Wooden Nickels? COVID-19 Breath Test Rumors Gain Traction

On March 15th,2020, The United States began to shut down the country to prevent the spread of The Coronavirus. Covid 19 is a disease or illness that can cause you to get severely sick with the potential of dying. Since then, there’s been two different types of tests to detect Covid 19. These two types of tests are rapid and laboratory test. 
Now in April 2022, The FDA has started the process of trying to authorize the first Covid 19 breath test. This test is called the InspectIR COVID- 19 Breathalyzer. The test can only be performed by qualified and licensed health care workers. While doing trail runs, the FDA says the device was able to spot 91.2% of cases The purpose of the new test is to help patients get a Covid test that is easy to take and with quick results. Results are said to come back in around 3 minutes. 
The test cannot be conducted at home because of the type of machinery it takes to conduct the test and get results. The company says they would be able to produce around 100 instruments a week and evaluate around 160 samples each day. The test works by analyzing a person’s breath to detect 5 compounds exhaled when people are infected with Covid 19. 
Coronavirus has affected a lot of big state- and city-wide events that have been going on for years. Because of the virus cities and states have canceled these events because of the potential of getting the virus while attending these big events. Now that there will be a breath test, it will ideally be much easier to take Covid test and detect Covid 19. This means more events that have been canceled because of Covid can potentially begin to happen again, if these tests are as advertised. 
The ‘if’ is a big part of this entire scenario, as even though we understand medical technology to rapidly be evolving, it does seem somewhat fantastical to have a test that tell if you’re sick by blowing your breath in it. 
For one, this would be unprecedented as far as testing methods go. No other disease in history has has a test that could give on the spot diagnosis, whether it be Ebola or tbe common cold. So while the hype surrounding this potential advancement is warranted if it’s the genuine article, I could definitely see the skepticism that many could feel.