Does anyone test for Covid anymore?

watermeadow

I thought we were supposed to treat Covid like flu. It’s always going to be around and vaccination means it is rarely serious if we do catch it.

Yes.. but dad had pneumonia on top & Alzheimer’s so my mum & dad isolated, I didn’t go near, only to tip off shopping

watermeadow

I thought we were supposed to treat Covid like flu. It’s always going to be around and vaccination means it is rarely serious if we do catch it.

Do you mean to minimise the possible impact of covid, or flu, especially on the clinically vulnerable? I’ve been fortunate and avoided it so far
I last had flu over the millenium. It was dreadful and secondary chest infection meant blood tests that raised concerns about my ability to fight it. I was off work four weeks and recovery wasn’t speedy.

Cariad and M0nica
A quick dip into Google scholar brings this up:
^
Generation of False-Positive SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Results with Testing Conditions outside Manufacturer Recommendations: A Scientific Approach to Pandemic Misinformation^

journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/spectrum.00683-21

Basically a rebuttal to "fake news" "berry" testing.
The likely explanation of these artifacts is nonspecific interactions between the SARS-CoV-2-specific conjugated and capture antibodies, as proteinase K treatment abrogated this phenomenon, and thermal shift assays showed pH-induced conformational changes under conditions promoting artifact formation. Omitting, altering, and reverse engineering the kit buffer all supported the importance of maintaining buffering capacity, ionic strength, and pH for accurate kit function.

There may be more. But this looks pretty thorough to me.

OldFrill

Using a COVID test on a berry proves nothing. They aren't designed to be used on berries, a chemical in the berry is reacting with a chemical in a COVID test - proves absolutely nothing.

Absolutely!

NotSpaghetti

Cariad and M0nica
A quick dip into Google scholar brings this up:
^
Generation of False-Positive SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Results with Testing Conditions outside Manufacturer Recommendations: A Scientific Approach to Pandemic Misinformation^

journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/spectrum.00683-21

Basically a rebuttal to "fake news" "berry" testing.
The likely explanation of these artifacts is nonspecific interactions between the SARS-CoV-2-specific conjugated and capture antibodies, as proteinase K treatment abrogated this phenomenon, and thermal shift assays showed pH-induced conformational changes under conditions promoting artifact formation. Omitting, altering, and reverse engineering the kit buffer all supported the importance of maintaining buffering capacity, ionic strength, and pH for accurate kit function.

There may be more. But this looks pretty thorough to me.

I have absolutely no idea why I am mentioned here. I have never, to my knowledge signed up to, or agreed with any pandemic misinformation.

I thought, as is general with a virus, that you are likely infectious some days before experiencing symptoms. So much spreading is done whether you test or not.

Exactly M0nica

Upthread you were asking Cariad for reputable sources - where did she get her (mis)information from?

I thought you'd be interested to see that the misinformation that Cariad was trusting had already been academically challenged.

I wasn't implying that you agreed with the "Covid doubters"

Apologies M0nica if that's what my post felt like you you.
I could probably have written it better! Sorry.

I thought I might have had COVID about four months ago so I got our tests out of the cupboard but they were all out of date so my DH bought some new ones from Boots, I think they were about £8 for 4. I tested and it was negative. My DH has never had COVID, I have had it once, we don’t wear masks but stay home if we have a cold or cough.

There is plenty of information around - doctors, scientists, etc but, as I said a while back I would have to go through pages after pages after pages after pages for our sources on one of our Anti-Lockdown groups.

Which many of us have found, from experience, means someone goes "Lovely - load of rubbish - bash them round head and censor them/chuck them out of their job/chuck them out of their training/chuck them out of their social groups". Loads of us have come up with all sorts of scientific evidence and been punished some way or other for doing so - this is a common experience to us.

Many of us have figured out by now who is genuinely wanting the facts - and we provide them. But we've had a LOT of people setting us up in order to chuck us out of something or other (be it job, training or social group). I've been chucked out of 2 local social groups for following the facts (eg a local bookgroup I belonged to and that finally met up again for a Christmas do as per usual and the "round robin" email came round from the co-ordinator with the arrangements for our do and he made a personal decision to put in it "Of course we've all followed Lockdown/had jabs/etc" and I replied with "I haven't myself - but it will be nice to meet up with people again. Look forward to seeing everyone" and he sent me one back saying "I don't mean YOU - YOU aren't invited and it was a mistake that you had that email". In hindsight - I wish I'd not said a word and had just turned up at it and waited to see if they had the nerve to physically throw me out for having done nothing wrong. I hadn't said a word to any of the other members about what I was or wasn't doing re Lockdown and the jabs!! Looks like he was spying on my personal Facebook page or maybe he'd heard on the local grapevine I was the main co-ordinator of local anti-Lockdown FB group!

No wonder we're wary - when we keep getting "punished" one way or another.....! Many of us are just glad that our marriage partners are "on the same page" or we are single and so we don't have a marriage breakup on our hands. Glad that we don't have a job or training that penalised us for making our own decisions or are in the safety of retirement (where our income just keeps coming into our bank account without having to have contact with anyone that might get upset and attack us one way or another for not jabbing, etc).

You can always find facts which will support your point of view just as I can find facts to support mine. However, I would not be happy mixing with people who openly say they do not have the vaccinations or believe in staying away from vulnerable people.
I had Covid again a couple of weeks ago and I am still feeling ill.
You are free to believe whatever you like but don't expect others to accept your views.

However, I would not be happy mixing with people who openly say they do not have the vaccinations or believe in staying away from vulnerable people.

Ditto!

Great post painting yourself as a victim CariadAgain

In the midst of COVID I certainly would not have wanted to attend any social function attended by proud vaccination and lockdown deniers.

Redhead56

As a couple at a social function we both contracted Covid we did test positive and won’t forget it in a hurry.
I will continue to test for it I don’t care that it costs money. If it saves other people getting it I think it is worth it I have lack of taste and little interest in food since I had it.
It was horrible and the upset it caused us after being so careful during lockdown will stay with us.

Redhead56, I had the same problem with sense of smell after Covid. If it's not back after a week or two, you can try and retrain your sense of smell/brain. Get essential oils at the pharmacy (citrus, eucalyptus, rose, clove) and sniff them regularly, daily. I put a bit of cotton pad in a 5 ml jar and a few drops of oil. At the beginning (6 months after Covid) I could only smell eucalyptus, but it improved over the next weeks. You can also go further with other oils, as I have found that the four weeks or so didn't bring 100% back. Google for smell training covid, there are lots of pages like these:
mcpress.mayoclinic.org/living-well/olfactory-retraining-after-covid-19/
abscent.org.uk/learn-us/smell-training/how-smell-train/

On topic: I still test if I have reason to believe it could be Covid. Last this summer, when my niece travelled back from Spain on a bus and her seat neighbour came down with it. I tested positive, but it manifested only as a massive runny nose. Still , I worked from home for the week. No need to infect my office room mates with something that will spread that easily.

I will mask up with FP2 mask in crowded situations, as I am on immunosuppressants since fairly recently. My GP has added three jabs to my vaccination list due to this, so I think "better safe than sorry".

I'm less black and white about vaccinations as some of you upthread...

I believe you should always be able to decide about your own medications.

I do however also believe that if there are facts that are scientifically proven we shouldn't misrepresent them to others (whatever our preferences are. It doesn't mean we should have to do what is recommended though.

Just as we can reject heart drugs and so on we should have vaccination choice.
If it means we are then excluded from something, so be it. It is our choice not to conform.

(I feel very differently about masks as they are not a medication.)

I meant to say, I'm with Delphin regarding masks!

Delphin

On topic: I still test if I have reason to believe it could be Covid. Last this summer, when my niece travelled back from Spain on a bus and her seat neighbour came down with it. I tested positive, but it manifested only as a massive runny nose. Still , I worked from home for the week. No need to infect my office room mates with something that will spread that easily.

I will mask up with FP2 mask in crowded situations, as I am on immunosuppressants since fairly recently. My GP has added three jabs to my vaccination list due to this, so I think "better safe than sorry".

We also mask up. Well done you!

The one thing that doesn't seem to have been covered to date is just how and when do we get Society back to completely normal again?

As it stands - it's become clear that there are still people who avoid those of us who haven't been jabbed - even if we're perfectly well (ie we'd stay in ourselves if we felt that bad). On the other hand there are some on my side of the divide (ie not jabbed) that avoid those who have been jabbed (ie in case contact with their jab makes us ill - can't recall the word used for that - but basically it's a form of "outgassing").

So with some from both sides of the divide - jabbed and non-jabbed - avoiding the other side = just how and when do we get Society back to normal and no-one is avoiding anyone else (apart from the commonsense one of = if someone feels ill they stay in until it's over).

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Vaccines do not use any live virus. Vaccines cannot cause infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 or other viruses.

Therefore, I am confused by the statement: On the other hand there are some on my side of the divide (ie not jabbed) that avoid those who have been jabbed (ie in case contact with their jab makes us ill

CariadAgain I suppose like everything else it will take time. Apart from here on GN I have never experienced any conversations where the un jabbed are avoided quite honestly to me it makes little difference. If you have Covid you are contagious regardless of vaccines. Do people avoid other's that have not had any other vaccines flu for instance?
And I don't know anyone's personal medical circumstances apart from my immediate family.
The majority of the population under 65 do not now receive vaccines for Covid do we avoid them as well.

You are absolutely right Marydoll.

Marydoll

I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Vaccines do not use any live virus. Vaccines cannot cause infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 or other viruses.

Therefore, I am confused by the statement: ^On the other hand there are some on my side of the divide (ie not jabbed) that avoid those who have been jabbed (ie in case contact with their jab makes us ill^

Of course Marydoll. What nonsense to suggest a vaccinated individual could pass on the disease they were vax against.
I respect the right of people not to take up vaccinations but worry about the evidence often used to support their decision. Measles, TB, Polio and more were controlled because most people believed the medics and were socially responsible

This is interesting from Independent Sage continues Substack. By professor Steve Griffiths.

We sometimes hear discussion of SARS-CoV2 “settling down”, becoming “endemic”, and my personal favourite- behaving like “any other respiratory virus”

This is disingenuous on at least two levels. First, it really hasn’t settled and it shows no sign of doing so. Second, and perhaps most troubling, is the implication that SARS-CoV2, influenza, or other viruses, cause so little harm that they shouldn’t affect our lives.

This is part of a longer article and can be read without subscribing to Independent Sage. I find it interesting because the idea of covid becoming “just like the flu” is often mentioned on these threads without any scientific evidence. I’m a bit nerdy and like to check.

rosie1959

CariadAgain I suppose like everything else it will take time. Apart from here on GN I have never experienced any conversations where the un jabbed are avoided quite honestly to me it makes little difference. If you have Covid you are contagious regardless of vaccines. Do people avoid other's that have not had any other vaccines flu for instance?
And I don't know anyone's personal medical circumstances apart from my immediate family.
The majority of the population under 65 do not now receive vaccines for Covid do we avoid them as well.

Absolutely rosie I have no idea if the people I socialise with or meet day to day have been vaccinated or not, they don’t wear a badge! I’m only certain of MrJ and my children/grandchildren.
I’ve certainly seen no avoidance by anyone and really don’t know what Cariad is on about.