8 ms·

Are people ingesting the chemicals that come in the kits for incubating the sample??? What the actual fuck, there are instructions

xyzzy123 5y ago
Picture frazzled parents with a 5yo, 4yo and 2yo trying to administer RAT tests in morning, everyone is getting increasingly late, 2yo is screaming and fighting with whole body, because he knows the drill and really, really dislikes it. It's not that easy to mix the things, find the missing shoes, time it all right, pack the bags and also keep everything perfectly out of reach. TBH I had not thought very hard about the toxicity of the reagents. Some places ask that you place the completed test for that day in the child's bag.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- moron4hire 5y ago
  As a person with small children who does have to do this, it actually is easy. We need to stop normalizing "frazzled parents can't handle their kids", because I see a lot of parents around in my neighborhood who do use it as an excuse to not handle their kids.
  - PakG1 5y ago
    Perhaps a better way to say it would be it's not necessarily easy, but it's doable and necessary.
    - mbg721 5y ago
      The "necessary" part is the real political bone of contention. The "doable" part is where the argument shifts to "parenting isn't about doing what's easy", and the "easy" part is where it varies by individual.
  - xyzzy123 5y ago
    There are good mornings and there are bad mornings, depends what's going on in everyone's lives.
    - moron4hire 5y ago
      Your children are not your peers. Consensus and compromise are highly overrated. When you give up on the bad days, you're guaranteeing the next day will be worse.
      - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
        > Your children are not your peers. Consensus and compromise are highly overrated Again. I am not a parent, but isn't this a completely unwarranted, assumptive over-reading of what xyzzy123 said?
  - tasha0663 5y ago
    Your family is not every family. Your definition of handle is not everyone else's definition of handle. Your kids are not everyone else's kids. "Frazzled" is normal because the past few years have been completely batshit. Your community's response is not everyone else's community's response, nor are the stresses and behavioral side effects.
    - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
      I cannot imagine my parents ever being able to manage to do the nose swab on me, let alone a tonsil swab. Even now the nose test triggers enough sensitivity for me that I cannot go anywhere for an hour after I administer it because of the sneezing. At seven or eight years old? No way. I would have been unmanageable. So I guess my parents would have been breezily looked down upon too. Which is ironic considering that were they still working now, one of them would have been designing or scrutinising such tests and another checking large numbers of them on a daily basis.
    - moron4hire 5y ago
      I'm sick of seeing parents digitally drug their kids with iPads and NetFlix. I'm sick of seeing parents let their kids roleplay Lord of The Flies on the playground. And I'm sick of people talking about the pandemic like it's some insurmountable challenge. Yes, people have lost jobs and partners and other terrible tragedies. The people I see complaining the most have had none of that happen to them. They're complaining about having to cancel a trip to Disney World. They're complaining about the state mandating masks, or not mandating masks, or suggesting that maybe wearing masks might be a good idea, or not mentioning masks at all. They're complaining about something about football--I don't know what exactly, there can't possibly be anything of consequence once the subject turns to professional sports, so I start tuning out. As a parent, you have a whole person's life in your hands. You have a moral (and if it goes far enough, legal) responsibility to not screw it up. "But I'm tired" is just "excuses, excuses, excuses".
      - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
        > I'm sick of seeing parents digitally drug their kids with iPads and NetFlix. I'm sick of seeing parents let their kids roleplay Lord of The Flies on the playground. And I'm sick of people talking about the pandemic like it's some insurmountable challenge. IMO you should a) be aware that you have directed this rant at people who are responsibly testing their kids at home and b) consider whether all of this is therefore just rude, patronising assumptions about what has and hasn't happened to them.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Are there requirements somewhere for people to do at home tests?
  - treeman79 5y ago
    Kid complains stomach or anything hurts at school. We are required to get a test. Kids are also required to be tested weekly.
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    Don't know about the USA, but yeah, in the UK parents were routinely asked to administer tests for their kids; there's a specific page in the instructions for it. I've done only six of these (on myself) but I know parents who've administered more than a dozen to each child. I would rather receive vaccines via a harpoon than do the test on myself -- it's uncomfortable. Most kids are braver than I am though.
    - mrguyorama 5y ago
      I took one of the tests from the article and it merely required you to swab the inside of the nostril, NOT the thing where you shove a Q-tip into your brain stem. It was less uncomfortable than picking your nose. As a huge nerd, it was also really cool to watch the reagent wick up the test strip and react.
    - dpark 5y ago
      Are you talking about the nasopharyngeal swabbing? I’m not aware of anyone doing that anymore for COVID. And for kids they stopped doing it pretty early on because, yeah, it’s fucking awful. I’d wait out the 10 day quarantine rather than jam a 4” swab into the back of my kid’s nose. But I’ve given my kids tests a half dozen times each now and it’s a nonevent. Just swirl the swirl around the nostril about half an inch inside.
      - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
        > Are you talking about the nasopharyngeal swabbing? I’m not aware of anyone doing that anymore for COVID. And for kids they stopped doing it pretty early on because, yeah, it’s fucking awful. The test in the UK says you have to insert the thing and push it up the nose until it meets resistance. And then twirl it around like ten times or something. By the third or fourth twirl, I personally want to tear my nose off my face, and my sensitivity issues have reduced over time. As a kid I would not have been able to tolerate that, and I do not have special needs, or a known hypersensitivity disorder. It's just shockingly unpleasant for me. For kids they have at various times recommended doing this in both nostrils so as not to need to swab the throat. Ain't no way you'd have got it up my second nostril as a kid.
- The-Bus 5y ago
  Do you have a camera in my home? This is eerily accurate.
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    Again wishing there was some nuanced way I could upvote your comments but simultaneously fervently downvote-to-the-universe the crap you both had to soldier through.
- AndrewUnmuted 5y ago
  > TBH I had not thought very hard about the toxicity of the reagents. Forcing parents and children to endure a situation such as the one you depict should have also been thought about a lot harder than it was. Who cares about the reagent toxicity when this very process is riddled with psychological warfare, the denial of what humans need to feel safe and comforted in a group, and explicit scapegoating of swathes of people? Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic.
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    > Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic. Kids, it turns out, are hugely resilient. I reckon the covid generation kids are going to be much better at dealing with the anxieties of medicine.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    > Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic. "We're off to visit grandma, I'm gonna q-tip your nostril for ten seconds" has not induced much horror in my children. In fact, they're significantly more upset when I tell them they have to go back and wash the soap out of their hair after showering when I can still see suds in it. That produces a full-on tantrum. The only way kids are likely to see the occasional nose swab as toxic and horrifying is if the parents are priming them for that with their own histrionics.
  - dpark 5y ago
    > these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. Clipping my kids’ fingernails is far more dramatic than swizzling a swab in their nostrils for 10 seconds. If your kids are experiencing horror and mental problems from an antigen test, you’re the one causing it. The level of drama from people arguing against COVID prevention measures is absurd. “Kids are being tortured with these tests!” “Oh my god, I cannot breath with a mask on!” I’m sick of this stuff, too, but the teenage-level angst is not helpful. No one takes criticism seriously when it’s wrapped in so much dishonest hyperbole.
bluGill 5y ago
As the parent of young kids I can assure you that kids will chew on and eat anything but the good food you try to feed them. We do our best to keep the harmful stuff our of their reach, but mistakes happen.
swasheck 5y ago
tide pods are a good example of what humans are capable of doing with well-know products and their usage.

xyzzy123 5y ago

Picture frazzled parents with a 5yo, 4yo and 2yo trying to administer RAT tests in morning, everyone is getting increasingly late, 2yo is screaming and fighting with whole body, because he knows the drill and really, really dislikes it. It's not that easy to mix the things, find the missing shoes, time it all right, pack the bags and also keep everything perfectly out of reach. TBH I had not thought very hard about the toxicity of the reagents. Some places ask that you place the completed test for that day in the child's bag.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
moron4hire 5y ago
As a person with small children who does have to do this, it actually is easy. We need to stop normalizing "frazzled parents can't handle their kids", because I see a lot of parents around in my neighborhood who do use it as an excuse to not handle their kids.
- PakG1 5y ago
  Perhaps a better way to say it would be it's not necessarily easy, but it's doable and necessary.
  - mbg721 5y ago
    The "necessary" part is the real political bone of contention. The "doable" part is where the argument shifts to "parenting isn't about doing what's easy", and the "easy" part is where it varies by individual.
- xyzzy123 5y ago
  There are good mornings and there are bad mornings, depends what's going on in everyone's lives.
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    Your children are not your peers. Consensus and compromise are highly overrated. When you give up on the bad days, you're guaranteeing the next day will be worse.
    - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
      > Your children are not your peers. Consensus and compromise are highly overrated Again. I am not a parent, but isn't this a completely unwarranted, assumptive over-reading of what xyzzy123 said?
- tasha0663 5y ago
  Your family is not every family. Your definition of handle is not everyone else's definition of handle. Your kids are not everyone else's kids. "Frazzled" is normal because the past few years have been completely batshit. Your community's response is not everyone else's community's response, nor are the stresses and behavioral side effects.
  - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
    I cannot imagine my parents ever being able to manage to do the nose swab on me, let alone a tonsil swab. Even now the nose test triggers enough sensitivity for me that I cannot go anywhere for an hour after I administer it because of the sneezing. At seven or eight years old? No way. I would have been unmanageable. So I guess my parents would have been breezily looked down upon too. Which is ironic considering that were they still working now, one of them would have been designing or scrutinising such tests and another checking large numbers of them on a daily basis.
  - moron4hire 5y ago
    I'm sick of seeing parents digitally drug their kids with iPads and NetFlix. I'm sick of seeing parents let their kids roleplay Lord of The Flies on the playground. And I'm sick of people talking about the pandemic like it's some insurmountable challenge. Yes, people have lost jobs and partners and other terrible tragedies. The people I see complaining the most have had none of that happen to them. They're complaining about having to cancel a trip to Disney World. They're complaining about the state mandating masks, or not mandating masks, or suggesting that maybe wearing masks might be a good idea, or not mentioning masks at all. They're complaining about something about football--I don't know what exactly, there can't possibly be anything of consequence once the subject turns to professional sports, so I start tuning out. As a parent, you have a whole person's life in your hands. You have a moral (and if it goes far enough, legal) responsibility to not screw it up. "But I'm tired" is just "excuses, excuses, excuses".
    - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
      > I'm sick of seeing parents digitally drug their kids with iPads and NetFlix. I'm sick of seeing parents let their kids roleplay Lord of The Flies on the playground. And I'm sick of people talking about the pandemic like it's some insurmountable challenge. IMO you should a) be aware that you have directed this rant at people who are responsibly testing their kids at home and b) consider whether all of this is therefore just rude, patronising assumptions about what has and hasn't happened to them.
netizen-936824 5y ago
Are there requirements somewhere for people to do at home tests?
- treeman79 5y ago
  Kid complains stomach or anything hurts at school. We are required to get a test. Kids are also required to be tested weekly.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  Don't know about the USA, but yeah, in the UK parents were routinely asked to administer tests for their kids; there's a specific page in the instructions for it. I've done only six of these (on myself) but I know parents who've administered more than a dozen to each child. I would rather receive vaccines via a harpoon than do the test on myself -- it's uncomfortable. Most kids are braver than I am though.
  - mrguyorama 5y ago
    I took one of the tests from the article and it merely required you to swab the inside of the nostril, NOT the thing where you shove a Q-tip into your brain stem. It was less uncomfortable than picking your nose. As a huge nerd, it was also really cool to watch the reagent wick up the test strip and react.
  - dpark 5y ago
    Are you talking about the nasopharyngeal swabbing? I’m not aware of anyone doing that anymore for COVID. And for kids they stopped doing it pretty early on because, yeah, it’s fucking awful. I’d wait out the 10 day quarantine rather than jam a 4” swab into the back of my kid’s nose. But I’ve given my kids tests a half dozen times each now and it’s a nonevent. Just swirl the swirl around the nostril about half an inch inside.
    - unfocussed_mike 5y ago
      > Are you talking about the nasopharyngeal swabbing? I’m not aware of anyone doing that anymore for COVID. And for kids they stopped doing it pretty early on because, yeah, it’s fucking awful. The test in the UK says you have to insert the thing and push it up the nose until it meets resistance. And then twirl it around like ten times or something. By the third or fourth twirl, I personally want to tear my nose off my face, and my sensitivity issues have reduced over time. As a kid I would not have been able to tolerate that, and I do not have special needs, or a known hypersensitivity disorder. It's just shockingly unpleasant for me. For kids they have at various times recommended doing this in both nostrils so as not to need to swab the throat. Ain't no way you'd have got it up my second nostril as a kid.
The-Bus 5y ago
Do you have a camera in my home? This is eerily accurate.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  Again wishing there was some nuanced way I could upvote your comments but simultaneously fervently downvote-to-the-universe the crap you both had to soldier through.
AndrewUnmuted 5y ago
> TBH I had not thought very hard about the toxicity of the reagents. Forcing parents and children to endure a situation such as the one you depict should have also been thought about a lot harder than it was. Who cares about the reagent toxicity when this very process is riddled with psychological warfare, the denial of what humans need to feel safe and comforted in a group, and explicit scapegoating of swathes of people? Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic.
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  > Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic. Kids, it turns out, are hugely resilient. I reckon the covid generation kids are going to be much better at dealing with the anxieties of medicine.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  > Even when doing it "right," these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. The testing itself is toxic. "We're off to visit grandma, I'm gonna q-tip your nostril for ten seconds" has not induced much horror in my children. In fact, they're significantly more upset when I tell them they have to go back and wash the soap out of their hair after showering when I can still see suds in it. That produces a full-on tantrum. The only way kids are likely to see the occasional nose swab as toxic and horrifying is if the parents are priming them for that with their own histrionics.
- dpark 5y ago
  > these rapid at-home tests instill horror, social and mental problems, and all sorts of insane power hierarchies that confuse young, growing minds. Clipping my kids’ fingernails is far more dramatic than swizzling a swab in their nostrils for 10 seconds. If your kids are experiencing horror and mental problems from an antigen test, you’re the one causing it. The level of drama from people arguing against COVID prevention measures is absurd. “Kids are being tortured with these tests!” “Oh my god, I cannot breath with a mask on!” I’m sick of this stuff, too, but the teenage-level angst is not helpful. No one takes criticism seriously when it’s wrapped in so much dishonest hyperbole.

bluGill 5y ago

As the parent of young kids I can assure you that kids will chew on and eat anything but the good food you try to feed them. We do our best to keep the harmful stuff our of their reach, but mistakes happen.

swasheck 5y ago

tide pods are a good example of what humans are capable of doing with well-know products and their usage.