Joe Connolly had first-hand experience with the tests on a recent trip to the UK and said the speed of the results, which came in minutes rather than days, could give piece of mind to both essential workers and people visiting elderly relatives.
Mr Connolly travelled to the UK after his mother was admitted to hospital there, and said he was impressed at the availability of free rapid antigen testing kits at British pharmacies.
He tested himself regularly when overseas and still had a few tests left when it came time to return home, so he popped them in his luggage.
After his stay in managed isolation and quarantine he used a spare kit to test himself again before returning to work.
They could be used for truck drivers and other workers crossing the Auckland border, and before mass gatherings and events.
"[They would] be able to hand a test kit over to a truck driver, then the truck driver through a closed window could show positive or negative on the test sample without the police or whoever actually having to get inside their bubbles."
Rapid antigen tests were not as accurate as PCR tests now used, and best suited for situations where the wait for results made PCR testing unfeasible.
The self-administered test has the subject swab their nasal passages and add the swab to a vial of testing solution.
Drops of the solution are then added to a plastic test kit, similar to a home pregnancy test, which the produces a result within a few minutes.
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Experience is not expertise. These tests are of variable quality, have unacceptably high false omission rates (you're probably going to miss cases - won't that be fun with delta?) And are not recommended as backstop testing. They may have a role to play in an unchecked outbreak but not as a definitive result.
This is at best an opinion piece - why is it presented as a news story?