Fear and Loathing, a Rat Flu Odyssey

[AK47bp]

Cracked it open cause I was curious.
Looks like when you pop the cartridge in, fluid is released to soak the integrated test strip, and the boogers are picked up by the blueish square and the tip is soaked in the fluid, and booker's pulled down so the mixture saturates the test strip. The i am not sure, a few different measurements made and sent to a comparator device that will decide if positive or negative. Pretty simple little PCB though...Attachment 400539

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Hmm. For cocaine users this may be problematic when you test positive for Covid-1,000.

Does it upload your DNA directly to SkyNet?



Okay I’m done. Nifty


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[old goat]

Wow so that entire electrical gizmo in the photo above is single use? Damn.

Invented by the same people who invented ink jet printer cartridges.

[Benny Profane]

https://www.instagram.com/newyorkerc...dium=copy_link

[GoldMember]

Well....shit..... Tested positive today. Mild symptoms but having to isolate at least this week so kind of sucks. Vaxxed and boosted so probably not a big deal but still a drag.

[rideit]

Vaxxed and boosted here, with one previous infection in ‘20…and I am likely positive. Been at home for three days, fever-like symptoms, temp of 101. Test comes back Wednesday.

[GoldMember]

@ all positives: did the rapid home test work? Antigentest obviously!

Couldn't get an at-home (all sold out, everywhere here) so went to a 'doc in a box' clinic and went through the whole urgent care system to get signed in. It was an antigen test with results in about 25 minutes after the swab. Weird, though, my wife was negative while I was positive. Both of us are vaxxed and boosted but I wound up being the breakthrough case. Bottomline for me, though is that my symptoms are really mild so the vaccine, while not blocking the virus, did its thing and greatly reduced the severity.

As for the home tests in general, I've heard they're very reliable but it's mostly just from reading the interwebs. YMMV.

[funkendrenchman]

Another reason to doubt the CDC’s new guidelines:

The researchers took 83 respiratory samples from the 21 people and measured the amount of SARS-CoV2 virus present using a technique called real-time PCR, finding that levels were highest between 3-6 days since diagnosis and post symptom onset. Strikingly, levels remained high in almost all patients between 7-9 days, with some patients having significant levels of virus genetic material detectable even two weeks after their original diagnosis.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victori...h=735d7b641e32

[SumJongGuy]

Another reason to doubt the CDC’s new guidelines:

The researchers took 83 respiratory samples from the 21 people and measured the amount of SARS-CoV2 virus present using a technique called real-time PCR, finding that levels were highest between 3-6 days since diagnosis and post symptom onset. Strikingly, levels remained high in almost all patients between 7-9 days, with some patients having significant levels of virus genetic material detectable even two weeks after their original diagnosis.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victori...h=735d7b641e32

Seems pretty clear to me they are counting on people who feel the need to return to work day 6 will be wearing good masks. I'm actually not all that uncomfortable interacting with a recently or currently COVID positive person as long as we're both wearing KN95 or better and those interactions are not all that long.. 10 minutes or less at a time.

Again, I bet they feel the insane level if infection but low yield of severe illness thanks to vaccines warrants allowing asymptomatic folks to cut their isolation period in half.. That doubles the amount of people keeping things like police, fire, hospitals, fuel, groceries, pharmacies, etc from having to shut down completely/

[paulster2626]

Well....shit..... Tested positive today. Mild symptoms but having to isolate at least this week so kind of sucks. Vaxxed and boosted so probably not a big deal but still a drag.

[Bunion 2020]

2x vaxed, boosted about 40 days ago. Have had a productive cough and runny nose for a week, otherwise no symptoms. Any point in a test?

[funkendrenchman]

Seems pretty clear to me they are counting on people who feel the need to return to work day 6 will be wearing good masks. I'm actually not all that uncomfortable interacting with a recently or currently COVID positive person as long as we're both wearing KN95 or better and those interactions are not all that long.. 10 minutes or less at a time.

Again, I bet they feel the insane level if infection but low yield of severe illness thanks to vaccines warrants allowing asymptomatic folks to cut their isolation period in half.. That doubles the amount of people keeping things like police, fire, hospitals, fuel, groceries, pharmacies, etc from having to shut down completely/

I understand their justification, but they are also saying their data shows that the risk of infection is much lower at day 5, for which there are now several studies saying that this is not true and it’s really not lower until day 10.

[skiskiskiskiski]

Another reason to doubt the CDC’s new guidelines:

The researchers took 83 respiratory samples from the 21 people and measured the amount of SARS-CoV2 virus present using a technique called real-time PCR, finding that levels were highest between 3-6 days since diagnosis and post symptom onset. Strikingly, levels remained high in almost all patients between 7-9 days, with some patients having significant levels of virus genetic material detectable even two weeks after their original diagnosis.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victori...h=735d7b641e32

PCR detects virus remains that the immune system has already inactivated.

Did this study control for that somehow?

[funkendrenchman]

PCR detects virus remains that the immune system has already inactivated.

Did this study control for that somehow?

The article mentions it.

"Using real-time PCR to detect virus is unable to conclude whether the viral genetic material detected actually comes from virus which is able to infect people, or dead or dying virus. But the Japanese researchers also did experiments to culture live virus from the samples, finding the results to be similar to the real-time PCR studies."

[Mofro261]

Another reason to doubt the CDC’s new guidelines:

The researchers took 83 respiratory samples from the 21 people and measured the amount of SARS-CoV2 virus present using a technique called real-time PCR, finding that levels were highest between 3-6 days since diagnosis and post symptom onset. Strikingly, levels remained high in almost all patients between 7-9 days, with some patients having significant levels of virus genetic material detectable even two weeks after their original diagnosis.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/victori...h=735d7b641e32

Hmm small study, but only 2 of the 17 rtpcr pos on day 7-9 were also virus culture positive, ie infective.

And only 2 of the 21 have CT below 30 on day 7-9.

Ie after day 6 the rtpcr is mostly picking up dead virus the body hasn't cleared,

[funkendrenchman]

Hmm small study, but only 2 of the 17 rtpcr pos on day 7-9 were also virus culture positive, ie infective.

And only 2 of the 21 have CT below 30 on day 7-9.

Ie after day 6 the rtpcr is mostly picking up dead virus the body hasn't cleared,

Odd. I didn't go read the chart in the study, but the article said the culture results were similar to the PCR results. Bad reporting?

[seano732]

2x vaxed, boosted about 40 days ago. Have had a productive cough and runny nose for a week, otherwise no symptoms. Any point in a test?

At this point it’s be for your peace of mind……I’d just go under the assumption you’ve got it and act accordingly….FWIW in my case it was the runny nose getting worse and worse that led me to test…Hang in there Bunion…..

[Bunion 2020]

Other than skiing and going to the grocery store masked I am pretty much a hermit anyway. Let er buck.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Other than skiing and going to the grocery store masked I am pretty much a hermit anyway. Let er buck.

This was my thought at first. I honestly think going skiing yesterday would have been great for me. Still feeling pretty damn crappy. Up this AM to force myself onto some zoom work meetings. Otherwise I would have slept until 10 when I normally always just wake up at 630ish.

[skaredshtles]

My county's case chart. Guess I'll just hang out at the house for a couple weeks...

[seano732]

Holy Shit.

[riser4]

To infinity and beyond!

[old goat]

All but two of the subjects in the Japan study were vaccinated (number of doses not specified--Japan uses Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ--I didn't try to find the percentages of each). The kinetics in a less vaccinated population might be different--ie the virus might be infectious longer. If that were the case there would need to be different isolation periods for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, not that anyone would expect the unvaccinated to actually agree to isolate longer.

Even in the 3-6 day range only half the subjects had viable virus. The Forbes summary and the article itself are misleading. They say that the trend for viable virus was similar to the PCR results, but they don't say that the actual percentage of viable virus was less than PCR positivity at every time interval.

When returning to work, presumably with minimal or no symptoms, it matters if the person is strict about wearing a mask all day, is wearing a good fitting legitimated N95 or KN95 or KF 94, doesn't eat indoors unless they have a private office that no one else enters, and if coworkers are fully vaccinated. Of course people are freaking out that the current CDC recommendations are too confusing. Can you imagine the outrage if they were to add these provisos to their recommendations?

When reading about new studies and data in the popular press it is a good idea to look at the actual study and the actual numbers.

[skaredshtles]

Holy Shit.

I'm just glad we're not Pitkin County.

[MakersTeleMark]

Not sure where that graph comes from, but I'd be curious to see how Eagle Co. fairs.

[Danno]

If testing is readily available/free, I don't see why you wouldn't want to get tested. Even if it won't change how you act, wouldn't you want to know whether it was the common cold or covid? I know I would.