A rapid COVID-19 test swab is processed at Palos Verdes High School in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021.The omicron coronavirus variant is forcing health experts and the public alike to question everything they thought they knew about COVID-19, including how to properly take at-home rapid tests to ensure an accurate result.
“Symptoms are starting very early with omicron. This means that there is a chance the virus isn’t yet growing in the nose when you first test,” Dr. Michael Mina, a former associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and chief science officer of eMed, a digital health care company, wrote on Twitter. “The virus may start further down. Throat swab and nasal may improve chances a swab picks up virus.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, agrees swabbing your nose and throat when taking a rapid COVID-19 test could increase its sensitivity. “It’s so gross,” but “I just want to be sure it’s negative,” Dr. Michal Caspi Tal, an immunologist at Stanford University in California, told Slate.Where and how the omicron variant replicates in our bodies could explain why throat swabs may help COVID-19 rapid tests produce more accurate results.
Nose swabs for rapid tests may also give false COVID-19 results because you aren’t sampling correctly, Dr. Purvi Parikh, an adult and pediatric allergist and immunologist with the Allergy & Asthma Network, told HuffPost. Rapid tests, on the other hand, come in pre-made kits with laboratory-produced antibodies that glue onto proteins sitting on the surface of coronavirus particles in patient samples. Anyone can complete the test, and it can be taken anywhere, offering results within 15 minutes.
Consider huffing high proof alcohol to sanitize the virus
Pro tip, folks: swab your throat first