AIBU - to think that PCR results are being tampered with?

[tuesdayschild17]

A week ago, COVID symptoms hit me like a bus. I developed a high temperature, muscle aches, a dry cough, headache and within a couple of days I couldn’t smell at all. I’m talking stick your head in the dog food bowl and still nothing!!

I have had appalling night sweats as well and have heard this is common for the Omicron. I honestly have not felt this unwell for years.

I took a home PCR test and have just had the results and they’re negative! I followed the instructions religiously and made sure I really swabbed my throat/nose properly. I’d gamble large sums of money I had/still have COVID.

Does anyone feel that there are accuracy failures in the PCRs we aren’t being told about? Or that even worse the government may be trying to suppress the number of positives that happen in this huge wave of Covid crashing down on the UK?

Has anyone else had a negative PCR but been sure they have COVID?

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be the flu.

Flu viruses change. It won’t be the same strand you had in previous years (and besides, if before when you had the flu it wasn’t this bad… then maybe that wasn’t even the flu?!)

@tuesdayschild17

Okay I definitely rescind the idea that they’re tampering with results. I think I’m just frustrated generally by their lack of transparency. I’m more convinced it could be a false negative, and that there isn’t a clear indication of how common it is/what to do if you believe you’ve had a false negative on a PCR.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe it is flu. I’ve had flu more than once in previous years and whilst it is horrendous, it’s just not this bad. I’ve had a temp of over 39 for 4 days.

Also I have never lost my taste and smell this completely. I can literally feel food/liquid/toothpaste in my mouth, with zero taste at all. I can’t smell even the faintest trace of garlic or dog food or anything that has a strong smell. I have never experienced total loss of smell/taste with a cold.

You do know that a flu is different every year ?

You're not more likely to have Covid than any other respiratory illness.

When ds1 had the flu he was ill for two weeks. Fever of 39/40 about a week of it. Vomiting, shaking, crying, diarrhea, off food for a week. Second week very lethargic and still not great with food.
Flu can be horrendous and as you will know, does kill people.

It's called the flu and should last minimum 2 weeks never mind the 4 days of your previous "flu".

or it just didnt find the virus at the time of testing?

maybe you do.
Or maybe you have a bad cold or the flu. Coughing, not being able to smell or taste, fever, aches, sweating etc are bog standard symptoms for a few viruses that make you feel like shit. Not everything is covid.
I hope you feel better soon.

Really not that big of a deal and definitely not a huge conspiracy. They publish results regularly so not sure what lack of transparency you are talking about.

If you’re so worried, test again and stay isolated for now.

Similar experience- OP- Covid symptoms, four positive lateral flows, three out of the four of us tested positive but two PCR tests at drive through centre came back negative. Surely must have been a false negative. They also lost one of my sons pCR results. I don’t think it is deliberate- I just don’t think the PCR testing is as efficient or accurate as we are led to believe!

@tuesdayschild17

Okay I definitely rescind the idea that they’re tampering with results. I think I’m just frustrated generally by their lack of transparency. I’m more convinced it could be a false negative, and that there isn’t a clear indication of how common it is/what to do if you believe you’ve had a false negative on a PCR.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe it is flu. I’ve had flu more than once in previous years and whilst it is horrendous, it’s just not this bad. I’ve had a temp of over 39 for 4 days.

Also I have never lost my taste and smell this completely. I can literally feel food/liquid/toothpaste in my mouth, with zero taste at all. I can’t smell even the faintest trace of garlic or dog food or anything that has a strong smell. I have never experienced total loss of smell/taste with a cold.

PCRs give false negatives more than you might think, and certain substrains of Omicron are reported to evade testing.

Source:

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/07/scientists-find-stealth-version-of-omicron-not-identifiable-with-pcr-test-covid-variant

Friend (in France) did an LFT from the UK that came back negative while awaiting results of her French PCR which came back positive.
Then went and did an LFT at the chemist which was also positive.
I've not much confidence in the UK home tests at the moment.

@tuesdayschild17 - have you taken any lfts, or just the one pcr test? My experience of children in the school where I work is that if they had positive lfts then a negative pcr, the first pcr was wrong and the 2nd one always came back positive, confirming the lfts. After all, the pcr is just a snapshot and, imvho, not as accurate a snapshot as people think it is.

Hasten to add - I did self-isolate for ten days even though told it was ok to crack on!!

I think a lot of people think they've had 'the flu' when they have had a cold virus that's made them feel really grotty but they think a cold is just a sneeze and a runny nose 🤷‍♀️My husband just got over the flu. He was unable to do anything for about a fortnight. About a week he could barely get about of bed. He was knackered for a few weeks after. Flu can be nasty. Really nasty.

"Sensitivity of PCR testing in the real world (taking into consideration the likelihood of the virus getting onto the swab) is only of the order of 70%. It misses (gives false negative results) in about 30% of people who do actually have the virus, and who may be contagious."

www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n287/rr

So a significantly high false negative rate.

One PCR done by a non healthcare professional has a 70% chance of picking up a case. That means c. 30% of cases are missed.
When I was admitted to hospital they told me they never take one negative as an actual negative, they always do two and ideally three if they can because a significant minority of people (ie a third) don't test positive on the first PCR.

@tuesdayschild17

Okay I definitely rescind the idea that they’re tampering with results. I think I’m just frustrated generally by their lack of transparency. I’m more convinced it could be a false negative, and that there isn’t a clear indication of how common it is/what to do if you believe you’ve had a false negative on a PCR.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe it is flu. I’ve had flu more than once in previous years and whilst it is horrendous, it’s just not this bad. I’ve had a temp of over 39 for 4 days.

Also I have never lost my taste and smell this completely. I can literally feel food/liquid/toothpaste in my mouth, with zero taste at all. I can’t smell even the faintest trace of garlic or dog food or anything that has a strong smell. I have never experienced total loss of smell/taste with a cold.

Are you aware people die from flu?

It can be very very nasty. Judging your previous 'flu' (which may not have been flu) against your current condition is a little bit ridiculous

Remember that covid PCRs only have a sensitivity of around 70% so up to 30% false negative rate.
Much more likely that than being tampered with!

Having said that I work in frontline health care and we’re seeing a lot of other respiratory viruses that aren’t covid

don’t see why it wouldn’t be the flu.

Possible but much less likely than Covid right now. There's not been much flu around (anywhere in the world). On the other hand, there's a huge amount of Covid around. Particularly in the UK.

Flu and heavy colds are pretty rife at the moment, and these ailments share a lot of symptoms with covid. Other colds and bugs didn't just disappear when covid arrived so you've probably got different virus. I hope that you feel better soon.

@Wallywobbles

Friend (in France) did an LFT from the UK that came back negative while awaiting results of her French PCR which came back positive. Then went and did an LFT at the chemist which was also positive. I've not much confidence in the UK home tests at the moment.

That's interesting.

I had a horrible cold with flu-like symptoms last week (not flu probably, as that generally leaves you bed bound for a couple of weeks, people really don’t know what flu is like).

I wouldn’t normally get a fever and chills with a cold. But my immune system is massively out of practice, so it’s not surprising that my only two colds post lockdowns have been far far worse than usual.

(PCR and LFTs all negative, as they were for my friend who gave me the cold).

I think a false negative is most likely OP. PCRs have a lower false negative rate than LFTs but they do still have them, I would do another.

Also, in terms of it feeling worse than normal flu, everyone's immune systems have taken a hit with all of the lockdowns. It is normal for colds and glu bugs to affect us more then they normally would.

Summer colds usually don't bother me that much. I caught one in June and it floored me, to the point that I needed two days off work.

@C8H10N4O2

I think I’m just frustrated generally by their lack of transparency

What lack of transparency?

You have three options:

• its covid but your test was in the tiny percentage which misreports
• its non covid flu or similar which is also widespread this winter
• there is a sekrit team of superspy types breaking into test facilities to change recorded test results, all coordinated from a bunker in Whitehall.

Gosh its a puzzler.

It's not "a tiny proportion " that gives a false negative. It's somewhere between 10% and 30%.

Given the sky high rates in London and the very Covid-specific symptom of taste and smell suddenly disappearing completely, if I were the OP I'd apply Bayes' Theorem and assume I had Covid.

However, assuming that one false negative means it's a government conspiracy is utter madness.

Also. Not all flu leaves you totally bedbound for a week! The fifty pound note test is not an actual diagnostic.

I'd have hoped that if the last two years had any upside they'd have taught us that the same virus can affect different people more or less severely and that you can have a mild case of a serious disease. But clearly some myths are unshakeable.