A relative got this home test at Heb after having symptoms of COVID but no fever.

Is this a waste of money or is it a legit test?

Good question: I was thinking of getting one myself so thanks for asking.

dallasag00 said:

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My understanding is that is the same test the hospitals use for clearing patients going in for elective surgeries. Not perfect but rapid and over 90% accurate.

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That's pretty good! Thanks for the note.

I bought 4. 2 ellume.. expensive @ ~$50 ea and the 2 pack of Abbot's BinaxNow tests, cheap @ $23 for both.

Sunday 8/22: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot
Monday 8/23: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot. Son of a *****, right.

So went Monday to the county testing site and got swabbed and waiting on the lab one. The take home ones pissed me off.

Follow up 8/26: don't by Ellume tests. What a waste of $100. Did a free one with county and one with CVS and both negative aligning with the Abbot BinaxNow tests.

How accurate are the ones at county testing locations because anecdotally you hear about false positives from those places too!

West Point Aggie said:

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How accurate are the ones at county testing locations because anecdotally you hear about false positives from those places too!

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About 98%, which may not seem like a big deal but when you use the BMJ calculator you can see the difference: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1808

Put the pre-test probability at 1% (this is the percent of the population actually infected), test sensitivity at 80% (this is the likelihood that if you DO have covid the test will return a positive), and test specificity at 90 and then 98%.

At 90% it returns 10 false positives and at 98% it returns two.

Definitely research the tests before purchasing. Some at home tests have a false negative rate nearly 50%

I used the Binax Abbott test a couple of days ago and tested positive on both swabs.

Binax was really accurate in my case.
Popped positive in 20seconds when I was peak load (felt worse).
Took longer to show positive a few days later when I was feeling better.
Finally got a negative about a week after the first one and symptoms were gone.

Mas89 said:

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A relative got this home test at Heb after having symptoms of COVID but no fever.

Is this a waste of money or is it a legit test?

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So she tested positive on this take home test last night.
Went this morning to an ent dr this morning and did the rapid antigen nasal swab test. Paid $150 to Dr to get the results back soon. Would have been a day or more if she used the BCBS PPo insurance.
NEGATIVE on the Dr. test this morning.

And now she needs a z pac prescription for the sinus infection. Lololololol

If it's like the tests we've gotten at work they're 85% accurate for positive and 90 something for negative.

My wife and I both used it, and it worked perfectly for both of us. We both tested Positive when we had symptoms. I will say this, get pretty deep into the nasal cavity just to be sure about results.

FtBendTxAg said:

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I bought 4. 2 ellume.. expensive @ ~$50 ea and the 2 pack of Abbot's BinaxNow tests, cheap @ $23 for both.

Sunday 8/22: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot
Monday 8/23: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot. Son of a *****, right.

So went Monday to the county testing site and got swabbed and waiting on the lab one. The take home ones pissed me off.

Follow up 8/26: don't by Ellume tests. What a waste of $100. Did a free one with county and one with CVS and both negative aligning with the Abbot BinaxNow tests.

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That is frustrating. My kid had a fever after day 4 of school so we got a OTC test, CVS was selling only Ellume that day. He tested positive. The next day he had no fever, only tired but did say things tasted different - had taste, but different (common for many head colds). He really just felt bad, with symptoms, that 1 day, but we had to report to school since we got a positive test - would hate if that result was not correct. Having said that, 8 kids in his class ended up getting marked as positive and I assume most did not take an Ellume test - so odds are he did have it, just hate questioning the accuracy of the tests. Probably best to do a PCR formal test but my son had a mortal fear of the brain scrape swab.

Will home tests suffice for air travel?

Last week, my son had a 103 fever, lethargic, and threw up several times. We did an at home test and it was negative. His school wanted PCR, so did PCR the next day and that was negative too.

I would rely on PCR more, but I think these at home tests do serve a purpose to give you a really good idea to make an informed initial decision.

West Point Aggie said:

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How accurate are the ones at county testing locations because anecdotally you hear about false positives from those places too!

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County testing should be more accurate than rapid at home tests. None are perfect. HTH

Rapid has its place. Nobody is doubting pcr is more accurate and the gold standard. My daughter tested positive Saturday (I need it was going to be positive, so me, wife, other daughter got pcr test on Friday all asymptotic). Daughter got negative this morning. Last night I got "no results, rejected for testing, sample compromises during shipment, and my wife doesn't have her results from Friday yet. All vaxxed. For us to return to work tomorrow we need a negative test (per CDC). So I went and got a BinaxNow 2-pack $24 at cvs, and got my negative. Of wife results don't come in tonight, she will do the rapid. Not sure why some are questioning these, as they have their place. 10% false negative is not bad.

The Big12Ag said:

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FtBendTxAg said:

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I bought 4. 2 ellume.. expensive @ ~$50 ea and the 2 pack of Abbot's BinaxNow tests, cheap @ $23 for both.

Sunday 8/22: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot
Monday 8/23: Positive on Ellume, Negative on Abbot. Son of a *****, right.

So went Monday to the county testing site and got swabbed and waiting on the lab one. The take home ones pissed me off.

Follow up 8/26: don't by Ellume tests. What a waste of $100. Did a free one with county and one with CVS and both negative aligning with the Abbot BinaxNow tests.

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That is frustrating. My kid had a fever after day 4 of school so we got a OTC test, CVS was selling only Ellume that day. He tested positive. The next day he had no fever, only tired but did say things tasted different - had taste, but different (common for many head colds). He really just felt bad, with symptoms, that 1 day, but we had to report to school since we got a positive test - would hate if that result was not correct. Having said that, 8 kids in his class ended up getting marked as positive and I assume most did not take an Ellume test - so odds are he did have it, just hate questioning the accuracy of the tests. Probably best to do a PCR formal test but my son had a mortal fear of the brain scrape swab.

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Sorry to hear about that. BUT, at fort bend county testing sites, they don't poke the brain any longer, they only go as far as the take home tests now. It mentioned on the site that the way they do it changed, but I didn't believe it but thankfully they only went up 3/4-1 inch or so. Pleasant surprise.

I did 3 the old way, and one of them automatically made me stream tears. The other 2 weren't so bad.

As poster above said, it is no longer a brain scrape. I did PCR drive thru at walgreens. You make appointment online (btw, all pcr tests are free, no matter where you go, unless you do urgent care, they will make you see a "doctor" and charge you copay: they will bill your insurance, but if you don't have any they will do it free). For the self-administered, they said go up "one to one-and-a-half inch... about the length of the swab." My thinking was "this guy is giving me a choice of 1 or 1.5 inches... uh... I'm going 1." The home test says 3/4 inch. It is not that bad at all.

re-read your post. Sounds like he had it. The problem with the OTC tests is, if 100 people have Covid and you give them the home test, only 90 will pop positive. The false positive is very low, so don't worry about accuracy. He had it so there is no point to retest.

I have used a bunch of rapid tests over the past couple of weeks for my family and me. Anecdotal but they've all worked as expected. Negative when no symptoms, positive a few days later, negative when not feeling sick anymore.