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Congress Is Using a Potentially Faulty COVID-19 Test to Screen Members

The FDA has warned that the test poses a “risk of false results, particularly false negative results.”

Congress is using a COVID-19 test that the Food and Drug Administration says is prone to false negatives, Politico reported on Tuesday. The Office of the Attending Physician has been using the test, produced by Curative, to test hundreds of members a day, according to the outlet. On Monday, the FDA warned that the test carries the “risk of false results, particularly false negative results.” “Consider retesting your patients using a different test if you suspect an inaccurate result was given recently by the Curative SARS-Cov-2 test,” the FDA statement added. On Monday, Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) tested positive for the virus, leading to concerns that the entirety of the House may have been exposed to the virus, as Granger was positive for the legislature’s initial votes on Sunday. About 50 members of Congress have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.