Community Chat

[Mindy D]

Kids in the UK have a way to get their COVID tests to read positive so they can get out of school. The kids use cola to get the results they want. I read about this online in BBC Future. Other sources mention that lemon juice and orange juice are also being used. The trickery won't work for PCR testing though. It works on COVID-19 Lateral Flow Tests. 

Put this article title into your search bar to read how the test should work and why the spoofing probably deactivates the negative results. 

How children are spoofing Covid-19 tests with soft drinks

[Goodie2shoes]

Oh for heavens sake !! What's next ?  I pray each day for families of people all over this world who died from this horrible virus. Loosing my mom to covid last year was devastating, I have had a niece who tested positive at 8 months pregnant, she's 24 years old and thank the Lord her and the baby are fine now, baby gaining weight and my niece is covid free. It's just a shame that people would think it's ok to play these games ! no matter what age.

[Cakers3]

Well then who ever manufactures these tests didn't put much effort into safe guarding the results.

[Just Bling]

@Mindy D   How does that work?

[CelticCrafter]

One of my grand nieces knew all she had to do was say she didn't feel good to get out of school for a few days while waiting for the test results to come back.  

[FiddleDeeDee]

Kids don't see it as being a big deal (covid) and simply want to find a way out of school. Typical behavior for kids. I think what gets people is that this is about covid more than the antics of getting out of school.

Do I condone the behavior? No, but I'd be a hypocrite if I said as I kid, I wouldn't probably have tried to do the same thing as well with my friends. We didn't worry about tomorrow...why would we? That's part of the joy of being a kid. At least it used to be.

[Mindy D]

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@Cakers3 wrote:

Well then who ever manufactures these tests didn't put much effort into safe guarding the results.

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@Cakers3 @These are home tests that users swab in their mouths and then read the color change similar to home pregnancy tests. Safe guarding would fall on parents. Parents handing a test to their child probably had no idea that their kid would try to manipulate the test. Once the news becomes  widespread, more parents will be on to the tricks their kids use,

[Cakers3]

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@Mindy D wrote:

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@Cakers3 wrote:

Well then who ever manufactures these tests didn't put much effort into safe guarding the results.

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@Cakers3 @These are home tests that users put in their mouths and then read the color change similar to home oregnancy tests. Safe guarding would fall on parents. Parents handing a test to their child problaybhad no idea that their kid would try to manipulate the test. Once the news gets spread, more parents will be on to the tricks their kids use,

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@Mindy D   I know what these tests are.

If there is a way to alter the results, I stand by my statement that the manufacturer should have known that these items could result in false positives.

Parental responsibility is limited; you are assuming every kid had a parent watching over him/her AND that the kits were all purchased by the parents.

The point is the test can be altered by cola, juice, etc. - which means the science behind it was not thought out.

[Mindy D]

@Just Bling @Put this title in your search bar to read a paragraph about how the kids do this and how this type of test works

How children are spoofing Covid-19 tests with soft drinks

[teganslaw]

If kids are faking Covid tests with soft drinks, the tests can't be real reliable. Isn't it possible that some of the positive results on adults happened the same way-because of soft drinks?  This puts everything in a whole different light; now we won't know what to believe.