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Comment by neoromantique | Hacker News Reader

How often do they exhibit symptoms AND trigger a PCR test?

People who recovered from C19 many weeks ago and are no longer contagious can still test positive on a PCR test.

Catch C19, recover, get the sniffles in the next 2 months, get PCR tested, require a parent to take off work and the kid to sit out 10 days [possibly more than once] is not a reasonable policy IMO.

PCR test amplifies whatever was swabbed, usually from the nose (an air filter). A positive result does not prove there is an infection.

Our state-run testing facility always did PCR tests using a throat swab, and since I was the one who drew the short straw and took each of our kids there for mandatory tests, I've observed this being done a couple of dozen times over the last three years.

> People who recovered from C19 many weeks ago and are no longer contagious can still test positive on a PCR test

Which is why the EU issued the "recovery certificate" and put it on the same basis as a negative test, and why our schools didn't test recovered children (to clarify: were mandated not to test recovered children) after they returned to school after having Covid.

Testing positive months after does happen, but is extremely rare, and yes, missing few days of school/work is not that big of a deal considering risks involved.

Oh sure. I think we're interpreting the parent comments differently (i.e., I'm understanding sokoloff's and aflag's comments to be about more general precautionary isolation based on symptomatic illness, not necessarily PCR-confirmed infection like logifail's kid.)

I was not really suggesting kids should be isolated whenever they have any sort of possible symptoms. But if you're diagnosed with some contagious illness, it's probably not a bad idea to try to curb the spread.

> if you're diagnosed with some contagious illness, it's probably not a bad idea to try to curb the spread

This was always true, and we never sent an obviously poorly child to daycare/preschool/school.

I've lost count of the number of times I've picked up one of our kids from daycare/preschool/school before Covid after a phone call along the lines of "your child has spiked a fever/vomited/has had an accident and should probably see a doctor".

Wasn't this typically based on common sense by the parties involved, though?

Sure. If your kid is testing positive for a contagious diseases which killed over 6 million people worldwide and left many with long lasting effects, wouldn't common sense dictate that they should stay at home?

PCR testing, as applied in the current COVID testing protocols, is not an appropriate tool to approximate contagiousness. It reliably tells of prior exposure, that's all.

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