Great question. You are correct in one instance, but it isn't surprising that this works in the other places.
antibody based tests like LFT, Rapid antigen tests, and all other tests that are like this pregnancy pee test us lab made antibodies stuck to a cotton strip to feel for the virus particles and (with some biochemistry 'magic') turn pink if they find the target. Many or most of these tests use a pool of antibodies to look for multiple different parts of the virus. This is similar to how natural immunity uses many different antibodies each looking for a different part of the virus. So if one tiny part of the virus changes natural immunity still works.
The 'vaccines' produce just 1 small part of the virus (the spike protein). Most of this protein is useless for antibodies to become sensitive to but other parts will work great for antibodies to stick to. Once these few small parts of the larger spike protein mutate (change slightly), the antibodies generated by the vaccines will no longer work against this new variant of covid-19 (Covid-21K to be more specific).
Antibody and the rapid tests that use antibodies physically feel for unique pasterns on the target object. A metaphorical example would be the tread pattern on a car's tires are very unique, but if you are only able to look are a tire tread pattern as a way to identify a car and the next model year of the car has different tires, you won't be able to identify the car anymore (i.e. vaccine failure). However, the stitching on the seats, and the texture of volume knob, weld on the trunk hinge all still feel the same in the new model year as the old model year so you can still identify the car (antibody based tests like lateral flow tests). [The tiny size of these features is ~proportional.]
PCR works by looking for two specific ~30 base pair sequences (A T C & G) that are a specific distance apart. The covid test looks for 3 of these pairs. Omicron only has 2 of these pairs. So, one of the pairs changed enough to no longer work like you speculated.
Great question. You are correct in one instance, but it isn't surprising that this works in the other places.
antibody based tests like LFT, Rapid antigen tests, and all other tests that are like this pregnancy pee test us lab made antibodies stuck to a cotton strip to feel for the virus particles and (with some biochemistry 'magic') turn pink if they find the target. Many or most of these tests use a pool of antibodies to look for multiple different parts of the virus. This is similar to how natural immunity uses many different antibodies each looking for a different part of the virus. So if one tiny part of the virus changes natural immunity still works.
The 'vaccines' produce just 1 small part of the virus (the spike protein). Most of this protein is useless for antibodies to become sensitive to but other parts will work great for antibodies to stick to. Once these few small parts of the larger spike protein mutate (change slightly), the antibodies generated by the vaccines will no longer work against this new variant of covid-19 (Covid-21K to be more specific).
Antibody and the rapid tests that use antibodies physically feel for unique pasterns on the target object. A metaphorical example would be the tread pattern on a car's tires are very unique, but if you are only able to look are a tire tread pattern as a way to identify a car and the next model year of the car has different tires, you won't be able to identify the car anymore (i.e. vaccine failure). However, the stitching on the seats, and the texture of volume knob, weld on the trunk hinge all still feel the same in the new model year as the old model year so you can still identify the car (antibody based tests like lateral flow tests). [The tiny size of these features is ~proportional.]
PCR works by looking for two specific ~30 base pair sequences (A T C & G) that are a specific distance apart. The covid test looks for 3 of these pairs. Omicron only has 2 of these pairs. So, one of the pairs changed enough to no longer work like you speculated.
Great question.
An anagram here is:
Abbott Costella mRNAP
The picture is a lateral flow test .
Aka antigen test (it is a form of one)