Not...If you do have a runny nose, or congestion, or sneezing, that's really a sign you absolutely do not have COVID.
"...you probably do not have COVID."
Not...
"...you almost certainly do not have COVID".
But...
"...you absolutely do not have COVID".
OK - it may very well be the case that the COVID symptom study shows that a runny nose and congestion is not diagnostic of COVID (i.e. no more common in people who test positive than those who do not). But it cannot be the case that having a runny nose or congestion is a 100% specific indicator that you do not have COVID? Can it?
Even if the US CDC are wrong in their assertion that "congestion or runny nose" can be a symptom of COVID...
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nc ... ptoms.html
...you could still have coinfection with a rhinovirus. At universities will we have students who heard this interview turning up at seminars with streaming noses asserting "I've got a runny nose so I can't have COVID - Professor Spector said so"?
Having a broken leg is not a symptom of COVID - but having a broken leg is not a sign you absolutely do not have COVID.
In any case, plenty of studies have shown some COVID patients do have rhinorrhoea...
13.5% in this group of children...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7327402/
16% in this group...
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32725955/
Runny noses might not be good for identifying COVID-19 cases - but a runny nose does not, and could not, rule it out absolutely.
(To cut him some slack he did say that a runny nose is "a sign you absolutely do not have COVID" rather than "a sign you absolutely are not currently infected with SARS-CoV-2". But not sure that makes a huge difference from a public engagement point of view).