and limbaugh are stupid enough to compare ebola and corona.

dems/media need to investigate this as if trump wants to use it to benefit him in the elections

[RVN VET71]

34. Freedom Medal Limbaugh?

Wasn't Limbaugh's body supposed to have followed his cold, dead soul to the grave by now?

[certainot]

35. republicans are sacrificing their kids to save him - it might work for a while

[gristy]

3. This is so sad. I love Alyssa.

And symptoms still lingering after 4 months!

[StClone]

5. Yeah only a moron would expose themselves to higher risks

of contracting this g.d. virus like not wearing mask. I feel for Alyssa, too.

[DFW]

6. The many reports of heart damage in many who have recovered is frightening

I have had serious heart issues for over 15 years. So far, competent cardiologists have kept me alive and kicking with their vigilance, but if I get COVID-19, even if I survive the virus, I may not survive the aftermath.

False test results won't satisfy me if I have the slightest feeling that I have symptoms. I will seek treatment regardless.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

7. CDC says....

From: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#Testing

If you test negative for COVID-19, you probably were not infected at the time your sample was collected. However, that does not mean you will not get sick. The test result only means that you did not have COVID-19 at the time of testing. You might test negative if the sample was collected early in your infection and test positive later during your illness. You could also be exposed to COVID-19 after the test and get infected then. This means you could still spread the virus. If you develop symptoms later, you might need another test to determine if you are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

I hope she follows this statement with an analysis by medical professionals regarding why her early tests failed. Otherwise, reports like this tend to diminish public faith in COVID-19 testing.

KY

[captain queeg]

9. That seems fairly obvious. You might not show the infection for the first few days

But that doesn’t mean you don’t have it. We need fast, reliable, accessible testing. It should be as the liar first said “anyone wanting a test gets a test”. Like the rest of most of the world.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

23. Agree. The CDC says typically two to fourteen days to show symptoms....

but most people are in denial about asymptomatic cases or simply have not educated themselves about it.

KY

[stopdiggin]

31. doesn't at all explain her (repeated) negative tests

And -- reports like this SHOULD -- "tend to diminish public faith in COVID-19 testing."

There's no way of spinning this into something other than what it is -- shoddy testing with false results.

[SergeStorms]

8. Donate blood.

My daughter is a frequent filler (donor) and they now test for Corona virus antibodies as a matter of practice.

[Marie Marie]

10. Question for anyone who knows: Are other countries tests more reliable than the one we are using?

The unreliability of these tests are terrifying.

[iluvtennis]

12. Other countries were using WHO sponsored test kits. But our government

said those weren’t good enough and had CDC develop our test kits. Remember all the issues in the beginning where the kits were incomplete. I’ll do some digging on tests kits and share here

[OneCrazyDiamond]

37. It is more nuanced then that

What's True
The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in favor of producing its own.

What's False
The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-coronavirus-test/

[uponit7771]

18. +1, not only that other countries don't have the case rate we do so they don't have to test

... 500,000 people a day minimum to keep up with outbreaks.

[Lucinda]

11. KNR

[James48]

14. I am hearing multiple failures

Of testing for several reasons:

1. Poor collection practices, not enough cells on the swab, etc.
2. Delays in processing leading to samples dying before the test is processed.
3. Bad reagents- the shortage of processing reagents also is delaying some processing.
4. Poor test interpretation of results.

Some people tested three times at one lab negatively, only to go to a different lab and pop positive within a day. I think our whole testing process is still substandard for accuracy.

[tblue37]

16. +1. nt

[uponit7771]

17. +1, I think TRMS reveled PTR is dropping cause of SLOW TESTING !!! Not because of cases dropping

[JI7]

15. Reliable testing at the national level is needed to help deal with this

[AlexSFCA]

19. there is not enough emphasis on long term effects even of asymptomatic cases

let alone for someone who had even mildest of symptoms. This is not respiratory disease but multi-organ disease.

[mnmoderatedem]

20. I've heard similar things

I have a friend who currently has all the symptoms but tested negative. She has a nurse friend who told her, yes sometimes tests come back negative in error.

One more thing to add to the nightmare.

[druidity33]

21. I was told by the doc that swabbed me...

That 95% of the time a positive reading is accurate. And 75% of the time a negative reading is accurate. So you're more likely to have it and test neg than not have it and test pos.

[NurseJackie]

22. "Be well. I love you all (well, maybe not the trolls. Just the kind people.)"

Be well. I love you all (well, maybe not the trolls. Just the kind people.)

Perfect! I'm glad she's doing better.

[onetexan]

25. Ditto. Glad she shared her experience to let the rest of us know even the testing is flawed

[northoftheborder]

26. Thanks for these educational posts

[klook]

27. "It wasn't as bad as the Kavanaugh hearing,

but still pretty bad.”

Glad she made it through and is doing better.

[cstanleytech]

28. Question is was it the result of false negatives or the result of her having some other virus or

a still as yet undiagnosed heath condition and she simply caught the COVID virus later on.
We might never know unless can they tell how long back she caught it via the current amount of antibodies she has?

[stopdiggin]

32. all "classic" Covid symptoms (as per article)

would make that scenario quite unlikely.

[enki23]

29. I would trust those negative PCR tests more than the one positive antibody test.

They may well have been wrong. It happens, for sure, often due to bad sampling or sample handling. But the antibody tests are highly susceptible to false positives.

[tblue37]

30. OTOH, she had the symptoms and the lingering effects associated with CV. nt

[stopdiggin]

33. yep. classic symptoms. that's the tell. (nt)

(and, being honest here -- I've had countless people tell me they "had it" earlier around Jan/Feb -- and I discount it entirely because -- the evidence simply doesn't support us having that many cases in late winter -- and, unless you did have these symptoms -- chances are you just had a bad cold back in Jan.)

[Sympthsical]

36. I'm convinced I had it, but tested negative

I work around a lot of people. In early June, I contracted what I initially thought was a bad chest cold. Hard to breathe, body ached, night sweats, always a kind of low grade fever that didn't go away.

Fortunately, I have the luxury of being able to work at home if I need. So I just blatantly stayed home for three weeks. Kept telling my boss I didn't want to risk it. Went to Kaiser to get tested. Negative.

I blatantly disbelieve it. I've had chest colds before. This was not that.