Coronavirus test.

[maras2]

I've been on the mailing list for The Online Clinic for a while now since once ordering some stuff for a urinary tract infection.
This morning I've received an email inviting me to buy a DIY Coronavirus Antigen (not antibody,that will be available in a few weeks apparently) testing kit price £179.99.
Is this for real?
It may well be but something about it just feels a bit odd
Am I just being a suspicious old biddy with too much lock down time on her hands?

This may help. The bbc article says no one should buy a private test.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52335210

Hopefully some of the content may help.

There will be a lot of scams saying this. Be on your guard.

I would be cautious.

There is a clinic in Harley Street, London offering the same although it's double the price but claim the test is approved by PHE.

They are also offering Antibody testing

Thanks to all who replied.
I wasn't really thinking of buying, just curious as to whether or not it was legitimate.

Yes be very careful, it's sad that fraudsters are milking this when people are desperate. The government should be clamping down on it

Ask them for their peer reviewed senstivity and specificity tests
How they knew someone had the virus
How many people they did the test on
What was their controls

And ask them why it's an antigen test - what are they testing for.

(Ex Clinical Biochemist here)

And then don't buy it - because they are trying to con you

Dodgy, don't touch.

Please don’t waste your money on this. No antibody test is validated for use in the UK (or anywhere, as far as I know) and even if they were, home use wouldn’t be recommended. In labs these tests are done by people who have studied for years and got state registration in UKAS accredited labs, and positive and negative controls are run alongside them to prove that results are reliable. At home, none of this is true and there is a real risk that people will think they are immune when they are not.

Sorry I’ve just read that this is an “antigen” test. This I don’t believe. The PCR test done in labs is something that could not be done anywhere else. It’s very complex. I’ve not heard of any other way of doing it, so this is probably a scam rather than just a bad test.

I think Scam OP. One of my siblings is a HCP in a senior role, she says the test to ascertain if someone has had CV is only 50 -70% accurate.

Perhaps this explains why some who have previously tested positive are "catching it again" when they shouldn't be able to, are showing positive but asymptomatic, or negative but ill with some of the symptoms......

It really bugs me when they say 'antigen' test.
RT-PCR - the test used to see 'if you have it' - detects viral RNA - ribonucleic acid - which is not an antigen.

Thanks all.
Thought it was a bit too good to be true, though now I'm wondering what they gave me for the UTI I had originally.
I only ordered on line (Nitrofurantoin) as it was over the Christmas period and I couldn't get a GP appointment.
Well I got better, whether I would have done without the treatment I'll never know.