Thread by @rkaviate

🧵... For anybody wondering how long you have between a negative PlusLife result and an infectious case, I think I just found an upper bound courtesy of my daughter, and it's only about 12-14 hours. I have the kids every other weekend now (after being divorced due to my COVID

precautions), so had picked them up last night and tested them with the PlusLife (pooled throat and nasal test), which was a definitive negative after the full test time last night (good control signal, totally flat test signals on the analyzer app). That was at 6:30pm. This

morning, I got a text from her that she had a 101 F (38.3 C) fever, so tested her right away again; strong positive, and same for the FlowFlex RAT I gave her as additional confirmation, both within just a few minutes 😭

So, to me, this says that at a minimum, we need to test

people at least twice daily (if not more often), in order to use the PlusLife as a safety measure (as well as that the FlowFlex RATs work quite well still). Remains to be seen whether it was enough to protect me, my son, and my elderly parents, as my son and I were unmasked in

my car for 2.5 hours with her last night (though that was immediately after the clear negative PlusLife test and my car has a HEPA filter in it, and we had external air on the whole time). Mitigations here afterwards included multiple Levoit HEPA filters on high, N95/KF94 masks,

and several Nukit torches. Really hoping it will have been enough 🙏 I'm honestly *quite* shocked by how quickly it went from molecular test negative to strong RAT positive, and hope this info is useful to others trying to use the PlusLife for [semi-]safely gathering unmasked.

@Guiness_Pig had something like 4 or 5x Pfizer vaccinations, for however much that helped). I just got my Novavax this Thursday as well, but I'm pretty sure it's much too soon to help much at all.

@heartedhoof1 But all 6 test channels were completely low and flat, from the last few minutes that I saw (as well as some of the intermediate results), and excellent control amplification, so no, nothing at all made me suspicious in hindsight; I think it was truly negative at that time.

@jhealth123 @Jo_Hanna_Jo She also did a separate FlowFlex herself (presumably throat+nose, and she knows how to do it correctly) a few hours before, which was negative too (though they're nowhere near as sensitive as the PlusLife is).

@adogslifeTO @Guiness_Pig a day for an entire year, and not have gotten something so incredibly contagious as we know SARS-CoV-2 is (though that did seem to be the case), given how poorly the vaccines tend to work now. In any case, I really hope she can fight it off without too much damage now 😢

@MooiNiet_ still may be, of course, but hopeful that we've dodged it... I guess I'll know for sure in a week or so).

@zoeboekbinder the PlusLife will still keep me safe as intended, but it seems like, at the very least, I may need to test twice as frequently, probably every morning first thing, and every evening. We also have limited HEPA filters here at my parents' place, though I've got WiFi enabled HEPAs

@zoeboekbinder in every room at my own house, which should help a lot (I'll see if I can automate them based off of time and motion detector status as well, though not sure if that's possible; my aim is to have my new house very highly automated though 🙂).

@zoeboekbinder I'd like to get far-UVC all over the house as well, though the state forces me to pay my ex-wife about 3-4 times what it actually costs to support our kids (she has them he majority of the time, since the courts don't believe in COVID 😠)... so I don't have the cash for that yet.

@einfach_machen3 She had also performed a FlowFlex test herself earlier because her throat apparently hurt a bit (negative, and I think she knows how to do it properly, though didn't observe that one); but she had just been doing a lot of singing for a play audition as well, so may be unrelated.

@einfach_machen3 I was also under the impression that PlusLife would warn me well in advance, which is why I had planned on tests every ~24 hours or so... and that might usually work fine. But this seems to indicate it can be a lot less, at least sometimes, so I'm switching to every 12 hours.

@einfach_machen3 Could also be a new variant thing; I really can't say for sure. In any case, the positive was quite a shock to us (despite knowing that she is *extremely* high risk due to her lack of precautions at school/with friends now, which I've warned my parents about repeatedly).

@MilitantMermaid February (right before I was forced to leave the house by the idiot judge), I'm convinced they also helped keep us safe (plus HEPA, N95s, open windows [in NH in February], isolation, etc.) with a shared bathroom; none of the rest of us nor the cat caught it as far as I know.

@MilitantMermaid On a side note, having a house helps a LOT in this case, and having two full baths (which we didn't) also seems like it would help a lot, because it allows the infected person/people to shower without anybody else having to share the air. Winter with shared bathroom wasn't ideal.

@ocnj3 something like this happens, and I realize that even all I do may not be enough. I'm hopeful that just increasing the frequency of the PlusLife testing will still be sufficient, and also very happy to now be Novavaxed, but still have to be constantly on guard; expensive/tiring.

@beemariestanley alternative is masking the entire time around them and eating separately from them, which makes them feel sort of bad and like I don't want to be around them (they're 10 and 14). I think 2x daily will be reasonable in terms of risk now, maybe masking towards the end of that time.

@beemariestanley But it's still only a probability of safety, and not a guarantee, unfortunately. Just wish so much that I could have homeschooled them, or more likely had them do our free remote school option in NH (I asked for both years ago, ex-wife and daughter simply refused 😥).