Analysis: with cold symptoms, it is better to wait for a PCR result rather than risk spreading the virus
You wake up with a pounding head, sore throat and runny nose: you reach for one of those lateral flow tests (LFT) you’ve got stashed away, just to check it is not Covid. If it returns a single red line (negative), then most people will pop a couple of paracetamol and go about business as normal – particularly if you’ve been double-jabbed. It probably is just a cold, after all.
Yet, the emergence of Omicron has thrown a spanner in the works. According to the latest data, just one month after your second Pfizer or AstraZeneca jab, the ability of antibodies to neutralise Omicron is 30 times lower than if you were infected with the Delta variant – reinforcing the message that double-vaccination is no guarantee against infection.
