UKC

I know there are some v knowledgeable people here so...

Will a LFT detect C19 in the first few days of infection? Before any symptoms?

Do the vaccines reduce viral shedding?

Do mild symptoms indicate reduced transmission ability? Risk to other people?

Ta

LFT pick up high viral loads, whereas PCR pick up much smaller amounts. So presumably LFT detect the people most likely to spread the most virus.

Vaccines reduce your risk of becoming infected. My understanding is that if you do get infected even with the vaccine you spread just as much as a non-vaccinated person. It's just that you are less likely to be infected in the first place if you are vaccinated.

Slightly vague answers that maybe don't quite answer your questions! Sorry!

Probably not

Sadly, probably not.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02187-1

Probably, but it’s complicated and not to be relied on.  Some people with no symptoms at all are infectious 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(21)00059-4/...

In other words, I agree with girlymonkey!

You’re welcome.

Agreed with 1 and 3. In the middle one I'm not quite sure what they mean but I'm guessing the answer they want is yes the vaccine cuts viral loads on average (mainly by stopping some infections) but nothing like as much as we would like (if you do catch it, viral loads can be similar).

Definitely can detect before any symptoms. But a PCR has a longer detection window for an infection.