I had been doing a poor job swabbing too shallow, and I wonder if that's also a significant contributor to false negatives. This video helped me a lot [0]. In brief: don't swab just the shallow, hairy skin of the nose, and don't swab upwards. Instead, go slow and go straight back perpendicular to your face about 2-3cm to get to the mucosa of the respiratory lining, twirl for 15 seconds. It helped to see this ENT surgeon do it slowly and calmly, while talking through it. He goes much deeper than I had ever done on my own.

0. https://twitter.com/DrEricLevi/status/1477057391212449793

The antigen tests definitely seem to be much less effective than they used to be. There are so many false negatives, it's not clear that the test has any value. Many people have covid symptoms, test negative, and then figure they're good to go visit grandma in the nursing home or whatever, when the symptoms alone are probably a more reliable guide.

We use molecular (Lucira) home tests, which are much more sensitive, and even those have given us very inconsistent and confusing results on two separate occasions.

One thing that has helped anecdotally among my family and friends of mine is to do use a throat swab, and first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything. A number of times, many other tests were negative, but that one was positive.

Antigen tests, on their box, usually say that if you test positive (there's enough virus to turn the strip, it's most likely correct.

But if you test negative, it doesn't guarantee it's actually negative -- since there are so many factors that could have led to that negative result (insufficient virus, early in the infection, incorrect swabbing, reagent expired).

This is explicitly stated on the box, so it's not "useless". During the early days of COVID, the antigen test is also a cheaper, faster "statistical" filter since full PCR tests are more expensive and less scalable. It's actually doing what it's meant to do.

The negatives can't really be trusted, but if they say you've got it, you've got it.

The home tests are still useful, if for no other reason than because a lot of people cannot get a test at all, or can't get one unless they have symptoms.

My insurance company is like that. At one point in the last year I'd recently been with someone who tested positive two days later, and while I felt fine, I wanted a test before visiting a highly vulnerable relative and was told the test would be entirely out of pocket since I wasn't feeling sick. People who can't afford a PCR out of pocket can at least try several at home tests for some piece of mind.

I'm in the same boat I think. I never had COVID, even after taking PCR tests when I was feeling ill. (I have CF, so respiratory infections are common, so entirely possible it was something else)

Best one was the day my wife was diagnosed just before a minor surgical procedure. That day we went and received 15-minute PCR tests (the kind you'd get if you were traveling): I was negative and she was confirmed as positive. I can only assume I had it at one point and still had "natural" immunity. (We were both previously vaccinated, and her COVID case was very mild)

The VAST majority of people who have/had covid have no idea they have/had it. For 3 years it seems we were all trying to ignore this one simple fact. People still even joke about, "not knowing how I've avoided COVID this long". We have ALL "had COVID" multiple times. Testing at all is at best security theater but is literally a fools errand. COVID testing has not and will not ever save a single life.

Back in 2020, the US Navy published a study that told us everything we needed to know about covid: They found that over 90% of sailors who tested positive were asymptomatic. With only 1% testing positive in random checks, a mere 10% of those showed ANY symptoms and none had any major complications.

It's clear now that the mass hysteria was baseless. We had the facts, but it seems some people just wanted a reason to freak out for a couple years.

1. [Source](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/11/heal...)

In my experience: when I had COVID symptoms and took one of these it was positive. So was my partner.

I think at the end of the day these aren't going to be perfect but if you combine it with a personal evaluation (do I feel sick, are people that were near me sick) it gives you better decision making than just playing dumb.

Pretty useful if you get a positive though