⁍ Trump often skipped his own administration’s public health recommendations on mask wearing and social distancing, explaining that ‘everyone’s tested’ around him using the Abbott device.

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⁍ On Friday, Trump began an experimental treatment and checked in to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a precautionary measure.

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⁍ ‘The reliance on a rapid test, with its limitations, unfortunately gave the White House and its staff a false sense of security that they were in control of the virus,’ said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

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– President Trump’s decision to have a test for coronavirus performed at the White House not only raised concerns about his own health, it raised questions about the reliability of tests used elsewhere, the New York Times reports. The Food and Drug Administration approved the ID NOW test from Abbott Laboratories for emergency use in March, and it has been used at the White House since then. But the FDA warned last month that the test may not be accurate in certain cases, including those of Trump and aide Hope Hicks, who tested positive for the virus this week. “The reliance on a rapid test, with its limitations, unfortunately gave the White House and its staff a false sense of security that they were in control of the virus,” infectious diseases professor William Schaffner tells Reuters. “You cannot rely on that test to create a barrier between you and the virus.” The ID NOW test, which involves putting a nasal swab in a liquid solution and heating it to amplify genetic material from the virus, has been used by more than 11 million Americans since it was approved. But there are concerns about its accuracy. In May, for example, researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center found that the test identified only 73.9% of infectious samples.