I am one of those sorry people who get the flu every single year, even though I also get my shot right on schedule. Flus are different than colds for me. The flu comes on suddenly, instead of gradually, and I get a moderate to high fever and go completely delirious for several days. Still, it would be great to confirm that I had the flu. I’m lucky because my direct manager lets me stay home when I am sick, but I know that’s kind of unusual here in the US at many workplaces. A positive flu test might help people take time off work or work from home and prevent the spread of disease or seek care if their symptoms are severe. There are two at home flu tests that got emergency approval from the FDA, but they’re both pretty expensive. Hopefully that will change soon and they will be more widely available.
The two options for at home flu testing:
Get results from a lab: A test by LabCorp, which received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2022, checks for COVID-19, influenza A and B, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). It involves doing a nasal swab at home and then mailing the sample with the test kit’s prepaid shipping label to a lab for analysis. The lab then contacts you with results, usually one to two days after receiving the sample, according to LabCorp’s website.
Get results at home: In February 2023, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for a combined COVID and flu test by Lucira (which was acquired by Pfizer shortly after going bankrupt earlier this year). This test looks more like the at-home COVID test process that became common during the pandemic, with no outside labs involved. After taking a nasal swab sample and stirring it into the test kit’s sample vial, you find out within 30 minutes if you have COVID-19 or influenza A or B.
They’re more accurate than at home COVID tests: These new at-home flu tests combine the ease of home testing with the accuracy of a PCR test by targeting the genetic material of the virus — as opposed to rapid antigen tests, which look only for proteins on the surface of the virus.The tests are expensive though: The LabCorp test kit is available to order on the company’s website and costs $129 per kit. The Lucira by Pfizer test kit is currently unavailable, but a Lucira by Pfizer customer service representative tells Yahoo Life that the company is “planning to have more stock available to be purchased this year,” and the LuciraPfizer.com website will be updated with buying options. The test was previously listed at $34.99 per kit, but it’s unclear if it will still be sold at that same price when it’s available, the representative says.
I think $129 is objectively too expensive, but if the prices come down, these tests could truly save lives. While COVID has loomed large in our minds for the past three years, the flu also kills between 12,000 and 52,000 people each year. Accurate, affordable at home tests can help people get timely care or avoid spreading the disease to others. COVID really showed how important it is to invest in public health and common sense tools like testing. I hope we’ve learned our lesson but I also remain skeptical and jaded. An interesting fact about the origins of the term “influenza”: it comes from the belief that people who got the flu were under the “influenza di stelle,” or the influence of a bad star. It dates to medieval Italy. I wonder if people were blaming everything on Geminis even back then.
photos via Pexels and Instagram
I’m from Poland and we have cheap swab combo tests for two types of the flu and Covid-19 since 2021. You can even buy them in Lidl, not to mention every pharmacy. The results are in in 15 minutes and they are pretty accurate – every positive result in my family was later corroborated by the lab test.
That sucks so much that you get it despite shots! I wonder if talking to your doc about the double dose that seniors get would help you? I got the flu almost every year growing up, pre-vaccine era. When shots first became available, it was a bit of a hassle to get, but getting the flu twice one winter made me make the effort ever since. So glad I can do it easily at the pharmacy now, instead of booking a doctor’s visit. Luckily, it’s been very effective for me. In the ~25 years since I had that double whammy and started religiously getting shots, I’ve maybe had it once: I experienced body aches but no respiratory symptoms that was maybe a weakened flu.
I typically just woke up with it, but I remember the time it hit me over the course of a bus ride home from school. The speed of the onset freaked me out so much.
$129 for the test is just way too expensive. The people that need it the most, that is those who can’t afford a doctor visit for tests, won’t be able to afford this either. The cost needs to be probably $25 or less before people will really start using it.