News Forum - Thailand doctors question ATK test accuracy, after alarming spike in positive cases

[Thaiger]

If you’ve ever questioned the accuracy of an antigen testing kit, aka ATK test, then you’re in good company. Thailand’s Rural Doctor Society, or RDS, has pointed out an alarming spike in ATK-detected cases of Covid-19 collected by the CCSA for it’s daily Covid count, raising questions about how accurate the nifty testing kits really are. In a post on their Facebook page yesterday, the RDS found that the amount of ATK-detected infections in just three provinces was much higher than the total number of ATK positive cases nationwide on Wednesday. The CCSA had published Wednesday’s data on yesterday morning. The […]

The story Thailand doctors question ATK test accuracy, after alarming spike in positive cases as seen on Thaiger News.

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[Fanta]

Without seeing the total actual Facebook post, this looks like the doctors are calling the governments reported figures a made up number aka a lie. But surely a government that is aiming to declare Covid endemic would do that? lol

[Soidog]

4 minutes ago, Fanta said:

Without seeing the total actual Facebook post, this looks like the doctors are calling the governments reported figures a made up number aka a lie. But surely a government that is aiming to declare Covid endemic would do that? lol

Well they will keep the numbers high for the next few days and then start to show them coming down slightly as we approach Songkran. That way it justifies restriction at Songkran and the extention of the emergency decree. Numbers will then fall rapidly during the last two weeks of April, thereby allowing them to reduce restrictions and entry requirements in May. And by the miracle of Buddha they will be able to announce Covid as endemic in July. Wow, these guys are good ….

[Prosaap]

Maybe its becouse they buy the test all other countrys sent back the one they not buy then buy then not buy but still buy not difficult to think why they buy them at the end we all know 

[Poolie]

6 minutes ago, Prosaap said:

Maybe its becouse they buy the test all other countrys sent back the one they not buy then buy then not buy but still buy not difficult to think why they buy them at the end we all know 

Beg pardon?

Buy buy baby baby buy buy..............

[Noble_Design]

5 minutes ago, Poolie said:

Beg pardon?

Buy buy baby baby buy buy..............

Just reading that makes my head

[Poolie]

28 minutes ago, Noble_Design said:

Just reading that makes my head

 

I'm sure it makes sense somewhere.

[Graham]

I know what's happened, these are the ATK test kit's they were supposed to use when they switched from PCR test on arrival. 555

[Guest1]

I don't think, they question the accuracy of the tests: 

We, too, expect to see a lower number of new cases as we are trying harder to contain the spread of the virus, but making up an ideal figure just isn’t the way to go

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

4 hours ago, Thaiger said:

If you’ve ever questioned the accuracy of an antigen testing kit, aka ATK test, then you’re in good company. Thailand’s Rural Doctor Society, or RDS, has pointed out an alarming spike in ATK-detected cases of Covid-19 collected by the CCSA for it’s daily Covid count, raising questions about how accurate the nifty testing kits really are.

But the increased numbers are coming from PCR tests, and ATK tests as of yesterday was lower …. So the alarming spike is ? 

[JJJ]

3 hours ago, AdvocatusDiaboli said:

But the increased numbers are coming from PCR tests, and ATK tests as of yesterday was lower …. So the alarming spike is ? 

I thought the point of the RDS was that they had more positive ATK tests in a few areas than reported for the whole country. 

But your point is right, it’s impossible to claim a spike when they are so inconsistent with testing and who gets pcr vs antigen. Anecdotally I know younger healthy people who go pcr tests recently when about a month ago a similar profile person would be told to take antigen test.

The fact is the antigen test is excellent at detecting an active infection. It’s usually about 24 hours behind the pcr test BUT it takes a day to get the pcr test back so Amy benefit is erased  and the antigen test is quick and cheap  

After 2 years, Thailand still has no clue who is at risk, who should be hospitalized, and how long they should be hospitalized. A 30 year old with a stuffy nose shouldn’t be at a hospital for 10 days. 

[Soidog]

23 minutes ago, JJJ said:

After 2 years, Thailand still has no clue who is at risk, who should be hospitalized, and how long they should be hospitalized

I’ve been coming here for the past 25 years. You could have stopped that sentence at “…..Thailand still has no clue….” You can then fill in the blanks as required. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, they are clueless. There is however once exception that proves the rule. They have somehow managed to fool the entire world that Thailand is a struggling, emerging democracy that’s just having a few teething problems by having military coups every 7 years or so. So please don’t sanction financially or apply too many trade tariffs while we nurture our fragile democracy. The west in particular keeps swallowing this nonsense. 

[Prosaap]

Ok to explane to the one who think thai are the smartest people in the world and they never make mistakes (poolie) thailand did buy tests that nobody wanted ofcourse very cheap the next day the deal was cancelt then 2 days later the deal was on then cancelt again but later they still buy them i think somebody got paid already so they can not back down  

[HiuMak]

14 hours ago, JJJ said:

After 2 years, Thailand still has no clue who is at risk, who should be hospitalized, and how long they should be hospitalized. A 30 year old with a stuffy nose shouldn’t be at a hospital for 10 days. 

But they sure know how to lie

[Tim_Melb]

The reality of this is that ATK tests are very unlikely to give false positives. They will give false negatives very easily bad test kits, badly administered kits, people flushing their nasal passages before the test and people just lying about the results are reasons they give false negatives, but false positives are very rare. It is also entirely possible for only a few areas to have a spike in cases that is the nature of the way a disease spreads. I can understand doctors that have worked very hard to control the spread being disappointed that they are not winning but their disappointment is not a reason to believe the numbers are false. The BA.2 variant spreads incredibly fast and this is probably just a sign that it is in those areas. On the plus side for those disappointed doctors it's an indication that the num ers there will probably begin to decline in their regions before they do in other regions. If you look at what's happening in Vietnam and Hong Kong and even mainland China right now Thailand is doing remarkably well and probably should be expecting an explosion in case numbers rather than a decline.