nzjrs wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 14:49
SiLo wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 12:45
Is there more context here? He went to Germany, showed symptoms, got tested, was positive, isolated and didn't race. Am I missing something?
That's not an accurate summary of what the journalist describes happened.
He went to Germany got tested (every N days?, daily?) -> was negative -> felt sick -> got replaced -> remained isolated (allegedly, likely) -> the race -> went home -> got tested again -> positive -> quarantine (does not affect next race) -> negative -> can race (lucky).
The problem is that if they avoided him taking any tests over the race weekend, or failed to volunteer for extra testing once he was isolating on Friday?/Saturday, then that is a bit disingenuous and seems like the behavior of a team that was avoiding the consequences of a (what is now almost certainly would have been) positive test.
I'm not commenting on the necessity of testing or the general covid strategy more broadly, but more on the (alleged, by the journalist I quoted) gaming of the system.
I think generally the issue with these COVID tests is that they only show a "snapshot" of the given time. It doesn't necessarily mean that the person does not have COVID, it just shows if the virus is present in the place that is being checked/swabbed. Given incubation periods etc, it could still be possible that one has a negative tests, but develops symptoms at a later point. Or maybe the person wasn't swabbed in a place where the virus is present.
One assumes that if you have symptoms, then a COVID test should yield a positive result. I guess here too, it depends on the kind of symptoms, as COVID isn't necessarily confined to the throat/lung etc.
I think part of the testing protocol of F1 is to have a concept that is considered "acceptably safe". It's never going to be 100%, even if you have a high interval of tests. That's where the bubbles come into play too. On the off chance that someone gets it, you quarantine the entire bubble.
At least that's how I interpret it.
Does anyone know if the testing protocol only includes swabs or do they also check for the anti bodies? Of course, testing for anti bodies has the same flaw; You will only test positive if your body develops these anti bodies.