Why unreliable tests are flooding the coronavirus conversation

Flawed methods. Faulty materials. Here's how to make sense of the wildly different results from current antibody testing.

As disagreements pile up over easing COVID-19 restrictions and reopening businesses, scientists are racing to gauge how many people have truly been infected. Among other reasons, measuring the pandemic’s spread can clarify how deadly the disease is and how many people are presumably immune to it, which is crucial for anticipating future waves of the outbreak.

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