It’s incredible that now, almost 2 years since Omicron became the dominant variant, US rapid test instructions still tell your to swab your nose, with no mention of throats. Rapid tests in , for example, are sold as nose & throat kits. The UK DHSC’s official instructions:

Hold the handle of the swab with your fingers. Open your mouth wide. Rub the soft tip of the swab over both tonsils 4 times. Tonsils are soft pads at the back of your throat, 1 on each side. If you have no tonsils rub the swab on the sides of your throat.

US tests aren’t able to instruct people to swab your throat instead, like you should, because instructions are regulated by the FDA, and the FDA still hasn’t backpeddled after saying in January 2022 that throat rapid tests are unsafe and invalid.

The FDA appears to have authorized exactly 1 rapid test that lets you use a saliva sample, the Metrix COVID-19 Test, since October 2022. Maybe they’ll eventually eventually circle back around and approve a throat rapid test, but probably not anytime soon, since that would mean admitting they were wrong to recall a US throat rapid test due to “risk of false results or injury”.

In the meantime, they’re simultaneously happily approving rapid strep tests, which are collected by swabbing your throat, because, unlike COVID, there was no previous variant that made nose swabbing effective.

Great post, thank you