Good explanation of specificity and sensitivity!

If you’ve received a test result and want to know the odds of you being actually positive or actually negative, have a look at the BMJ calculator, which was designed for medical personnel doing evaluations. It takes into consideration your prior likelihood of being infected (i.e. any symptoms?, any contact?) using Bayesian logic. Your health provider probably used this, or something very like it when advising you.

As far as all the misinformation out there, I think the point is to exhaust people who actually understand all this (I don’t claim to be one of them) so they get to the point of saying “OK, whatever…”