Editing 2558: Rapid Test Results

{{comic
| number    = 2558
| date      = December 22, 2021
| title     = Rapid Test Results
| image     = rapid_test_results.png
| titletext = A solid red area with two white lines means that you have been infected with the anti-coronavirus, COVID+19, which will cure anyone you have close contact with.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|RAPIDLY created by a BOT with an old inconsistent cough, low temperature and an increased ability to taste food, that is NOT a reference to comic 2279- Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This comic is a joke about COVID-19 rapid {{w|lateral flow test}} results. These devices are used in many countries for individuals to test their own nasal and oropharynx fluid for evidence of COVID-19 virus to detect asymptomatic infection.  These tests have two indicator strips - a test line for covid-19 and a control line to check the device is working correctly.  Where a control line is not present, the test should be ignored and repeated.

The first 2 answers are the standard indicators for a negative and positive result, but Randall takes this to absurdity.{{citation needed}}

{| class="wikitable"
!Result
!Interpretation
!Explanation
|-
|Control line only
|Negative
|As for all such actual tests, the Control line indicates that the test has run without error. Without this Control line (which ''always'' shows after proper use), a lack of result on the test strip is meaningless. A control line with no Test line indicates that the molecule being tested for is not present.

|-
|Control and test line
|Positive
|This clearly shows the (un)desired test result, whether that is for the likes of {{w|Pregnancy test|pregnancy}} (until comparatively recently the occasion most familiar for requiring this form of test) or the indicators of a specific infection.
|-
|2 wavy lines resembling the {{w|Approximation#Typography|approximately equal}} sign
|Approximately positive
|While it would be possible to make the test produce wavy line(s) by default, and some versions 'activate' more complex patterns such as tick-marks or wording, the waviness or other patternation would not normally be contingent upon the testing state it must reveal, and ambiguity of detection would most result in a fainter Test line (which perhaps should be taken as Positive until shown otherwise).
A real test might produce wavy lines if manufactured poorly. This result would likely indicate a positive test, but the poor quality of the device calls into question that result - making "approximately positive" an appropriate description.
|-
|2 lines closer together than usual
|Positive (college ruled)
|This is the same as the Positive result, just with less distance between the two lines. {{w|Ruled paper#United States|college ruled}} refers to how college ruled notebooks in the United States have narrower spacing between the lines.
Again, there is no simple way to make the test reveal different patterns as a result-indicator of any qualitative or quantitative result; this is not a different result from the original Positive. It also remains more desirable to maintain an easily-identifiable separation between lines and not risk the Test and Control lines bleeding together into one.
|-
|Five lines of decreasing lengths
|Good cell signal
|Mimics the standard image for a strong mobile (or cellular in the United States) phone signal.
There are tests which give multiple 'indicator test strips' for progressively greater/lesser sensitivity, perhaps to identify concentrations, or other qualitative differences like a 'fingerprint' of multiple targetable reagents, but this is not at all useful for a solid Yes/No question such as the one this scenario is supposed to be for.
|-
|2 lines on a background of radiating lines
|Did you know these lines are actually parallel?
|This is a reference to an {{w|optical illusion}} called the {{w|Hering illusion}}, where two parallel lines appear to bend outward.
Whether the radial lines can (or should) be designed into the test has no bearing upon the core test, and probably should not confuse the identification of what are ''supposed'' to be one/two ''clear'' straight lines.
|-
|Multiple lines in the shape of a scary stick figure
|The Blair Witch is near
|In the found-footage movie ''{{w|The Blair Witch Project}}'', stick figures shaped like this indicated that the Blair Witch was near.
The type of rapid test used for COVID-19 probably{{fact}} does not have any useful method for revealing the proximity of witchcraft, unless a witchcraft-related molecule could be identified that can be indicated within the sample material itself.
|-
|Three lines 
|Click to expand COVID menu
|A reference to {{w|Hamburger button|hamburger buttons}}, an icon that is widely used on websites to reveal a menu. It is especially used on mobile versions of sites designed to be read on a small screen, where compressing a menu until needed saves space.
As a 'read-only' display of results, there is no potential for further interaction by tapping the indicator material, and this may even spoil the state of the proof it gives. 
|}
 
The title text interprets the hyphen in "Covid-19" as a negative sign to make a mathematical joke (or possibly a reference to {{w|antimatter}}, which in reality mutually annihilates when coming into contact with regular matter). Here Randall postulates that there must be an equivalent but opposite virus to Covid-19 which he names Covid+19; when combined they cancel each other out.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category: COVID-19]]
[[Category: Comics with color]]
[[Category: Charts]]
[[Category: Fiction]]