Thread by @ChrisAlvino

Thanks to your donations we were able to get a PlusLife tester awhile back and it's been a game changer! Finally a test where u can TRUST a negative result! But I've seen people struggle w false positives from air bubbles, so here's a 🧵 w everything u need to know:

For those who don't know, PlusLife is a portable nucleic acid test that is incredibly accurate, on par with some of the best PCR tests. There is a website and app that go with it that enables you to see the raw data from the test instead of just seeing a "positive" or "negative"

This app makes the entire test SO much more accurate and informative. Here's an example of a normal "negative" result from the app. Each test card has 7 chambers and you can see the results of each chamber (aka channels) in the graph below. Notice they're all flat except for 4:

What the graphs are showing is detection of the virus, except for channel 4. Channel 4 is special bc it's the control. That means it's not testing to detect the virus, instead it's detecting a common human gene to make sure the tester is working properly.

So for a normal negative test result, all of the channels should remain flat (meaning SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in any of the chambers on the card), while channel 4 should show a curve like in the image above where the machine is detecting the control gene.

An issue can arise if large air bubbles get into the test card. This is bc the tester uses light to detect the virus. So air bubbles can fuck with this detection. We just had our first air bubble result recently and it looked like this:

While watching this test come in live, I was afraid that channel 5 was detecting a positive at around the 10 and 15 minute marks. But then as you look, the line goes up and then down, and it never goes all the way up again. That's how you know it's an air bubble

This is due to the way the test works. It attempts to replicate pieces of the virus from your swabbed sample over time, which means that over time, the number of virus particles detected should get larger exponentially. Like it shouldn't detect LESS virus at the end of the test

This is bc it's growing the part of the virus it's detecting, so it should always be trending upwards for a true positive result. There might be little individual jiggles which is sometimes due to the power supply and a few other things, but the overall line should trend upwards

If they don't, you most likely have air bubbles. For example, here's what a light positive and a strong positive test result graph looks like. You can see that at least one channel is increasing exponentially over time:

If you see a channel go up and down over time, it's most likely an air bubble. You can also check this with the test card itself. If you look carefully at the card, chambers 1, 4, and 7 are labeled. And if you look at our test card, you can see one of them has a giant air bubble

And seeing as it's just to the right of chamber 4, that means it's chamber 5 that has the giant air bubble, which corresponds precisely with what the graph on the web app was showing. So this is how you double check to make sure it was actually an air bubble and not a positive

You can also see that each chamber has super tiny air bubbles in them. Those are normal and typically fine. The issue is if you get giant air bubbles/pockets in the chambers. Then the test results for that specific chamber will be inconclusive.

Whether you want to test again is up to you, depending on how much accuracy you need. That's partially why there are so many chambers, for a level of redundancy so that you have multiple testing channels in case one is inconclusive.

So, for me personally, I'm usually ok with not retesting if only one channel is inconclusive. But if more than one channel had air bubbles or otherwise returned inconclusive, I'd retest.

And the way you avoid air bubbles is by ensuring you fill the test card up to the line it recommends with your solution. And then make sure to tap it a lot and slightly shake it to ensure all the chambers in the card get filled properly with the solution.

If you want more info about PlusLife, I highly recommend you check out the website , the creators of the web app many of us use for these graphs. You can also email them for discount codes to apply towards the purchase of the PlusLife mini dock and tests!virus.sucks

@Randall87454048 The reason there are multiple chambers is to increase the test accuracy and redundancy, but you don't have to worry about that when doing the test

@Randall87454048 My first order was the device (called the mini dock), a box of ten tests, and some extra swabs

@nickelpin But for me now, it's already changed our lives a lot bc my mom babysits my nephew like once a week. So she was quarantining herself and we'd both mask indoors for two days after she got home. But now? As soon as she gets back we just test and can see right away what the risk is