A backyard Australian inventor has developed a world first Covid-19 breathalyser test that does away with the need for annoying swabs – and could be even more accurate.
Queenslander Colin Hickey, 71, invented the Examin testing device, which boasts 98 per cent accuracy and returns a test result after just 60 seconds, via a QR code.
Unlike current Covid tests no swab is needed and the user simply blows into the mouthpiece for five seconds.
Mr Hickey told Daily Mail Australia making the test was ‘mission impossible’ and claims it detects Covid ‘earlier than any other test available because we’re measuring viral loads’.
Australian mechanical engineer Colin Hickey has developed a Covid-19 breathalyser test that does away with the need for annoying swabs
Mr Hickey claims his breathalyser returns a faster and more accurate test result than most PCR or Rapid Antigen Tests.
The inventor developed the prototype over the past two and a half years and hopes it will be widely available in April.
A mechanical engineer who has mostly worked in recycling, Mr Hickey is working with the University of Utah and hopes his device will soon get emergency approval for mass production in the United States.
‘I’m excited and cant wait to get through regulatory approval and get it in people’s hands,’ Mr Hickey told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That’s what’s important. It will make a huge difference it could be a world changer.’
The device being submitted for emergency use next month and after that he hopes the Therapeutic Goods Administration will prioritise it for use in Australia.
‘It’s up to the TGA whether they move it to the top of their pile or not, I’ve got no say in regulatory approval,’ he said.
Mr Hickey started making the Examin breathalyser, which he hopes could be ‘a world changer’ in a back room of his home at Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast
He proposed his idea, with his research, to Australian universities but heard ‘absolutely nothing back’, so he took the plan overseas.
Mr Hickey, began researching Covid from his Twin Waters home after reading ‘a small newspaper article about a virus in China’ back in 2019.
‘I saw a very small news article about an unknown virus popping up in China and I did a lot of study, I read 10 scientific papers a day – and the more I read, the more I worried.
‘I thought I better do whatever I can and I thought this could be my last swansong in business, that was the plan.’
Initially the project came from work done by himself and his wife Margaret in the back room of their home.
‘When I started I was completely on my own and then my wife started helping me,’ he said.
His work involved interviewing 36 eminent scientists around the world. Time and time again he was met with skepticism but eventually won their trust.
‘The first question I got asked was “do you have a PhD in anything?” I said yes, I have a PhD in life.’
‘It’s like you’re not in their club without one, but eventually they realised I knew as much or sometimes more than they did.’
Eventually he connected well with a senior professor from the University of Utah, Massood Tabib Azar and the project moved ahead on a contract basis.
‘I’m very happy that we’ve got this far, because frankly it was mission impossible, to actually prove that it works in real life is an enormous breakthrough for us.’
‘Taking something from the lab in real world, where it’s raining and people smoke, that’s the acid test.’
He toyed with several names for it, including some ‘ridiculous’ military-inspired names like ‘Sentinel’ and ‘Centurion’ and to create the impression of ‘a weapon against Covid’.
But he settled on the name Examin breathalyser.
Mr Hickey has several Australian companies helping with the designer and manufacture of the prototype, including Safework Laboratories, Design+Industry and Romar Engineering.
Mr Hickey says he was convinced Covid-19 was an airborne virus from his early research but he faced opposition to his view.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk