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Biden Isn’t in the Clear Just Yet
As senior writer Dana Smith reports for GEN, Joe Biden’s negative Covid-19 test doesn’t mean he definitely doesn’t have the virus. She reports:
It can take anywhere from two to 14 days for Covid-19 symptoms to emerge. During this incubation period, the virus is replicating until its levels get high enough for it to be detected with a test, and for the infected person to be contagious. A few days after that, the immune system really kicks in and symptoms start to develop. In other words, a negative test and no sign of symptoms three days after a potential exposure doesn’t mean they won’t emerge later.
“If somebody tests negative, they may be incubating the virus,” says infectious disease expert and epidemiologist Celine Gounder, MD. “Just because you have a negative test doesn’t mean you don’t have it.”
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