Health
Cold, flu, flu vaccination does not cause a positive COVID-19 test
Claim: Common colds, flu, and flu vaccines all test positive for COVID-19.
Prior to Thanksgiving, cities like New York and Boston saw the COVID-19 test line. I stretched out for the block and waited for hours.
But not everyone wants a test.
Many users of social media have claimed that coronavirus testing is inaccurate and ineffective, and advised followers not to take or trust them.
“A positive test for COVID-19 only means that you have antibodies to the flu and colds,” he reads the post. Instagram.. “Don’t take the test!”
“Don’t test yourself !!! If you have a cold (coronavirus), you will be positive for COVID 19. If you have the flu, you will be positive for COVID. Vaccination against the flu. If you do, your COVID test will be positive. ” Facebook..
The user behind the post is not responding to comments requests from USA TODAY.
More:Fact Check: What’s True and What’s Wrong with Coronavirus?
Common cold and COVID-19 test
This is not the first time Internet users have claimed a link between a common cold and a positive COVID-19 test. actually, USA Today He made a similar claim in July.
Fact check: Cold does not test positive for coronavirus
The claim that a cold tests positive for COVID-19 is actually related to antibody testing.
They check the blood for antibodies, a disease-specific protein produced by white blood cells to fight the virus, and determine if an individual has been infected in the past.
by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Positive test results indicate that you may have antibodies from a viral infection that causes COVID-19, but positive results have antibodies from different viral infections of the same viral family. It may mean that (called coronavirus). “
It is true that colds are in the coronavirus family.
“About one-third of common colds are caused by a different coronavirus strain than the COVID-19 coronavirus,” said Dr. Lee Riley, Dean of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines at UC Berkeley. I confirmed with the United States. .. “
Still, having a cold is unlikely to be a positive test for COVID-19 antibodies, he said.
“These common cold coronavirus strains will not elicit an antibody response that is so high that it can be mistaken for an antibody response to the COVID-19 virus,” he wrote in an email. “If so, it will be shown that almost everyone on the planet has antibodies to COVID-19.”
Antibody tests are also not for diagnostic purposes. Instead, the diagnosis is based on virus testing.
by Food and Drug AdministrationThere are two types of COVID-19 virus tests that can be used for diagnostic purposes: molecular tests and antigen tests.
Molecular tests, such as the RT-PCR test, detect the genetic material of the virus, and antigen tests detect specific proteins in the virus.
COVID-19 is a specific type of coronavirus with different genetic material and proteins.
That’s why Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The site states that “other coronaviruses cannot give a positive SARS-CoV-2 virus test.”
Influenza, influenza vaccination, COVID-19 test
Some symptoms of influenza and COVID-19 are similar, but the viruses are different. Influenza is caused by the influenza virus, not the coronavirus.
Riley told USA Today that the allegations about influenza and the COVID-19 test were “meaningless.”
“Influenza virus is very different from COVID-19 virus and never elicits an antibody response that can be mistaken for COVID-19 virus antibody,” he writes.
The flu vaccine also does not contain coronavirus. WUSA9..
Therefore, even if you are infected with influenza or vaccinated against influenza, you will not get a positive result on the COVID-19 diagnostic test.
A spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said FactCheck.org All FDA-approved trials of COVID-19 should be specifically checked for cross-reactivity with influenza virus. To date, they have not observed cross-reactivity in any of the studies.
“If you show false positives with other common respiratory viruses, testing for this virus cannot be approved,” Dr. Stephen S. Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, told USA Today. Told.
“Some of the original validation procedures for all approved tests were to check many other respiratory viruses, such as influenza and the common human coronavirus, to make sure they were free of false positives. “He added.
Morse emphasized that a positive test for COVID-19 should be taken seriously.
“A positive test is a compelling proof that someone can get infected and others,” he writes.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, the claim that common cold, flu, and flu vaccines all test positive for COVID-19 is false. In reality, nothing produces good results. Currently, the COVID-19 virus test detects its distinct genetic material or its protein, so other viruses do not cause false positives. Colds can give positive results on antibody tests, but they are not used to diagnose COVID-19.
Our Fact Check Source:
- USA TODAY, July 3rd Fact check: Cold does not test positive for coronavirus
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 29, Testing for past infections
- Dr. Lee Riley, November 27, E-mail Statement
- Food and Drug Administration, November 6th Coronavirus disease 2019 test basics
- WUSA9, June 29, Confirmation: No, influenza vaccination does not test positive for COVID-19
- FactCheck.org, May 19th, Influenza vaccination does not cause false positive results for COVID-19
- Dr. Stephen S. Morse, November 27, E-mail Statement
Thank you for supporting our journalism.You can do it Subscribe here for print, ad-free apps, or replicas of electronic newspapers..
Our fact checking work is partially supported by a grant from Facebook.
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