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Some evidence shows omicron appears in your throat first. Should at-home Covid tests change?

 

Some evidence shows omicron appears in your throat first. Should at-home Covid tests change?



As omicron cases continue to sweep the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is being urged to gather more information about how well at-home Covid-19 tests are able to detect the variant.

Evidence suggests the omicron variant of the virus may appear in the throat before it shows up in the nose. For this reason, there’s been pressure on the FDA to recommend swabbing the throat with the nasal swabs. But medical experts argue that anecdotes from people who test negative with a nasal swab at home but then test positive with a throat swab can be misleading. FDA officials say there isn’t enough data to support the practice. 

“We do know the tests are picking up on omicron, but with less sensitivity,” acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said during a Senate Health Committee hearing Tuesday. “What we need to do is to see whether the throat swab could provide more sensitivity.”

The FDA is researching how at-home tests perform as a throat test. If the findings support it, an authorization could come quickly, Woodcock said. However, redesigning the at-home tests to accommodate larger swabs would take more time.

None of the at-home rapid antigen tests available over the counter in the U.S. are designed for throat swabs. There’s also a reason medical professionals are the ones who perform throat swabs for other infections, such as strep throat. Swabbing the back of your own throat is not easy to do. 

“People should not use swabs that are designed as nasal swabs and try to swab their throat,” Woodcock said during the Senate hearing. “They may stab themselves.” 


What you need to know about rapid antigen tests and the omicron variant
JAN. 1, 202203:30
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service recommends swabbing both the nose and the throat when using a rapid antigen, or later flow, Covid test, the kind used at home. But the agency does not recommend only taking a sample from the throat. The Israeli Health Ministry early this week also advised people to swab both their nose and their throat when using rapid at-home tests.

“The virus grows in your nose and throat and somewhat at different time scales,” Michael Mina, chief science officer for the biotech software company eMed, who was an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said at a testing technology news briefing this week. “My recommendation would be all of the FDA guidance on this, but also we have to follow the science.”

Meanwhile, the FDA currently advises against taking samples from the throat when using an at-home rapid test.

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