Why are people still testing for COVID

[Anonymous]

For me it’s curiosity. If I had a bunch of other free viral tests lying around at home, I’d test for those too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been reading something about how your immune system can sustain damage from multiple cumulative COVID infections. I think I have had it four or five times. Ifeel like at some point in the future it might be useful to be able to answer the question “how many times have you had Covid” if doctors start asking.

You may have read it, but it doesn't make it true. The problem with those studies is that they basically only count cases where the individual sought treatment. So not only are you looking at the set of people unhealthy enough already to have moderate to severe covid, you're looking at increasingly niche sets of individuals that have had moderate-to-severe covid multiple times.

The vast majority of people, including old and immunocompromised people, don't need to seek treatment for infection. Much less do they need to do for multiple infections.

This. Many of these studies use Veterans Admin data sets where participants are predominantly old, overweight men who were former smokers and who have multiple co-morbidities. If you didn't know better, you'd almost think they were looking for a bad result before they began the study...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been reading something about how your immune system can sustain damage from multiple cumulative COVID infections. I think I have had it four or five times. Ifeel like at some point in the future it might be useful to be able to answer the question “how many times have you had Covid” if doctors start asking.

You may have read it, but it doesn't make it true. The problem with those studies is that they basically only count cases where the individual sought treatment. So not only are you looking at the set of people unhealthy enough already to have moderate to severe covid, you're looking at increasingly niche sets of individuals that have had moderate-to-severe covid multiple times.

The vast majority of people, including old and immunocompromised people, don't need to seek treatment for infection. Much less do they need to do for multiple infections.

This. Many of these studies use Veterans Admin data sets where participants are predominantly old, overweight men who were former smokers and who have multiple co-morbidities. If you didn't know better, you'd almost think they were looking for a bad result before they began the study...

Yes, the data source is already bad, but the even bigger problem was the methodology.

Yes, there's going to be a correlation between long-term health outcomes and numbers of identified, symptomatic infections.

But they're getting causation backwards. Chronic health problems lead to a higher risk of moderate-to-severe illness from covid, resulting in more infections being identified in those individuals. The infections aren't causing the chronic health problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I probably won't go visit my elderly parents if I have Covid. I had it in the past and it presents like a really mild cold for me, so it's not obvious that it's COVID.

Is that a good enough reason for you, OP?

I could easily think of at least 10 different reasons why someone would want to test. Why can't you?

You might want to work on you post- pandemic anxiety and lack of empathy.

I agree. You seem to lack empathy and any ability to come up with reasons why people would want to test.

I’m not even sure how that is possible. I also don’t understand how you can’t fathom that COVID is a serious life-threatening issue for some people.

So are the flu and RSV.

It your covid test comes back negative, do you get a full workup for other potential infections?

I'm the original PP. I've never had a case of flu that I would mistake for a mild cold. I know I'm sick when I have the flu.

That's not the case for me with Covid. I’ve
only had a really mild, mild case. What is so hard for you to understand?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I probably won't go visit my elderly parents if I have Covid. I had it in the past and it presents like a really mild cold for me, so it's not obvious that it's COVID.

Is that a good enough reason for you, OP?

I could easily think of at least 10 different reasons why someone would want to test. Why can't you?

You might want to work on you post- pandemic anxiety and lack of empathy.

I agree. You seem to lack empathy and any ability to come up with reasons why people would want to test.

I’m not even sure how that is possible. I also don’t understand how you can’t fathom that COVID is a serious life-threatening issue for some people.

So are the flu and RSV.

It your covid test comes back negative, do you get a full workup for other potential infections?

I'm the original PP. I've never had a case of flu that I would mistake for a mild cold. I know I'm sick when I have the flu.

That's not the case for me with Covid. I’ve
only had a really mild, mild case. What is so hard for you to understand?

How would you know? You presumably weren't running to the doctor and demanding a flu test every time you had mild cold-like symptoms. The vast majority of influenza cases are not identified/confirmed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre Vax I was very adament about social distancing, masking, testing etc. But in our current era, COVID is just an annoyance for most like a flu or cold or similar random viral infections.

Why do people still test if they are not an extreme risk population -- work and schools no longer require, new variants are so contagious that masking at home is theater.

Using up old tests? More people aiming for paxlovid?

I'm all about people staying home when sick, are we keeping people home even when well but testing pos

Shut up
This thread has been beaten to death
We get it antivax morons denying over 1 million Americans died because you are stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre Vax I was very adament about social distancing, masking, testing etc. But in our current era, COVID is just an annoyance for most like a flu or cold or similar random viral infections.

Why do people still test if they are not an extreme risk population -- work and schools no longer require, new variants are so contagious that masking at home is theater.

Using up old tests? More people aiming for paxlovid?

I'm all about people staying home when sick, are we keeping people home even when well but testing pos

Shut up
This thread has been beaten to death
We get it antivax morons denying over 1 million Americans died because you are stupid.

No, 1M Americans died because they were old and/or unhealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre Vax I was very adament about social distancing, masking, testing etc. But in our current era, COVID is just an annoyance for most like a flu or cold or similar random viral infections.

Why do people still test if they are not an extreme risk population -- work and schools no longer require, new variants are so contagious that masking at home is theater.

Using up old tests? More people aiming for paxlovid?

I'm all about people staying home when sick, are we keeping people home even when well but testing pos

Shut up
This thread has been beaten to death
We get it antivax morons denying over 1 million Americans died because you are stupid.

No, 1M Americans died because they were old and/or unhealthy.

Even if this were true (it’s not), I guess that means it’s OK for older people and people with underlying health conditions to die early (and miserably) because you don’t want to be inconvenienced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre Vax I was very adament about social distancing, masking, testing etc. But in our current era, COVID is just an annoyance for most like a flu or cold or similar random viral infections.

Why do people still test if they are not an extreme risk population -- work and schools no longer require, new variants are so contagious that masking at home is theater.

Using up old tests? More people aiming for paxlovid?

I'm all about people staying home when sick, are we keeping people home even when well but testing pos

Shut up
This thread has been beaten to death
We get it antivax morons denying over 1 million Americans died because you are stupid.

No, 1M Americans died because they were old and/or unhealthy.

Even if this were true (it’s not), I guess that means it’s OK for older people and people with underlying health conditions to die early (and miserably) because you don’t want to be inconvenienced.

Of course it's true- look at the covid death statistics.

Whether it's OK or not doesn't really matter. It's reality that unhealthy people will die earlier than healthy people. That was true before covid. And old people are more likely to die from a variety of infections beyond just covid.

Acting oblivious to those facts doesn't help your cause.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been reading something about how your immune system can sustain damage from multiple cumulative COVID infections. I think I have had it four or five times. Ifeel like at some point in the future it might be useful to be able to answer the question “how many times have you had Covid” if doctors start asking.

You may have read it, but it doesn't make it true. The problem with those studies is that they basically only count cases where the individual sought treatment. So not only are you looking at the set of people unhealthy enough already to have moderate to severe covid, you're looking at increasingly niche sets of individuals that have had moderate-to-severe covid multiple times.

The vast majority of people, including old and immunocompromised people, don't need to seek treatment for infection. Much less do they need to do for multiple infections.

This. Many of these studies use Veterans Admin data sets where participants are predominantly old, overweight men who were former smokers and who have multiple co-morbidities. If you didn't know better, you'd almost think they were looking for a bad result before they began the study...

Yes, the data source is already bad, but the even bigger problem was the methodology.

Yes, there's going to be a correlation between long-term health outcomes and numbers of identified, symptomatic infections.

But they're getting causation backwards. Chronic health problems lead to a higher risk of moderate-to-severe illness from covid, resulting in more infections being identified in those individuals. The infections aren't causing the chronic health problems.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

I would not attend public events, or would mask, if I had it.

Your infection could literally kill an older (or medically frail) person. Why would you want to risk that. Are you really that callous or selfish?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not attend public events, or would mask, if I had it.

Your infection could literally kill an older (or medically frail) person. Why would you want to risk that. Are you really that callous or selfish?

Why are those elderly and medically frail individuals going into high-risk settings without taking their own precautions?

[Anonymous]

The same reason they get flu tests. To know what they are dealing with and how best to treat it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just had it and tested. I wanted to take paxlovid if positive. I was quite ill and had strange, worrying symptoms (not cold symptoms). Knowing it was Covid I thought, ok--Covid is weird. But if I had been negative I would have wanted to seek medical care in case they were symptoms of Lyme disease or something like that.

As someone who is literally in bed right now knocked out with this variant of Covid, this. I tested to get paxlovid, and should be on my feet sooner back to working even if isolating. I get tested for strep or UTIs to determine if I need antibiotics—mentally, I see them the same way.

I don’t test unless I have an exposure or feel terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre Vax I was very adament about social distancing, masking, testing etc. But in our current era, COVID is just an annoyance for most like a flu or cold or similar random viral infections.

Why do people still test if they are not an extreme risk population -- work and schools no longer require, new variants are so contagious that masking at home is theater.

Using up old tests? More people aiming for paxlovid?

I'm all about people staying home when sick, are we keeping people home even when well but testing pos

Because some of us understand science and recognize that getting covid 4, 5, and even more times is not healthy for us. Your risk of long covid greatly increases each time you get covid.

We also care about others, even those we might casually cross paths with. So if we are sick or contagious, we protect others