Most bizarre virus myth yet: Ketchup ‘fools’ test to get you time off school!
A SCOTTISH health board was forced to quash rumours that tomato ketchup was being used to fool coronavirus tests in a bid for people to skip school or work.
The bizarre rumour was being circulated in Moray – where a surge in case numbers has prompted countermeasures including increased testing and an accelerated rollout of vaccine to younger adults.
Taking to social media, NHS Grampian said: ‘Rising case numbers in Moray are not the result of people “fooling” Lateral Flow Devices (LFD) with tomato ketchup (or any other condiment for that matter). A positive Lateral Flow Device test is always followed up with a PCR test to confirm the result. This is the gold standard of testing and 90 per cent of the positive LFD tests in Moray have been confirmed as positive by PCR testing.’
An NHS Grampian spokesman later said: ‘Now, normally we do not pay much heed to rumours and theories, but we had enough anecdotal evidence to suggest a lot of people were believing this [one]. So, we chose to correct it.’