RE:Every Day Presents... Totally agree. More on this in New York Times
“Saliva really has turned out to be a valuable specimen type, and one that has increasingly been advocated as a primary testing sample,” Dr. Hansen said.
Saliva’s advantages may be more pronounced with Omicron, which appears to replicate more quickly in the upper respiratory tract and have a shorter incubation period than earlier variants. Any testing method that can reliably detect the virus earlier is particularly valuable, experts said.
“I think Omicron has really changed the testing game because of how quickly the virus replicates and how quickly it spreads,” said Dr. Robby Sikka, who chairs the Covid-19 Sports and Society Working Group and who helped bring saliva testing to the N.B.A. in 2020. (Both Dr. Sikka and Dr. Wyllie serve as unpaid board members for SalivaDirect.)
Some experts have also theorized that Omicron may be better at replicating in the cells of the mouth and throat than other variants have been.