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In Taiwan they required newborn infants to do 4 PCRs and 3 at home tests. These tests are administered in the mouth(Rapid Antigen tests are actually only rated

In Taiwan they required newborn infants to do 4 PCRs and 3 at home tests. These tests are administered in the mouth(Rapid Antigen tests are actually only rated for children above 2). It was infuriating to watch the absurdity and sheer insanity of where the Taiwan CDC has gone. 7 Tests in 3 weeks for a less than 1 year old and then privately telling businesses that they only have to quarantine for 3 days if they have urgent business to attend to. EDIT: I wrote something stupid. Obviously they don't ingest the reagent fluid. I conflated this issue with the fact that the fibers in the swabs damage the nasopharyngeal mucosa.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
KaiserPro 5y ago
> that the infant will ingest it. Unless someone is doing it _very_ wrong, they are not going to ingest the buffer solution. The Swab does not contain sodium azide (well it shouldn't). So unless the infant is double dipping, or left alone within grasp of the test kit, its not a high risk. The bigger risk is the misplaced swab.
seszett 5y ago
Why would kids ingest the reagents though? Especially newborns won't even have the idea or the physical possibility to take them and put them in their mouth.
refurb 5y ago
I feel safer already!
dpark 5y ago
Why is this infuriating? I don’t know the scenario you’re describing but presumably swabbing infants is about protecting them. Infants are at higher risk than older kids and it could certainly make sense to keep tabs on whether they might be catching COVID in the hospital after birth. That’s scary stuff for a baby with no immune system to speak of. Wiping a swab in an infant’s mouth isn’t going to irreparably harm it. If you’re that worried about the swabs, how do you feel about the fact that they squirt their eyes full of medicine immediately after birth to prevent blindness? That’s got to be more disturbing to the baby.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

KaiserPro 5y ago

> that the infant will ingest it. Unless someone is doing it _very_ wrong, they are not going to ingest the buffer solution. The Swab does not contain sodium azide (well it shouldn't). So unless the infant is double dipping, or left alone within grasp of the test kit, its not a high risk. The bigger risk is the misplaced swab.

seszett 5y ago

Why would kids ingest the reagents though? Especially newborns won't even have the idea or the physical possibility to take them and put them in their mouth.

refurb 5y ago

I feel safer already!

dpark 5y ago

Why is this infuriating? I don’t know the scenario you’re describing but presumably swabbing infants is about protecting them. Infants are at higher risk than older kids and it could certainly make sense to keep tabs on whether they might be catching COVID in the hospital after birth. That’s scary stuff for a baby with no immune system to speak of. Wiping a swab in an infant’s mouth isn’t going to irreparably harm it. If you’re that worried about the swabs, how do you feel about the fact that they squirt their eyes full of medicine immediately after birth to prevent blindness? That’s got to be more disturbing to the baby.