<i>“It’s really rare, and it’s really new, that people are allowed to know about what’s happening inside their body without a physician in the middle,” said Michael Mina, a former assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard.</i><p>We don't need a physician in the middle of every bit of knowledge. We need the knowledge to figure out when we need a physician.
IIRC one of the only useful things Theranos did was to lobby to remove the laws preventing people from ordering their own bloodwork without involving a physician.<p>That said, the two big lab companies are starting to offer more self-ordered tests which is cool: Labcorp has ondemand (formerly pixel): <a href="https://www.ondemand.labcorp" rel="nofollow">https://www.ondemand.labcorp</a> and Quest has QuestDirect: <a href="https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/" rel="nofollow">https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/</a>
The main beneficiary of cheap at-home disease tests is not the patient, but the patient's friends, family and coworkers.<p>They're the people who might avoid getting infected, and, for those vulnerable or unlucky it might save their lives.<p>From that point of view, these at home tests should not only be legal - they should be paid for by government and either strongly recommend or mandatory.
> Yet no at-home flu tests are available for purchase in the U.S.<p>What about the LifeSign Status Flu A & B Test? That at least sounds good on their website...<p><a href="https://www.lifesignmed.com/product-catalog/infectious-disease/status-flu-b" rel="nofollow">https://www.lifesignmed.com/product-catalog/infectious-disea...</a><p>The FDA seems to at least know it exists... (and, so, hopefully it is legitimate).<p><a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/145697/download" rel="nofollow">https://www.fda.gov/media/145697/download</a><p>And it also seems I can buy it in the USA! (Hell: "USA" is <i>literally</i> in the name of the company selling it to me! ;P lol)<p><a href="https://drugtestkitusa.com/products/lifesign-status-flu-a-b-test" rel="nofollow">https://drugtestkitusa.com/products/lifesign-status-flu-a-b-...</a><p>OK: I've ordered a 25-pack. Let's see if they show up! (It could be that this product exists but I am not supposed to be allowed to buy it... that's happened to me before :/.)<p><a href="https://mfimedical.com/products/lifesign-status-flu-a-b-test" rel="nofollow">https://mfimedical.com/products/lifesign-status-flu-a-b-test</a><p>FWIW, I saw them on this ^ other website that claimed they required a physician's license and are NOT an "at home test", but it seems like DrugTestKitUSA believes they are "CLIA waived"?<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/labquality/waived-tests.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.cdc.gov/labquality/waived-tests.html</a><p>> Waived tests include test systems cleared by the FDA for home use and those tests approved for waiver under the CLIA criteria.
I think the reason is - what would you do with the information?<p>If you’re sick you should isolate whether it’s flu or not.<p>In terms of treatment, you’d need a doctor for a prescription and you need to start treatment immediately.<p>So there isn't that much to be gained by having a positive flu test. I suppose if you were in a high risk category (old, respiratory disease, etc) it might be helpful to know if you should go to the doctor.
3 tests in one, Covid and Flu A/B<p><a href="https://diagnostics.roche.com/global/en/products/params/sars-cov-2-flu-a-b.html" rel="nofollow">https://diagnostics.roche.com/global/en/products/params/sars...</a>