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A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

theatlantic.com

21–30 of 34 posts

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#21
post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

> who gets a Covid test these days.

Funny you ask, I took one this morning and tested positive. First time testing positive. I’ll admit I thought Covid was over at least until the fall. But I was feeling off and didn’t want coffee. Since we had a bunch of extra tests I said why not. Was kinda shocked. Now I am stuck in bed reading HN.

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#22
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the ops point was that if a covid test was optional, and you felt sick, you wouldn’t bother to get tested. Travel which mandates testing is a separate matter. That’s been my position for a while. I’m pro-vaccine, and pro-initial lockdown (only), and lived in London during the first years of the pandemic. At some point we just have to get on with our lives, we need to stop living in fear. We need to stop the…

'Living in fear' is such a charged, politicized statement. Can you dissect what you mean by it? For me, testing before I visit my elderly parents isn't a decision made of fear - it's a basic precaution I can take, causes me no more than 5-10 mins of extra effort, and costs nothing to me (a privileged position provided by employer-subsidized insurance, of course). Is this fear making decisions on my behalf? Is this pr…

If your parents are vaccinated, and you are vaccinated, and you don’t have any symptoms then yes I would call it unnecessary worrying. Elderly parents are vulnerable to not just covid, but the cold and flu etc. That’s why elderly normally get free flu jabs.

I never needed to take a test to know to stay away from people if I felt sick (family or work colleagues).

I guess if I knew it wasn’t a transmittable sickness (which is normally quite obvious, eg headache, sunburn, hungover, muscle pain, etc) then I would still visit. Coughing, sneezing, etc anything involving fluids I’d probably just stay away. No test needed. Just common sense, same as before covid.

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#25
post #3

Quoted post unavailable.

> who gets a Covid test these days. Funny you ask, I took one this morning and tested positive. First time testing positive. I’ll admit I thought Covid was over at least until the fall. But I was feeling off and didn’t want coffee. Since we had a bunch of extra tests I said why not. Was kinda shocked. Now I am stuck in bed reading HN.

It's not over in terms of going around, it's still spreading a lot. It's just over as in not overloading the health systems. Indeed in the autumn things might be different again. But I hope all the mild infections during the summer will increase protection during the fall when immune systems are less strong.

This is not a bad time to catch it anyway. We're all going to get it many times and right now there's plenty of care available for those who get really sick.

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#27
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Living in fear' is such a charged, politicized statement. Can you dissect what you mean by it? For me, testing before I visit my elderly parents isn't a decision made of fear - it's a basic precaution I can take, causes me no more than 5-10 mins of extra effort, and costs nothing to me (a privileged position provided by employer-subsidized insurance, of course). Is this fear making decisions on my behalf? Is this pr…

If your parents are vaccinated, and you are vaccinated, and you don’t have any symptoms then yes I would call it unnecessary worrying. Elderly parents are vulnerable to not just covid, but the cold and flu etc. That’s why elderly normally get free flu jabs. I never needed to take a test to know to stay away from people if I felt sick (family or work colleagues). I guess if I knew it wasn’t a transmittable sickness (w…

> I never needed to take a test to know to stay away from people if I felt sick

What if you're asymptomatic?

Why it's so hard to spend 5 min taking a test before situations where you'll be with a bunch of people (airplane, large meeting, event, etc)?

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your parents are vaccinated, and you are vaccinated, and you don’t have any symptoms then yes I would call it unnecessary worrying. Elderly parents are vulnerable to not just covid, but the cold and flu etc. That’s why elderly normally get free flu jabs. I never needed to take a test to know to stay away from people if I felt sick (family or work colleagues). I guess if I knew it wasn’t a transmittable sickness (w…

> I never needed to take a test to know to stay away from people if I felt sick What if you're asymptomatic? Why it's so hard to spend 5 min taking a test before situations where you'll be with a bunch of people (airplane, large meeting, event, etc)?

That’s the living in fear aspect. Before covid, did you test for cold, flu, chickenpox, measles, or any other number of transmittable diseases before meeting a bunch of people?

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#29
post #2

I have wondered for awhile if the tests developed 2+ years ago for the original strains are not accurate for omicron and the latest strains.

If you're curious you don't need to just wonder. There is of course a lot of research looking into exactly these questions. Here is a summary by the FDA:

https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and...

Re: A Negative Covid Test Has Never Been So Meaningless

#30
post #2

I have wondered for awhile if the tests developed 2+ years ago for the original strains are not accurate for omicron and the latest strains.

This article seems to be about the tests not detecting early enough. Which could be a test sensitivity issue or even could be a shift in how the new strains interact with our immune systems.

I recently had COVID and found that the test showed a faint bar right after my first sign of symptoms. Because I had plenty of tests, I continuously tested the 4 in my household as symptoms progressed and receded.

Although the visibility of the bar can't reliably be used to gauge level of infection, it did roughly track with my whole family's symptom severity and was confirmed with a PCR test.

After months of using these tests, we never got a positive either until this point.

These were the orange, made in China tests that the federal government is sending out for free.

So while they may not signal early enough to do much good, they certainly seemed to work in our small example.

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