Since March, a new round of local epidemic in China has spread to 28 provinces. Omikron has strong concealment and fast transmission speed. In order to win the epidemic Resistance War as soon as possible, many places are racing against the virus and carrying out rounds of nucleic acid testing. There is a potential risk of outbreak in this round of epidemic in Shanghai. The fight against the epidemic is racing against time. There are more than 8.26 million people in the new round of nucleic acid screening in Shanghai. While everyone was working together to fight the epidemic and actively cooperate with the sealing, control and testing, a rumor spread on the Internet to the effect that "the cotton swab used in sampling has reagents and is toxic". Some netizens even said that the elderly at home did not want to participate in nucleic acid screening after seeing the relevant rumors, and asked the younger generation not to carry out nucleic acid testing and antigen testing as much as possible. Source: Shanghai Internet rumor What is the cotton swab used in nucleic acid detection and antigen detection? Is there any reagent on it? Is it really poisonous? According to the Shanghai rumor refutation platform, the same answer was obtained from a number of test kit manufacturers. "The sampling cotton swab is different from the cotton swab used in daily life, but it does not contain reagent and is not toxic." Cotton swabs for nucleic acid detection and antigen detection and sampling mainly include nasal swabs and pharyngeal swabs. Pharyngeal swabs are generally 15 cm long and nasal swabs are 6-8 cm long. Tang Rong, the person in charge of the manufacturer of antigen detection kit and Mohe medical technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., introduced that the "cotton swabs" you see for sampling are not the same as the absorbent cotton swabs we use every day. They should not be called "cotton swabs" but "sampling swabs", It is mainly composed of nylon short fiber velour wool head and medical grade ABS plastic rod. The sampling swabs are made of spray and electrostatic charge flocking methods, so that millions of nylon microfibrils are vertically and evenly attached to the ends of the handle. The flocking process will not produce toxic substances. The flocking method allows the nylon fiber bundle to form capillaries, which is conducive to the strong hydraulic absorption of liquid samples. Compared with the traditional wound fiber swab, the flocking swab can keep the microbial sample on the surface of the fiber and elute quickly gt; 95% of the original samples can easily improve the sensitivity of detection. Tang Rong said that the sampling swab is produced for sampling. It does not contain any soaking reagent or reagent. It is only used to scrape off the cells and virus samples and put them into the virus inactivation preservation solution for nucleic acid detection. Shanghai citizens who have experienced "sealing and screening" have also experienced the detection process of sampling swabs: the inspectors extend the sampling swab into the pharynx or nose for a few times, then take a sampling tube in their left hand, insert the sampled "cotton swab" into the sampling tube in their right hand, exert a little force, the head of the "cotton swab" is broken, put into the sampling tube and sealed, and the long "cotton swab" rod is discarded into the Yellow medical waste bin. When using the antigen detection kit, after sampling, rotate and mix the sampling swab in the preservation solution for at least 30 seconds, and then squeeze the swab head by hand across the outer wall of the sampling tube for at least 5 seconds, so as to complete the elution of the sample. So why do some people have mild pharyngeal pain, nausea and other symptoms after testing? Tang Rong said that this has nothing to do with collecting swabs. It may be due to individual differences. Some people's throat is more sensitive, or it may be caused by the operation of the testing personnel. It will be relieved soon after stopping the collection and will not cause harm to the body. In addition, the sampling swab belongs to a disposable sampler, which is a class of medical device products. According to national regulations, not only the production should be recorded, but also there are strict production environment requirements and quality supervision standards. Qualified products must be non-toxic and harmless. Source: Shanghai Internet rumor The "disposable sampler" is a general product in the medical field. It can sample different parts and is also used in different detection behaviors. It is not specially produced for nucleic acid detection or antigen detection. Therefore, no matter from the material or the production, processing and inspection process, the sampling swab has strict standards to ensure that it is non-toxic and harmless and can be used safely. At present, the situation of epidemic prevention and control across the country is grim and complex. We must not spread rumors or believe them. (Xinhua News Agency)