So you thought that having a foot-long swab stuffed up your nose was not something that you were looking forward to. Well, thank God you don’t live in Galicia then.
Why do we say this? Because the regional PM for Galicia announced that they had just begun anal-swab testing for Covid detection.
The Andalusian PM, who reportedly always had his doubts about his Galician counterpart, assured that this system would not be used down here.
Joking apart, this kind of virus detection has been pioneered in China where it was found to be much more effective than a nasal swab because the virus lingers much longer in faeces than in the nasal cavity.
This kind of testing began in Pekin and Qingdao last week, according to the official Chinese press and medical experts there said that it was more effective than cotton swabs (via the nose; i.e., PCR), blood or saliva-detection methods
China uses this method on travellers arriving from abroad, as well as tourists being kept in quarantine in hotels.
According to Doctor Li Tongzeng, the virus remains much more time in the anus than the respiratory tracts.
Editorial comment: rumours that Martians are being hired to help our medical staff in Galicia are unfounded
(News: Andalucia)
I will no longer complain about getting “the short end of the stick”
Now that it is confirmed that the virus thrives ‘down below’ and so can be transmitted in a fart, I assume that the boys and girls of the beach patrol this summer (they did an excellent job last year) will have to ensure that holiday makers on our naturist beaches are equipped with two masks.