Are home tests even accurate??

[Nosebogey]

No test sites near us whatsoever and we don’t have access to a car so I assume if we show symptoms and need a test it would be a home one for us. But if we do it wrong or don’t reach the right bit with the swab, won’t we just get a false negative and think we are okay to go back to school and work etc? Won’t this happen for multiple people?

Or is there an alternative to test sites and home tests? I’m very confused.

If you do it wrong then you'll get Unclear rather than a false negative. So no worries on that count.

Oh I didn’t know that! That’s a bit of a relief then :D

I don't trust them at all.
We didn't even manage to touch ds's tonsils just ended up rolling swab on his tongue and barely went in his nostril ( a cm at the most) and we got a 'negative' result rather than a false neg.
It definitely was not done properly at all.

Sorry I meant rather than an 'unclear'

It’s worrying isn’t it :(

@Augustbreeze

If you do it wrong then you'll get Unclear rather than a false negative. So no worries on that count.

Not sure this is true?

The tests are only getting about a 70% accuracy rate so lots of false negatives.

You do realise that the drive through testing sites are self Administered too? There’s so much guidance online and in the leaflet, it isn’t difficult

I’m not in the U.K... I’ve had a test administered at a hospital and it goes so far down your nose you can feel it at the back of your throat. I question why they’d go to all that effort if it wasn’t completely necessary..

There is a high rate of false negative, yes.

This is why in other countries the tests are done by HCPs while we get posted something to try to do ourselves

It is shit.

I wondered the same thing - we sent our home tests off on Wednesday and are still waiting on the result, our symptoms have now almost gone so if it comes back inconclusive then what next? I thought tests had to be carried out within the first 5 days of displaying symptoms so wouldn’t another test be pointless?

False negatives result from the test not picking up enough viral particles (eg because you've tested too soon), not from you touching the swab on your tongue or whatever - at least that's my understanding. I've had two Unclear results so did some research

@ShitUsername

I wondered the same thing - we sent our home tests off on Wednesday and are still waiting on the result, our symptoms have now almost gone so if it comes back inconclusive then what next? I thought tests had to be carried out within the first 5 days of displaying symptoms so wouldn’t another test be pointless?

You won’t get another test, you just have to do your 14 days isolation.

@FelicityBeedle

You do realise that the drive through testing sites are self Administered too? There’s so much guidance online and in the leaflet, it isn’t difficult

Well that’s even worse then! False negatives everywhere.

If you get it done by somebody that knows what they are doing, your tonsils hurt for about an hour afterwards.

You do realise that the drive through testing sites are self Administered too?

I had a test at a drive through. It wasn't self administered.

I had a test done at hospital as I was struggling to breathe and very hot and sweating, coughing and aches and pains all over including chest pain. Test was negative but they struggled to get the tonsil swab, tried twice and it touched for about half a second. Blood tests showed a virus and they said I had allergic asthma which started at the same time and problems with heat which also started at same time. My sense of taste went funny for a couple of days.

It's possible but the test is only 70% accurate and I wouldn't rely on it. I isolated anyway as we live by lots of elderly and also I felt pretty awful. It also has to be taken in first 5 days and can be hard to tell when that is. I probably didn't have it but was a very wierd illness and felt quite different to flu.

@ShitUsername can I ask if you've heard yet? I sent mine on Thursday and nothing so far.

@redsky21 my partner’s result came through at 6.45 this morning, negative thankfully! Still no sign of my daughter’s though 🙄