Coming back from winter break, everyone was required to immediately do an at-home antigen testing kit. It took 15 minutes and as soon as everyone got a negative result, we socialized mask-less like everything was normal. And this was great and all, but it got me wondering. How reliable are these at-home testing kits? Should we all be more cautious rather than immediately trust that everyone did the test correctly? Do we even know that this test can detect the new Omicron virus?
I recently found a post about this, on the Washington Post,
saying at-home testing kits are very useful, however results are not always as accurate
as you think. The kits are very useful in detecting a protein in the virus that
causes COVID. Furthermore, it can detect the Omicron virus as well as other
versions of COVID. However, because Omicron is a virus that primarily affects
the upper respiratory tract, it would be more useful to use saliva to detect
the virus rather than the typical nasal swab. Even with this, the FDA still recommend
following the nasal swab instructions to have the most accuracy with the at-home
testing. A PCR test using saliva, however, would still be the most accurate
form of testing.
While at-home testing does have its perks, it also has its
flaws. The at-home testing kit does not detect if you are still contagious on
the last few days of infection. It also does not detect Omicron on the first
few days of infection. So, while someone may get a negative test, they should
treat it with caution if they have symptoms or came into contact with someone
who tested positive. This means that the blind trust that my friends and I had with
our at-home testing kits may have been a bit too fast to trust them, but we are
all still negative, so perhaps there is some truth to them after all.
-Lauren Burch
Board, Editorial. “Opinion | Those Rapid at-Home Virus Tests Are Useful. but Look at Results with Caution.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 Jan. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/08/those-rapid-at-home-virus-tests-are-useful-look-results-with-caution/.
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