Members of the White House COVID-19 response team reacted Wednesday to new guidance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the sensitivity of rapid antigen tests, telling reporters that the tests’ usefulness amid the pandemic has not altered.

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said it was already known that an antigen test was not as sensitive as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

“What the FDA was saying, that when they were looking at the sensitivity with regard to omicron, in some of the tests there appears to be somewhat of a diminution – not a disappearance, but a diminution – of the sensitivity,” he said.