At home COVID tests

[cilla4progress]

Opinions? Experience? Tips?

[getagrip_already]

1. Don't know much about it, but..

Binax now is recognized by Mass as a valid rapid test for covid.

The stats look impressive and it is reasonably priced. We have some in the closet just in case.....

[DURHAM D]

2. The rapid return Abbott Labs tests are handy to have around.

Right now you will have a hard time finding them at a retail outlet.

[cilla4progress]

3. Thanks!

...

[MLAA]

4. After having to be in Florida for 3 weeks to care for Dad I returned to my

home in the Southwest and bought Binax test at CVS. The kit contained 2 tests. One to be taken first followed by another a few days later.

It was easy to understand and take. It came up negative. Meanwhile, just to be 100 percent sure since I spent so much time (masked) in the worst county in the worst covid state at the time I decided to have the PCR test at the drive through of the pharmacy. 24 hrs later it came back negative.

Good luck, not a bad idea to keep a test kit handy so I think I will pick up another when I go out again.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. They're selling out as soon as they arrive at drug stores and Wallyworld.

[LizBeth]

6. Son vacc'ed pfizer in a house with at least one with covid for 4 days took at home test late Sat.

night and tested negative. Went in for a test Sunday and came back positive. I have tried to get info here and there last couple weeks about at home but not much of anything from people and I am working at healthcare doing tests. So that is all I have but I get the feeling they are not great.

[Ms. Toad]

22. The at-home antigen tests are not as accurate ast the PCR tests.

But the advantage is timing.

I was exposed on Saturday. The peak time for developing disease is 3-5 days from exposure. I was scheduled to teach all day on day 4. Taking a PCR test (currently 3-day turn-around) would not have gotten results back in timen after learning on Monday I was exposed on Saturday - AND - even if the test came back that quickly, it would not have given me much information because testing on day 2 is not likely to be positive even if I ultimately develop COVID.

So I took an antigen test on Wednesday, about an hour before I was scheduled for the first of 4 hours of teaching.

[LizBeth]

26. I can see that. My son was starting university that Monday and they had to test out if exposed,

rapid I believe. And that extra time might have been all that was needed because he was living in that home and driving the kids around in his car for four days, so who knows when he actually got it.

[Alliepoo]

7. My grand got covid at school-4 days into the school year

The doc had my daughter get the at home tests for him and the rest of the family that had to lock down for 10 days. The doc said the at home tests are very accurate if symptoms are present and you get a positive result. The accuracy falls if no symptoms. My daughter got 2 types of test kits-Abbott Labs and one called Ellume. She said she liked the Ellume better because it’s easier to use and the reliability is rated higher. They are available at drug stores and Amazon had them too.

[Dale in Laurel MD]

8. They're available on line from letsgetchecked.com.

We get them for my workplace, since those of us on site are required to test once a week.

Note: these aren't self processing. You have to take the sample and send it back to LGC in a provided shipping bag.

[Ms. Toad]

24. Yowsa! Those things are expensive!

$89/test.

(For comparison, the antigen tests cost about $19-$23 for 2.)

[cally]

9. I used no ax after my flight

And before I went home. I live with immune compromised person snd didn’t want to bring covid home. Not t enter rely accurate but reassuring.

[vanlassie]

10. Is this a correct spelling, cally?

[cally]

20. Missed up once more with spell check

So sorry. I used Binax Now

[vanlassie]

25. Thanks! Thought there was a new test!

[Raftergirl]

11. I've used Binax twice.

Bought several boxes in August to test before we went to small family reunion in Maine. My 92yr old mom flew up from Florida for it, so we had her get a PCR test before she came and then had her take the Binax before we left for Maine, since we have a 7 yr old who is not vaccinated. Everyone else who attended is. My H and I tested morning of the reunion.

Very easy to use.

I have one more box left.

After my mom traipsed all over New England the week after the reunion she came back to my house sounding horrible. Took her to urgent care and diagnosis was bronchitis. They also did a CV PCR test and it came back negative a few days later. It was reassuring.

[Poiuyt]

12. How will they enforce people taking the tests?

If the mandate is to either get vaccinated or get a weekly test, how will they make sure that the unvaccinated are a) taking the test, and b) reporting the results truthfully?

[Hekate]

14. Tests should be done at the worksite, that's how

[Poiuyt]

18. I thought they were going to allow at-home tests?

[Hekate]

19. Which they and for what? "They" as in POTUS Biden wants us Average Joes to be able to home-test...

… when worried or symptomatic.

“They” as in big employers still trying to coddle sulky reluctant workers and not sicken their whole workforce, should definitely be taking advantage of cheaper tests and various mandates, and they should do the most intelligent thing and have the company nurse administer the tests and log the results. I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear anything about letting the refuseniks do their own testing.

[cilla4progress]

13. Do we think these will become more widely available

and affordable given Biden's new mandate and invoking the defense production act?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

15. My son has purchase three or four

He has not used one yet

[Maru Kitteh]

16. What would you like to know? I've given thousands of Abbott BinaxNow tests.

[Maeve]

17. Free access report from Washington Post--everyone can read it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/08/28/are-home-covid-tests-accurate/

Several at-home coronavirus test kits have received emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and can be purchased without a prescription online or from drugstores, giving people access to a much more convenient testing option. “You have the result in 15 minutes and you don’t need to go anywhere,” said Clare Rock, an infectious-disease physician and associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She added, “People have the autonomy to take some of this into their own hands.”

But experts emphasized the tests are not 100 percent accurate and a negative result shouldn’t be thought of as a “free pass.” Here’s what else you need to know about home tests and what the results can — and can’t — tell you.

[W_HAMILTON]

23. Useful article -- thank you for posting it!

[Ms. Toad]

21. I've done two (Binax now)

As well as having the same test administered by my university.

Although I prefer not to pay for what is available for free, the timing left me with no other options (aside from isolating the first day of classes), so I had to buy a set of tests.

I've had close to a dozen tests (surgery required several negative tests, my daughter got herself exposed, and then my charming students who are vaccine refusniks exposed me).

The tests are all about the same. The difference is who does the swabbing and how long the results take. In about 1/3 of the commercially administered tests I had to do the swabbing anyway.

Our health department is giving antigen tests out, so I have another one in hand for the next exposure.

My daughter did several at-home PCR tests - the results came back almost as quickly as the ones I had done at Rite Aid.

Just remember - the antigen tests are not as accurate as the PCR tests. Getting a negative antigen test doesn't necessarily mean you don't have COVID, as Trump can attest to - since someone to tested negative obviously exposed him.