- Don’t let symptoms dictate when to test, immunologist says
- Testing time should reflect body’s changing response to Covid
With Covid outbreaks being whipped up for a fifth year, testing has emerged as a source of frustration once again.
Whereas obtaining a test was often difficult in early 2020, now the abundance of cheaper rapid kits in grocery stores and home medicine cabinets has led to a new concern — they don’t seem to work.
“When people tell me that their rapid antigen tests never turn positive, they’re usually talking to me because they’re frustrated,” says immunologist and epidemiologist Michael Mina.
In fact, the tests work just as well as they did when they first came out. What’s changed is how our bodies are responding to the coronavirus, leading many people to test too early, says Mina, chief science officer at digital health-care company eMed LLC, which helped implement the US government’s Home Test to Treat program a year ago.