BEREA, Ohio — False positive test results for COVID-19 within the NFL are raising new questions on the accuracy of testing.
Dr. Christine Schmotzer of University Hospitals believes COVID-19 testing works, however, there are important things to consider.
She says the person collecting the samples must first do so properly.
“Familiar with the ins and outs of how to run a lab safely to get accurate results,” she said.
Dr. Schmotzer says testing conditions must also be correct since contamination can happy easily.
“If you’re not really consistent in your cleaning practices between one person to the next, the instrument that’s doing the testing, the area of the tables, the shared materials you’re using for the testing,” she said.
It is also possible that the flu could trigger a false positive.
“Causing a signal in the test, causing a positive result when it’s not the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that’s in the person’s nose,” Dr. Schmotzer said.
It may not be known what, exactly, caused the NFL’s false positive test results.
But clearly coronavirus has changed a lot, and there would be large crowds in Berea right now watching the Browns camp had it not been for the pandemic.
“We love the excitement, we love the atmosphere,” Berea Mayor Cyril Kleem said, pointing out the lack of spectators has not left a big economic impact on the economy.
He said the Browns are already the city’s biggest income taxpayers.
To continue, players need to be healthy.
“I just think you need to take the precautions, which I believe the NFL is doing,” Kleem said.
Dr. Schmotzer says it is also important to note that COVID-19 testing is new and there remains a learning curve.
“We’re still learning about the performance of the tests,” she said. “We need to use these more to learn, you know, if we’re getting too many false positives or false negatives--and why.”