PlusLife Testing
This is a beautiful photo because it is a test result we can believe. It’s for a friend, not for one of us.
Rapid tests for COVID are notoriously unreliable in the UK. A positive test result is reasonably trustworthy, but a negative test result is useless. Present an actual infection to them and they miss it about 2 times out of 3. When rapid tests do show a positive result, it’s often around 5 days after symptoms begin, so it’s too late—for isolating to protect people around us, for starting Paxlovid if we could get it (which Brits hardly ever can), for the special treatment protocol with metformin…
During the summer my wife suggested that we buy a PlusLife testing machine. PlusLife is 98% accurate, a PCR machine designed to be used at home and deliver a result in the same 15 to 30 minute timeframe as a rapid test. Pooled tests are possible, too, which greatly shortens the time needed to check a bunch of people.
Here’s an example. For a family reunion, each household can do a single pooled test. If the household’s test is negative (clear), all members of the household can attend the reunion with peace of mind that they aren’t bringing COVID to their relatives after only one test run. We have noticed it getting used this way to enable for family reunions without any spread of COVID.
The machine isn’t cheap. Because the UK left the European common market and PlusLife comes from Germany, Customs duties and taxes get layered on top of the price.
The first time my wife suggested it, I thought we wouldn’t use the test kits at enough of a pace to keep them from expiring. The second time around, we realized if we have the machine, family and friends around us could use it too in return for covering the cost of the kits they use. With currency fluctuations, that comes to around £7 per test. With a few more people occasionally using a kit, we can avoid letting kits expire. Being able to get this device is a privilege not everyone can afford, but we can share it.
As a bonus, my wife got a discount code. (We aren’t allowed to publish it. If you want the discount code, message me—we are allowed to pass it along to one person at a time.)
The machine arrived while I was away. Then my wife ordered test kits and those came in too.
We thought I would be the one to try it first. As soon as it starts to be possible to detect whether SARS-CoV-2 got past my respirator mask (actually, later today), I’ll start testing with PlusLife. But one of our UK friends got sick. She needs to know whether this is COVID or something else because her husband is highly vulnerable. She got to be the first to try out our PlusLife machine.
She’s clear. Knowing that makes a huge difference for her household.
The seasons are turning. It will become less easy to socialize outdoors with distance and plenty of air flow. With this gadget, we hope to be able to have occasional get-togethers indoors in reasonable safety.
Our main advice about using PlusLife? It’s finicky about power. It comes with a European wall plug that you can plug its USB connector into. That won’t fit British outlets, so my wife tried it with a UK wall plug from Amazon that was plugged into a power strip. PlusLife repeatedly finished its couple of minutes of warm-up by beeping at us to say it had an error. We switched to a high quality wall plug and put it directly into an outlet instead of a power strip. Then the PlusLife machine was happy for us to proceed with setting up and running a test.