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Comment by wmichelin | Hacker News Reader

I'm half trolling here, but if you can't leave your home, why would you need a COVID test?

I don't know about OPs situation, but house arrest often allows for basic movement (groceries, court cases, etc). The list is strictly defined and the law may not allow for covid tests.

Because people visit him at his house, and he'd like to ensure that he isn't spreading it between visitors?

these tests are antigen tests, correct? If so he'll know he's sick no matter what as antigen tests aren't going to show covid until a couple days after symptoms start (typically).

You know there are illnesses out there (this is the season) that aren't COVID? My daughter had a temperature & sniffles and a negative test 3 days and 5 days after symptoms started. She just had a cold.

We wouldn't have sent her back to school as early if she wasn't showing negative.

I understand your point, but I assumed someone on house arrest wasn't someones child and is probably in a position to avoid contact with people with any symptoms no matter the illness.

This isn't quite correct. Antigen tests will show covid at approximately the same viral load as is needed to be contagious. Essentially, it's a test of whether you can spread covid today.

here's a good read on the details for anyone wanting a nerdy amount of details for antigen testing https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/antigen-tests...

> antigen tests aren't going to show covid until a couple days after symptoms start (typically)

This is false? It was definitely false pre-Omicron and my understanding is that it's still false.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.08.22268954v...

> sensitivity was 97.6% (95% CI 95-100%) for persons with symptoms.

Maybe you're saying my claim is exaggerated? Which I agree my wording wasn't precise. With antigen tests you'll have far more false negatives early on than later. The sweet spot seems to be a couple of days after symptoms.

If you're not saying that, I'm not sure what claim you're making that is contrary to my own.

The antigen test is supposed to show if you're currently spreading covid, which is a little different from experiencing it. You'll have symptoms for a while after you stop being infectious too.

With omicron the gap between them is a day or two smaller IIRC.

Personal experience - I started testing positive 1 day after onset of symptoms and my wife 5 days after. We started having typical omicron symptoms at the same time (low grade fever, etc)

I live in a big commercial building which is very busy (I'm like the live-in, permanently-available supervisor - house arrest has its uses!). I don't want to give COVID to anyone. I had COVID in jail in March 2020 and it was horrid. I felt like I had it again, so I wanted to get tested.

Exceptions are sometimes made for people on house arrest to allow them to go to work and/or school.

I don't think that's a troll question, but I could imagine a situation where you're a high risk demographic you'd want to know early so you can get early treatment like monoclonal antibodies, paxlovid or ivermectin.

I know this is not the main point of this thread, but please do not use ivermectin for Covid.

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-shoul...

Please don't spout trolling medical advice. Deworming medicine like Ivermectin does not treat COVID-19.

https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article-abstract/114/10/721/6...

> Based on very low to moderate quality of evidence, ivermectin was not efficacious at managing COVID-19. Its safety profile permits its use in trial settings to further clarify its role in COVID-19 treatment.

It does treat it if you have worms, since those increase the risk of severe COVID outcomes.

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