He can't have it AGAIN can he?

[Justmeandtwokids]

DS tested positive (for the second time) on 6 Jan. He went back to school after negative lateral flows on days 7&8.

He's been identified as a close contact, so did a LF yesterday (negative) and this morning. Today's was clearly negative at half an hour, but I've just gone to bin it and there is a pale line. I'm assuming this is an evaporation line - he can't have covid again so soon can he?

You'd think so, but the fact is many people were told don't test, then do test. My friend was 'told off' by T&T when she rang for advice. She had tested her DC a few days after the end of their post-covid quarantine (as requested by an event she was going to attend) and got a positive result. She was told she should not have tested them and to carry on as normal.

I was also told by NHS T&T to vaccinate DD the day after finishing her isolation from covid, when my own research suggested to wait for three months (and now there's talk of 5 months).
Plus false negatives are a thing. My family member has had 3 of them since the beginning. Unusual, yes, but still.

I was making the point of the hugely contradictory advice we are all getting here.