At-Home Rapid COVID Test Guide: Where can I buy and When Should I Use One?

Where Can I Buy At-Home Rapid COVID Tests, And When Should I Use One? Read this before you purchase a kit and test yourself for COVID-19. Julia Ries YahooNews

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Health officials have said rapid antigen tests are a useful public health tool that can help us better screen for infections and slow the spread of the coronavirus. The tests aren’t as sensitive as the PCR tests most places have relied on throughout the pandemic, but infectious disease experts say the rapid tests are excellent at quickly identifying infected individuals who may be very contagious.

If you have symptoms and suspect you may have COVID, most infectious diseases doctors recommend skipping the rapid antigen test and going straight for the PCR. There are treatments that may help people at the onset of their illness, so if you’re symptomatic “you want a test that’s going to effectively diagnose illness with COVID and the antigen test is probably not that test. It’s best thought of as a test for being really contagious,” Sheldon Campbell, a pathologist, microbiologist, and professor of laboratory medicine at Yale School of Medicine, told HuffPost.  ...