Eric Topol told CNBC on Monday that rapid coronavirus tests have limitations that Americans must be aware of, like The demand for rapid diagnostic results is increasing in an omicron variant infection.
“They’re not perfect,” Topol said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer above “Crazy Money.”
The founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute says that because rapid antigen-based Covid tests are not as accurate as PCR tests, it’s best to use them regularly to build confidence in the results.
“We cannot completely rely on testing” during this wave of omicrons, Topol said, stressing the importance of wearing a mask to help reduce virus transmission. “And if we use rapid tests, they have to be as close to the time of the event as possible, and that will include travel,” he said.
Topol, an expert in genomics and individual medicine, said so far data shows that omicrons mainly cause mild illness in people who have received the Covid vaccine, including a booster shot.
“With omicrons, there’s a lot of breakthroughs,” Topol said, showing it’s about “five times more” than the number of breakthrough infections caused by the delta variant. “Most of them have been reported to be pretty mild so far, so that’s great news.”
To be sure, Topol said there is continued uncertainty around the omicron variant, which was first detected last month. “We will see a large number of new infections … and a small fraction of them will not be mild,” he said. “They’re going to be very serious, and we still don’t know what that part is.”
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