Jonathan Kamens 86 47Jan 13
Our stock of rapid #COVID tests¹ is finally nearly used up, time to replenish.
We considered the #Altruan #PlusLife reader and tests, but it's sufficiently expensive that I don't think it's justifiable unless you need to run tests extremely frequently.²
Furthermore, it turns out that you can order bulk rapid tests from https://altruan.com/ that, even with the cost of shipping to the U.S., cost *less than $2 per test*.³ This is what we ended up deciding to do. Check it out!
#CovidIsNotOver
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Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Jan 13
¹We got free tests from three sources: (1) we ordered as many as we could when the insurance companies were still paying for them; (2) we took advantage of the U.S. govt. program sending our free tests every time it was offered; (3) my wife's school was giving away tests like candy for a while.
All three sources of free tests have dried up and are unlikely to return. We're on our own.
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Jan 13
²The PlusLife test is much more accurate than rapid tests, so if your priority is knowing as soon as possible whether you have COVID, it may be worth the money for you. Having said that, if you test negative on a rapid test you're probably not currently contagious and won't be for at least a day, and if you can get the rapid tests inexpensively as noted in my post, it's cheaper to test five days in a row with a rapid test than to test once with PlusLife.
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Jan 13
³Furthermore, the Altruan site also has inexpensive COVID / Flu A / Flu B / RSV combo tests. They're about twice as expensive as the bulk COVID tests, but that's still a great deal! My wife and I ended up ordering 25 COVID tests and 33 combo tests for a total of $109 including shipping.
By the way, it is obscene that rapid COVID and combo tests in Europe cost a small fraction of what they cost in the United States.
Show threadikuo

@jik I just went through this calculation for my family & decided to get Pluslife. Considering the discount offered by this page:

https://virus.sucks/pluslife_en/

(almost $100 off) & the fact that you can pool test 3-4 people, we'll hit the break-even cost in several months since we test often (~1-2 times/month when we see my dad). Plus, the nerd in me loves the real-time data graphs in the virus.sucks app!

Agree that even without Pluslife, buying rapid tests from Altruan is smart, even w/ shipping!!

Unofficial Pluslife FAQ (EN)

Jan 13 at 1:59amWeb
Show threadikuoJan 13
@jik P.S. To be clear, I calculated the break-even point using the cost of buying rapid tests in the U.S. before I even knew that Altruan offered super-cheap tests, which I didn't see until I was just browsing around literally on the verge of checking out. Had I known earlier, it may have affected my decision, but really I am very pleased with the nerdy testing graphs. 😂