- COVID-19 at-home tests were scarce as the Omicron variant spread throughout the US.
- Some families desperate to save tests used the same swab to test everyone, the Atlantic reported.
- Health experts warn that it’s gross and could spread the coronavirus and other germs.
As the Omicron variant swept through the country, COVID-19 at home rapid tests were in high demand and hard to come by – so some desperate families decided to test multiple people with one swab, the Atlantic reported.
Public health experts, however, warn that the method may not yield accurate results and called sharing mucus with others “unsafe” and “gross.”
“From a public-health perspective, the idea of sticking swabs up each other’s noses doesn’t sound like a great thing to do,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told the Atlantic.
Elena Korngold, a radiologist told the