Dogs Are Being Trained To Sniff Out COVID-19 With Stunning Accuracy

Getting tested for COVID-19 isnt exactly the most comfortable thing in the world. The viral test can determine whether you have a current infection you can get one at your nearest assessment centre but it requires a pretty invasive process, during which you get a swab shoved up your nose.

That test is uncomfortable, the one and only Drake said to his dad , on Instagram Live, after getting his own done. (The results came back negative.) They put that Q-tip all inside your thoughts and st.

The only other way you can get tested for the coronavirus right now is through bloodwork, but even this antibody test cant necessarily determine whether you have a current infection. Its more accurate at revealing prior infections.

Drake tells his dad he got tested for coronavirus and the results came back negative. pic.twitter.com/mOj8KmdQ8b

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Drake tells his dad he got tested for coronavirus and the results came back negative. pic.twitter.com/mOj8KmdQ8b
Pigeons & Planes (@PigsAndPlans) March 21, 2020

Researchers are well aware of how unpleasant it is to get a foreign object planted in your nasal cavity, and theyve been trying to find a more agreeable way to test people for COVID-19one that doesnt require putting a Q-tip into our thoughts. And as it turns out, there might be a rather sweet answer to the decidedly not sweet question: dogs.

Yes, the rumours are true: researchers in the U.K. have been training dogs to detect the virus solely off of scent.

When you have a disease, your body odour changes, James Logan, head of the Department of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told CBC News Kids . And dogs are an excellent example of being able to detect smells and also learn those smells. Thats what were aiming to do with COVID-19.

After about eight to ten weeks of training, the trained Cocker Spaniels and Labradors would be able to identify infected people just by walking past them. If they smelled the virus, they would stop in their tracks and look toward the person they think is infected. (This eliminates the wait time it takes for you to get back your results from the assessment centres.)

Researchers think this would be especially useful for people who are asymptomatic, and hope to deploy the dogs in public places like airports, train stations and stadiums. And there would be no fear of transmitting the virus to the dogs, since, unlike cats, theyre immune to contracting COVID-19.