Fake COVID test results are deviously enabling children to skip their classes. The young minds learned the trick to rig it from a TikTok video. 

Fake COVID Test Result? Children Found a Way to Get Out of School on TikTok
(Photo : by Daniel Karmann/picture alliance via Getty Images)
12 March 2021, Bavaria, Nuremberg: A Corona rapid test at a testing station for students and staff at Sigena High School shows the test result "negative" (one bar). To enable safe face-to-face teaching, regular rapid testing at schools plays an important role for teachers as well as students.

Regardless of what generation you belong to, some of you have tried or found creative ways to have fake reasons to skip classes. Now that the world faces a COVID-19 pandemic, young minds are strolling through TikTok to find a new way to avoid formal lectures. 

Fake COVID Test Result: Children's Way to Tap Out of School.

As per Newsweek, a TikTok video has been making rounds on TikTok teaching folks how to create a false-positive result using the power of good 'ol science. 

The viral video claimed that adding orange juice or sodas to the lateral flow test would set it off to provide a false-positive result. 

The lateral flow test is widely used today, replacing the PCR tests that emerged during the early days of the pandemic. It is more commonly used to track COVID-19 carriers that do not exhibit any symptoms, given that it is easier to conduct. 

That said, the United Kingdom offers the said test to high school kids. It is to note that students voluntarily join the program. Then, upon showing a positive result, the young mind will have to undergo quarantine for likely spreading the virus in the confines of the school. 

However, the switch has allowed its users to rig its results as the new method does not require any laboratory supervision. 

Meanwhile, here's a ceiling-mounted COVID-19 alarm that detects if a pupil in a room is a virus carrier. 

Fake COVID Test Result TikTok Video: Does it Work? 

The BBC joined the bandwagon to verify if the viral video claims turn the COVID into a false-positive. 

The LFT method starts by mixing a user's liquid with a solution that balances the pH level. Afterward, the mixed fluid needs to be dripped on the strip of the testing device. 

And that is when science kicks in. 

The solution will then trigger the nitrocellulose strip to detect if there are any COVID-19 antibodies in it. 

In case there are COVID antibodies, the "gold" antibodies on the positive indicator of the device will cripple the former's movement. Thus, it will now provide a positive result. 

That said, how on earth does a soft drink or an OJ end up giving the device a "T" result. 

The British outlet suggested that it is likely due to an ingredient in both drinks that triggers the gold strip to react similarly to COVID antibodies. 

To be precise, it might have something to do with the acidity of sodas and citrus fruit juices, which sports a pH level excessively higher than from a person's bodily fluid. 

Read Also: Recently-Labelled Lambda COVID-19 Variant Sparks Concerns Among Experts --Where Did it Originate?

How To Detect a False-Positive? 

To know if your child is faking his COVID test result, wash the device strip to get rid of the cola or the juice. 

Upon cleaning the tester, the actual negative result will easily uncover. Sorry, kids. 

Meanwhile, Google mistakenly spreads false self-isolating guidelines for COVID-19 to its users. 

Related Article: COVID-19 Cases Rise in Indonesia | Hospitals Face Oxygen Outage, Now Government Imposes Strict Measures

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Written by Teejay Boris

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