viral disease testing viral disease testing viral disease testing is the use of a variety of testing techniques for a variety of purposes, including diagnosing conditions, assessing immunity and understanding disease prevalence. the primary approaches include dna/rna tests, serological tests and antigen tests. history covid-19 in march 2020, abbott received emergency use authorization (eua) for its isothermal nucleic acid test for covid-19. it produces test results in 5 minutes using its id now portable testing system. it also received eua for its m2000-based laboratory nucleic acid test for covid-19. in april 2020, abbott received eua for its architect igg laboratory antibody test for covid-19. also in april, abbott's id now test was reported to have sensitivity of 85.2%. a later study found sensitivity of only 52%, inducing the fda to issue an alert. a different study found sensitivity of 91%. the uk spent $20 million for antibody tests that proved flawed. in may 2020, a rapid antigen test from quidel corporation received eua for detecting sars-cov-2. test results were said to be available at point of care within 15 minutes. sensitivity is 85%. also in may 2020, a crispr genetic test was approved for emergency use that claimed 100% selectivity and 97.5% sensitivity. that month abbott received eua for its alinity antibody test for covid-19. the company claimed 100% sensitivity and 99.6% specificity for patients tested 14 days after symptoms began. another review found that the accuracy of pcr tests depended on the interval between the infection and the test. immediately after infection, the sensitivity was 0, rising to 80% after three days and then declining thereafter. in may 2020 the fda withdrew approval for 29 of 41 antibody tests for which it had given euas. types