Michael Schnedlitz, a member of the Austrian Parliament, used a polymerise chain reaction test on Coca Cola in front of government officials and it turned out positive for COVID-19 according to a report by Israel National News.
Schnedlitz was said to have administered the test, most commonly known as the PCR test, to prove that it was faulty and that it is a waste of government funds.
Israel National News added that Schnedlitz performed the test in front of the members of the parliament to show them "how worthless and misguided the mass tests are." He referred to the mass tests as "absolutely absurd" and that it was "nothing more tan a large-scale redistribution of tens of millions of euros in tax money from the population."
"Instead of throwing tens of millions of tax money out of the window for fault-prone mass testing, the government should have protected the risk groups - in elderly homes and nursing homes, for example," Schnedlitz began in his Facebook post last December 14.
"But that's where you've been idle since the pandemic started," he said in opposition to government efforts to address the pandemic. "This black and green government has completely failed and has played out the trust of citizens!"
"The fact that the corona mass test even responds positively to coke proves how faulty and senseless these tests are," he stressed in his post, adding a video of his interview conducted by a local news station regarding the live test he conducted.
A member of the Freedom Party of Austria, which is said to be a political party that's right wing and national conservative, Schnedlitz hit on the government for "giving the money" of "the industrious" to the "pharmaceutical industry and use the money for self-marketing and PR" in a succeeding post in his Facebook account.
"They grab the pockets of drivers and give the money to the pharmaceutical industry and use money for self-marketing and PR. And they're treating themselves to a raise, even though almost 10 percent of Austrians are unemployed and tens of thousands of people fear for their jobs. They are robbery knight methods that use short and co. Acting despite the biggest economic crisis since 1945. Politics must finally work for the citizens again. Not the other way around!" he said.
Schnedlitz' demonstration, as per Israel National News, gives people the idea not to drink coca cola prior to taking the PCR test so as to avoid being positive to the virus.
"It is recommended not to drink acidic beverages like cola an hour before this test," reported the Israel National News.
On the other hand, WELT reported that Schnedlitz actually did not perform the PCR Test properly. The video showed that Schnedlitz dipped directly into the glass of coca cola with the swab and dripped it onto the test kit. This method actually omitted swiveling the swab into the buffer before dipping it into the test kit, which is a very important step of the PCR Test.
"The liquids that keep the pH value constant in a certain range are called buffers. That is exactly what the FPÖ politician avoided. That is why the acids in the cola reacted with the antibody that is actually supposed to capture the virus proteins," WELT said in their report.
In an interview conducted by WELT, the PCR Test manufacturer Dialab said that Schnedlitz statements are "embarrassing."
"Before the honorable Member makes such embarrassing statements public, it might make sense to deal with the chemistry just a little beforehand," the Dialab manager told WELT.
He explained that the only reason experts advise PCR Test users not to eat, drink, or smoke for an hour prior to their test if it would be conducted orally is to avoid the virus from being rinsed and, as such, a dropout in virus concentration in the mouth.
WELT pointed out that coca "cola leftovers in the mouth would not have this effect" and that the PCR Test is "done with nose samples anyway" according to the Dialab rapid test package insert.
"And that is where no cola really belong," WELT sarcastically ended its report referring to the nose where beverage obviously should not be found in.
False positives?
It's interesting to note that while Dialab was able to explain the "chemistry" behind the PCR tests, there are some times when things can still go beyond a person's control.
In May, for example, Tanzania's President John Magufuli suspended the head of the country's national health laboratory in charge of testing for COVID-19. The Tanzanian President did so after imported test kits returned positive test results on a goat and a pawpaw fruit.
It's worth noting, however, that technicians couldn't ascertain the origin of these samples that tested positive.
