U.S. FDA warns against using throat swabs for home COVID-19 tests

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is cautioning against using self-collected throat swabs for COVID-19 tests and says people should use the tests as instructed.

Why the warning? After anecdotal reports of sore throats with coronavirus infection and early studies suggesting that saliva may be a better way to detect the Omicron variant, some people began taking antigen test swabs intended for nasal samples and using them to swab their throats.

The home test tweak took after after people began posting their results on social media with the hashtag #SwabYourThroat.

Throat swabs are common in some places.

In the U.K., the National Health Service notes that some rapid tests for people without COVID-19 symptoms may require both a nose swab and a throat swab.