Published on 12, July, 2020
Ever since Covid, I've been wondering WHY we have to jam the testing stick right up our noses and down the back of our throats.
I have a wonderful facility to hawk stuff up, or blow my nose, why isn't it enough to do that, and just rub the stick in whatever I can produce?
(Which would be a loss less invasive and uncomfortable of course, if somewhat "Icky" to those of a more sensitive disposition than myself.)
If anyone has an informed perspective, I'd like to find a more "external" solution to covid testing that doesn't involve me sticking things inside of me, even if it's considered "socially unpleasant", as I do my testing in the privacy of my own home, for my own edification and to protect the few people I do go out to see from time to time.
well I can tell you why 'hawking' stuff up wouldn't work. Acid, including stomach acid, can throw off the test making false positives. This is why they tell you to do it at least 30 minuets or more after eating, so there is no residue of the food and drink in your mouth / tracts. Now anything you hawk up, especially by coughing, might have some material from the digestive tract, even digestive acid. I suppose technically if you wanted to go nose mining with a rubber glove on and wipe the extracted snot on the stick that might work. But really they target those areas, the tonsils and space behind the nostrils, because they are hotspots for the virus. And they ideally want to hit all 4 in case the virus has taken off on one side faster than the other which is not that unusual in the early stages.
Incidentally children keen for a day off school have been known to drip coca cola on the flow test to generate the false positive ... the acid again.
I had my tonsils taken out when I was very young, so does that nullify that aspect of the testing anyway?