re: Breaking news: New saliva test approved. Game changer

quote:

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uote:
Reports are it is high 80’s to low 90’s percent accurate. Back it up with a second sample and the accuracy rises to 99%.



That's not quite how Math/statistics works. Consult Bayes theorem.

What would you say the percentage of catching the disease is? For anyone, just in general, what is that percent chance?

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I was referencing the original Twitter message. That's what it said. I'm no mathematician, but if the test is administered properly AND you get 2 of the same result, I think that would definitely approach 99% accuracy. I don't have the breakdown of false positive vs false negative to do an exact calculation but I would have to believe a double positive or negative would have to be highly accurate and predictive.