Mara Wilson: I just keep taking the antigen tests and getting these Schrodinger’s test results, where there might be a line, but only in the correct light

I am at a place in my life where I have friends I would like to see and a job I really love doing! I have also just had Covid! 5, 7, 10 days — It’s awesome that there is no consistent guideline on when I can actually return to seeing my friends and the job that I like!

I just keep taking the antigen tests and getting these Schrodinger’s test results, where there might be a line, but only in the correct light

I feel fine, but I don’t want to get anybody else sick. I have a lot of friends with young babies, who take care of elderly or sick relatives, or who are immunocompromised themselves

here's a Persimmon for your health

BABY

I FOUND HER IN A TREE

I love her so much!

the sweetest of little fruits

WHAT

kaitlin did the fire chief stop by to give you a medal for good citizenship, is this real life

Did you find her in a PERSIMMON TREE

live oak, unfortunately!!

The stork brought her for you 🫶🏼

To paraphrase MIIB, you weren't feeling a way because she was in a tree and it was raining, rather I'm convinced she was in a tree and it was raining because you were feeling a way

Glad to see the dog excrement situation had a happy ending.

KITTEN 😍

That is the most irresistible face I have ever seen

Oh she's grown so much already

She made my day

She’s way better out of the tree.

This might be helpful! www.today.com/health/healt... Generally the consensus about ambiguous tests is that if you can make out a line at all, you should consider it a positive test (and positive means you are likely contagious and should isolate or wear a good mask if you have to be around others)

What should you do if you’re still testing positive for COVID-19 after day 10?www.today.com How to interpret your at-home rapid antigen COVID-19 test results.

...took me 10 days to stop testing positive from a mild case last fall, and the line got steadily fainter but was still there.

the thing to remember is the current guidelines are based on keeping the economy churning rather than how long it actually takes you to clear an infection and even when we were communicating that honestly, it was always a bell curve

90% of people cleared it in 14 days (based on the contact tracing course i took back when i thought that might be something florida would do lol), but there's edge cases where it's essentially a chronic disease it's really dependent on your immune system

masking regularly should help you clear it faster tho, more initial load means it's going to reproduce to a greater degree and it's gonna take you longer to clear it huge difference between people that got it wearing an n95 vs rawdogging the air

I had it and tested positive for a LONG time the first time I had it. Last time it was gone within the week, and it’s looking like that will happen this time, too 🤞🏼

...I worked many years in face-to-face retail, so mine is traditionally fairly tough. My respiratory covid symptoms were very mild and gone in a few days, though it may have aggravated some muscle and nerve pain issues longer-term.

...indeed.

Yeah, the way these work it’s basically like a pregnancy test. Any line at all counts and false positives are really unlikely. The only caveat is that past the half hour window for reading the results, you can get dye bleed that could be mistaken for a line.

One issue I've seen with some brands of test, particularly if you read them early while the strip is too wet - the spot where they printed the test antibody line might have slightly different wetting properties and thus be (barely!) visually identifiable. (But it won't be colored at all.)

It’s so frustrating to me that the general consensus for a long time has been “welp, it’s been five days back to work!”

It’s so stupid It has little to no basis in biology, but lots to do with capitalism

Certainly to be on the safe side, this is an option! I just recovered from COVID and I’m fairly convinced that the last few days I was testing positive, I was not infectious. However, the rapid tests are just looking for antigen, not infectious virus.

From article: 'As long as you continue to test positive on a rapid at-home test, you should still consider yourself potentially contagious. "If you're still positive late in your disease or even though you're symptom-free, that test is indicating that you still are shedding something," Cardona says'

You're an expert, though -- have you seen evidence that the positivity doesn't necessarily correlate to infectiousness?

(I've seen some articles saying maybe the infectiousness at the end is way less than at the beginning, but I don't really know how to interpret that stuff.)

You are fairly convinced based on what? Is there some way you knew when you were/werent infectious? I had read many studies that suggest something like 30-60% of cases are still asymptomatic, but nonetheless still capable of infecting others, which is why I am asking.

Based on my course of illness - I was still testing positive for a few days after my symptoms resolved. This was around 12 days from my first symptoms. For every other respiratory viral illness, no one would question that I was recovered and not infectious.

“viral shedding continues for ≥10 days in 13.5% of all cases and 11% in symptom-free cases” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35853589/ At +14 days it was still 5 % or so. I think one reason we are where we are is people keep trying to make SARS COV2 like “any other resp virus” and it just isnt

Duration of infectious shedding of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and its relation with symptoms - PubMedpubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov We showed that among the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infected patients, viral shedding continues for ≥10 days in 13.5% of all cases and 11% in symptom-free cases. The decision for cessation of isolatio...

My husband’s workplace is getting ready to change their policy to only staying home ONE DAY. If they feel fine they can go in as long as they mask. 😐

That seems so pointless; no-one with Covid's going to become non-infectious in a day.

It’s ridiculous and dangerous.

Agreed.

You’re a good egg 🙂

Sounds like you're doing the right thing. For what it's worth, my wife, a family physician, waited for two consecutive no-question negative tests within 48 hrs before finally letting her guard down after she had it.

Katie Mack is 100% right (as usual). If there's any line, you're probably still contagious and should avoid folks you care about.

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