![Why you have COVID symptoms and a negative test: You may not be doing it right, experts say Why you have COVID symptoms and a negative test: You may not be doing it right, experts say](https://i0.wp.com/content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GettyImages-1381120060-e1694206318168.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
These days, everyone seems to be “cold”. If you have the hallmark symptoms of coronavirus — headache, runny nose, sore throat, sneezing, coughing — but your home test shows you are negative, what do you believe: your body or the test results?
Experts say there are several possibilities for this scenario wealth. Dr. Amesh Adalja says that at-home coronavirus testing is “as effective as ever”, even with new variants such as “Pirola” BA.2.86, “Eris” EG.5.1 and “Fornax” FL.1.5.1.Infectious disease experts and senior scholars at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security tell us wealth.
Experts say your test result could be a false negative, which is more common than a false positive.
Or you might have executed the test incorrectly, or at the wrong time.
Is your coronavirus test performed incorrectly?
One reason your test result might be negative (but it isn’t) is that when you take a nasal swab test, you might get a sample of your nose that doesn’t contain the virus. Or the patch might contain a virus, but not enough of it.
“When we sampled the nose, we captured a small area – a small surface area – and the virus could certainly be replicating elsewhere in the body,” said Dr. Stuart Ray, the company’s head of data Vice President of Medicine for Integrity and Analysis.The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has previously stated wealth.
“The nose is one of the gateways for the virus to enter and survive, but it’s also in the mouth and can be hidden deep in the lungs.”
Did you get tested for coronavirus at the wrong time?
Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean for research and associate professor at New York Institute of Technology in Jonesboro, Ark., and a top coronavirus variant tracker, says at-home coronavirus tests don’t work. A common complaint these days. wealth.
That’s because it may be too early for you to test at home. Viral load is not always high enough to test positive at the beginning and end of infection.
Rajnarayanan said most people with symptoms initially test negative and “test positive a day or two later.”
What questions will your coronavirus test ask?
Adalja said the problem many people are facing is that they are asking the wrong questions when taking at-home coronavirus tests.
While most people use them to determine if they have COVID-19, these tests can only tell you if you are able to spread COVID-19. A negative number means you can’t do it, a positive number means you can do it.
Adalja said they can’t tell if you’ve had COVID-19.
Some additional testing tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
- If you have symptoms of COVID-19, get tested immediately.
- If you test negative at home, please repeat the test within 48 hours.
- If you have been exposed to COVID-19, please wait at least 5 days after exposure to get tested.
- If you test negative at home, please repeat the test within 48 hours.
- If your test result is still negative, please wait another 48 hours and take a final test.
- In both cases, if you don’t want to wait, you can get a PCR or polymerase chain reaction test at your doctor’s office. These are more sensitive and tend to be more accurate.
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