Order your rapid tests from the USPS (US only)

Re:Order your rapid tests from the USPS (US only) by rrrrrrrrrrrryan on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @02:25PM (#29984400)

It's worth noting that rapid test results roughly align with contagiousness, which makes them an excellent tool to fight the spread of this thing. [1] (See the 2nd image on this page).

PCR tests will report COVID infections that are way below the threshold of transmissibility, and they'll keep reporting positive results long after the infected person is no longer contagious.

"Am I contagious?" is arguably a more useful question to answer than, "Do I have any detectable amount of COVID in my body, at all, using the best laboratory testing processes available?"

[1] https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/antigen-tests...

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Re:Order your rapid tests from the USPS (US only) by dtech on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @02:44PM (#29984647)

I my country they did a (pre-omicron) comparitive study, testing people with PCR and giving them an antigen test to use at home [1]. There they found a false-negative rate of 16% (sensitivity 84%) for symptomatic people with high viral load, which is a proxy for contagiousness. For people without symptoms false-negative rate was 77% (sensitivity 23%). Not that great.

[1] https://www-umcutrecht-nl.translate.goog/nieuws/corona-zelft...

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