Some Teens Are Faking Positive COVID-19 Testshttps://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/954622(Reuters) - Teenagers have figured out how to use soft drinks to fake a positive COVID-19 test, and the authors of a new study warn schools and other groups to be aware.
As of July 1, videos uploaded to social media under the search term #fakecovidtest, featuring young people applying various liquids to rapid antigen COVID-19 tests, had been viewed millions of times, according to the British news website inews.co.uk.
That report, and others, prompted University of Liverpool researchers to study the effects of applying soft drinks and artificial sweeteners to the test swabs.
All four sweeteners tested produced negative results on rapid COVID-19 tests, as did spring water. But 10 of 14 soft drinks produced positive or weakly positive results, with no apparent link between the test results and the soft drinks' ingredients, the researchers reported on medRxiv ahead of peer review.
If these kids applied the same energy and smarts to their schoolwork that they used to skip school they'd be curve-raisers.
Before someone goes there, "rapid antigen" COVID-19 tests are totally different from PCR tests. Also, I do not know a single person who makes a habit of snorting cocktails of Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, saccharine, and aspartame, so whether rapid antigen or PCR, this news really says nothing about
unplanned false positives.
