If a health worker gets tested weekly when swab test has like x% false positive chance, wouldn’t the person almost certainly gets falsely tested once?

Question

If a health worker gets tested weekly when swab test has like x% false positive chance, wouldn’t the person almost certainly gets falsely tested once?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Yeah, the chance of at least one false positive increases, and approaches 100% as you take more tests. That doesn’t mean that taking more tests is bad, because the ramifications of a false positive are that you miss 2 weeks of work, while the ramification of a missed case is guaranteed spread and potential death.