Not been feeling well for past 3-4 days. Slight flu like symptoms, slight temp below 100 for a few hours at night. No known exposure.

Guess I should go get tested. Is it even worth it to get rapid or should I just get the PCR?

After waiting 3 days to get my PCR results, part of me wonders if it would've been better to just spend a couple hours getting 3 or 4 rapid tests from different locations and hope that the law of averages means one of them would be positive if I actually had it.

This is a good question and have wondered the same.

If you are going to isolate anyway, it probably doesn't matter which you get. If you decide to get a rapid test, if it comes back negative, the doctor will probably send it off for a PCR anyway, just like they do with strep. So, it might come down to which one you have available to you.

I hope you're well soon.

The advantage of the rapid is that you can rapidly contact trace and potentially quarantine others that may have been exposed. But it's falsely negative almost 50% of the time.

If whereever you test will reflexively send your swab for PCR if the rapid is negative, then it's worth getting. Otherwise, PCR is what I'd want.

Wait, so are you saying initial swab (rapid) can/or is sent to pcr test?

If it comes back neg, ask for flu test. Got neg covid test on Friday. Urgent med told me maybe false neg, but was going to send me home. I asked for a flu test. Came back as flu-b. Urgent med wasn't even going to check till I asked.

SATX_BQ98 said:

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If it comes back neg, ask for flu test. Got neg covid test on Friday. Urgent med told me maybe false neg, but was going to send me home. I asked for a flu test. Came back as flu-b. Urgent med wasn't even going to check till I asked.

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Nobody gets the flu anymore dontchaknow or they don't get mo money

I get it. Wasnt sick enough to get meds anyway. However, for me, it ruled out the possibility of a false neg on the covid test. IMO, that is where the utility was.

We recently had a rapid test that was a molecular vs an antigen. The doctor told us they were was reliable as a PCR test.

Had both PCR and rapid test done at the same time last week. Made it pretty convenient.

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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SolidRockAg said:

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SATX_BQ98 said:

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If it comes back neg, ask for flu test. Got neg covid test on Friday. Urgent med told me maybe false neg, but was going to send me home. I asked for a flu test. Came back as flu-b. Urgent med wasn't even going to check till I asked.

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Nobody gets the flu anymore dontchaknow or they don't get mo money

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No. There is minimal clinical utility in getting a flu swab, it only adds cost to the system.

The only time when there is utility is if you need to determine if someone will need Tamiflu. And the only time you need Tamiflu is if you're pregnant, elderly, very young, or some vulnerable population. Additionally, if you don't start taking Tamiflu within 48 hours of symptom onset, there is no utility. Anyone otherwise young and healthy that takes Tamiflu within 48 hours of symptom onset will likely see, on average, about a half day earlier symptom resolution, but will also suffer increased side effects of Tamiflu.

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What do you think of Xofluza? I was able to use it a few times last year (12 + years of age) and it seemed to work very well relative to Tamiflu.

cc_ag92 said:

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If you are going to isolate anyway, it probably doesn't matter which you get. If you decide to get a rapid test, if it comes back negative, the doctor will probably send it off for a PCR anyway, just like they do with strep. So, it might come down to which one you have available to you.

I hope you're well soon.

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Yeah. My county has done rapid since mid May, but the doctor I go to in Dumas does PCR.

It's not on formulary for us, so I've never used it. Or really looked into the data on it. But I just looked up some data on it. It does look like reduced chance of side effects compared with tamiflu and maybe slightly better efficacy in reducing duration of symptoms?

Even though I'm not a big Tamiflu fan, I'll usually do shared decision making if I think there might be benefit. But generally, we come to the conclusion that it's not worth it.

And SATX_BQ - I agree, there is still utility in knowing if you have the flu sometimes. However my post was directed to SolidRockAg who seemed to suggest medical decision making was based on getting more money for covid diagnoses.

I've had two teen patients over the years have bad hallucinations on Tamiflu. One got a fell work up for encephalopathy and a PICU stay for a side effect so I'm pretty limited with my Tamiflu unless families insist.

The data over time on decreasing mortality and hospitalization is not great either.

Anyhow sorry for the derail was just curious.