MedPageToday Experts agree that rapid antigen test kits can show degrees of infectiousness.
At-home rapid COVID-19 tests can reveal more about viral load than a simple positive/negative result, according to experts.
“By definition, the basic technology suggests that you somehow have to go from a negative ‘zero’ line to a dark line, and within that window — that 0 to 100% — there’s obviously a gradient,” Michael Mina, MD, PhD, chief science officer for eMed and a well-known public health expert who shares his expertise and views on the social media site known as X and in numerous publications told MedPage Today. Mina recently shared a schematic of rapid COVID test results and the potential implications of their variability. Mina has been a vocal proponent of this testing technology, so people can better understand their own infection, and he has not been alone in highlighting these ideas. Researchers have shown that variations in COVID test results can reveal different aspects about an individual’s infection and, critically, how contagious they are at a given moment.