I’ve never wasted a test on checking, but my understanding is that the control strip will not show up if the sample was not taken properly. My assumption is exactly that, that it tests for something that typically shows up in normal healthy excretions.
Yeah, I only tried to schedule a PCR test once, gave up in frustration, and bought the local CVS out of home kits. Not only is it hard to schedule, but you often don’t get results for a few days.
That could be an issue, if you need a negative test within the last 72 hours, and there are not tests results that are less than 72 hours old.
Interestingly enough, when I was looking to schedule a PCR test, I found that it was far easier and more convenient to schedule a vaccine appt. Given that a proof of vaccination is also acceptable to the OP, it seems that is an easy way of accommodating those requirements.
Other public venues like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert require both vaccinations and tests, I wonder how they manage those logistics.
My event required both vaccination and testing. Not only did I require full vaccination, I pushed everyone then-eligible for a booster to get one. I really didn’t want to kill any of my friends, or their families.
Of course, I knew the people and relied on what they told me. (except for those who didn’t test in advance, whom I tested.)
FWIW (since these tests don’t meet your requirements), I have taken one at-home test. After the test, the app creates an email to ‘your healthcare provider’. I put the company president’s email address in it, and I’ve just gone into History and emailed it to myself. This is what it sent me:
Email subject line: iHealth COVID-19 Test Result
Name: [Johnny L.A.]
iHealth LOINC code: 94558-4
Test Time: Jan 18, 2022 12:47:12
Test Result: Negative(260415000)
94558-4
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Ag [Presence] in Respiratory specimen by Rapid immunoassay
I put my name in when I downloaded the app. It looks like you may enter multiple names, but I haven’t really looked at that. In any case, there is an ‘indication of who took the test’ since it has my name on it.
Again, this is not the PCR test. Fully-vaccinated people in our office who have not had COVID may use the rapid test, and the results above suffice for verification in our office. While this won’t help you in your task, it may be useful information for other people.
Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) are a broad class of viral test. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are types of NAAT. PCR test themselves also come in several subtypes.
The CDC link below explains many of the common (and uncommon) acronyms used in describing viral tests.
Oh, regarding the at-home tests for anyone who doesn’t know: I can see three possible things a person may do to receive a negative result (not counting false-negatives).
The instructions say the results line, if positive, may be very faint. Someone may just not see it;
The test requires the person enter the result into the app; in my case, I was asked to verify my previously-entered negative result. Someone may lie to the app;
I don’t know if this would work, but maybe not swabbing and just putting the reagent into the test strip will result in a negative result. (Again, I don’t know if it will work at all if no swab is taken.)
And of course, someone may test a person known to be negative and enter those results into their app.
My understanding is that the control line will not appear unless the swab was done properly. I’ve got a couple extra test kits, but I don’t know if I want to waste one to verify this.
I have no idea. My guesses were either the reagent will make its way up the test strip, and the test strip would not detect what’s not there; or there are products of the reaction between the reagent and the mucous that are not indicators of infection but are necessary for a reading (i.e., at least getting the control line).
The control verifies the test is good and has not been damaged by heat or age. It has no idea if you put anything in the buffer solution before you put it in the test.
The control line only indicates that reagents have properly migrated up the test device. In positive patient samples with high levels of virus, the line at the Control (C) Zone may not be present or may be very faint. The control line does not indicate that an adequate human sample was added to the test device
I just saw this thread today, and might be too late - but every (not at- home) antigen and PCR test I have taken gave me a way to get a PDF document with the results, my name and DOB, lab info etc. Sometimes my initial notification was a text and other times an email - but in every case, in the end I was able to get something that looked very similar to the results was able to get on the Quest website pre-COVID.
Since this thread was just revived, I’ll give an update: I did the check, and EVERYBODY brought vaccination records, including someone we were pretty sure was unvaccinated. A pleasant surprise!
If they’re hardcore anti-vax, it’s easy enough to get a fake one. My mom’s dentist has one and offered to sell her one for $200. I told her I could probably make one for free (but I wouldn’t do so.) She says her dentist knows someone who swiped a bunch of real ones and is selling them on the black market. Unfortunately, vax cards, as done in the US, don’t mean much. With restaurants here, all have so far been fine with a picture on my phone, and that is even easier to fake.
I think it’s probably OK to trust that people are providing genuine vax cards that aren’t fakes, for the purposes of the OP. It sounds like the community described by the OP is relatively small and any individual faking a vax card, then subsequently getting discovered, would risk a big social black-eye.
In California, in addition to the vax cards, we have the Vaccine Registry, where you can snapshot a QR code and dates of your vaccinations for COVID-19, as proof of vaccinations, if someone was not accepting vax cards (or copies, or photos of the card).
Looks like Hawaii, where the OP is from, also has a Vax Registry. I do not know if this registry works the same way as in CA.
Anyway, I like the idea of the vax registries as they provide a good source-of-truth and can help to relieve individuals and organizations from the burden of validating someone was vaxed. Of course, they do not confirm is someone has COVID-19 right now and is likely to be spreading the disease, which I think is what the testing confirms.
@pulykamell and @snowthx, you are both right, of course. Our board talked about how far we’d go to verify people’s records, and we agreed that we’d proceed on an honor system … yep, we know people can fake whatever proof they need, but hopefully they’re honest enough not to do that.
My guess is that the anti-vax people in the group (I’m pretty sure there are one or two) just skipped the event.