Rapid Antigen Tests

Lloyds pharmacy in Sainsburys had them yesterday. I got the standard two packs not the one the sign said they were giving out due to high demand.

Getting them by post we got them the next day although it says it can be longer. They don?t seem to have been affected by problems with our post for other items.

I'm a bit confused.

First the tests were throat and nose swabs.

Then they were just nose (hooray!)

Now they seem to have gone back to to throat and nose (boo).

Are they just using up old stock, or what?

It's old but useable stock :)

You also don't need to do the throat if you can't.

KalamityKel Wrote:

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> It's old but useable stock :)

> You also don't need to do the throat if you can't.

Really? Does it still work with just the nose? I assumed they were totally different tests.

I can do the throat but I hate doing it (well, I don't suppose anybody likes doing it!)

Really? Does it still work with just the nose? I assumed they were totally different tests.

I believe the pathogens appear earlier in the throat than the nose, so a full screen may pick up infection earlier - but if you are symptomatic the chances are that they are in the nose by then. So throat and nose are more thorough. So long as one bar appears you will know that the test 'has worked'. If you were prepared to 'waste' a test you could try just nose and then throat and nose on another slide to see if the results were the same. I suspect that for many, when they do both test sites, their throat swab was anyway ineffective - it's quite difficult to hit the right spot on yourself, so many apparent dual tests were actually really just a nose swab.

I've seen mention, much earlier, of swab sampling by medical staff having been more effective in picking up infections. Not surprising really, as they'll generally be more able and willing to do procedures which are maybe transiently unpleasant, like inducing a gag reflex or touching more sensitive parts of the upper nostril. I think I rememember doing a dry run myself, throat and nose, using a cotton bud, when self-administered PCR tests were first mentioned here. Personally, I'd much rather I got a widely based sample rather than doing it ineffectively.

LFT pack sizes. I was surprised when I picked up my pack from a library, to find when I got home that it contained seven tests rather than one. That pack will probably be all I need. When I had a look at the ones in Dulwich Library several weeks ago, I saw they were packs of twenty. I worried about that being potentially wasteful for some folk, unless thay were willing and able to share their packs with others. Now, more so, when there'll be scope for minor black marketry when they're no longer free. OTOH, I don't doubt there are some households where there is a real need for ongoing multiple tests. Have any usage figures been published anywhere?

"Usable". I checked before getting a pack. The buffer solution has a declared shelf life of two years. May as well check about fridge storage, before any warm weather arrives.

Does anyone have an update on where tests can currently be picked up?

I'll wander down to Grove Vale library tomorrow but it's quite a schlep so if anyone knows the latest, much appreciated. Thanks.

> Dulwich Library they let you take as

> many as you like take 20 and give them

> to friends and neighbours.

Do you mean they're splitting the boxes of 20, or allowing people to take as many boxes o0f 20 as they want, or ... /

Some staff were recently handing out as many as you could carry.

Today (different person) they were rationing people to three boxes each.