@tainted_love

Rapid antigen tests (RAT) are notoriously unreliable. They're at best a leaky stopgap to avoid spreading disease by bowing out of a gathering if one tests positive, but a negative test tells you only that the test failed to detect anything, not that you don't (or didn't) have anything.

PCR tests are better (as in, more reliable) indicators, but absent an expensive electronic home nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), which often can fail to work even when operated per instructions, the only way to get a PCR is to go to a medical practitioner.

Both are nose swab tests.

That all said, influenza is also known to cause dysgeusia (such as everything tasting metallic), which is distinct (and historically more common than) the various smell/taste disruptions associated specifically with covid.