Jennifer Weiss, Osteopathic Physician

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Why You Should Use Rapid Antigen COVID tests

Sept 2nd is the last day the government will send you rapid tests – did you get your maximum number allotted per household? Order today here: https://www.covid.gov/tests

Maybe you have insurance that will reimburse you for these tests? Get some. Get some more.

If you see me for an in-person appointment you will be tested using a binax now rapid test.

But wait, you probably know someone who had covid and tested negative using this test. You probably heard they are less reliable with Omicron. You probably heard that PCR is better.

No, no, no.

These are good tests to be using. 

First, I hope it goes without saying that COVID is not just a cold. It’s not just the flu. You have a good chance of getting long covid, early heart disease, or difficulties with your brain not working how you hoped it would. Or diabetes, or kidney problems. I am not kidding. I am not being inflammatory or fear-mongering. COVID is clearly causing long-term problems of which we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. You can read more on future blogs, or join a Twitter #longCOVID group for a taste of the suffering. 

OK, so let’s say you already believe that getting COVID, or getting COVID multiple times, is not a great idea. 

What are you to do? The world has proclaimed covid pandemic over. Some call it endemic. You are awake to the fact that it’s here and still a problem but you are alone in this. (Not totally alone if you are reading this).

First, wear a mask. An N95 or a KN95. Make sure it has a good seal (put on a pair of glasses – they shouldn’t fog up when you breathe). 

Avoid crowded indoor experiences, especially ones that last a long time (think, bar, restaurant, theatre, airport).

Use good air filters and open windows when you are indoors.

Finally, take full advantage of rapid antigen tests. These tests tell you about viral load. We think that correlates with how much viral shedding there is. We think that correlates with how infectious someone is, or how likely you are to catch the virus. There are a couple of things to understand:

1. This isn’t a test to see if you ever had the virus. 

2. This isn’t a test to see if you’ve been exposed.

3. If you are vaccinated the test will most likely take longer to turn positive than if you are not vaccinated. This isn’t because the test isn’t working. This is because the vaccine is working. 

Here’s what’s happening: when your body realizes there is a bit of that SARSCOV2 virus around AND you were vaccinated, it starts mounting an immune response. This means you get sick. You might get a sore throat, or runny nose, congested or tired, or even a fever. Everybody reacts a little differently. If you are vaccinated, it doesn’t take a whole lot of virus to trigger this immune reaction. However, it still takes just as much virus to spread the infection. And it still takes just as much virus to cause a rapid antigen test to turn positive. The result is that it can take DAYS for the rapid antigen test to turn positive and in some cases, it might not – because your body just keeps knocking down the virus before it can replicate enough to cause the test to turn positive. 

Can you get someone sick with low levels of virus? Probably. That means the rapid test isn’t perfect. What to do about that?

First of all – if you have symptoms (runny nose, sore throat, fatigue) don’t just assume it’s not covid, don’t assume it’s allergies, and don’t go out. Wait till your symptoms are gone AND a rapid test is still negative.

Next, if you got exposed to someone with COVID and the rapid test is still coming up negative, it’s not a bad idea to be a little more cautious when around others and wear a mask. 

Finally, nothing is perfect, not this test, not your immune system, not the vaccines, and most certainly not our treatment for #longcovid. We aren’t looking for perfect, we are trying to decrease your risk of getting covid, or getting covid again… and again. Just because something is perfect, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be part of your strategy for risk mitigation.

What about omicron and that test? It turns out that the test was made and mostly studied before the omicron variants were on the scene. But also before vaccines were available. So what do we know? We know that people are turning positive after symptom onset rather than before – which is what was happening before omicron. People were most infectious and therefore Rapid antigen tests were turning positive before symptom onset. Now people get symptoms and it can be days before the test turns positive. Guess what? We already talked about this. It’s most likely because those people are vaccinated and the vaccines work!

So, if you know a bunch of people who aren’t vaccinated that have gotten omicron and used a rapid antigen test and are getting negative tests, let us know…we want to know. But chances are the negative test is because 1. They are vaccinated and 2. They only tested once early on and 3. The vaccine and their immune systems are working.

Here’s some information to back up the things you just read: 

From the website: https://www.rapidtests.org/resources

Everything in Osteopathy is true
—James Jealous

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease
—Thomas Edison

Harmony only dwells where obstructions do not exist
—A.T. Still

The breath of life in the cerebrospinal fluid Tide is the fundamental principal in the primary respiratory mechanism. ~ W.G Sutherland

Along in 1874, after years of independent thinking, there came to Dr. Still the concept of Osteopathy ~ Dr. Asa Willard in the Cranial Bowl

What is harmony but Health?  It takes harmony of every nerve, vein and artery in every part of the body. ~ A.T. Still

All diseases are mere effects, the cause being a partial or complete failure of the nerves to properly conduct the fluids of life. ~ A.T. Still

The hearing of spirit is not limited… the whole being listens.  There is a direct grasp of what is right before you, that can never be heard with the ear, or understood with the mind. ~ Thomas Merton

The fundamental principle advocated in cranial technique, viz: allowing the physiological function within to manifest its unerring potency, rather than the application of blind force from without. William G. Sutherland, D.O.

Here you lay aside the long words, and use your mind in deep and silent earnestness; drink deep from the eternal fountain of reason, penetrate the forests of that law whose beauties are life and death. ~ A.T. Still

Do not try to force anything within the cranial mechanism. ~A.T. Still

It is as if the whole body, functioning as a unit, is responding to a force similar to that moving the tides of the ocean. ~ Rollin Becker

Spirit in osteopathy turns out to be scientific, practical, and very useful in a medical medel that Osteopathic Physicianscan readily abide by. ~ From interface; Mechanisms of Spirit in Osteopathy by A.T. Still

And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air. ~ William Wordsworth

It is the stillness of the Tide, not the stormy waves that bounce upon the shore that is the potency, the power. ~ W.G Sutherland

Normal doesn’t simply mean a readjustment of the bones to normal position. ~ A.T. Stills

Freedom is experienced in the infinite number of pauses.  ~Rollo May

It is the stillness of the tide not the stormy waves that bounce upon the shore that is the potency, the power. ~ W.G. Sutherland

I believe that all the remedies necessary to health are within the human body. ~ A.T. Stills

Man should study and use the drugs compounded in his own body. ~A.T. Stills

The greatest mistake in the treatment of disease is that there are physicians for the body and physicians for the soul, although the two cannot be separated. ~ Plato

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