Hey look it’s summer and people are getting a lot of covid so let’s recap: Rapid antigen tests (RATs) are *much* more likely to detect an infection once viral load gets high. That’s what they’re for.
If you take one a couple days after an exposure, it probably won’t go positive even if you have covid, unless you got it before the known exposure. But most people are now potentially exposed every day, so…what’s the plan?
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If you’re going to be indoors for a few days with people you really don’t want to infect, take a RAT every day or two for a week—or a PCR day-of hangout start—*while also sharply reducing your exposure* for at least a week. Then hang out.
If you take a test every day while also continuing to be out indoors with people taking no precautions, your new-exposure clock resets to zero every day, making your test results much less meaningful, bc again RATs don’t pop on day 1, or often even day 5.
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