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.
I think it is because Covid was found to like sitting and replicating in the nasopharanyx so you take the sample from the top and the bottom of that area. I really struggled to get them up my nose, especially in hay fever season. I did sneeze on them as well for good measure when I had to do them twice weekly for work. I have also seen a false positive where a patient had just swallowed a mouthful of tuna sandwich when the nurse insisted on doing the hospital admission test. They can easily be contaminated by other things inside your mouth and throat. There are some tests where you spit into the tube of solution, my sister in law used them at some airports but I’m not sure they are available in the UK. They’re possibly less accurate than LFT