Families Are Going Rogue With Rapid Tests
“It started as a joke, actually,” Elena Korngold told me. But late last month, the 40-something radiologist from Portland, Oregon, and her family decided that their unsanctioned scheme couldn’t hurt. Elena began the proceedings by unwrapping the sterile swab from a BinaxNOW rapid test for SARS-CoV-2, part of the family’s dwindling supply. She swirled the swab around the insides of each of her nostrils. Then she passed it to her husband, a cardiologist named Ethan, who swirled it around the insides of each of his nostrils. Then their two children did the same. It was “like some sort of religious ritual,” Elena said.
The snot-saturated swab went into the test card. The test card showed a negative result. The Korngolds, now bonded by something even thicker than blood, went to their dinner party. Nobody got COVID.
Ethan came up with in many towns and cities. So some Americans—half-proud, half-embarrassed, and fully desperate to find out whether they’re infected—have tossed the rapid-test instruction manual. To stretch their resources, they’ve started combining samples in their home. When a group test is negative, they conclude that everyone is in the clear, and several testing kits can be saved for future use; if that test is positive, further diagnostics will ensue. But experts say that using rapid tests like this, off-label, won’t produce reliable results. Also, sticking the same swab up multiple noses is, to put it scientifically, gross.
