No, I don't say that, the Cochrane Review says that - summary here: https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/how-likely-positive-lateral-flow-test-covid-19-be-wrong If you prefer, the goverment also published the findings of a study conducted by Public Health England and Oxford University which gets really detailed. This is why the messaging has been ****, because it's a complicated subject and most of us are not immunologists, virologists, or even scientists. The TL;DR is still: If an LF test comes back positive then you've got it; if it comes back negative it means the test was negative, it doesn't mean you don't have it.
For sure, a false negative in a PCR is more likely than a false positive in an LFT, but it's still weighing up those probabilities and statistics, and so there is a little uncertainty, more now that it's happening more. Even if there are no 'faulty' LFT tests. Although he was taking the LFT while having symptoms. I could never find somewhere explaining why you shouldn't.
Anecdotes are not evidence. Look, I sound like the "I'm right and you're wrong" dickhead here, but the science on this is pretty damn solid.
I suspected this was the case... you thought we were arguing. You thought I was fighting back, disagreeing or whatever. You didn't see a guy asking you questions. Why do we ask questions? Well I ask to learn, I guess you ask to fight or disagree. Something something evidence, something something back it up, something something right and wrong. ****ing forums... this thread especially...
I can assure you that no malice was intended. But I will say that mis-communication goes both ways: your replies come across as confrontational and antagonistic, and not someone asking questions. This is the Serious section. You're unlikely to be personally insulted, but don't expect to find an echo chamber for unsupported arguments or claims.
That's what I'm telling you - my replies came across as confrontational and antagonistic to you because that's how you approach conversations on forums. It's you. Look how you closed that post. Echo chambers now, I think we got a straight line on the bingo card there. But step back and look at it and think about it... You're telling yourself I want to be in an echo chamber because I asked you to explain more. That's a contradiction. You were expecting me to deny everything and hurl insults and "back it up" with links and ****, not ask you to teach haha. This will chill your warrior blood, but I'm using the info I learned today. It's a shame you ruined the interaction with your (just being honest) forum insecurities. I hope you too can make it a learning experience and then we'll have both gained.
I'd have closed the book on this and (figuratively) walked away if it wasn't for this: If anyone can point to one specific instance where I've insulted someone instead of discussing the arguments then I will happily apologise. Otherwise I stand by what I've said right from the start: the best available evidence we have says that when an LFT is positive it's very very unlikely to be wrong. That has not changed with the omicron variant. If there's evidence that's not the case then I'll happily change my views on LFTs but that evidence needs to be much better than "yeah but I know people who had a positive LFT and then a negative PCR, so are LFTs really all that good?".
@oscy The positive lateral flow/negative PCR had caught the attention of quite a few scientists. Not sure if they came to a conclusion if it was just faulty batches of LFTs, problems in some PCR testing or something else. I mean it doesn't happen that often but the figures we're dealing with does add up.
Maybe it's happening more now, maybe we're just hearing about it more now like a good Conservative Xmas party. The increased uncertainty does make things confusing for people and workplaces now though. They're having the same thing in another store, she had 3 positives and 3 negatives, so she just went back to work. I've said the (un)infected guy in our store can stay away, and hopefully management don't say otherwise.
Moderna upgrade installed. They were bloody efficient there, couldn't have spent more than 15-20 minutes there in total.
Sorry, yes, the latest baby. Of... what are we up to, now, seven acknowledged and an unknown number unacknowledged?
Immigrant¹ serial philanderer leaving behind a string of kids to single mums, who lives off taxpayers' hard-earned money² in a free flat and enjoys taxpayer-subsidised food and drink, appears visibly drunk at work when he bothers to show up at all, has been fired twice from two different jobs for lying³... 's funny to think how his core voter base would react if his skin tone were different, innit? 1: Born on the 19th of June 1964 in Manhattan, New York City, fact-fans. 2: Well, "lives off" is maybe pushing it 'cos he's "claiming benefits" while pulling down £1.6 million a year in kickbacks bribes err... "outside earnings." 3: Fired from The Times after inventing a quote from his own godfather 'cos he couldn't be chuffin' bothered to do the work of asking him that claimed that Piers Gaveston would have been enjoying the Rose Palace which was built thirteen years after his death, then fired from his positions as Shadow Arts Minister and Conservative Vice-Chair 'cos he was having an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt and lied about it. Michael Howard gave him the chance to do the semi-honourable thing and resign, incidentally, but he refused. Amazingly, he was not sacked as editor of the Spectator - yes, the same Spectator - in 2004 after publishing an article blaming fans for the Hillsborough disaster. Nor was he sacked in 2019 for literally lying to the Queen over the illegal prorogation of Parliament, continued lies about the UK's total contributions to the European union and how much we could save by leaving, accepting - well, begging for, really - tens of thousands of pounds from a peer and party donor to do-up his free flat with designer wallpaper, nor the parties. Err, wine and cheese business meetings with the current and, let's face it, future ex wife and one of the kids.
One of his former employers, Max Hastings, trusted Bozo so much, he said this: "I would not take Boris's word about whether it is Monday or Tuesday."
@Gareth Halfacree What is it about New Yorkers with crappy hair that seem to have a weird understanding of truth and morality? Two's a coincidence, just waiting on that third (or am I missing one?)
