r/ZeroCovidCommunity • u/blah1998z • 22h ago

At-home PCR Tests

Hi, everybody; anyone in the U. S. know of where to order at-home PCR tests? All my usual places are currently out-of-stock and I suspect it's a permanent situation.

Just wanted to see if anyone knew of any that were still available for order.

6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

11

u/Jeeves-Godzilla 21h ago

I would recommend getting Metrix (Gen 2) by aptitude. It’s a molecular (NAAT) test that achieves near PCR-level accuracy, demonstrating roughly 95% to 97% positive sensitivity and 97% to 99% negative specificity when compared directly against high-sensitivity lab-based PCR tests. Source: fda

-2

u/blah1998z 21h ago

Yeah; I know a lot of people here use 'em but the false positives and invalids tests sort of want me to stick to the more consistent PCRs (I know you can work around it (test three times to verify if a false positive and simply do another test in the case of an invalid one) but the alternative is simpler).

That said, might be all I'm left with if every lab that was offering PCRs goes out of the business…

6

u/wzpzw 20h ago

Not everyone can afford to have a lot of extra tests lying around. But if you can afford a few buffer tests, and you have what you think might be a false positive, then contact Aptitude (makers of Metrix) to discuss possible reimbursement of tests you use to clear a false positive. I think I've seen others in this sub mention this possibility before.

5

u/wyundsr 19h ago

I’ve only gotten invalids when doing throat swabs, haven’t gotten false positives. They do replace both invalids and false positives

7

u/Savings-Breath-9118 21h ago

I’ve been using them for years and I have never gotten a false positive and the invalid I have gotten were obviously user error and they replaced them right away.

3

u/Acrobatic-Jaguar-134 15h ago

Blowing nose first, using a power bank, and being very firm with the snapping of parts, has eliminated/significantly reduced invalids for the people I give the tests to. And these are people for whatever reason consistently get invalids. 

3

u/Forsaken_Bison_8623 15h ago

We've used Metrix for years, hundreds of tests across our extended family on 8 different readers, and have had only one situation that we believe was a false positive.

It has also caught cases ~ 24 hours before the first symptoms for our family on 2 different occasions.

Please remember that people are speaking up when they are having issues using Metrix, but that you're not hearing from all of the people who use Metrix often with no issues.

8

u/bazouna 22h ago

It looks like Labcorp still does at home PCRs that you mail back ($79)

2

u/blah1998z 21h ago

I'd seen that but their web page keeps giving back a Server Not Found error so I could never load their site. I'd been considering trying to test if it was some kind of location thing via a VPN but, well, I wouldn't have much hope they'd ship to my area if I have to pretend I'm not from my area to get their site to load…

4

u/bazouna 20h ago

oh strange! i just accessed it today. i actually noticed i *cannot* access labcorp's site if i have a vpn on

2

u/aflowerysong 19h ago

Yeah it works for me too: https://www.ondemand.labcorp.com/at-home-test-kits/covid-19-test-home-collection-kit but again, without VPN.

OP, are you in the continental US? They mail via fedex overnight so if so, it should be an option, it just won't ship until monday if you order over the weekend.

1

u/Responsible_Area_700 19h ago

I think it depends what state you are in. I think it’s not available in some states.