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The far too random reliability of possible "immune passports"

2020-04-12T17:07:17.734Z


DECRYPTION - For France, at the current stage of the epidemic, the proportion of the population that has not been in contact with the virus is still too large.


The idea of ​​testing the whole population with inexpensive serological tests to determine which people have already had the disease and could return to normal life without confinement is attractive. However, at this stage, this “immune passport” risks not only being ineffective, but even dangerous. And that, even if the serological test was very effective, with a reliability of 95%, both to say who developed antibodies in reaction to the virus, and to know who did not.

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For France, at the current stage of the epidemic, the problem does not come from the test as precise as it is, but from the still too large proportion of the population which has not been in contact with the virus. A statistical effect well known to epidemiologists, and fairly easily calculated on a corner of the table.

Suppose that all people infected with the coronavirus are then immunized, therefore protected from a second infection (which is far from being

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Source: lefigaro

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