Nearly 2 weeks ago, I had contact with someone who tested positive for Covid, I was instructed to self-isolate for 10 days by Test and Trace but was invited to take part in the Daily Contact Testing Study. As part of this, I took one PCR test at the start of the study (this was carried out one week after contact with the positive case and was negative) and then did daily lateral flow tests (all negative) to get 24 hours out of isolation. Participants are asked to be extremely careful and limit their close contact with others so I cancelled the social events I had planned during this period. Although I would have been allowed to go to work, as I work partly from home and partly in the office, my manager decided to re-arrange the rotas so I worked from home throughout this period. The only time I left my home during this period was for socially distanced outdoors exercise, being very careful not to get too close to anyone else.
Due to a combination of reasons, I only joined the Daily Contact Testing study part way through my period of self-isolation so the study goes on for longer than my period of self-isolation (you are sent 7 lateral flow tests to complete daily and 2 PCRs - one to do at the start and one at the end). Once you are out of your self-isolation period, you are no longer required to do them but they ask that you continue doing the daily lateral flow tests and the final PCR test for the purposes of the study.
My fear - and I think this is about 99% irrational - is that I will get a false positive on my final PCR test. With the lack of contact I have had with other people over the past couple of weeks and with all the negative tests I'm the most confident I've ever been since the start of the pandemic that I haven't got Covid but I'm now panicking that I will get a false positive result and I keep thinking back to some undercover filming I saw of cross-contamination in a testing lab (from some time last year - It may very well have been addressed by now but it's playing on my mind).
I've got two very important (to me) events coming up very soon which I'd be absolutely gutted to miss and which I'd lose a lot of money on if I couldn't go because of having to self-isolate again. The first is a short break in the UK and it's also going through my head (as my first PCR test result took quite a while to come back) that I could get there then be notified to self-isolate - I wouldn't be allowed to go home (as I couldn't use public transport) and, even if I could afford 10 days of hotel accommodation, I know hotels have no obligation to allow you to continue to stay if you are instructed to self-isolate so I'd be in a real mess. In the short term, I also know I am going to spend the next few days really worrying about this, even if it is - hopefully - a remote possibility.
I'm out of my period of self-isolation and have kept doing and submitting the lateral flow tests (if I got a positive result, I would definitely do the PCR) but I'm wondering whether I should submit the final PCR. I feel really bad about the idea of not co-operating fully with the study - and also worried that it might mean I would be barred from doing daily testing in future if I'm ever told to self-isolate again - but I can't stop worrying about the possibility of a false positive.
I know I over-think things and worry too much - Maybe the title should be "what would you do if you were a total worrywart like me?"