While some people are doing everything they can to get their hands on a COVID-19 rapid test, others are busy wasting them.
Like so many other questionable things these days, it started as a social media trend that is primarily seen on Tik Tok and it involves taking a rapid test and putting it into water.
Joseph Allen, Regional Medical Director for Premier Health, said, “Very interesting. Somebody sees something, they post it and everybody else wants to do it too to see if it’s true or not.”
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He said there was for a while some benefit of having a positive test. People are trying to game a system.
“If you were coughing and what have you and you took it, and it was negative, then there was as much protection for you as far as employment,” Allen said.
News Center 7 asked why is it giving people a false positive when the test is in the water? “There’s obviously something in the water that is reacting with the reagent in the test,” Allen said.
According to Allen, “If the temperature is off, it’s not going to read right. If you did it in a sauna, it’s probably going to read wrong.”
He said we see this with other tests too – for example drug screenings.
“There’s all kinds of ways that they try to game that system by adding water to it to dilute it or by changing the temperature. Other methods to getting the result that they hope to get,” Allen said. “it’s concerning that we’re seeing these tests essentially wasted, and we know we have people out there that really could use them.”
He also said the other issue that consumers are facing is that people are hoarding the tests.
“A lot of folks out there have several of these tests buried in a desk somewhere, just in case,” Allen said.
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Medical experts warn against this trend especially they said during a nationwide shortage of where the COVID-19 rapid test kits are difficult to come by.
Dan Suffoletto, spokesman for Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County, is also encouraging people not to waste the tests.
“Don’t just go to a store and you see some and get 10 tests and keep them in a drawer,” Suffoletto said. “Only get tests if you need a test...We want people to be using them who need them.”
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