HEALTH: Should You Report Your At-Home COVID Test Results?

martes, 11 de enero de 2022

Should You Report Your At-Home COVID Test Results?

By Anisa Arsenault, Associate Editorial Director

If you're looking for something to pass the time at home while Omicron rages around us, I'd like to recommend playing Wordle. Sure, you only get one game per day, but if you use the Wayback Machine, you can play versions of the word game dating back to November. 🤓

Today's Top Story

The Pros and Cons of Reporting At-Home COVID Test Results

Let's play would you rather. Would you rather wait in a long line in frigid temperatures to get a COVID-19 test with delayed results, or take a test at home and get results in 15 minutes?

It's barely even a question. At-home rapid antigen tests are slightly less accurate than the molecular PCR tests offered at most clinics (90% sensitivity versus 99% sensitivity). But thanks to the convenience factor, it's no surprise that more and more people are opting for an at-home option—when they can get their hands on a kit, of course. However, these people generally aren't reporting their results to a local public health department. And that's likely causing COVID-19 case rate data to skew low.

Public health officials would have a better sense of how quickly and where COVID-19 is spreading if they had insight into how many people were testing positive at home. But because of the amount of human error that can go into home-based testing, not all public health professionals necessarily want those results.

"Home tests have always been challenging because there is no way for public health officials to verify that it was conducted correctly," Marci Layton, MD, chief medical officer of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, told Verywell. "We're moving toward following trends, such as hospital and emergency room admissions, ICU admissions, and ventilator use. We are missing numbers on asymptomatic and mild cases by not having much data on home tests, but the data on severe cases is needed more."

Still, that doesn't mean you have to keep your results to yourself. The best way to know if your local health department wants your information is to ask. Some may be too overwhelmed.

If your county has an online form to report at-home COVID test results, you can use that. Otherwise, call 311 to learn how to access your local health department and 211 for information regarding your local health department.

Know More

The laboratories analyzing PCR tests are required to report results; people taking rapid tests at home are not.

Feel Better

If you're using an at-home COVID test that displays your results on an app or website, the manufacturer may already be reporting that information to public health authorities.

New AstraZeneca COVID Prevention Drug Will Not Replace Vaccines

Scientists are making progress when it comes to preventing COVID-19. Last month, the FDA authorized AstraZeneca's Evusheld, a monoclonal antibody medication, to prevent people who cannot get vaccinated from contracting the virus. While vaccination is still the best prevention method, those with compromised immune systems or an allergy to COVID-19 vaccines need another option. Evusheld could reduce a person's chance of developing COVID-19 by 77%.

How to Choose the Right Cough Medicine

Whether you're battling a nasty cold or a residual COVID cough, you might find yourself reaching for cough medicine this winter. But which kind should you pick? There are two major types: expectorants to get your mucus out and suppressants to keep the cough at bay. Because clearing that junk from your lungs can prevent bacterial infections, experts almost always recommend expectorants.

In Other News

	■	Deltacron Is Probably a Lab Mistake, Not a New Variant. Quartz

	■	Apple's Fitness+ Is Getting 'Time to Run' and More Soon. Lifewire

	■	Office Attire That Makes a Statement: 'OK, Let's Hug'. The New York Times

If your New Year's resolution is focused mainly on weight loss, registered dietitian Dalina Soto, MA, RD, LDN, encourages you to think again.

"If you can't enjoy your life to the fullest, if you can't go to a party and just enjoy food because tomorrow you have to work out three hours to burn off the piece of cake—that is not health.