I’ve seen many tests (we’re talking the average retail 4-drop kits) come up with varying degrees of positivity as a person goes through a bout with COVID.
Once they test positive, it’s usually coming up with that T indicator long before the C shows to.
However, I’ve noticed that even that length of time for the T to show can vary. Sometimes it starts faded and fills in but sometimes the line can go full color as soon as the liquid hits it. Other times it may take a while and come up after the C (once closer to getting over it).
My thought here is the virus particles per million in a person’s mucus are fluctuating during the course of their sickness and the more virus particles, the faster that bar is going to pop on the COVID test.
So then, is it stupid to think the faster the T shows up, the more infectious a person is with their coughing/sneezing?
The effect you are describing is “viral load”; the degree to which a virus is present in the body. This is an indicator of how infectious you are. It is especially important for people with HIV to see if they are “safe” or need their medication adjusted.
However, an at-home test will not be a good indicator of this. These have too many variables such as the site that was swabbed, time delays from the various biological functions, how well you used the kit and even variability in the kit itself.
To properly test for viral load, a blood test should be used. I worked with a company that tested for viral load via expelled breath, and while this was a good indicator of infectiousness y/n, and was faster than a PCR, it was not more accurate.
Interesting, thank you!
Very firmly no. Even PCRs are not useful. People can pull out an example of “my friend infected me when her test said X” but that’s just coincidence. This has been studied extensively during COVID and there is no reliable correlation between test value and infectivity.
Too many variables. There’s two types of test, antigen and PCR. The chemical reactions in both can be impacted by ambient temperature and humidity, light exposure, air pressure (altitude), air quality (contaminants) and so on. At-home testing is far from lab conditions. False positives and false negatives are possible. I wouldn’t put any stock in the timing.
