you have been infected with the anti-coronavirus, COVID+19
December 22, 2021 2:13 PM   Subscribe

 
Do you know that 2022 is pronounced "two thousand and twenty, too"?
posted by chavenet at 2:36 PM on December 22, 2021 [9 favorites]


Do you know that 2022 is pronounced "two thousand and twenty, too"?

Should auld infection waves be forgot and never brought to mind? Should auld infections be forgot,
and auld lang syne?
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:55 PM on December 22, 2021 [5 favorites]


It sort of bugs me that the tests are still labelled 'C' and 'T', rather than something that might be informative to non-medical people. Every time I've done one of the tests I've had to fish out the leaflet to remind myself what the lines mean.
posted by pipeski at 3:12 PM on December 22, 2021 [4 favorites]


Too late.
posted by parmanparman at 3:15 PM on December 22, 2021


I remember the XKCD early in the pandemic when the hopeful expectation was that we would all stay inside and subsist off pasta while the virus starved. It was so sweet and full of determination.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 3:47 PM on December 22, 2021 [22 favorites]


I was watching Dr. Bonnie Henry's public health announcement in B.C. yesterday and it surprised me that contrary to the received wisdom/intuition that more testing will keep spread down, she calmly pointed out that UK is an example of having testing availability yet inability to deal with the current surge in cases. She further pointed out that test kits in a global context are actually a very finite resource, and also that oftentimes it's the people with agency to obtain and use these tests who end up taking up this globally finite resource rather than the tests being allocated to those individuals who and areas that really need it. I found that a really good point that challenges the more simplistic position (that even experts will casually say) that countries getting more test capacity will automatically improve things.
posted by polymodus at 3:52 PM on December 22, 2021 [8 favorites]


You get two lines. That means you've got a chassis ground fault somewhere, maybe there's corrosion from one of the contacts, or maybe there's a short somewhere between the CDI and the lights. You could start by switching the globe from the working indicator to the blinking one. Wait, when you replaced the incandescent globes with LEDs did you put a flasher relay in? And the battery's discharging very fast. Did you bring your multimeter?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 4:02 PM on December 22, 2021 [18 favorites]


Before the 2020s, many people had never experienced the visceral thrill of anxiously overanalyzing the ambiguous lines that resulted from applying a body substance to a home diagnostic test…and it shows. 😏

That said, XKCD is always a treat, even in These Times. Thanks for reminding me about it.
posted by armeowda at 5:31 PM on December 22, 2021 [18 favorites]


Aren't "C" and "T" for "control" and "test"? That doesn't seem to be specialist medical terminology...
posted by memetoclast at 6:12 PM on December 22, 2021


Don't need to take COVID tests if I still don't leave my house
posted by GoblinHoney at 6:14 PM on December 22, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have only ever done the swab your nostrils and send it off kind of test, at my work, but everything I hear about this kind of test makes me think I would be highly uncertain as to whether I had done it right,
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:26 PM on December 22, 2021 [1 favorite]


haha nice. On a more serious note, I've posted this before but this is a super helpful website. Rapidtests.org
posted by bluesky43 at 6:44 PM on December 22, 2021


Why is mine showing some kind of green orb?
posted by loquacious at 7:27 PM on December 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


Aren't "C" and "T" for "control" and "test"?
If so, would it kill them to just write the full words on the test? We can use all the extra ink we have lying around because we don't have enough paper to print on anymore.
posted by phooky at 9:08 PM on December 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


Aren't "C" and "T" for "control" and "test"? That doesn't seem to be specialist medical terminology...-- memetoclast

Until you just mentioned it, I had no idea what C and T stood for. Now I do, thank you very much. I'm willing to bet I'm far from the only one who doesn't know this.
posted by eye of newt at 9:51 PM on December 22, 2021 [6 favorites]


You should ponder that loquacious…
posted by Windopaene at 11:29 PM on December 22, 2021 [4 favorites]


Why is mine showing some kind of green orb?

You have been fated to defeat the Loc Nar and save humanity?

Or maybe you just got a booger on it somehow? Photoshop sunflare effect?
posted by Meatbomb at 11:48 PM on December 22, 2021 [3 favorites]


One thing I encountered recently on Twitter was a fairly useful simplification of the nature of the two kinds of test:
• PCR tests tell you if you're currently infected.
• Rapid tests tell you if you're currently infectious.

Both are valuable in their own ways, but also this came in the context of various bummers, like "even a very faint line on the T is a positive test" and "infectiousness can change remarkably rapidly, even over the course of a few hours."
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:45 AM on December 23, 2021 [7 favorites]


Is this the smallest device on which you can play Doom(sort of).
posted by night_train at 2:00 AM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


You have been fated to defeat the Loc Nar and save humanity?

No, that's why I'm confused. It can't be the Loc Nar because it is still right where I left it in the closet next to the Happy Fun Ball.
posted by loquacious at 5:20 AM on December 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


Aren't "C" and "T" for "control" and "test"?

NFI, but they do in my brain from now on.

I bought a box of these the other day because we want to have a barbie on boxing day. It used to be a tradition before the world went to the latest level of shit.

So, if anyone knows: should we (the hosts) take the tests the day before the barbie, or on the day, or what? I'll see people on the 25th, so how long after that should I take a test so that I can cancel everything if that is appropriate?
posted by pompomtom at 5:25 AM on December 23, 2021


Pompomtom, you take it as late as you possibly can.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:12 AM on December 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


Why is mine showing some kind of green orb?

Ah, I see the problem here. You've mistaken "killing a mob in Minecraft" for "taking a rapid-results test." It's an easy thing to do. Please examine your device more carefully next time.
posted by Quasirandom at 7:03 AM on December 23, 2021 [1 favorite]


Two lines, with a crossbar: You have been chosen by The Husk. Do not ask what you have been chosen for; it is enough that you have been chosen.
posted by xedrik at 7:55 AM on December 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


What's actually in the control line of these tests? I think some of them just react to the buffer solution, so you know it saturated the test up until that area, but I wonder if any of them are smarter and have control that reacts to stuff normally found deep in people's noses. That way, you can be sure the sample you took was sufficient.
posted by ymgve at 10:36 AM on December 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


pompomtom,

I seem to remember, back from when they first started discussing the differences between the two types of tests, the TWIV team mentioning that it's around 9-10 hours between exposure and becoming infectious. So that was the time window for false negatives before you start getting positives. If that's true, and if you want to be the most sure, it seems like taking it sometime between ~12 hours after last possible exposure and the time your party starts would work the best?
posted by antinomia at 11:16 AM on December 23, 2021


Test yourself 15-20 minutes before the event, because (twitter links ahead)...

A demo of how fast you can turn positive [image description: 4 test results laid side by side, captioned "Yesterday morning, yesterday lunchtime, yesterday evening, this morning." The first two are negative. The last two are positive.]

Also, if you live in a cold climate, be aware that too-cold temperatures can cause false negatives. Michael Mina advises doing the test "Someplace >55 F." And in his next tweet he says that while you're waiting the 15 minutes it takes for the result to show up, make sure the surface where you've placed the test isn't a cold counter, or something. Put the test on top of the box, or wood, or a book.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 3:39 PM on December 23, 2021


4 test results laid side by side

That seems like such luxury to be able to use four instant tests for one person. We currently have two double test kits for the two of us but we're eating Christmas dinner with the couple next door and they can't find any so we're sharing one of the kits with them.

Instant kits are totally impossible to find in my city right now or online.
posted by octothorpe at 4:16 AM on December 24, 2021


I developed cold symptoms yesterday and looked for a rapid test. All pharmacies, Target, and Amazon were sold out. I finally found that Walmart had them listed as being in stock, and let me order for a curbside pickup in the morning. Yay! Then an hour later they canceled my order for “exceeding per-person quantity limits.” I ordered one. I guess the limit is zero per person.

I then found one local grocery chain had them listed as being in stock, and also let me order for curbside pickup in the morning. Yay! I kept checking and they hadn’t canceled the order when I went to bed. Yay! I got up this morning, checked the app to confirm pickup time… and they had canceled my order.

At this point you can’t even book a PCR test anywhere until the new year.

So I give up. Looks like Christmas is canceled again. Even though I triple-vaxed and masked. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
posted by snowmentality at 7:57 AM on December 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Omega Variant is nigh.
Resistance is futile.
Distract me, keep me high
Jab it into my eyeballs

Test me
Test me
Roll me over
and do it again

Hurry
Hurry
Please hurry

Ho
Ho
Fucking ho
posted by mule98J at 8:31 AM on December 24, 2021


_So_ glad I cancelled my cross-country flight for Christmas. I had brought tickets back in spring when things looked like they might be stable at that point, but cancelled them in fall, due to both Delta and the antivax insanity.
posted by tavella at 12:31 PM on December 24, 2021


We did the same thing. We usually fly to San Francisco for Christmas to see my wife's family but we decided not to in October and I'm very glad. The pandemic killed all direct flights from PIT to SFO and I really wouldn't have wanted to be stranded in the Denver airport on Christmas eve.
posted by octothorpe at 12:43 PM on December 24, 2021


Thanks to all who responded to my vague AF question about tests. I think we're all good for now. Have a couple more RAT kits left to see if NYE is a thing, then back to the bunker until they make more kits.
posted by pompomtom at 4:50 AM on December 29, 2021


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