Lateral flow test

[Bornslippery]

Am I. Unreasonable to wonder how good they are. My DD has been doing them twice a week and always negative. Thought I would try but I gagged so just rubbed it on my tongue. Showed negative although I thought it would show invalid. Tried putting a new one in a glass of sparkling wine - also negative (not invalid). Any thoughts??

I don’t think they are very effective unless you have quite a high viral load

They're not very sensitive/accurate.

They will only be invalid if there is something wrong with the test.

Having people test themselves, especially children, isn't going to be very accurate at all.

NHS worker here. We have them to test ourselves prior to our shifts. Have not had anyone report a positive test. Known to be not very accurate as you have just proven.

Unsurprising. At least it didn't show as positive!!

At least my Cava doesn't have covid then!

This is funny, I have done 5 in the last 5 days, all positive, yet my PCR was negative.

The PCR swabs are huge and I couldn't get it up my blocked nose.

Am I positive or negative? Who knows?

I’ve had faint positives for three months on LFT’s but always negative on PCR.
This is from different test batches and just swabbing nostrils and not my throat. Know others who have had the same

Do them twice a week. I'm not convinced that they're reliable as I've had a few blanks.
Think they're meaningless if I'm honest but I'll continue to do them as my employer expects it.

Obviously it doesn’t know where you’ve rubbed the stick - ‘invalid’ test would come up if you put too much or not enough drops in it, nothing to do with what’s on the stick.

LF picked up a colleague who was asymptomatic...a few days later she'd spread covid to several family members

The people I know personally (8 so far) who tested positive on lateral flow all went on to test positive on PCR and all bar one then went on to develop symptoms. All were doing the routine twice weekly routine testing for work, and none felt remotely ill when they tested positive.
I'm sure some are missed, but those are 8 peopl taken out of circulation in roles where they mix with large numbers of people, before they had any clue that they had the virus.

LFT picked up DH covid in March. He tests twice weekly as a teacher and it came up positive. He did feel a bit run down but nothing that screamed covid or was one of the main symptoms. PCR confirmed it the next day.

LFT also picked up covid in two of his colleagues a few days later. Again, PCR confirmed it.

12 out of 17 staff where I work (SEN school) caught Covid in January. We were testing in school at that point using LFDs. Not one of us was picked up using the LFDs. I have no confidence in them whatsoever and do worry people seem to rely on them so much.

They’ve picked up three asymptomatic cases in our small school this term. No false positives.

None of the lateral flows I did picked up covid, but I had a positive PCR inbetween negative lateral flows. The manufacturers do say they really only pick up high viral load, and I don’t know anyone in our healthcare setting who were surprised to get a positive lateral flow result.