Would some pathologist explain to me how they know it's the coronavirus?

[Goodheart]

Do they actually put a blood sample under the microsope for each of these persons?

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Every time a skeptic raises a question

A coronavirus gets its Lyme disease.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Not sure of the actual tests, but this was in the NYT piece yesterday about a potential pandemic:

Wuhan Coronavirus Looks Increasingly Like a Pandemic, Experts Say

<snip>

It’s unclear exactly how accurate tests done in overwhelmed Chinese laboratories are. On the one hand, Chinese state media have reported test kit shortages and processing bottlenecks, which could produce an undercount.

But Dr. Lipkin said he knew of one lab running 5,000 samples a day, which might produce some false-positive results, inflating the count. “You can’t possibly do quality control at that rate,” he said.

</snip>

[Hortensis]

5. Fortunately not exactly critical to patient care, since

that's currently limited to treating symptoms. Though desirable for prognosis of disease course, etc.

I remember that during a big influenza A outbreak, because of long lab delays, eventually lab-based diagnosis was typically dispensed with, again the results mostly irrelevant to clinicians in outbreak areas who recognized the patterns and of course immediately started treating symptomatically.

I also remember that, before that in another outbreak, all the clinicians whose reports I edited, most of my clients in California at that time, suddenly started diagnosing "viral illness." That held true even when lab-confirmed diagnoses were in the chart, so I assumed they were directed o to avoid "over-alarming" the public.

[Claritie Pixie]

3. Definitive diagnosis by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) lab test.

This test analyzes viral DNA or RNA from blood or other body fluids, done in a test tube, take about 4 hours for results.

In the US, only the CDC can do this to diagnose the 2019-nCoV.

[Malmsy]

4. I also heard that they have been able to detect it in a chest x-ray before fever starts. (eom)

[eShirl]

6. how?

[dalton99a]

7. Incorrect. Lung lesions were seen in some people who were already diagnosed patients

[Claritie Pixie]

8. Chest x-rays show areas of congestion/pneumonia. They can't tell you the reason why.

The only way to detect that the virus is present in the body is through PCR.