[POLL] Have you ordered your free Covid tests yet?

[OgNasty]

With the US Government handing out free covid tests like...they hand out free money, who here is going to be getting themselves some of these FREE, yes I'm told they're free, tests?  I know I love it when the government hands out free stuff that got created out of thin air without our tax dollars.  It's almost too good to be true.

I digress...  I ordered mine.  I figure if my taxes are paying for them I might as well get mine.  I'm planning on framing one and hanging it on my wall as a reminder of the foolishness we are partaking in.  Maybe someday these will be collector's items.  Now we sit back and watch all the people freak out over false positives.  The propaganda is about to hit new highs.

https://www.covidtests.gov/

Come one, come all.  Help waste tax dollars and spur government spending.  It's the American way!

Edit:  I don't mean to make light of a serious matter.  I understand that covid has effected us all in different ways and while it's effects on myself and those around me have been negative as a result of the government response and not the cause, that may not be the case for everyone.  I'm going to lock this topic now, because I don't really want to be the face of common sense in an insane environment.

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[Oshosondy]

False positive result is very possible

I do not go for Covid test, I am not up to 35, I am still up to myself and believe my immune system can fight it. Covid tests and vaccines should be for old people, let me say 50 years and above.

I am surprised that omicron is affecting people that have been vaccinated before with two vaccines but told the effect is mild than delta variants but it is the severe issue faced by many countries now.

I am fit and have good health and practising safe distance with nose mask and using sanitizer.

[cmg777]

With the US Government handing out free covid tests like...they hand out free money, who here is going to be getting themselves some of these FREE, yes I'm told they're free, tests?  I know I love it when the government hands out free stuff that got created out of thin air without our tax dollars.  It's almost too good to be true.

I digress...  I ordered mine.  I figure if my taxes are paying for them I might as well get mine.  I'm planning on framing one and hanging it on my wall as a reminder of the foolishness we are partaking in.  Maybe someday these will be collector's items.  Now we sit back and watch all the people freak out over false positives.  The propaganda is about to hit new highs.

https://www.covidtests.gov/

Come one, come all.  Help waste tax dollars and spur government spending.  It's the American way!

Collectors items these may be like the transition from analog to digital tv credit cards issued to the poor (I receive two but only bought one over the air converter box). However, I am fearful as you left as a third option that this is more medical experimentation by the elites and the medical industrial complex. When you get the test do your research on a compound that is most likely in the tests called "Sodium Azide". I bet all the leftys and MSM people will try to "fact check" it that it is safe but its toxic:

https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/sodiumazide/basics/facts.asp

Also there are many people getting their bilk of the fed stamps on these tests:

 https://www.yahoo.com/news/wedding-photographer-failed-donut-shop-235623361.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

[franky1]

With the US Government handing out free covid tests like...they hand out free money, who here is going to be getting themselves some of these FREE, yes I'm told they're free, tests?  I know I love it when the government hands out free stuff that got created out of thin air without our tax dollars.  It's almost too good to be true.

well taxes were not increased to then buy these kits. they used 'money creation(bond creation, swapped for new money)' to get 'free money' to buy the kits.
but everything comes with a price eventually. because taxes will rise to pay back the 'bond'(loan)  that was used to get the 'free' stuff

its like people say having a child is 'free', but after the birth. diapers, feed, clothing, and education has a price

nature is free (breathing air, seeing, feeling the sun).. but civilisation always comes with a cost.

..
as for using the tests to get access to a plane journey or get back to work, is a false utility of tests
by simply not swabbing their mouth/nose. they can show a test that appears negative. even when the person is still positive.
by just showing their employer a negative test they can go back to work. even when actually physically positive

self testing at home(no witness to the swabbing part) is where the utility of the test fails its purpose. it should actually be used by employers watching their employees perform the test.

EG school testin. should be done by teachers witnessing students to see they dont have it to allow them to go back to class.. rather then self testing at home where the parents want the irritating kid to go back to school to give the parents a break

in the UK some employers wont pay unvaccinated people enhanced(salary matching) sick-pay if they get sick. and instead only pay the legal minimum. as a method to incentivise people into getting vaccinated.

but the vaccine-ignorant/refusers, will ofcourse also be the ones wanting to spread the virus, and so they will happily use a covid test(without mouth/nose swabbing) so they can get back to work within 5 days instead of 14 days. thus being positive but claiming negative, thus spread the virus.. due to their own stupid philosophy/ignorance of health and safety

[_Miracle]

Yes.
I came to post the link, glad someone did (even if you're not happy about it ;-} )

https://www.covidtests.gov/

[suchmoon]

as for using the tests to get access to a plane journey or get back to work, is a false utility of tests
by simply not swabbing their mouth/nose. they can show a test that appears negative. even when the person is still positive.
by just showing their employer a negative test they can go back to work. even when actually physically positive

I don't think home test results are accepted for foreign travel or school/employment purposes where required, etc - for obvious reasons. Home tests are for your own use, e.g. if you had a contact with a person sick with COVID and want to test yourself before visiting your elderly relatives or going to work.

[LTU_btc]

I'm not from USA, so, I'm not eligible to get it. In my country only children who go to school get free tests every week which can be done at home.
If I would get chance to get such free tests, I wouldn't order it. If I feel well, why I would need to make test. If I would feel symptoms, I probably simply would sign up to make PCR test.

I don't think home test results are accepted for foreign travel or school/employment purposes where required, etc - for obvious reasons. Home tests are for your own use, e.g. if you had a contact with a person sick with COVID and want to test yourself before visiting your elderly relatives or going to work.

As I understand, it's rapid antigen tests. Even if you test positive with it, you still will have to make PCR test that your disease would be confirmed offcially. I think antigen tests isn't accepted for traveling, school or work and it's not very accurate.

[suchmoon]

I'm not from USA, so, I'm not eligible to get it. In my country only children who go to school get free tests every week which can be done at home.
If I would get chance to get such free tests, I wouldn't order it. If I feel well, why I would need to make test. If I would feel symptoms, I probably simply would sign up to make PCR test.

In the US the PCR test is ~$100 if you're paying out of pocket and in some places there are backlogs. Antigen test was like $5 even before the "free" thing.

[yhiaali3]

I have not taken the vaccine yet, but it seems that I am forced to take it later because the government here in my country started imposing the vaccine on people in indirect ways, you have to obtain the vaccine card to enter the state institutions or to perform any government procedures you need, so most people will be forced They should get the vaccine after a while because they definitely need these ridiculous government things.
I have not been satisfied with the vaccine yet and I am a bit concerned about its side effects, I have some people around me who have taken the vaccine but the real results have not yet appeared.

[tvbcof]

With the US Government handing out free covid tests like...they hand out free money, who here is going to be getting themselves some of these FREE, yes I'm told they're free, tests?  I know I love it when the government hands out free stuff that got created out of thin air without our tax dollars.  It's almost too good to be true.

I digress...  I ordered mine.  I figure if my taxes are paying for them I might as well get mine.  I'm planning on framing one and hanging it on my wall as a reminder of the foolishness we are partaking in.  Maybe someday these will be collector's items.  Now we sit back and watch all the people freak out over false positives.  The propaganda is about to hit new highs.

https://www.covidtests.gov/

Come one, come all.  Help waste tax dollars and spur government spending.  It's the American way!

I'd send the tests back with a sample of something known by WHO tests to be positive for the covaids (papaya fruit juice for instance) and a name of special friends who might benefit from a little knock no the door by the ever-so-highly trained contact tracer minions.  Maybe the names of some of the local 'helth' office bureaucrats.

They are probably trying to collect more DNA with these things, so some saliva from a pet lizard would also be a lot of fun.

[Cnut237]

I'd send the tests back with a sample of something known by WHO tests to be positive for the covaids (papaya fruit juice for instance) and a name of special friends who might benefit from a little knock no the door by the ever-so-highly trained contact tracer minions.  Maybe the names of some of the local 'helth' office bureaucrats.

They are probably trying to collect more DNA with these things, so some saliva from a pet lizard would also be a lot of fun.

We've had free* rapid antigen tests here in the UK for nearly a year now. Not sure what the process is in the US, but we don't have to send the actual test back anywhere, we just notify the NHS of the result, whether positive or negative. So no DNA-gathering.




* let's not get into this debate

[Gyfts]

Also there are many people getting their bilk of the fed stamps on these tests:

 https://www.yahoo.com/news/wedding-photographer-failed-donut-shop-235623361.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Looks like the guy that got a lot of "COVD money" was just a con man hopping from failed business to failed business until he found a way to make millions off COVID tests. It's just ripping off the government because they want to spend money frivolously, but realistically the tax payer is the person that always gets the short end of the stick. Whether his business gets shut down or not, some other testing facility will siphon away millions from tax payers over useless COVID tests that aren't needed. It's only a question about how much money people are willing to throw away over a pandemic that will never go away. At some point there has to be some self awareness.

[suchmoon]

We've had free* rapid antigen tests here in the UK for nearly a year now. Not sure what the process is in the US, but we don't have to send the actual test back anywhere, we just notify the NHS of the result, whether positive or negative. So no DNA-gathering.

Who do you think you are, going around telling people facts... stop immediately.

useless COVID tests that aren't needed

I can sort of understand whinging about masks and vaccines (because mandates etc) but what exactly is your problem with voluntary testing at home?

Even before the pandemic sane people used precautions - e.g. if you get the flu you don't go visiting small babies or elderly people, and don't go to work. Seems to be a bad thing now in the conspiratardiverse?

[Gyfts]

Even before the pandemic sane people used precautions - e.g. if you get the flu you don't go visiting small babies or elderly people, and don't go to work. Seems to be a bad thing now in the conspiratardiverse?

Omicron is not like the flu, it is like a normal cold for the vast majority of people with an extremely low death rate relative to any previous strains. No good comes out of testing anyone that is asymptomatic. And before you might mention that it's so they can isolate themselves from the vulnerable, the vulnerable can get vaccinated and use respirator masks if they choose. Having the young and healthy test themselves when they are asymptomatic, and at no risk, prolongs the pandemic when it need not go on any longer. Now, a COVID test would only be useful to someone that is symptomatic, because the symptomatic transmit the disease at a high rate and it would be best to isolate them. Universal free COVID tests means people that do not need to be tested will get tested, and surely enough a portion will come back positive. Then, government officials will pretend to act surprised when the COVID case load increases.

[Ultegra134]

I'd send the tests back with a sample of something known by WHO tests to be positive for the covaids (papaya fruit juice for instance) and a name of special friends who might benefit from a little knock no the door by the ever-so-highly trained contact tracer minions.  Maybe the names of some of the local 'helth' office bureaucrats.

They are probably trying to collect more DNA with these things, so some saliva from a pet lizard would also be a lot of fun.

We've had free* rapid antigen tests here in the UK for nearly a year now. Not sure what the process is in the US, but we don't have to send the actual test back anywhere, we just notify the NHS of the result, whether positive or negative. So no DNA-gathering.




* let's not get into this debate

We used to have free tests too, before vaccines were rolled out for all age groups, their conduction was mandatory in order to attend your workplace. After getting vaccinated, tests were no longer needed but I still collected them occasionally.

Unfortunately, our government has stopped distributing free self tests, however, free testing is being provided at specific hotspots.

Despite the other replies, I find their distribution useful, especially when I had symptoms and wanted to get tested without going outside.

[ibminer]

We've had free* rapid antigen tests here in the UK for nearly a year now. Not sure what the process is in the US, but we don't have to send the actual test back anywhere, we just notify the NHS of the result, whether positive or negative. So no DNA-gathering.

Who do you think you are, going around telling people facts... stop immediately.

Come on now, how do we know they aren't just putting COVID on the swab itself, ya know, to push towards the eventual PCR requirement after you test positive, which is when they take your sample for GoF research! .. you'll probably be negative the first time though.    Anyone tested those swabs yet??  OK, I'm kinda kidding... but now I need a free test for the swabs.

Seriously though, I'm taking the free tests... my employer forces us to take them at home, for any symptom, to be eligible to come back to work.. and they aren't paying us for them, although they do seem to cover the PCR after you test positive ... so, I'm taking the free tests. Some of us [peasants] still have a job to go to!

[OgNasty]

As I understand, it's rapid antigen tests. Even if you test positive with it, you still will have to make PCR test that your disease would be confirmed offcially. I think antigen tests isn't accepted for traveling, school or work and it's not very accurate.

As I understand, even if you test positive using one of these tests (if you are asymptomatic) there's a 97% chance that it is a false positive.  

This to me isn't about health and safety.  It's just more propaganda.  As soon as these tests start hitting doorsteps every social media influencer in the country is going to be taking them day after day hoping for a false positive so they can make a twitter post for sympathy.  It's actually not a bad plan if your goal is fearmongering.  I'm not sure it will have the desired effect though, as it will show how many people test positive with no symptoms and begin desensitizing us to this flu.  

Buckle up, the social media campaign is starting...  So thankful to be in a position to not give a fuck...

[Ultegra134]

As I understand, it's rapid antigen tests. Even if you test positive with it, you still will have to make PCR test that your disease would be confirmed offcially. I think antigen tests isn't accepted for traveling, school or work and it's not very accurate.

As I understand, even if you test positive using one of these tests (if you are asymptomatic) there's a 97% chance that it is a false positive.  

This to me isn't about health and safety.  It's just more propaganda.  As soon as these tests start hitting doorsteps every social media influencer in the country is going to be taking them day after day hoping for a false positive so they can make a twitter post for sympathy.  It's actually not a bad plan if your goal is fearmongering.  I'm not sure it will have the desired effect though, as it will show how many people test positive with no symptoms and begin desensitizing us to this flu.  

Buckle up, the social media campaign is starting...  So thankful to be in a position to not give a fuck...

Most likely the opposite. Antigen tests are prone to false negative tests, due to incorrect sample. Yes, PCR tests are more accurate, because the said operation is similar to a blood test result, it's conducted by a laboratory. If you get a positive results, then it is very likely that you're infected with Covid-19.

Source example: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/home-covid-tests

[OgNasty]

Remember that positive predictive value (PPV) varies with disease prevalence when interpreting results from diagnostic tests. PPV is the percent of positive test results that are true positives. As disease prevalence decreases, the percent of test results that are false positives increase.
...
At 0.1% prevalence, the PPV would only be 4%, meaning that 96 out of 100 positive results would be false positives.

Source: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory

I'm not one to think the FDA has our best interests in mind, but I'd trust them before some lab that requires masks to enter and sells the testing supplies and services...

It's clear the tests are WAY TOO SENSITIVE to be accurate, by a factor of 100 by some estimates.

What we're seeing is a last ditch effort to pump up the positives to justify the insane spending being done by our politicians.  Nothing more.  

[ibminer]

(Funny thing is, the rapid tests say to go get an antigen test for confirmation if you have a positive.  We'll have to wait for these tests to get out in the wild for real testing before we can show independent statistics on them, but it's nice the cheaper 15 minutes tests are being pushed as more accurate than the more expensive lab tests.)

^ Just so everyone is aware, an antigen test is a rapid test.

The rapid test says to confirm with a PCR test, obviously because the PCR is more accurate, so it's not that funny... and I've never seen anyone say the antigen/rapid tests are more accurate than PCR, misreading an article, I presume. *shrug*