Was supposed to video chat with my friend the other day.
he hits me up and goes “sorry man I can’t talk today. I’m sick and can’t get out of bed.”
With a cold? A cold has so knocked you on your ass that you haven’t been able to get out of bed for days? Of course he won’t actually test so to him he just has a cold.
To be fair, I recently had an illness of some sort that fatigued the absolute fuck out of me. I tested 6 times for COVID and all of them came up negative. Still have no idea wtf it was.
the BEST covid tests have 80% accuracy on the BEST day to test
your shitty rapid test prob has 60% accuracy on that day, and declining every day afterwards
alternatively your immune system is fucked from covid and now colds and flus fuck you up
the best way to test for covid is stool tests but crackers are dumb so this doesn’t happen
The last couple of time I’ve thought I’ve been sick I used the tests I got from Biden but they always come back negative and so has my partners. I feel like/assume the tests don’t do a great job with the new strains
E: not saying people shouldn’t test this just reminded me about my frustration around testing
Yeah the rapid tests can only really tell you if you have it, they can’t really confirm a negative. The CDC recommendation is to test twice within 48 hours, thrice in 72 if you’re having symptoms. Which sort of negates the usefulness of the free tests when you’re only giving out like a couple per household. We need free and abundant PCR testing.
This actually is what happens to me every time I get a cold, the flu, RSV, anything other than just seasonal allergies.
A few years back I had a cold for like 6 weeks. Tested negative for Covid, Influenza, and RSV multiple times each during the illness but could barely even make it to the bathroom, drink, or eat.
huh maybe it’s a similar thing for him then. I still think he should test, but of course he’s more concerned with convincing me that covid is over than in taking care of himself.
Was it like that for you in 2018 and prior though?
If you test negative for COVID, you often still have COVID. the PCR tests are only 80% accurate in optimal scenario (only 80% of infected people actually test positive, on the peak viral count day of infection, so the practical accuracy is more like 60%)
so the rapid tests are prob 50% accurate if we’re very generous
covid also destroys your immune system so even if you’re getting knocked out by colds, as long as that reaction was post-2019, then it’s still caused by covid
not trying to dismiss your experiences, you may just have something else that was already there. But if colds and flus began knocking you out in the last 5 years, then yea that’s either literal covid or covid-induced
If you test negative for COVID, you often still have COVID. the PCR tests are only 80% accurate in optimal scenario (only 80% of infected people actually test positive, on the peak viral count day of infection, so the practical accuracy is more like 60%)
source on this? especially the numbers. My understanding was PCRs are typically very sensitive, and tend to stay positive for far longer than people are actively experiencing symptoms or contagious, which doesn’t line up with you saying “80%” on the peak viral count day of infection.
What I’m seeing is confirmed false negative rates somewhere below like 5%, though mostly studies from earlier in the pandemic.
Rapid tests are straight trash though
covid also destroys your immune system so even if you’re getting knocked out by colds, as long as that reaction was post-2019, then it’s still caused by covid
Source for the “destroys immune system” claim? This isn’t something I’ve heard before. Anecdotally, I’m not getting sick nearly as often as I did before COVID.
