Why You Can't Find Cheap At-Home Covid Tests [View all]

[StarryNite]

It would be so helpful if we had rapid tests available at a cheap price.


Why You Can’t Find Cheap At-Home Covid Tests

By Rachana Pradhan and Hannah Norman
NOVEMBER 22, 2021

While developing a rapid test that detects the coronavirus in someone’s saliva, Blink Science, a Florida-based startup, heard something startling: The Food and Drug Administration had more than 3,000 emergency use authorization applications and didn’t have the resources to get through them.

“We want to try to avoid the EUA quagmire,” said Peb Hendrix, the startup’s vice president of operations. Its test is still in early development. On the advice of consultants, the company is weighing an alternative route through the FDA to the U.S. market.

“It’s just the way our government works,” Hendrix said, which is a challenge for businesses that are “anxious to get started and think they’ve got something that can help.”

The U.S. produced covid-19 vaccines in record time, but, nearly two years into the pandemic, consumers have few options for cheap tests that quickly screen for infection, though they are widely available in Europe. Experts say the paucity of tests and their high prices undermine efforts in the U.S. to return to normal life.

More at link:

https://khn.org/news/article/at-home-covid-tests-scarce-costly-bureaucracy/