Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases • Hacker News Board

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#61

Post by spywaregorilla » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 1:57 PM UTC

Really feels like we lack a framework for defining an infection. If I put one viral cell (not sure if correct term) in you, and your body can handle it no problem, are you infected?

I've never "had covid". But I've probably had some amount of covid in my system. I'm sure there are some tests that may have said I have had covid. Is there a degree of infection that confers a specialized immune response? A level of viral load that can exist passively from presence in the environment but suppressed to low level by your immune system?

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#62

Post by fwungy » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 1:58 PM UTC

throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #13

40-50% of cases are asymptomatic, so the tests are still good at confirming if a symptom is COVID-19. By taking 3 tests over time the odds of detection are better. But almost everyone has stopped wearing masks, so for those people, testing is pointless anyway. It would be like putting a lock on your own firearm, and then wandering naked across a firing range.

Yeah, and those tests are $5-$10/per.

So I'm supposed to spend $20 to find out I'm asymptomatic or not even infected so I can isolate myself?

People get sick. People die. It's not fair, but it also is fair because we all die. Death is actually the only fair thing there is.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#63

Post by usednet » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:01 PM UTC

blagie wrote: post #34

amelius wrote: post #6

Is that really a problem if asymptomatic cases are less infectious and do not cause much issues to the carrier? (This is a question, not a statement)

.... maybe .... It depends on the purpose of the test. For example, a trillion dollar question is still long covid. Very significant numbers of people are on disability right now. About 10% of Americans have some form of long covid, and >1% are unable to work due to long covid (or >2% of the workforce). Long covid comes up even with mild and asymptomatic cases, and seems to have a strong autoimmune component. If you'…

I think its highly likely long COVID simply does not exist, at least in the way we currently imagine it. The body of evidence that long COVID has a biological/chemical/physical basis is very unconvincing. The demographics of the people who get long COVID is the most telling evidence that its more of a syndrome than an actual disease. Over 20% (!) of bisexual people have/had long COVID. Long COVID sufferers are more likely to have conditions like POTS, where a significant number of patients are very likely just exaggerating physiological symptoms. We should stop elevating these "diseases" into the public consciousness before there is scientific evidence that they actually exist.

https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-4905

https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/replication-attempt-bi...

https://www.piratewires.com/p/bisexuals-long-covid

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#64

Post by netsharc » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:01 PM UTC

fooker wrote: post #14

[flagged]

Sarcasm follows:

Ah yeah, Covid is a money-making scheme, because the elite ruling class of the world would prefer to profit by spreading fear, panic and forcing citizens to do things they don't want (and don't worry about the backlash that cause "uprising"), rather than just to keep the whole system the same, hey they've been managing to extract profits from the labor of the poor for a few centuries that way.

But keep riding that conspiracy theory train, you're close to the truth!

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#65

Post by hospitalJail » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:04 PM UTC

yabones wrote: post #7

In my anecdotal experience, rapid tests are only really good for telling you if what you're sick with is covid or not, and barely even that. They will not give you a predictive result, and will not identify an early stage illness, only when you're at or near the peak of symptoms.

Conspiracy: The false negatives are designed to let people live their life.

Nah, they are just ineffective for all the reasons people already mentioned ITT.

False positives would have made this a no-go, even if they were safer. With Covid being endemic, its time to move on. If you must care, there are n95 masks.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#66

Post by fooker » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:05 PM UTC

netsharc wrote: post #64

fooker wrote: post #14

[flagged]

Sarcasm follows: Ah yeah, Covid is a money-making scheme, because the elite ruling class of the world would prefer to profit by spreading fear, panic and forcing citizens to do things they don't want (and don't worry about the backlash that cause "uprising"), rather than just to keep the whole system the same, hey they've been managing to extract profits from the labor of the poor for a few centuries that way. But ke…

That’s a immature and binary train of thought.

Covid was a genuine disaster, that doesn’t mean it can’t be used as a basis of lining pockets.

History is full of stories of people profiteering from misery.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#67

Post by jefftk » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:06 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #10

kozinc wrote: post #4

BTW, what does this even mean: "But if the tests work much better when taken three times over the course of several days."

Multiple attempts at a 10% success rate increase the success rate.

If it were just that then taking the tests three times at once would have a similar effect. Instead, it's mostly that you're measuring a quantity that's varying over time, and more samples gives you more chances for one of them to be at a time when the quantity is high.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#68

Post by hospitalJail » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:06 PM UTC

b0dhimind wrote: post #56

We are all "asymptomatic" with something. Asymptomatic people don't spread as easily anyways. Typical fearmongering tyranny propaganda to inculcate fear into society, simultaneously scaring unhealthy people and leading to policies to inhibit healthy people.

Not to mention, I think people are going to look back at something with a 1% death rate and wonder why we panicked so hard.

Various winter viruses kill on the same order of magnitude, and they kill the same old, obese, sick population.

I'm a bit worried we will have something awful, killing healthy people or large swaths 5-20% of the population, and we will be too desensitized to care.

It def seems like it was a political tool, more than a threat.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#69

Post by spookthesunset » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:06 PM UTC

What is even the point of these tests? Knowing if the specific virus you got was covid won’t change a single thing about how you deal with it. Knowing it’s covid instead of some other similar respiratory virus matters for only extreme cases where the difference might actually matter. For the vast majority of people it changes nothing.

I hate the overloaded word “grift” but that is all these things are. Just a way to funnel insurance and government money into the pockets of giant pharmaceutical companies.

Re: Rapid Covid tests miss 90% of asymptomatic cases

#70

Post by pama » Thu, Jul 13, 2023, 2:08 PM UTC

If anyone cares to increase the resolution of a rapid test, I recommend using Fiji and treating the image of the test strip like an antibody blot image and run the quantitative gel analysis (easy to find info on the web). The software integrates the signal along the direction of the strip, correcting for lighting conditions, and the resulting single curve can clarify a little bump well before (or after) the viral load is strong enough to be visible by eye. I haven’t had covid myself yet (at least not tested positive) but I used this technique successfully multiple times on relatives and friends even on celebrity covid test pictures.