[–] ammonthenephite 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Assuming a legit test, you want as concentrated a sample as you can get to ensure detection. You also want as limited outside contamination as possible as well, so simply blowing on it while outside the body would open you up to potential outside contamination and decrease confidence that a positive result came from the person you were testing.
This of course assumes a legit test for a legit virus.
[–] TurdLord5000 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Even if the test is what they say it is (it's not) it does not test for a virus. It tests for an RNA sequence you can get from any number of causes.
[–] LeeDoverwood 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago
They have to shove that contaminated q-tip deep up your nose to make sure you get infected.
[–] A_Punkass_Bitch 1 point 1 point 2 points (+2|-1) ago
need a big sample for tests to detect it
[–] Silver_Sky 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Playing devils advocate, the higher concentration of the virus that they can test, the more likely the test will give an accurate result. Accurately testing for the virus in a water solution 100% saturated with viral particles is easier than accurately testing for the virus on one of these bore cleaner q tips. If you were to bkow on the thing, you would likely only deposit a few tens of thousands of viral particals - enough to make someine sick, but that's an astronomically small amount of mass to test for. Roughly speaking, these viruses are 10-100 nano meters in size IIRC which is much closer to being the size of a single atom than to the size of a human cell. I know a lot of these tests rely on decomposing the viruses DNA, RNA, or proteins and watching for them to bind to chemicals, and a very real problem with this kind of testing is not having enough viral material to get over the activation threshold of the testing chemicals, therefore you need to get a dense sample to guarantee accurate results. Now, whether or not these tests are accurate is another question...
[–] alphazebra 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
See my response to @4therepublic above