Indeed, it appears that this is somewhat redundant.
A majority, if not all, of the rapid tests I have used explicitly caution against taking one in the absence of symptoms, as it is expected to yield negligible results.
I got stuck in the United States, was not allowed to fly back home until I got a negative result on a rapid test. It still took a week to test negative after I'd been symptom free.
Regrettably, there are individuals who exhibit evident symptoms yet would gladly travel and deceive on a simple questionnaire.
That might explain why governments adopt a blanket rapid test approach irrespective of the potential for false positives (even given the potential, as the article alludes to, for false negatives).
You’re now expected just to mask up and travel. Recently just had this experience with a family member.
Airline would not do anything at all. Travel agent (website) would only book a new flight, but not refund the old one - they said (probably truthfully) that the airline ties their hands. Travel insurance would only pay out if the trip was _cut short_ because of a COVID diagnosis (how does that even work?), or if they were placed under mandatory quarantine by a government authority.
Seems unethical to me on all fronts but that’s how things are.
I suppose it’s not much different to how people are now, in most countries, just expected to go to work unless they’re heavily symptomatic (and even the “unless they’re heavily symptomatic” seems like lip-service that is not universally observed).
Actually, maybe I should amend that. “You’re now expected just to mask up and travel” is really “You’re now expected just to travel”. The considerate may mask up of their own volition - no one is enforcing it, and there are barely any recommendations.
In the same manner that humans have been domesticated by wheat, with all the best land, food, water, and cushiest existence on the planet. (I believe that this was a comment by Niven or Heinlein.)
Were you a citizen or permanent resident of the country you call home? As far as I know almost no countries put restrictions on their own citizens from returning. Some had quarantine requirements.
No restrictions, but they offered no way of getting home either. My colleague had the same problem when she wanted to visit her dying grandfather in Japan. They weren't letting sick people in even if they did manage to get on a flight. For me the problem was mostly the flight.
Precisely the point of most of those policies was to use rapid tests to ensure you weren't being infections at that moment or close to it. I honestly don't know what's so controversial about them.
Sometimes in society, we adopt laws that are about keeping other people safe more than they are about keeping yourself comfortable.
You might feel inconvenienced. Ultimately, you're the beneficiary of this too. Your life is going to be a lot longer, because the people around you are occasionally inconvenienced for your benefit.
If this isn't acceptable to you, I'm sorry about that, that's tough.
Every time I've gotten together with my family for Christmas the past few years, a very virulent infection has ripped though the household, getting everyone sick within a week, and taking me out of commission for a large part of the trip.
Every time I think to myself, "this is it, we all got COVID. I can tick off the symptoms."
None of those times were COVID (as confirmed by PCR tests).
More recently I was getting ready to go meet a newborn family member. I felt a little off so I took a Rapid Test. Guess what? I had COVID.
That Rapid Test stopped me from introducing COVID into a household with a newborn baby and parents trying to stay healthy to take care of their newborn baby.
You likely have had COVID-19 at some point without knowing it. In most patients it presents with minimal symptoms and is clinically similar to the common cold. Other coronaviruses that we classify as "common cold" viruses such as HCoV-OC43 are genetically very similar to SARS-CoV-2.
I’ve never seen a rapid test done by anyone other than the person taking the test. And most now only require a small nose swab rather than nose and throat. In fact any PCR tests I did were also self-administered (with guidance) so that the patient didn’t accidentally cough/sneeze on the nurse.
A majority, if not all, of the rapid tests I have used explicitly caution against taking one in the absence of symptoms, as it is expected to yield negligible results.