“It’s like having your brain tickled through your nose.” “Longest five seconds of my life.” “Not for the faint-hearted.”
The swab to take the COVID-19 test, known as a nasopharyngeal swab, is not a pleasant experience. To obtain a thorough sample, health care workers need to scrape deep in the nasal cavity. More concerningly, the swab sticks themselves fell in short supply during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S., limiting the number of tests providers could run.
But it’s increasingly clear that the virus is also detectable in saliva. A team of University of Chicago scientists is exploring whether a saliva-based test for COVID-19 may be an effective alternative to the nasopharyngeal swab.
