Rapid Speed Test
Fast coronavirus tests: what they can and can’t do – Nature
Health-care workers test a resident of Mumbai, India, for coronavirus infection using a rapid antigen Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times via Getty
The United States leads the world in COVID-19 deaths but lags behind many countries — both large and small — in testing capacity. That could soon the end of August, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency-use approval to a new credit-card-sized testing device for the coronavirus that costs US$5, gives results in 15 minutes and doesn’t require a laboratory or a machine for processing. The United States is spending $760 million on 150 million of these tests from health-care company Abbott Laboratories, headquartered in Abbott Park, Illinois, which plans to ramp up production to 50 million per month in tests detect specific proteins — known as antigens — on the surface of the virus, and can identify people who are at the peak of infection, when virus levels in the body are likely to be high. Proponents argue that this could be a game changer. Antigen tests could help to keep the pandemic at bay, because they can be rolled out in vast numbers and can spot those who are at greatest risk of spreading the disease. These tests are also a key element in the testing strategies of other countries, such as India and Italy. Antigen assays are much faster and cheaper than the gold-standard tests that detect viral RNA using a technique called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). But antigen tests aren’t as sensitive as the PCR versions, which can pick up minuscule amounts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes difference raises some concerns among specialists, who worry that antigen tests will miss infectious people and result in outbreaks in countries that have largely controlled coronavirus transmission. Others view the lower sensitivity as an attribute, because some people who receive positive PCR test results are infected, but are no longer able to spread the virus to others. So antigen tests could shift the focus to identifying the most infectious present, antigen tests are administered by trained professionals, but some companies are developing versions that are simple enough to be used at home — similar to pregnancy tests. “Making the tests faster, cheaper, easier is definitely the goal — and I think the antigen test is the way to get there, ” says Martin Burke, a chemist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who is co-developing rapid tests, including antigen-based assays. “This is by no means the perfect solution, it’s just the fastest thing we could get going now, ” he tests are there and how do they work? Tests for COVID-19 fall into two categories: diagnostic tests such as PCR and antigen assays, which detect parts of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and antibody tests that sense molecules that people produce when they have been infected by the virus. Antibodies can take several days to develop after an infection and often stay in the blood for weeks after recovery, so antibody tests have limited use in diagnosis (see ‘Catching COVID-19’).
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The high-sensitivity PCR tests are almost 100% accurate in spotting infected people, when they are administered properly. But such tests generally require trained personnel, specific reagents and expensive machines that take hours to provide untries such as South Korea and New Zealand have succeeded in boosting PCR-based testing, but scaling up these tests has proved difficult elsewhere. The United States, for example, has seen a slow and poorly coordinated response to outbreaks, faulty tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and problems with the supply chain. All of this has hindered efforts to collect and process samples for PCR, pushing waiting times to days or even weeks. These delays, along with a lack of tests, have contributed to the rampant spread of COVID-19 across the country, which by 16 September had seen almost 200, 000 deaths from the disease. A typical antigen test starts with a health-care professional swabbing the back of a person’s nose or throat — although companies are developing kits that use saliva samples, which are easier and safer to collect than a swab. The sample is then mixed with a solution that breaks the virus open and frees specific viral proteins. The mix is added to a paper strip that contains an antibody tailored to bind to these proteins, if they’re present in the solution. A positive test result can be detected either as a fluorescent glow or as a dark band on the paper strip. Antigen tests give results in less than 30 minutes, don’t have to be processed in a lab and are cheap to produce. Yet that speed comes with a cost in sensitivity. Whereas a typical PCR test can detect a single molecule of RNA in a microlitre of solution, antigen tests need a sample to contain thousands — probably tens of thousands — of virus particles per microlitre to produce a positive result1. So, if a person has low amounts of virus in their body, the test might give a false-negative used on people who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 in a standard PCR test, Abbott’s antigen assay correctly spotted the virus in 95–100% of cases if the samples were collected within a week of the onset of symptoms. But that proportion dropped to 75% if samples were taken more than a week after people first showed symptoms. The sensitivity — or the rate of detecting infections correctly — of the other antigen tests used in the United States is between 84% and 98% if a person is tested in the week after showing symptoms.
A technician in a mobile unit conducts rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 in New Mayank Makhija/NurPhoto via Getty
Companies and academic research labs are also rolling out other tests that are faster, cheaper and more user-friendly than standard PCR assays, although they are not being produced on the same scale as antigen tests. Some of these other tests use the gene-editing tool CRISPR to zero in on genetic snippets of the coronavirus. Others are quicker variants of the PCR test that use different reagents, meaning they’re not limited by the same supply-chain problems. Saliva-based PCR tests, for example, are being used as screening tools in universities and for professional basketball tests tell whether someone is infectious? Although the PCR method can test whether someone is infectious, it also detects people who have the virus but are not likely to spread it. Antigen-based testing, by contrast, could help to rapidly identify people who have high levels of virus — those who are most likely to be infectious to others — and isolate them from the community, says Marion Koopmans, a virologist at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “The question is, what is the safe limit? Because the moment you get that wrong, the whole idea implodes, ” she says. It’s still unclear what viral load is the threshold below which a person is no longer contagious, says Koopmans, who is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to determine a standard to validate rapid tests. “It would be very worrying if everyone does that on their own, using different criteria, ” she load peaks early in SARS-CoV-2 infections and then gradually declines, with tiny amounts of virus RNA staying in someone’s nose or throat for weeks or possibly months2. And although there are not enough data to equate different viral levels with how infectious people are, there is evidence that individuals are unlikely to spread the virus about eight to ten days after showing symptoms3. “If you’re at risk of transmitting the virus to somebody else, you’re going to have plenty of viral particles — those would certainly show up in antigen tests, ” says Michael Mina, an infectious-disease immunologist at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, who has been a vocal proponent of antigen are challenges at the start of the infection, when people have low levels of the virus. The answer, says Mina, is frequent testing — done multiple times per week. This could quickly identify infected people, even if the assays are less sensitive than a PCR-based test, because the amount of virus in their noses and throats rises within hours, he and his colleagues have used statistical models to assess this strategy. In a preprint updated on 8 September, they suggest that testing people twice a week with a relatively insensitive test could be more effective at curbing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 than are more-accurate tests done once every two weeks1. Another study that modelled different scenarios for safely reopening university campuses reported similar slow outbreaks, the focus should be on identifying those who are at risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 to other people, rather than on spotting anyone who is infected with it, some experts used as a screening tool to frequently assess as many people as possible, rapid antigen tests could be “a game changer”, says Rebecca Lee Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of do countries plan to use antigen tests? At the beginning of April, as coronavirus outbreaks raged across the world, India had tested only about 150, 000 people — one of the lowest testing rates per capita worldwide. On 21 August, the country conducted more than one million coronavirus tests in a single day. It reached that milestone after Indian authorities began using antigen assays to boost testing was the first Indian state to begin using rapid antigen tests, in June. By mid-July, the number of cases there had decreased and the daily death counts had plateaued, suggesting that the tests might have played some part in controlling the spread of the virus. Epidemiologist K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, a non-profit organization in New Delhi, says that the Delhi example is interesting, but not clear-cut: he notes that the government started to lift lockdown restrictions in August, which led to a surge in infections. “Rapid antigen tests have picked up the increased number of cases, but whether they have been successful in limiting the spread of COVID, we’ll only know in the next couple of months, ” Reddy far, India has approved the use of three antigen tests for screening large numbers of people, whether or not they have symptoms. One of the kits was evaluated by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, which found that the test detected infections between 51% and 84% of the time. Guidance from the ICMR says that people who have a negative result from an antigen test should also get a PCR test if they show symptoms, to rule out the possibility that the rapid test missed an WHO and the US CDC have also advised getting a PCR test if people showing symptoms test negative with a rapid antigen test. The US FDA has so far granted emergency use authorization for four antigen tests, each of which has a higher sensitivity than those used in India. The 150 million tests bought from Abbott will be used in schools and “other special needs populations”, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA, however, has authorized antigen-based tests only for people who have had symptoms for 12 days or fewer. Tests must be prescribed by a physician and administered by a health-care professional.
A testing centre at the international airport in Rome. Italy plans to use rapid antigen tests to screen passengers at all of its Simona Granati/Corbis/Getty
Other countries are also considering the use of rapid antigen tests to meet targets. In July, the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases issued temporary guidelines for clinicians and health-care workers, saying that antigen tests could be used as an alternative to PCR for diagnosing a coronavirus infection during the first week in people with symptoms. But it also recommends that all negative results should be confirmed with a PCR-based assay, says Edsel Salvaña, an infectious-diseases expert at the University of the Philippines Manila, who is advising Philippine officials on rapid testing. Antigen-based tests are being used in some of Italy’s major airports to screen people who arrive from four Mediterranean countries considered to have a high risk of infection. Negative results do not have to be confirmed with a PCR test. The Italian health minister, Roberto Speranza, has announced plans to use antigen tests to screen passengers at all of the country’s airports, and a group of experts has urged the Italian government to use the rapid tests in schools and others don’t think rapid antigen tests are a good idea. When trying to contain small outbreaks, such as those happening in Italy, public-health authorities should use assays that are highly accurate, because missing even just one positive individual could lead to a steep increase in the total number of cases, says Andrea Crisanti, a microbiologist at the University of researchers worry that there won’t be enough antigen tests available to greatly expand their use. “Rapid tests right now are for the happy few, ” Koopmans says. “If we want to take these assays responsibly forward, we should talk about whether they can be produced to levels that would make them globally available. ”Could antigen assays be used at home like pregnancy tests? Several experts have promoted the idea of developing an antigen test that is cheap and simple enough to use at home, without a health-care worker administering says what’s needed is something as easy as a pregnancy test. “You just spit into a tube, put a piece of paper in it and you get the result within minutes, ” Burke says. “Testing should become a part of life: in the morning you take your cereals, your vitamins, and you quickly check your status, ” he says. A few companies are developing simple paper-strip antigen tests. But drug regulators have not yet approved them for emergency use. “We don’t have a lot of real-life experience with these tests, and a lot of the validations have only been done in the laboratory, ” Salvaña concerns about costs and availability, researchers worry that, with an over-the-counter test, people who get positive results might not follow up with public-health authorities, so their contacts won’t be traced. Another risk would be people “gaming the system”, Smith says — for example, getting someone else to take their test — so they can be sure of a negative result and avoid quarantine. Without incentives such as freely available tests and a living salary for those who have to isolate, testing and self-isolation could become a luxury reserved for wealthier people, others have argued. Another concern is that people will get a false sense of security from tests that have only limited accuracy. “There’s a big risk that the moment these tests become widely available, people will just use them and say, ‘It’s negative, so I’m clear, ’” Koopmans when testing negative, people should continue to wash their hands, wear masks and avoid gathering in big groups, she says. Testing, she adds, “cannot replace the basic control measures that need to be in place to keep this virus controlled”.
As experts call for more rapid tests, how accurate are they and when should you use them? – CBC.ca
Canadian doctors and experts say rapid testing could play a bigger role in controlling the pandemic in this country, especially if rapid antigen tests were used in settings like schools, northern communities and workplaces where outbreaks are a concern. A COVID-19 rapid test device is displayed at a pop-up COVID-19 testing site. Though PCR tests, which are commonly used in Canada, are considered more accurate than rapid antigen tests, the latter can produce a result in about 15 minutes. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)The Dose22:11What do we need to know about rapid testing? With the fourth wave raging in many parts of Canada, some groups have been trying to implement another tool in the fight against COVID-19: rapid testing. Canada has yet to make rapid antigen tests widely and cheaply available. Dr. Fatima Kakkar, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and doctor at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine in Montreal said rapid testing could play a bigger role in controlling the pandemic in Canada. What’s the difference between PCR tests and rapid tests? Kakkar, also an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Montreal, said polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are considered the “gold standard” in testing for COVID-19, look at viral RNA. “It’s able to pick up even traces of the virus, ” Kakkar told Brian Goldman, host of White Coat, Black Art and The Dose. Although PCR tests can be done in as quickly as an hour in urgent situations, labs often batch samples every eight or 12 hours, causing delays of up to 48 hours before results are available. A woman wears a face mask as she walks past a COVID-19 rapid testing business in Montreal on Sept. 12, 2021. Although PCR tests can be done in as quickly as an hour in urgent situations, labs often batch samples causing delays of up to 48 hours to get results. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press) Rapid antigen tests, on the other hand, look for pieces of protein made by the virus. Like the PCR test, a rapid antigen test involves a nasal swab, but it doesn’t need to go as deep as the PCR test swab. In some test kits, the swab goes into a vial of liquid for about 15 minutes, and is then applied to a test strip. If there’s enough protein to react with the antibodies, a coloured stripe appears, similar to the way a pregnancy test works. How accurate are they? Kakkar said rapid tests are not as accurate as PCR tests, which are highly sensitive and can produce positive results even after a person is no longer infectious. Rapid tests are most accurate when used by people with COVID-19 symptoms in places with a lot of community spread. Under those conditions, a rapid test produces correct results 80 to 90 per cent of the time, she said. People who are asymptomatic or in the early stages of infection may not have a lot of viral protein in their system, which Kakkar said could result in a false negative. Under those conditions, she said the positivity rate ranges from 35 to 50 per cent, meaning 50 per cent of the time the test may not detect the infection. WATCH | Toronto parents spearhead rapid COVID-19 testing program: Toronto parents organize rapid COVID-19 testing for schoolA group of Toronto parents have spearheaded a rapid COVID-19 testing program for their children’s school because there wasn’t a provincial system in place. 1:55 When are rapid tests most useful? Kakkar said high-risk settings such as hospitals can’t take the chance of false negatives. And since rapid tests are most useful among people with symptoms, widespread asymptomatic testing in places like schools runs the risk of too many false positives. In a school where there’s concern about an outbreak, however, rapid testing could help — especially at times of the year when other viruses are circulating. Rapid COVID-19 test kits to be given to N. S. families with kids in pre-primary to Grade 6 When a child comes down with a fever or runny nose, Kakkar said taking a PCR test can be disruptive because it requires a day or two off from school or work while waiting for results. Families of children in the same class also want to know results quickly. “I do sense that there is some reluctance to disclose symptoms and to be so vigilant about the symptoms simply because people are saying, ‘You know what? It’s another cold, it’s another cold, it’s another cold, ‘ ” she said. According to Kakkar, quick and easy rapid tests would lead to more frequent testing. It would be especially helpful in northern and remote communities, in schools, workplaces and congregate settings such as weddings and sporting events. How should they be used for unvaccinated people in workplaces? Kakkar said the use of rapid testing for unvaccinated workers depends on the risk of the work environment. In Quebec, for example, unvaccinated people cannot work in the health system. “Being a health-care provider among immunocompromised and fragile patients, it’s too much of a risk, ” she said. “We can’t take that 10 or 20 per cent chance that we would have a false negative. ” In an office of healthy people where most are vaccinated, Kakkar said rapid testing may be helpful. She cautioned that rapid testing is not an effective substitute for vaccination, but simply an added measure to enhance workplace safety. How accessible are rapid tests across Canada right now? Kakkar said rapid testing is heavily regulated in Canada. “Some schools are getting it, some workplaces are getting it, ” she said. “But practically speaking, it’s not quite so simple for an individual to just go to a pharmacy and get a rapid test. ” Rapid tests rely on viral proteins in a sample to provide a positive or negative result. (Charles Contant/CBC/Radio-Canada) She said rapid testing is more readily available in other countries, including the United States. In the U. K. and Germany, free rapid tests are available from the government through the mail and at pharmacies. Kakkar said part of the issues is that Health Canada has not approved very many brands of rapid tests. The cost, between $40 and $75, can also be prohibitive, especially for a family with several children, she said. David Juncker, a professor and department chair in biomedical engineering at McGill University, said with the exception of Nova Scotia, he’s seen widespread reluctance to use rapid tests among Canadian provinces since the early days of the pandemic. He said that in his opinion, there’s no good scientific reason for that provincial reluctance. “They prefer to use PCR tests and they were betting on vaccines fairly early on, which unfortunately didn’t fully realize their hopes. ” Although Canada began procuring large numbers of rapid tests in September 2020 and distributing them to the provinces, Juncker said the federal government still lacks an overall strategy on rapid testing. He said its regulatory approval framework is part of the reason rapid tests aren’t widely available here. In Juncker’s opinion, the regulatory barriers are high and outright misguided. He said that when he checked back in May, many manufacturers weren’t even applying to have their tests approved. “And the ones that apply, they fail. ” Ottawa doctor offering supply of rapid tests for asymptomatic children, despite provincial guidance Health Canada’s own figures indicate that the federal government has distributed over 40 million tests to provinces and territories as of Sept. 2, 2021. Provinces and territories have reported using only slightly more than nine million of those tests to date. In an email, Health Canada said it has authorized over 50 different COVID-19 tests, including four self-testing devices. The department is continuing to review new testing options. Kakkar said she hopes to see rapid tests become more widely available in the weeks ahead. “My gut feeling is these next few weeks, we’re going to continue to surge with all of these other viruses, ” she said. “Telling COVID apart from everything else is going to become almost a weekly, bi-weekly event. ” Written by Rachel Sanders
How to Use Rapid Home Tests (Once You Find Them) – The New York Times
The Well NewsletterRegular home testing for coronavirus can lower risk, ease worry and allow you to live a more normal ImagesPublished Oct. 7, 2021Updated Oct. 15, 2021For many people, the hardest part of pandemic life after vaccination is the uncertainty about risk. Is it safe to gather unmasked with my vaccinated friends? Can I travel for the holidays? Can my children safely see their grandparents? But rapid home testing can lower risk, ease the worry and help you get back to life. Testing isn’t a substitute for getting the vaccine. But as long as large numbers of people remain unvaccinated and continue to spread the coronavirus, vaccinated people are at risk for so-called breakthrough infections, which often come with mild symptoms or none at the vaccinated, a negative test is like a one-day anxiety-free pass. At-home rapid tests can tell people within minutes whether they are contagious with Covid-19. It gives added assurance that no one at a child’s birthday party, a wedding or family gathering is spreading the virus. If you’ve been traveling through airports or you’ve recently spent time at a crowded outdoor concert, a few rapid tests, taken days apart, can show that you’re unlikely to be spreading the coronavirus after attending those higher-risk big problem is that the tests can be hard to find, but that should improve soon with the authorization of a new test and an investment of $1 billion in home testing from the Biden administration. Many stores do still have tests in stock, but it may require some effort to find them. If you find some, don’t hoard. Tens of millions more tests are expected to arrive on the market in the coming weeks, and by December, 200 million rapid tests will be available to Americans each test is a 100 percent guarantee, but given that your vaccine already protects you, a home test is another layer of precaution to lower risk. Unvaccinated people can benefit from using home tests as well, but they should not rely on testing as a substitute for a vaccine. Home tests are particularly useful for families with young children who aren’t yet eligible for vaccination and for anyone with an at-risk family member. When my vaccinated daughter wanted to visit her 80-year-old vaccinated grandmother in New Mexico, she was tested in New York before leaving, and she carried several rapid home tests to use when she landed and every day of the short visit. “Testing is an information business, and that information is liberating, ” said Mara Aspinall, an expert in biomedical diagnostics at Arizona State University who is also on the board of OraSure, which makes rapid Covid tests. “For some, it’s going to be to not wear a mask at an event. For some, it’s going to be to go visit great grandma or interact with the public. If your test is positive, it means you’ve got the power to protect yourself and other people. ”In the United States, the tests can range from $7 to $12 each, making them too expensive for most people to use frequently. But with the cold weather approaching and the winter holidays ahead, home tests still can be a helpful way to lower the risk of indoor gatherings and spending time with extended family members. “I think people should embrace home testing more, ” said Neeraj Sood, a professor and vice dean for research at the University of Southern California and director of the Covid Initiative at the U. S. C. Schaeffer Center. “I’m planning to go to India. I’ll do the home test the moment I land to make sure I’m not infectious before I give a hug to my father. ”How do they work? The rapid home tests work much like a pregnancy test with a pink line indicating you’re positive for the coronavirus. The tests all require you to swizzle a long swab in both nostrils. Depending on the test, you may insert the swab into a special card reader or dip the swab in a solution and use a test strip, then wait 10 to 15 minutes for the rrently, the rapid home antigen tests available in the United States include Abbott’s BinaxNOW, Quidel’s QuickVue, Australia’s Ellume and the recently authorized test by Acon Labs, Flowflex. The tests typically are packaged two per box. A rapid home molecular test, Lucira, uses a different technology and is similar to the test you might get at the doctor’s office. But it’s hard to find, and at a cost of about $50, it isn’t a practical option for most home tests reliable? Although no test is 100 percent accurate, the new rapid home tests are highly reliable for telling you whether you’re contagious on a given day. Rapid tests identify about 98 percent of cases in which a person is it’s also possible to test negative on one day, and then test positive a few days later. That doesn’t mean the first test was wrong — it just means on the day you tested, you weren’t infectious yet, even though you later tested positive for the virus. (The test you get at the doctor’s office can also return a false negative, depending on the timing of the test. )“If the test is negative and you later test positive, it’s not wrong, ” said Gigi Gronvall, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The question the rapid antigen test is asking is, Do you have a lot of virus in your nose at this moment, yes or no? ”So how should I use the tests? Most home tests advise testing twice over a three-day period, with at least 36 hours between tests. The timing of the test matters. Using one test is a useful precaution right before seeing friends or family members who want to gather indoors and unmasked. A quick test can also help a parent make sure a child’s cough or sniffle isn’t spreading you’re worried that you’ve been exposed to Covid, you should take two tests over a three to four day period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the best testing window after a potential exposure is to test three to five days after the high-risk event or contact with an infected bottom line is that the more often you use the tests, the better, said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard and a proponent of rapid testing. (Dr. Mina advises Detect, Inc., a diagnostics company working on a rapid molecular test. ) If you want to spend time with a medically vulnerable person, you should take a test a few days before seeing them, and then take another test on the day of the visit. “Think about, How do I test as close as possible to the thing that I’m doing? ” Dr. Mina said. “When I go visit my parents, I always bring rapid tests with me. Right before I walk in the door, I use the test in my car. ”What do I do if the test is positive? Most of the time, a positive result means you have the coronavirus, particularly if you have symptoms. But false positives do happen. Recently, Ellume, an Australian company, recalled nearly 200, 000 test kits because of concerns about a higher-than-expected rate of false there’s reason to doubt a positive result, take another test, preferably from a different manufacturer or at a testing center. People hosting large events, like weddings, and using the tests to screen guests should have a few extra tests on hand from a different brand for those guests who test positive. You can be confident in the result if the second test is negative, Dr. “It would be really rare for someone to have a true positive and then have a second test show a false negative result, ” he said. “If you’re having a dinner, you may as well just cancel dinner if someone tests positive. But if it’s a high consequence event, like you’re having a wedding and flying somewhere, and you’re going to screen a few hundred people, you may get a false positive and want to test again. ”How do I find a home test? Although supplies are expected to improve in the coming weeks, the tests can be difficult to find right now. Try the websites of stores like CVS, Walgreens, Costco or Walmart or check with a local drugstore. I recently searched the CVS website for a friend in New Jersey and found BinaxNow tests at a store about 30 minutes away. When he arrived, he found the shelves stacked with tests. A word of warning: Make sure you search by brand name. If a store is sold out of a rapid test, the website may direct you to a different type of test, called a home collection test, that requires you to mail the sample to get the result. But hold out until you find a rapid test. “The fact that they are rapid, ” Dr. Gronvall, of Johns Hopkins, said, is what “makes them a really great test to make sure somebody is not infectious at that moment. ”More from the Well NewsletterThe cost of growing oldMany people, myself included, worry about whether we’ll have enough money to pay for the costs of aging, whether it’s money for prescription drugs, a home health aid or assisted living. Paula Span looks at new research that calculated how many older Americans would need help as they age. Here’s what she found:About one-fifth of retirees will need no support at one-quarter will have severe older people will fall between those poles, with 22 percent having only minimal needs. The largest group, 38 percent, can expect moderate needs — like support while they recover from a heart attack, after which they can again function who attended college for some period are expected to fare far better than those without high school and Hispanic seniors, reflecting entrenched economic and health inequities, are more apt than older white people to develop moderate or severe rried people are less likely to need extensive care than those who are single. They have higher incomes and spouses to take care of more:Tallying the Cost of Growing OlderTry a bear meditationI’ve been following Fat Bear Week, a fun annual event during which people vote on the Alaskan bear that’s done the best job fattening up for hibernation. The Guardian has a fun post with before and after pictures of the bears. But I’ve been enjoying the live bear cams on Watching the bears search for salmon and listening to the sounds of the river is a meditative experience that I recommend! You can also find live cams for puppies, bees, birds and oceans. And while you’re there, check out the “Zen” the bear cams:The Brown Bears of Katmai, AlaskaThe Week in WellHere are some stories you don’t want to miss:Jane Brody explains the link between mind and etchen Reynolds reports that exercise may ease “chemo brain. ”Pam Belluck has a fascinating story on depression and a “pacemaker” for the of course, we’ve got the Weekly Health ’s keep the conversation going. Follow me on Facebook or Twitter for daily check-ins, or write to me at well!
Frequently Asked Questions about rapid speed test
Is rapid testing for COVID-19 accurate?
Rapid tests are most accurate when used by people with COVID-19 symptoms in places with a lot of community spread. Under those conditions, a rapid test produces correct results 80 to 90 per cent of the time, she said.Oct 1, 2021
How much do rapid COVID-19 home tests cost?
In the United States, the tests can range from $7 to $12 each, making them too expensive for most people to use frequently.Oct 8, 2021
How long does it take to get results for COVID-19 antigen tests?
Antigen tests are relatively inexpensive, and most can be used at the point of care. Most of the currently authorized tests return results in approximately 15–30 minutes.
