Starting tomorrow you can order
free at home rapid COVID-19 tests
through a government website.
Now some of you have some questions
about the test and when it take
them to help answer some of them.
We're bringing in nine health
expert doctor Pilco Lee,
Good morning Doctor Kohli.
Hi there, good morning.
So my first question.
A lot of people asking when and how
should we use these rapid tests?
This is great, Natasha.
We're going to have access
to at home rapid tests,
but we have to use them correctly
in order for them to help us.
So the tests look for viral particles
so they actually perform best when
there's lots of virus around.
So if you think about that,
that means that you've probably should
have had symptoms for at least one
day in order for you to use this test,
so you don't want to use it the
minute that you have symptoms,
because you may not have enough virus around,
especially if you're vaccinated.
Because vaccinated people start
to have symptoms early even when
the viral load is very, very low.
Usually I like to use them a day
after I've had symptoms to check
and see if they might be positive.
What test should we use if we've
had an exposure or we're going to
go see someone who is high risk
but they have no symptoms? Great
question, so this is not the place to use
these rapid tests and I want to reiterate
that because a lot of people are saying,
oh I'm gonna go see grandma,
let me just do a rapid test
and see if I'm positive,
because if you're pretest probability
meaning you have no symptoms, so the
likelihood that you're infected is low,
the performance of the test goes down.
It's more likely to give you the wrong
answer rather than the correct answer,
so the right test used to go
see Grandma is the PCR test.
The day that you're planning to see her.
Whatever couple of days before.
If you've had an exposure.
You don't want to go get tested
the same day with the PCR test you
actually want to wait two to three days
and then go and get that PCR test,
but do not use these rapid
tests for those purposes.
Let's talk about these rapid tests.
Do they pick up the Omicron variant
as opposed to prior variants?
So the test was designed to actually
look at the original Wuhan variant.
Those are the viral particles that's
best at picking up the FDA asked this
question very recently about the Olmec
Ron variant and they found that of course,
the PCR test which amplify
the viruses genetic material,
those performed the best.
For omicron, these ones do
have a decreased performance,
so they're not doing as well for Omak,
Ron as they did for Delta or alpha
or some of the original variants,
but they are still probably adequate
in terms of picking up when you
have a high degree of viral load.
And Doctor Cole, you kind of
touched on this earlier about
getting a false negative test.
You know what are one of the top reasons
for one of those false negative tests?
And how do you avoid doing that?
So the biggest reason really
is sample collection.
Because remember,
we're doing these tests on ourselves.
We're doing that at home,
so you have to really be sure
that you get a good sample.
So I want to show you how
to collect the sample.
So pretend that this is the Q-tip
that comes in the testing kit.
OK, so you want to make sure that the
entire length of the Q-tip is inside
your nose by at least 1/2 an inch,
and then you want to do 15
big swirls in each nostril.
Doesn't matter what direction,
just to make sure you get
enough of a test sample.
And I'll show you that in a second
there's also some data that we
should actually be transitioning and
doing saliva collection for Omicron,
because that may be performing better,
so you're ready here to watch
me do my rapid collection.
I'm putting it in and it's all the
way in and it feels uncomfortable.
It makes me feel like I'm
going to want to sneeze,
but I'm doing nice big,
slow circles and you want to count
a full 15 seconds and then when
you take it out be sure not to
touch it to your face to the table
anywhere else or contaminate it.
Put it directly after you do the other side,
put it directly into the you
know analyzer set and swirl it
around to break up those viral
particles and release them.
Yeah, you know, I think it's it's so
important that you collect a good sample
in order to get that accurate result.
Like you just said Doctor Kohli
appreciate you demonstrating that and
thanks so much for answering a lot of
those questions and at home if you'd
like to order a free test tomorrow,
you can visitcovidtest.gov
COVID test with ans.gov.
The White House says that you're limited
to four rapid tests per address.