The swab goes in through your nose first, then it is pushed to the back of your throat. The swab is then rotated to collect any viral specimens that are usually found in that section.

This clip from The New England Journal of Medicine gives a good example. It shouldn’t be painful, but it’s not a fun process.

"It is a little bit uncomfortable. It's not at the sections that we're used to. The tissues are fairly sensitive and we're not used to something touching them,” he explained. “Some folks will have a triggered sneeze, or their nose will start running and draining while we're still collecting that specimen."