The Journeyman

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I *very highly* suggest subscribing to @dr_kkjetelina’s newsletter. It is beyond excellent—very data driven AND works hard to make it understandable.

This stuff still isn’t easy but she’s great.

Today’s is a must-read about antigen testing. 🧵 twitter.com/jaimealyse/sta…

Comments

6 responses

  1. kraft Avatar
    kraft

    By now, we all probably know someone who tested negative via antigen/home test, even who is symptomatic, and ended up they were positive.

    It’s not because the tests don’t work! It’s because the virus is changing!

  2. kraft Avatar
    kraft

    A positive result is a positive result. Trust it.

    Early, the tests produce more false negatives—read the newsletter for details.

    They are “great* for confirming when your infection is over.

  3. kraft Avatar
    kraft

    The macro-points to this are:
    1. The virus changes which means what worked yesterday might not work today or work as well.
    2. Data is coming and as fast as possible. We all felt that something shifted with antigen. That’s not true in a lab setting, but is in real world.

  4. kraft Avatar
    kraft
    1. We are figuring this out mid-flight. This isn’t a stable, old disease where everything from a year ago is still true. Sometimes the advice isn’t perfect or gets tweaked (“cloth masks! No, N95 now!). There’s a lot of reasons for that but it’s not b/c the scientists suck.
  5. kraft Avatar
    kraft

    3a. That said, I do think that the CDC has done a really poor job. N95s were known to be better from day 1, but supply. That wasn’t clear enough. The advice they give is confusing af and slow as hell to update. The whole reason why newsletters like @dr_kkjetelina’s are essential.

  6. kraft Avatar
    kraft

    It’s been a long two years. The feds are finally finally helping get tests to people and apparently now N95s too. Took too long but the fight isn’t over. Some of the greatest victories looked like defeat until the turn of the tide. Let’s get this done. -30-