Saliva Tests Show Promise 🤞
Data suggests spit may be an acceptable alternative to nasopharyngeal swab samples to detect Covid-19
I need to disclose some bias. I would much prefer to spit in a tube than have a swab spun around in the back of my nose and throat. To be clear, I’ve happily received multiple nasopharyngeal swabs because it’s important to get tested for Covid-19. While I don’t actually think the nasopharyngeal swab is painful (though others disagree), I do find it uncomfortable, and I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed for more widespread use of tests that rely on saliva.
Now there’s some early research published in the New England Journal of Medicine that offers strong support for using saliva as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swab samples to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
The researchers at Yale School of Public Health and the Yale School of Medicine studied 70 people with confirmed Covid-19. The men and women first tested positive for Covid-19 with the standard nasopharyngeal swab, and also agreed to provide saliva samples that they collected themselves. The researchers tested both samples and detected more SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies in the saliva samples than in the nasopharyngeal swab samples. A higher percentage of saliva samples than nasopharyngeal swab samples also…
