![]() ![]() Neil Sehgal, a health policy professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, told me he’s about to fly from Washington, DC, to California to spend Thanksgiving with relatives there. ![]() “We need to shift from thinking about at-home testing as just a diagnostic tool to thinking about it as a preventative tool,” said Wen, who recommends taking a test before an indoor social gathering even if you’re not feeling symptoms. But should you get a breakthrough infection, you could infect others who are unvaccinated, have waning immunity, or are elderly and thus more at risk for severe illness even if they are vaccinated. To be clear, if you’re fully vaccinated, the data shows you’re still well protected from severe disease or death from Covid-19, and reported infections in the US are so far still mainly among unvaccinated people. Two confusing questions about Covid-19 boosters, answered And with the weather getting colder and the holidays coming, we’re all going to be spending more time indoors with others. That, together with the fact that infection rates are climbing in the US, means breakthrough cases are likely to rise here, as they’ve already begun to do in Europe. And so far, only 18 percent of Americans have gotten a booster shot (though that may well rise now that all adults are eligible). Data so far shows the vaccines’ effectiveness against infection tapers off around the six-month mark. If you can find and afford at-home tests - whether they’re the relatively cheap antigen tests or their more expensive molecular cousins - experts say it will be particularly useful for you to have them on hand this fall and winter, for a few reasons.įor Americans who got their first two doses this spring, immunity may well be waning. They promise PCR-quality results in under an hour - all without ever having to get up off your couch. Now, however, companies like Cue Health and Detect are selling a new class of tests: molecular tests that can be performed entirely at home. Antigen tests are typically contrasted with molecular tests - think lab-based PCR - which are better at picking up the virus, though you have to get swabbed by a professional and then wait, sometimes several days, until results come back. These can be found at your local pharmacy, though supply has been erratic (more on this below). The most common form of at-home testing is the rapid antigen test - think BinaxNOW, QuickVue, or Ellume - where you swab your own nostrils and get results back in around 15 minutes. ![]() “At-home testing will be essential over the next few months,” said Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy at George Washington University. As many of us rush around trying to find the perfect Thanksgiving turkey and holiday gifts, there’s another thing experts recommend we stock up on: at-home tests for Covid-19. ![]()
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