https://www.etonline.com/alyssa-milano-reveals-she-had-covid-19-and-felt-like-she-was-dying-150873

The Who's the Boss? star revealed on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhQ43NgP02) Wednesday that she had been sick for two weeks. She wrote that "everything hurt," she lost her sense of smell, couldn't breathe and "couldn't keep food in me." "I basically had every Covid symptom," Milano wrote. "At the very end of march I took two covid19 tests and both were negative. I also took a covid antibody test (the finger ***** test) after I was feeling a bit better. NEGATIVE." She decided to get yet another test, resulting in a positive test for coronavirus antibodies. "I had Covid19," she wrote. "I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we don’t know the real numbers," she explained. "I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax. I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying."

That's horrible, and crazy she took 3 tests and they all came back negative. Shows they still need work to get more accurate. Glad she's pulling through and raising awareness to the idiots out there.

That's horrible, and crazy she took 3 tests and they all came back negative. Shows they still need work to get more accurate. Glad she's pulling through and raising awareness to the idiots out there.

The first couple batches of PCR nasal swab tests (to identify active infections) that the CDC sent out were faulty which is the period she is talking about. Even now tests can still return false negatives depending on timing and swab skill and sometimes false positives (identifying part of a virus' genetic code does not necessarily equate to current infectiousness of an individual). While still room for perfection, the tests are far more accurate, widespread and uniform now than at the beginning and important for mitigation.

There are not yet widely recognized reliable antibody tests (to show if someone has already had the infection). Based on what she said, she probably tested too soon after initial infection for a positive antibody anyway and later positive after her body had adequate time to build antibodies. From what we're seeing thus far, she'll test negative for antibodies again in a few months as there does not appear to be lasting B cell immunity to this particular virus (but that's still premature).

Alyssa posted (https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1529990049621610496) this on social media about six hours ago:
I have tested positive for Covid.

I wouldn’t say my symptoms are mild. I’m definitely uncomfortable. Nose, throat, chest, body aches and pains.

I feel super grateful that my symptoms aren’t as bad as when I had alpha 2.5 years ago and grateful for the science of the vaccines.