ArkyAg said:
Does getting the vaccine cause you to test positive for COVID-19?
The short answer is no.
The two types of tests used to detect active COVID-19 infection are the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and the rapid antigen test. These are both viral tests, meaning they test for active infection to see if you currently have COVID-19. The COVID-19 vaccines do not actually contain the COVID-19 virus and cannot cause active infection so you won't test positive for COVID-19 from the vaccine.
Are you sure about that? PCR test checks for presence viral RNA, and at least some of the PCR tests test specifically for spike protein RNA. Moderna/Pfizer vaccines are direct injection of spike protein mRNA and the J&J/AZ vaccines use an adenovirus carrier to carrier the spike protein + strand RNA that is used to produce the spike protein mRNA.
The PCR test I am most familiar with tests for 3 different viral RNA segments, one of which is the spike protein, but requires at least 2 to be present for a positive test, so the vaccine shouldn't result in a positive test. However, I think one of the 3 being detected is an inconclusive test rather than a negative test.