COVID-19 Announcements

1. What is a rapid antigen test and how accurate are they?

A rapid antigen test is a test that can give results of whether someone has presence of the virus that causes COVID in a short period of time, as the name says.

It is a test that functions and is primarily useful for people who don’t have symptoms and the basics of how it is operating is not that dissimilar to the swab that you get for a PCR, or the standard laboratory test that you get for COVID.

So it is a nasal swab using a cotton bud, like for other tests, and then that is inserted into a chemical solution that is then placed into the device that performs the rapid antigen test, and you can get a result within 15-20 minutes, which is really convenient.

Unlike the standard laboratory test, the PCR or polymerase chain reaction test, it doesn’t look for the genetic material of the virus, but it looks for a number of key components of the virus. So as a result of that, it is less sensitive than the standard test. It has a high chance of missing an infection than the standard PCR test does.

2. I’m on medication – will the COVID-19 vaccine affect this?

The key message here is that generally, COVID-19 vaccines will not interfere with medication, and there are no known interactions with COVID-19 vaccines and any prescription or over-the-counter drug. However, regardless of this, as always, it is really important that you talk to your health professional, your regular doctor, and your immunisation provider, the clinician that is administering the vaccine to you, and disclose any medication that you are on, including over the counter products or vitamin supplements, things that you take out of habit, so that they can consider that in the context of your vaccination.

3. How do I know if the COVID-19 vaccine has worked?

The broad answer is that we don’t have an immediate way to tell at an individual level whether the vaccine has worked or not, but the vaccines are incredibly effective, they overwhelmingly work and have a significant impact, an almost 10-time reduction of the chance that you would get severe disease, hospitalisation or death from COVID-19. Many people, and it’s very common, have some side effects, mild or moderate side-effects from the vaccines. Feeling a little bit tired, pain at the injection site, a short-lived fever or a bit of a temp, they are the kind of side-effects that some people often get with flu vaccine or other vaccines, and they seem to be common with COVID-19 vaccines. 

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