Thread: On costs $$ of at-home Rapid Tests

The US government earmarked 10's of billions of dollars for testing. This was a great move!

But why isn't this money being used to make frequent rapid testing more available to the consumer?

Testing is a public health good.

1/x

The government should follow the same successful playbook for frequent testing as it has for vaccines: pay for the tests themselves (as it did for the vaccine) or buy down the price at retail (as it does for the administration for the vaccine itself). 

2/x

Why is this important?

1. Children still aren't vaccinated
2. Healthcare workers and others who are vaccinated can still contract the virus (and may be able to pass it on)
3. Less than 50% of US adult population is fully vaccinated

Testing is our eyes to see this virus

3/x

Paying for the tests is a common sense public health strategy to get us through the remainder of this pandemic, using money that is already available.

With 10's of billions of $$ set aside already - the average person should only have to pay a couple dollars a test.

4/x

If we keep costs of these crucial public health tools at $24, this adds to the gross inequities in access to public health.

I'd like to see the US gov work w the test companies to figure out how to get the costs down to <$5 per test in the US. It's the right thing to do.

5/