Young people have always been creative when it comes to sneaking away from school.
Now young people in Switzerland have used a rather inventive method to secure some extra days off, the newspaper reports 20 minutes.
To “trick” the quick tests, they are supposed to use the popular drink Capri-Sonne. The drink can also be bought in Norway.
Uses Capri-Sonne
Avisa refers to a survey conducted by the newspaper Sunday newspaperwhich shows that Capri-Sonne can falsify a positive result on the rapid tests.
Dagbladet TV has previously tested this, after one TikTok trend showed that the soda Fanta Exotic could give a positive result.
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According to one study from last autumn, a probable explanation may be that it is the pH values in the soda that manipulate the test.
Assistant health director Espen R. Nakstad has therefore previously come with a clear call.
– You should not eat or drink anything right before you test yourself, especially not if the sample is taken in the throat.
– Sneaks in on holidays
Videos that have been shared on the TikTok platform show that this trick is especially popular among young people in Switzerland, writes the newspaper 20 Minuten.
– They sneak in some days off, they write.
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According to the Swiss newspaper, some of the teachers know about this trick, but they choose to trust that the students will come to class.
TikTok abounds with several “creative” methods to falsify a positive quick test, some more successful than others.
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20 Minuten writes that it is probably the acid in the drinks that changes the pH value on the test, and triggers the second line on the quick test.
Therefore, it should also be possible to use other types of beverages, such as Coca-Cola, to manipulate the result of a covid test.
Can false tests be detected?
20 Minuten also claims that you can also “trick” pregnancy tests in this way. However, Dagbladet has not tested this theory.
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The big question that remains is whether there is a way to distinguish between a real positive quick test and a false one?
The British newspaper BBC Future last summer published a column written by chemistry professor Mark Lorch, after falsified rapid tests spread as a trend among young people in the UK.
A school in Liverpool felt compelled to warn parents about this trick.
Mark Lorch took it upon himself to reveal how the test works, why they show false positives after contact with juice or soda – and how you can expose teenagers’ deception.
Antibodies and gold particles
Inside a rapid test, there is a strip of paper-like material called nitrocellulose. There is also a small red bit that contains antibodies that can bind to the covid virus, he explains.
These are also attached to gold nanoparticles, which turn red and allow us to see where the antibodies are on the test strip.
When you take a test, you mix the sample from your mucous membranes with a buffer solution that ensures that the sample has the correct pH value.
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The liquid pulls up the test strip and picks up the gold particles and antibodies. The latter will bind to the virus, if present.
Next to the test line (marked with a T) there are more antibodies that also bind to the virus. However, these antibodies can not move, but are stuck right at the test line.
Catches the virus
So when the mixture of gold-antibodies flows down the test and mixes with this T-strip with attached antibodies, they also catch the virus and bind it to the test strip.
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This means that everything is stuck on this line, and it will seem like a red line – or a positive test, Lorch explains in the article.
While the gold antibodies that have not bound to the virus float up the test strip and encounter a third set of antibodies attached to the control strip. These do not pick up the virus, but catch the last gold particles without involving the virus.
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Lorch believes there is probably something in the drinks that affects how the antibodies work. He points out that many drinks have a very low PH, and that these are harsh conditions for the antibodies that have developed to work in our bloodstream with a PH of around 7.4.
The job of the buffer solution
It is the buffer solution’s job to keep the pH in the rapid tests at the right level. But when you falsify a test, you do not use a buffer solution.
When the buffer solution is not added, the antibodies are exposed to the acidic pH of the drinks, and according to Lorch, this has a dramatic effect on the structure of the antibodies.
– Antibodies are proteins, which consist of amino acids as building blocks. They are fastened together in long chains, which fold up into very specific structures. Even a small change in the chains can cause a dramatic effect on the protein’s function, he writes.
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In short, when proteins are exposed to acid, they begin to look for something to bind to. One explanation, according to Lorch, may be that the antibodies at the T-line adhere directly to the gold particles as they pass, and that this causes the false result.
Here is the trick that can benefit parents:
– Reveals the deception
The antibodies are able to regain their function when they return in more favorable conditions, Lorch points out.
– I tried to wash a test that had been dripped with cola, with the buffer solution. The locked antibodies at the T-line regained their normal function and released the gold particles, so that the real negative result became visible on the test, he writes.
In other words, the professor revealed a false positive coronate test by dripping a few drops of buffer solution on it. The false positive answer (dash) disappeared.
Here she is finally revealed
– Children, I commend their ingenuity. But now that I have found a way to expose your deception, I suggest that you use your cunning to design a set of experiments and test my hypothesis. Then we can publish their results in a peer-reviewed journal, he writes.
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