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Welcome to the Cockkey Ride Home for Friday, March 19th, 2021. I'm Jackson Bird.

The family feud putting the U.S.'s COVID-19 test swab supply at risk.

Could we use our food waste and sewage to fuel jets?

And the projected symbol that was spotted in towns

all around the world last night. Here are some of the cool things from the news today.

From testing to treatment to vaccines, nearly every step of this pandemic has brought with it extraordinary challenges in manufacturing enough supplies for each solution.

Surringes, ventilators, PPE, and nose swabs.

Or more specifically, flocked nasophorangeal swabs.

The six-inch flexible swab that gets stuck up your

nose when you get a typical COVID test. Quoting Bloomberg, the medical community prefers them because

the tiny fibers on the tip easily absorb viral particles and quickly release them for testing.

They're more complex than they look. A swab has to be able to travel up the

narrow shaft of the nose through a passageway less than four millimeters wide to an area

roughly halfway between the ears. It has to be soft enough not to damage the nasal canal,

yet sturdy enough to push through mucus and collect cells from the nasopharynx, where viruses grow.

End quote.

They used to be reserved only for patients with a bad enough respiratory virus to be hospitalized,

...