Antigen tests outshine PCR at predicting who can transmit SARS-CoV-2

A new study finds antigen tests for COVID-19 do a better job of predicting which patients are infectious than PCR tests, even though the latter tend to be more sensitive.

That conclusion, which came in a medRxiv paper published Sunday, is the result of work from Becton Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX) and Johns Hopkins University scientists, who correlated the results of antigen tests and RT-PCR tests with readouts from SARS-CoV-2 culture assays. The antigen tests were performed with the BD Veritor System for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2 and the RT-PCR tests with the Lyra SARS-CoV-2 Assay from Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ:QDEL)...