The Enthusiast ’s Guide To At-Home COVID-19 Tests

The COVID era has brought us many new experiences: mask-wearing, remote schooling, sheltering in place. The majority of these have been onerous and dreary. It’s amazing how energy-sapping it is to just have to wait for something to be over. But now at last we can do a new activity! An activity that will help reduce the spread of COVID! An activity that takes us places we haven’t been before, from the comfort of our home! And that activity is sticking a swab up our noses and investigating what comes out. Testing for COVID at home, I would argue, is the project we’ve all been waiting for. It’s good for you and the people around you. It’s novel. It actually does something about the pandemic. It’s (so far) uncontroversial. After months of having to find fulfillment with virtual experiences we get to do real life experiments. And they’re on the people we are most fascinated by: ourselves. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Am I unreasonably enthusiastic about the benefits of home testing? Perhaps. It’s been a long 22 months. But also, there are very few occasions in life where you get to conduct your own medical tests. Mostly you just deliver some bodily fluid and never hear much news of it again. Some of us with two x-chromosomes might have done a pregnancy test or two, or needed to figure out when they’re ovulating, but there’s not much to that. Those with chronic conditions like diabetes are obliged to keep...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news