A maze of twisty little test instructions, all different

[jducoeur]

Okay, I'm curious: does it drive anyone else nuts that each form of covid antigen test works differently? They all have the same components -- nasal swab, liquid, and test strip -- but each one's instructions operate in a different order, and it makes me a little nuts trying to remember how to use one or the other.

(This message brought to you by me trying out the BinaxNOW test for the first time today, and going "Wait -- I put the liquid on the card before I swab my nose?")

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Yep.

[lauradi7dw]

The Binax is our favorite. When the nearby Walgreens was out of them, I bought a couple of the BD Veritor ones. Downloading an app and registering are required. Even worse, if you can't get your phone to scan the thing within five minutes, it won't tell you the results. Phooey.

[squirrelitude]

Ugh! I have... lots of feelings about lateral flow tests that require a smartphone to work. I hadn't heard of one that requires you to register, though! *That* practice should simply be outlawed.

(Some actually turn out not to require a phone app despite implying it on the box, but strongly encourage you to use the phone to read the strip, which is... weird?)

[lauradi7dw]

I think the point is that if you're positive, it gets reported? Or something? I couldn't get it to scan, so I called the help line in outrage. The guy said that a positive test will show up to 5 lines and I only had two, so it was probably negative, although he was unwilling to commit. He offered to send me a free box. No thank you. I gave away the others I had.

[squirrelitude]

The iHealth one also switched to a different, worse liquid container a few months ago. I have to read the instructions just about every time.

[writerkit]

I haven't tried any besides BinaxNOW. I think my insurance only covers them, because every time I've tried to order another one when they haven't been available the insurance rejects it and I have to wait. (It's perfectly possible this is a coincidence and it's just that CVS has a terrible website, but I wonder.)

[hudebnik]

I can see why it turned out that way: lots of companies were trying, all at the same time, to invent tests that would be cheap to mass-produce and ship, easy for laypeople to take, and valid, and they not surprisingly came up with different solutions. But it's still a pain.

I've used BinaxNow, which works as you've described.

More recently I've used Cue Health, which is much more high-tech. You get a rechargeable/reusable box that plugs into the wall, and a bunch of one-time test kits. When you want to take a test, you make sure the box is charged, then start the phone app, open a test kit, stick the cartridge from the test kit into the box, wait a minute or two for it to heat up, take your nasal swab, stick it into the cartridge, wait a few more minutes, and the box reports the results by Bluetooth to your phone, after which you throw away the cartridge and swab. I believe it also reports the results (anonymized, but with a zip code) to health authorities. Which is a Good Thing from a public-health perspective: in the best of all possible worlds, all test results (positive and negative) would be reported. But it's a lot more packaging going into the trash, and presumably much more expensive to produce.

[matildalucet]

I started with BinaxNow because that's what I could find. For reasons I don't remember, I then got iHealth and had to read the instructions very carefully because they were so different. I'm not confident in my swab squeezing, to be honest. I had no idea some tests now required smartphones; I'll have to pay more attention because I do not (yet) have a smartphone and don't want to borrow my husband's if I can help it.

I suspect I'll get dragged kicking and screaming into smartphone-land eventually. I'm thinking I'll wait until I get around to getting my cataract fixed because right now looking at phone screens is not fun.