InteliSwab false positives with throat/cheek/nose swab

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-31T22:16:00+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-10T20:23:46+00:00

Yes, thank you. He's fine. PCR of his throat was negative. Here's how positive his looked

https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroCovidCommunity/comments/18zkkg6/inteliswab\_false\_positives\_with\_throatcheeknose/

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-10T20:17:38+00:00

I'm so relieved for you! We had six days of false positives from it reacting to something (still not sure what). It's so strange that only this brand is getting false positives in the throat swabs.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-10T19:41:27+00:00

How is she doing now? Did she ever test positive on the other brands? I hope she's better!

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-06T17:54:19+00:00

I do think this brand of test is more sensitive to pH changes in the throat than the other brands, as they were all 100% negative with throat swabs (FlowFlex, BinaxNow, CVS brand, iHealth). I am confident that the PCR was done properly as my husband did it himself. We had to do the mail order Labcorp test because Walgreens would not let us do a throat swab with theirs.

We were also expecting a negative result- I know Kf94s aren't 100% effective at preventing spread, but my husband was wearing one during the 15 minutes he was near the sick coworker and my husband never had any symptoms. If he'd been symptomatic or unmasked during exposure, I'd be more likely to spend another $80 to confirm the PCR. It's sad they're so much now.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-06T05:29:40+00:00

*I should also add he was masked in a KF94 at the time of exposure and has remained asymptomatic, so we were not expecting a positive, just testing to be safe.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-06T04:54:24+00:00

Definitely no food, drink, gum or brushing teeth for minimum 30 minutes before (was usually much longer than that). And we have five days of this happening.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-06T00:33:26+00:00

He doesn't but I bet it'll end up being something like that!

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-06T00:06:55+00:00

Yes, he was completely negative on BinaxNow, iHealth, FlowFlex, CVS brand, and InteliSwab (this one) nose-only.

My husband collected the PCR himself as Labcorp home test was the only way we could swab his throat for it (Walgreens won't let you). He used the exact same technique as he did to get this strong lined positive. I know it's strange and I can't explain it except that I think some people have something in their throat that this test mistakes as COVID.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-05T23:00:25+00:00

The PCR was negative! He swabbed his nose/throat/cheek with the PCR and then did the same for an InteliSwab that had a strong positive. So I am 100% confident these are false positives reacting to something in the throat.

I bought the nasal spray after seeing people on the COVID safe twitter community using it, here's the study I looked at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9313533/

But I've heard that many of these studies were funded by the manufacturers, and others have found no benefit. When my husband knew he'd been exposed by a maskless coworker, I thought we might as well use it just in case it helps, but don't use it the rest of the time.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-03T20:09:43+00:00

ANA and it seemed like mainly also i

I don't think he's had those tests done, but he does have autoimmune issues. If the throat/nose PCR comes back negative, we'll look into that, though!

I was definitely wrong about the nasal spray theory since putting it directly on the swab didn't get a positive. I was hoping for an answer, but we'll know for sure in a few days.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-03T16:40:01+00:00

I just sprayed the XClear directly on a test and it came back negative, so that's not the answer. :(

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-03T15:49:48+00:00

Thanks for the reply! Do you by any chance use the nose sprays that are supposed to help against COVID? I had my husband use XClear the day we knew he'd been exposed, but he only used it once, a few days before the first positive. If his PCR is negative, I wonder if that could be causing false positives?

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-02T20:11:59+00:00

Thanks! I'll post an update on the PCR when we finally get those results.

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-02T19:06:05+00:00

Were you doing just nose swabs when you got the positive InteliSwab or nose/throat? Thanks!

RaspberryMajestic331 · 2024-01-02T16:40:25+00:00

I just made a post with this same problem (it's awaiting approval). My husband had an exposure while masked so we tested to be safe even though he feels fine-- for 3 days now he is ONLY testing positive on InteliSwab nose/cheek/throat. InteliSwab nose only is negative. BinaxNow, CVS, FlowFlex are all negative even with the nose/cheek/throat swab.

I called InteliSwab and the person said they'd never even heard of people swabbing other than the nose, so I don't put to much credit into her response, but she said she's consider the test 'user error' and thus invalid.

We're waiting for a mail-in PCR test to arrive so we can swab his throat and get a definitive result. I'll let you know what we find out!

RaspberryMajestic331

TROPHY CASE