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 was in contact with someone who tested positive and developed exactly the same symptoms on exactly the same time line (as did DH, who was in contact at same time). They tested positive, we had negative LF, followed by negative PCR for me (DH didn’t do PCR). We isolated as a precaution, because we are able to, though there are plenty who couldn’t/wouldn’t

Rather than relying on Mumsnet to understand things like this, it's better to google and find someone who has a good understanding of the issue at hand. Threas like these are full of misunderstandings of virology and statistics, and it's impossible to tell who knows what they are talking about.

For covid statistics, I recommend Dr David Spiegelhalter - here is one of his articles on the accuracy of a PCR test:

www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/oct/17/whats-the-value-of-a-confirmatory-pcr-test-covid

His conclusion, in October, when rates were lower, is that "At the current infection rate in England of one in 60 people, and with labs working well, out of 100 people with a positive LFD followed by a negative PCR, around 40 would actually have the virus and be falsely reassured."

So you probably do have COVID.

And yes, the government and media should be educating people about these things

YABU OP.

The bog standard Flu virus can be horrendous and it does kill people every year. My surgery advised getting the flu jab this year as the current strain is particularly virulent.

I’ve had proper flu twice (I’m in my fifties), and with one bout I was feeling much better within about a week, the second time, it took me 4 weeks before I started to feel vaguely normal. My DH caught it off me and he was ill for around 6 weeks, and feeling exhausted for about 3 months afterwards. This was about 10 years ago.

Try another lateral flow test in case of a mix up.
I don't think the state is deliberately faking tests. there was one provider for tests to holidaymakers who I think was doing fake results.
www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/travel-agent-fake-covid-test-results-b1949656.html

I follow someone on SM who refuses to do PCRs as they believe they’ve been tampered with as everyone who they know has come back positive.

There is an awful illness going around which isn’t covid and because we’ve had masks and social distancing our bodies aren’t used to it but I know exactly what you mean as when I had it it felt different to a normal illness and now my friend has it and said the same thing to me.
It is probably an illness not related to covid but it wouldn’t surprise me if they said it was a strain of covid that the PCR didn’t pick up.

Anyone who has properly had the 'flu will recognise many of your symptoms. I was bedridden for ten days and felt like I would be happy to die at any moment.
I think that's what people meant originally, when they said Covid was just like the 'flu.
Unfortunately, in the past two or three decades, people have begun to describe feeling under the weather as 'the 'flu' - I wanted to throttle a colleague who announced one afternoon that he "had 'flu this morning but I'm alright now".
Two months ago, my DC was worried that pneumonia had returned, the hospital swabbed for everything and did x-rays - all negative, they diagnosed a mystery respiratory virus.

@ChristmasFluff

Rather than relying on Mumsnet to understand things like this, it's better to google and find someone who has a good understanding of the issue at hand. Threas like these are full of misunderstandings of virology and statistics, and it's impossible to tell who knows what they are talking about.

For covid statistics, I recommend Dr David Spiegelhalter - here is one of his articles on the accuracy of a PCR test:

www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/oct/17/whats-the-value-of-a-confirmatory-pcr-test-covid

His conclusion, in October, when rates were lower, is that "At the current infection rate in England of one in 60 people, and with labs working well, out of 100 people with a positive LFD followed by a negative PCR, around 40 would actually have the virus and be falsely reassured."

So you probably do have COVID.

And yes, the government and media should be educating people about these things

But if you're going to say that everyone who feels like they have covid but is testing negative probably has had a false result so probably has covid, why do the tests at all? Why not just say, if you think you've got it, you've got it? Save the country a load of money on pcr tests.

You seem to be associating your illness with Omicron because you have ‘not felt this unwell for years’, but you’re missing the most common point about Omicron is that it’s a mild variant of Covid, so if anything, your symptoms make it likely you just have a bad cold.

I just had two colds in the space of a couple of months. The second time I was convinced I had Covid and had TWO PCRs and a few LFTs but now that I’m better I recognise they were just colds.

In short, I think the anxiety of getting Covid gets to us and makes us almost want it to be Covid.

I’m not averse to a good conspiracy theory, but you could drive yourself mad! Either ‘they’ are suppressing the numbers to make things seem better(!) or ‘they’ are exaggerating the numbers to enable further erosion of our freedom. I’ve heard both, but am fairly confident that ‘they’ aren’t competent enough to organise a piss-up in a brewery, let alone data manipulation on any significant national (or even international) scale!

Absolutely. I have a number of friends and neighbours with the described symptons - it's all flu (and most of them did not bother wirh flu jabs). It was predicted that flu would be very bad this year, and the prediction is proving accurate.

I’m pretty certain it’s the flu as this is the one year I haven’t had my flu jab yet DH, And DP’s have had theirs, have been in close contact with them all week and they’re absolutely fine.

Have you done a lateral flow?

@ChristmasFluff

Rather than relying on Mumsnet to understand things like this, it's better to google and find someone who has a good understanding of the issue at hand. Threas like these are full of misunderstandings of virology and statistics, and it's impossible to tell who knows what they are talking about.

For covid statistics, I recommend Dr David Spiegelhalter - here is one of his articles on the accuracy of a PCR test:

www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2021/oct/17/whats-the-value-of-a-confirmatory-pcr-test-covid

His conclusion, in October, when rates were lower, is that "At the current infection rate in England of one in 60 people, and with labs working well, out of 100 people with a positive LFD followed by a negative PCR, around 40 would actually have the virus and be falsely reassured."

So you probably do have COVID.

And yes, the government and media should be educating people about these things

Why so sneering to MN? I find the women here to be knowledgeable about most things and many are professionals in their field.

The article you have linked and quoted is irrelevant in the OP’s case as doesn’t say she ever had a positive LFT.

And no one has said every single PCR result is accurate, just that there is no conspiracy to falsify the results.

I was laid low by the most awful hacking persistent cough last week, I spent three days in bed because even walking to the loo set it off again, as did sitting up, lying down, talking, not talking.......Lateral flows negative, PCR negative. The cough cleared up. We forget that people have always succumbed to coughs and colds at this time of the year. It might look like Covid symptoms, sound like Covid symptoms ,feel like Covid symptoms, but that doesn’t mean it is Covid, or indeed a government conspiracy.

I think you must have covid by the sounds of it. Nothing else makes you lose your smell like that. I'd do another PCR, ours we're all negative/inconclusive the first time, followed by a neg lateral flow and positive PCR the next morning.

I had symptoms last week at the same time Dp had tested positive. All my pcr and lft tests were negative until the weekend. I feel it was either too soon to detect for me - until the weekend when I was positive. Or I had another virus last week and then covid after it. I'll never know!

@Teaforme123

I think you must have covid by the sounds of it. Nothing else makes you lose your smell like that. I'd do another PCR, ours we're all negative/inconclusive the first time, followed by a neg lateral flow and positive PCR the next morning.

You could be right but wrong about smell . I have totally lost my smell and taste with viruses long before covid came along. It definitely has been a symptom of other viruses for years, we are just talking about it more now.

I had a bad throat infection once and lost my smell and taste.

The David Spiegelhalter article was talking about people who had had a positive LFT and then a negative PCR. Whether they should assume they actually have Covid depends on their prior probability of having Covid, ie population incidence, their degree of mixing and any symptoms.

The point of doing a PCR after a positive LFT when rates are high is more about information gathering for the health service than getting proof for the individual.

Assuming you've got Covid from symptoms and a negative PCR is a step further on and would only be appropriate when rates are very high, you've been mixing, and you have very characteristic symptoms - like the OP.

Are you a doctor OP? Or a Covid obsessive. If not, then just accept that you did not have Covid. It’s not the only respiratory virus in town.

@Teaforme123

I think you must have covid by the sounds of it. Nothing else makes you lose your smell like that. I'd do another PCR, ours we're all negative/inconclusive the first time, followed by a neg lateral flow and positive PCR the next morning.

Well that's not quite true, both the common cold and flu can cause a loss of taste and smell www.keckmedicine.org/what-can-cause-a-loss-of-taste-and-smell/ I would do another PCR, but you may not have Covid and just have the flu/bad cold. Covid is not the only virus around, especially in winter months. There's loads of bugs flying around atm

I think life is calmer if you apply the principles of:
Ockham’s razor
Cock up rather than conspiracy.

Just get another pcr!

I have lost my sense of taste and smell temporarily with flu and sinus infections long before covid was a thing. It definitely can happen! I did also lose it with covid but it took nearly a year to come back, that was the big difference it wasn't just a temporary thing that went away with my other symptoms, it hung around for a good long while. I'm actually still not sure it's 100% better now

Flu varies like any other virus, I had similar to what you describe about 4 years ago. Fever lasted 10 days in the end, I thought I'd never recover. I'd never had a flu so bad...

Also my DD & 95% of her class had very similar a few weeks ago. ALL were repeatedly tested, not one positive among them (20 odd kids). They had a stinking cold which they passed around as kids do... not everything is Covid, even if most things are Covid these days!

Me and DS have had a similar thing. DS has been off school for 2 weeks. We've had two negative pcrs.

Look we know these tests can’t be 100% accurate . My daughter had negative LFT and negative pcr . Then positive on both .

It depends on viral load as well . I would do another couple of tests .

It’s not deliberate it’s just the accuracy of trying to test for a virus.

I too have been really poorly and negative test but my symptoms are not all covid related so I think the test was correct.