Why can you not take the rapid antigen test when having covid symptoms?

[cocoo43]

Hi everyone I've just taken the rapid covid test the one that gives you the results right away however it did say do not take when experiencing covid symptoms
Mine came back positive
Why can I not take the rapid test with covid symptoms does anyone know ?

Hoping it confuses cold symptoms

Because if it’s negative people with Covid think they don’t are go out and infect people. False positives are very rare , false negatives are not.

*and go out.

You can, its very accurate for testing with symptoms. It just doesnt give information on which variant you have, and the government want to track that, so they are saying dont use the lateral flow for symptoms as those are the most likely positives which they want the variant data on. They also dont want the labs overwhelmed with pcr testing so are using the lateral flows to screen out a load of negative people and reserve the pcr test lab space for the more likely to be positive people. I will try and dig out the clinical study which looked at the accuracy of lateral flow tests in symptomatic patients

You need a PCR as well to confirm

Because it's a bullshit test with over fifty percent false negative rate generating tons plastic waste to fill the ocean.

Tory con.

Becuase it's not very good. So you might get a negative but think you are fine to go out and about but really be positive.

Because the government want you to get 'in the system'if you have covid so they can track and trace, count the numbers, know the stats etc.

Because even with symptoms, the accuracy rating of the LFTs is about 72%. It's barely above 50% for people who have Covid without symptoms.

They were never intended to be used as a diagnostic test for those with symptoms (and I read something recently about them not meeting the minimum standard for a test to be used in this way). They are a screening tool only.

You can’t ‘not’ take it-it’s not like you’re going to explode if you do. It’s just not advised because they aren’t very reliable. If you have symptoms, you should take a PCR test. If you have a positive LFD test, you are probably positive but need a more reliable PCR to confirm.

It's less accurate, it's really for regular testing in daily life. You have symptoms and a positive test, you know you probably have it right? The LFT accuracy is actually quite high for people with high covid viral loads (high 90s%, see recent BMJ article). From your post i think you are hoping the test has somehow given you a false positive because its got confused with your cold symptoms? No, this is very very unlikely, you probably do have covid and need a PCR right away.

If it came back positive you're almost certain to be positive. It has a high false negative rate.
The accuracy of these tests depends on prevalence of the disease in the population, the prevalence of the disease in symptomatic people is higher than in asymptomatic.