I cannot believe how poor the penetration is for this story. It feels like I’m manually telling everyone I know, and they’re each hearing it for the first time.
The free rapid tests that Shoppers Drug Mart has been distributing are duds! They throw a false negative at everything but the highest viral loads!! A negative result from one of these is basically zero information!!! Do not rely on them!!!!
Tell your friends, save lives.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10183219/covid-test-supplier-canada/
@elana hmm.
I’d say, instead:
- it’s shitty that they fudged data and cheated the government, but they still have helped lots of people realize they were infected and highly infectious, it’s not that they’re duds
- LOTS of rapid tests are just as insensitive, it’s not that these are especially bad
- better rapid tests exist, and if you’re buying them instead of using free ones, buy those instead, here’s a link /1
https://www.medsupmedical.com/products/acon?variant=40755438158032
@elana - don’t throw this kind away! they do work well to show when you have a high viral load, so use them to show you the first steps in the process of becoming non-infectious
- it’s not just THESE tests, you can’t rely on ANY rapid tests to show you conclusively that you’re not infected—if you absolutely need to know that, you need something other than even the best rapid tests, here’s a link /2
@IPEdmonton Those are all great points!!! I hope people scroll downthread and read them.
The main takeaway I hope people grab from my original, oversimplified phrasing is that the negatives are unreliable. A lot of people don't realize this about ANY test, and are willing to take a negative result as gospel truth. These tests are extra bad, in a way that confirms what I've been observing for a long time but couldn't support with any data of my own.
@IPEdmonton I'll be honest, no one I know had even heard this story at all, much less taken any action about it 😞
in longer conversations, I certainly advise them that the tests are still good for positives.
I've been a little bit (okay a lot) cynical about testing in general, because it's so unreliable and gives people a false sense of security. I'm definitely in the 'act as if everyone is positive' camp. so I'm not mad if people toss tests, but I understand others have a different system.
@Kellyshenanigans @elana We also use them. They were free, and they WILL show you if you're positive and highly infectious, so it would be terrible to just throw them away!
Also, even with these (or any other) mediocre rapid tests, if you test twice a day for two weeks and never test positive, you proooooobably don't have COVID and never did (though again, if you have symptoms and you need to know for sure, you do need to get a better test, and this is true for ANY RAPID TEST not just these).
@robryk @elana sorry, I wrote that just for Elana and was just using shorthand to convey to her what I'd tell others instead of what she's been saying. I assumed she knew the link (and still assume that), but here it is for you! https://www.medsupmedical.com/products/acon?variant=40755438158032
Just remember, though, that while these tests are A LOT more sensitive than the ones provided by Canadian governments, they're still not enough to PROVE that you're NOT infected. If you need to know that, any rapid test is the wrong tool.
So they deleted parts of the study where the tests were wrong... and then had legal permission to call tests imported from China as "Made in Canada" (because importing is manufacturing, of course).
It boggles my mind that anyone in North America (or other developed nations) still trust their medical systems. I'm sure that someone will label this statement, and not the deleting of results from a study falsely proving safety, as "anti-science".
Jeeze.
@elana people called me crazy for thinking the gov't might knowingly send out ineffective tests to lower covid reporting while still letting 'er rip...
Turns out it wasn't a conspiracy at all! Just capitalism, doing capitalism.
Hooray!
@mybarkingdogs @elana everyone I trust in the US says you need to swab the back of your throat and your cheeks/gums in addition to your nose in order to detect later less symptomatic variants (that i.e. produce a sore throat first) -- the fact that the instructions haven't been updated since the beginning tells me most of these corps and agencies are phoning it in.
Neither I nor my partner have ever tested positive despite having occasionally concerning symptoms. 🤷♂️
@elana
Same. I was filling my dad in - he hadn't heard, and he basically lives in the news. Of course we all have boxes of them and we've all been relying on them for years. They're what they government handed out.
But hey, at least a few guys in Ontario made a LOT of money, right?
@saralobkovich so glad to hear it ☺️ a better quality test will definitely do that job better!
pro tip: any rapid tests are really only about 34% accurate at detecting an asymptomatic covid case! You can improve your odds of bypassing a false negative by testing multiple times, 48 hours apart. Here's a thread + study discussing this more: https://mstdn.science/@DrZoeHyde/110685736952352573
good luck, be safe, wishing your whole family good health!!!
A new study shows that multiple rapid antigen tests are needed to reliably detect COVID-19. During the first week of infection, a single test has 82.5% sensitivity in symptomatic cases and only 34.4% in asymptomatic cases, compared to a PCR test. 🧵 https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M23-0385
@saralobkovich That is the right way to do it for sure!!!!
Stop me if you already know this, but: vaccination trains our immune system to respond more quickly to the virus, so you show symptoms earlier, at lower viral loads—sometimes before there's enough virus for the test to catch! BUT THEN, each infection seems to cause a period of immune dysregulation (currently being researched; 6 months? a year?) whilst you become *more* susceptible to all kinds of infections! Definitely best to avoid!!!
@elana I wasn’t, but I’m at the very careful end of the spectrum w/ Long COVID x 2 (onset of first “type” May 2022 after 1st infection, second “type” with a whole new cluster of symptoms after second infection in March 2023).
That IS really good / important data for me in case of another known exposure when managing high risk treatment timelines. Are PCR tests prone to potential false negatives due to the same dynamic? (I also tested negative on PCR during my first infection.)
@saralobkovich oof I am so sorry to hear about your long covid 😣 that sucks so much. Lots of precautions solidarity from me & mine 🫶
I’m certainly no expert but PCRs are *supposed* to have greater sensitivity, but I am hearing a lot of stories about lab tests coming back negative, then testing again and returning a positive, just as you’re saying 😣 it’s no wonder the technology can’t keep up with a rapidly evolving virus that we’re letting mutate freely in as many hosts as it likes 😓
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