It felt like a poke to the Canadian's brain. crunching sounds in her head were heard by an American. A woman had a severe nosebleed. Others cried or got headaches.
They were all tested for Covid-19. The swab test is a vital tool in the global battle against the coronaviruses, but for some people it can cause severe embarrassment and even death.
Paul Chin, a music producer and DJ in Toronto, said that his test felt like someone was going to switch his brain on him. There is nothing like it.
He said that the swab was a long and sharp kind of thing, and that it was going farther back into his nose.
Millions of samples have been stuck into millions of noses to test for the coronaviruses, which has killed millions of people. One way to fight the virus is to test frequently. People are willing to take a test many times.
The swab is generally compatible with the bill.
In some parts of the United States, health workers give people a saliva sample to test for STDs. The only Covid-19 test in South Africa is a painful one, and you can see stars or gag if you take it.
Who is doing it right? How deep should the swab go into your nostril? How long should it stay there? Is an accurate test uncomfortable? Some countries have reputations for being brutal.
The swab is not actually stabbing your brain.
Guilbert Gates drew the illustration.
A dark passage leads to the nose. The bone is covered with soft, sensitive tissue. The back of your nose is at the top of your throat. It is one of the places where the coronaviruses can be found, and it is where you can get a good sample of the virus.
Wariness about the test may be caused by a simple fact: most people can't stand having something shoved so far up their nose. The tests conjure some of our worst fears: that things can crawl into our bodies and into our brains.
Dr. Noah said that people aren't used to feeling that part of their body.
When a stick with a tuft of nylon attached to it is administered at the wrong angle, it can cause pain.
She said that if you don't tip your head back, you don't get to the throat. You are smashing into someone's bone.
Mr. Chin compared his test to the effects of breathing in spices, saying it was a brain poke.
He said that his face was ready to leak and that he didn't know how to prepare.
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Many South Africans say they have had an uncomfortable experience with a throat test.
The nasopharyngeal, mid-turbinate, and anterior nares are the main types of Covid nasal swab tests. The method of administering the deep nose sample worked well when testing for the flu and the respiratory disease, and it was used widely and aggressively by adults. Experts agree that the deepest sample is the most accurate.
A review of studies published in July in a science journal stated that nasopharyngeal swabs are 98 percent accurate; shallow and mid-turbinate swabs are effective.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's deputy director of risk communication said that the gold standard for Covid testing in South Korea is nasopharyngeal swabs.
He said it may or may not hurt depending on the skill of the medical staff. He said the nasopharyngeal test is the most accurate. That is the reason we keep doing them.
The W.H.O. has guidelines about how to test. Australian guidelines say that the swabs should go up the adult's nose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the mid-turbinate swab should be inserted less than an inch.
The guidelines from the K.D.C.A. allow some wiggle room when it comes to how to remove the nasopharynx. The experience depends on a number of factors, according to Mr. Choi.
The Korean government has guidelines for Covid-testing, and Dr. Lee said the test posed as little risk as drawing blood.
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The gold standard for Covid testing in South Korea is the nasopharyngeal swab.
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The experience depends on the patient's tolerance of pain, the structure of the nose and the tester's ability to do the test.
Some people were sneezing, rubbing their eyes or blowing their noses when they walked out of a clinic in November. Some people were crying.
The swab felt like it was in my brain.
Kim Kai, who had bloodshot eyes, said that her nose was about to bleed.
Lee Eunju and Lee Jumi said they didn't want to get nasal swabs again. Eunju said it felt like chili powder had been dumped on her. Jumi said it hurt a lot.
Dr. Lee says that the discomfort is a tradeoff for accuracy. He said that this doesn't mean we can ignore the pain that each patient feels.
Many people are happy with the test. Dr. Paul Das said children tend to have a harder time.
Some people think their experiences are related to their technique or personality.
Kim Soon Ok, 65, said that the person was very gentle and that it was a little uncomfortable.
In August of this year, the soccer player had his Covid-19 test in Conakry, Guinea. I felt a little pain when they put the stick in my nose, but it was not bad. I have experienced more intense pain. I'm a man.
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The SwabBot in Singapore is one of the many robots that have been invented to perform nasal swab tests.
Some countries want to standardize the tests. The developers in Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan invented the robot.
The doctor from the University of Baltimore insists that the swabbing should not hurt.
There are still painful tales.
Studies show that women report worse pain than men, but this could be because of a design bias.
Briana had a nose swab in Minnesota in 2020 and it was so bad she could hear crunching.
The woman who recently moved back to France recalled her trip to a Montreal hospital in May to give birth. There, a Covid swab left her with burst blood vessels and balloon catheters in her nostrils to stop the bleeding.
Ms. Benattar said that she had never seen so much blood in her life.
Some people argue that nose swabs are not very high on the scale of tests for coronaviruses.
Foreign governments were annoyed by China requiring travelers from overseas to submit to anal Covid tests.
Aurelien Breeden, Mady Camara, Vjosa Isai, and Ruth Maclean contributed to the report.
