When we were at the hospital during this whole covid journey, I had the opportunity to inquire about testing. It was actually quite simple and all it took was a nurse with interest in spending a few moments clarifying the chaotic mess of contradictory information that is bouncing around out there.
Home Covid tests test for "viral load". This is essentially the quantity of virus present in the body.
Hospital swab tests test for the presence of antigens. For those that don't know, an antigen is a substance that triggers an immune response in the body, causing it to produce antibodies.
In order for a home covid test to detect a viral load, the load has to be great enough to register on the testing device. Because it can take a while for the body to build a great enough viral load to be detected, false negative tests are common when preformed too early. Everyone knows someone who tested negative for 3, or 4 or 5 days only to test positive a week after their first covid symptoms appeared.
Once the viral load starts to wane, and the home tests accurately test negative, it is assumed that the viral load is low enough for the virus to not be transmissible from person to person. (I question this and feel that this is actually a false assumption shoddily put into place to get people back into the work force......and I'll just leave that there because this article is about clarifying tests and not my own personal opinion.)
Antigen tests tell quite a different story. Many people who test negative on the viral load tests, after a period of infirmary with covid, will continue to test positive on antigen tests for 60 to 90 days. This means that the covid virus is still active in the body. You are still sick with covid.
This makes sense why the term "lingering covid" came about and why "long covid" is said to be things that linger after 4 months. Pretty. much, anything that is experienced within that 60 to 90 day period isn't lingering or long.....it's actually just still covid. (and here comes my personal opinion again.........I think that in addition to people being nonchalant and irresponsible with regards to "staying home when they are sick" we have this gross misinformation about how this virus actually works. People are likely still transmitting covid as. long as antigens are being produced in the body. The likelihood may diminish with a lower viral load, but transmission still likely occurs.)
It would be so much simpler if this were just explained to us as simple as I have done so here. Perhaps then we would have people using greater caution and common sense with regards to responsible choices should they fall ill.
It really isn't all that hard to understand when it's put straightforward.