COVIDtests.gov – Free at-home Covid-19 tests

https://www.covidtests.gov/

by aaronbrethorst • 5 years ago

105 89 5 years ago

covidtests.gov

empressplay• 5 years ago

Much too little _way_ too late

kerneloftruth• 5 years ago

"It’s time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day." -- Kamala Harris, January 2022

_nickwhite• 5 years ago

"Ordering begins January 19."

I see they have this behind Akamai. That's a good thing because my first thought was "Man, I hope they have this site behind a good load balancer!"

vmception2• 5 years ago

a viral load balancer

SSilver2k22• 5 years ago

For a brief while after getting vaccinated, before Delta and Omicron, my friends, coworkers, and I felt we were out of the woods. We are actively going out together to our favorite hangouts and being normal. I didn't think we would need this site.

Finding out that my Governor let a million tests expire rather than give them out, make me happy this site is available. I'm glad I can rely on the federal government to fix what my state government is ruining.

JohnTHaller2• 5 years ago

For the curious, Florida Gov Desantis revealed they'd let 800,000 to 1 million tests expire sitting in a warehouse. The federal govt granted an exception and they're being sent out to be used at testing sites. These aren't at-home tests.

jjcon• 5 years ago

Wouldn't over-ordering be better than under ordering?

nradov8• 5 years ago

You're out of the woods. If you're vaccinated then unless you have some high risk condition your real risk is extremely low.

More tests aren't going to solve anything. At best they might slow the spread down only slightly. In the long run everyone will be exposed regardless of whether they go to their favorite hangouts or not. That is our reality.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/vinay-prasad/94646

wonnage• 5 years ago

It still sucks to get Covid, based on my small sample size of a few breakthrough infected friends even "mild" omicron is on par with a bad flu. It's also about 10x as contagious. Most people don't want to infect all their friends if they can help it, so they test.

Also we all have friends and family members with high-risk conditions and don't want to give it to them either.

wrycoder• 5 years ago

A quick positive test could get you a Paxlovid prescription, while it's still early enough in the course of infection to have maximal benefit.

hooande• 5 years ago

In the long run everyone will be exposed regardless of whether they go to their favorite hangouts or not. That is our reality.

This can be said of every cold and flu season. Yet people still go out of their way to avoid those who are sick, and people who have symptoms stay home. You probably wouldn't want someone with the flu to cough in your face, even though the symptoms are mild and the mortality is low.

covid is much more infectious than the flu. it makes sense to test and quarantine if you are positive.

SSilver2k22• 5 years ago

I have an under 5 year old offspring that isn't eligible to get the shot yet. Once he gets them this year I will definitely be breathing easier.

clairity2• 5 years ago

"If you're vaccinated... your real risk is extremely low."

in the interest of precision: the risk of serious sickness/death is low for anyone without comorbidities (like age) regardless of vaccination status; vaccination just makes a small chance smaller, with the diminishing returns that that implies.

vaccination really matters for anyone with comorbidities (age, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, etc.), where risk reduction is significant (whole percentages to fractional ones).

totally agree that testing doesn't change long-run exposure, especially given omicron. the big win for testing though, is knowing how many folks have natural immunity (with or without synthetic immunity), which likely offers broader spectrum immunological memory, imbuing a more durable herd immunity into the future. also, tests might help at the margin for those who have comorbidities, to perhaps allow the pursuit of treatments like monoclonal antibodies earlier.

djanogo• 5 years ago

Did people who wanted to get vaccinated not find doses in stock?, just because tests in some warehouse expired doesn't mean they were hidden to stop their usage.

hammock6• 5 years ago

For a brief while after getting vaccinated, before Delta and Omicron, my friends, coworkers, and I felt we were out of the woods. We are actively going out together to our favorite hangouts and being normal. I didn't think we would need this site.

You seem to be describing what journalist Alex Berenson has coined the "happy vaccine valley":

the three-to four-month period following the second dose when antibodies are high enough that the vaccines actually appear to work. (For those of you keeping score at home, that’s two weeks of negative efficacy after the first shot, a month of maybe 50% efficacy, three months of near-complete protection, and then a rapid fall to what looks like 0% protection within three months. https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/so-you-understand-whats-...

Of course that description was written in Sept 2021 based on pre-Omicron data, and the picture is different now. The latest data: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.07.22268919v...

See Figures 1 and 2 above. This study from California in December shows much lower protection from the current vaccines against Omicron compared to Delta: 0% effectiveness of a 2-dose regimen at 6+ months, and 49% effectiveness of a 3-dose regimen at ~2+ months.

nradov8• 5 years ago

Measuring vaccine effectiveness in terms of protection against infection (as in the article you linked) is pointless. We expect almost everyone to get infected. What actually matters is protection against severe symptoms, and even with the Omicron variant the vaccines are still pretty good at that.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072548446/public-health-expe...

acdha4• 5 years ago

Alex Berenson is not a journalist but a conspiracy theorist with no relevant training or experience. He is not a good source of advice on vaccination.

The Kaiser-Permanente study you linked is by actual medical experts and it paints a more nuanced perspective which is why it contradicts his claims — for example, they have the two dose effectiveness at preventing infection by Delta over 50% even a year out.

Most importantly, and the main reason I'm replying to this, is that it's _really_ important to also remember that there are two reasons to get vaccinated. One is to prevent infection entirely (largely a product of neutralizing antibodies, which fade relatively quickly) but the other is to lower the severity of an infection (a product of T cells, which is longer lasting) and the data continues to show that vaccines remain highly effective considerably longer than 3 months:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/01/studies-...

Promoting the voices of antivaxers like Alex Berenson is the single most effective way to prolong the pandemic since the thing which will allow us to return to normal will be high levels of vaccination reducing the severity of an infection to manageable levels.

drocer88• 5 years ago

From the paper: Conclusions: VE of 3 mRNA-1273 doses against infection with delta was high and durable, but VE against omicron infection was lower. VE against omicron infection was particularly low among immunocompromised individuals. No 3-dose recipients were hospitalized for COVID-19.

TigeriusKirk• 5 years ago

Why are they not just being sent to everyone?

There's a lot of potential good in sending them to people who will never request them.

awb3• 5 years ago

Some people are anti-vaccine and some are even anti-testing.

A large % of the red state population doesn’t want a test.

Karsteski• 5 years ago

What is with Americans viewing every issue through a red/blue, republicans/democrats or conservative/progressive lens?

__blockcipher__2• 5 years ago

Agreed.

Some people feel that the mass asymptomatic testing serves to give perpetual fodder for sensationalist media headlines, as well as justification for public officials to impose new rounds of lockdowns, etc. As such those people believe that participating in asymptomatic testing only worsens those problems by creating "cases" in the absence of any actual clinical problem (that is to say, declaring people who are asymptomatic as COVID-19 positive even though COVID is an acronym that includes the word "disease"). They may also be against the general idea of constantly testing for the presence of a specific respiratory virus, however unique SARS-CoV-2 may be.

Better to ship the tests to the people that actually want them.

As an aside, you're right about "a large % of the red state population(s)", but I'd add that most "blue" people seem to think republicans are much more anti-vax / anti-test than they are. A majority of republicans are vaccinated, and a majority appear to support masking (at least indoors), or at the least are willing to begrudgingly comply. Here in California I feel like I meet a lot of people that seem to think that republicans are overwhelmingly "anti-vax" or, even more humorously, that Trump is anti-vax (humorous because his vocal praise of "boosters" and incessant bragging that he deserves credit for the vaccines and that the vaccines+lockdowns saved tens/hundreds of millions of lives, is one of his most unpopular stances with his base)

iszomer• 5 years ago

Sure, let's just bombard every household with testing kits like we did with mail-in ballots.

VWWHFSfQ• 5 years ago

that would be enormously wasteful

freewilly1040• 5 years ago

That dramatically increase the logistics problem, it’s not as though the government has a reliable address for where each person would want a test shipped.

People who are worried about omicron and can afford $15 per test already have a supply.

People who aren’t worried about omicron will throw them away.

hn8788• 5 years ago

These would have been nice earlier. They've been out of stock for a long time, and I know people who had to use up their vacation days waiting for them to come back in stock because their employer wouldn't let them back in the office until they showed a negative test result.

andrewxdiamond• 5 years ago

If your employer is blocking you from coming back into the office due to health reasons, how can they mandate you use vacation days for it? Was the alternative to be without pay?

ct0• 5 years ago

By the time you think you need one, and the delay in shipping, its already too late. But its something, I guess. My wife needed a test, 3 weeks ago and I believe she is still waiting for them to arrive from the State.

awb3• 5 years ago

Too bad they couldn’t partner with Amazon and have a “get it by tomorrow” option.

__blockcipher__2• 5 years ago

As long as the current COVID protocols stay in place (people needing or feeling they need to get tested after every possible COVID exposure, testing young children any time they have a runny nose so they can go to daycare, etc), I doubt that the supply chain will ever be able to support the number of tests demanded. If you run the numbers it's pretty insane how many of those test-kits would be needed.

vinhboy• 5 years ago

Logistically speaking, I wonder how partnering with Amazon was not the cheapest and fastest solution.

Or even Walmart. Most of my BinaxNow tests shipped via Walmart within a week.

nerevarthelame• 5 years ago

Amazon's own private (in stock) Covid PCR test collection kits take at least 3 days to deliver. There's no "get it by tomorrow" option. That may end up being faster delivery than covidtests.gov, but let's not pretend that Amazon is the one to save us.

Moto7451• 5 years ago

In an ideal setup they’d have sufficient tests stored in Post Offices for next day delivery.

waynecochran• 5 years ago

I ordered two more on Amazon and they won't be here until February.

vkou3• 5 years ago

By the time you think you need one, and the delay in shipping, its already too late.

As you've observed, it's been too late three weeks ago, where I ordered one from a private provider. They took the money, but, uh, have not fulfilled the order.

Who could have possibly foreseen that in year three of an ongoing pandemic, there might be a demand for... COVID Tests?

asdff• 5 years ago

At this point its just handy to have a few on hand

babyshake• 5 years ago

Is the problem with ordering them when you don't yet need them that they expire quickly?

ISL• 5 years ago

Rapid tests need to be on-hand prior to the time that you need them.

technothrasher• 5 years ago

I figured this out last time I wanted one and had to search all over several towns to finally find just one single box left. At that point, I ordered a bunch for my company and let my employees know we've got them so that they can have one pretty quickly when they need one without them all having to stockpile them personally. Helps them, and hopefully helps me keep sick employees away from the factory.

r00fus• 5 years ago

By the time you think you need one, and the delay in shipping, its already too late.

You will need these for the next wave, and no, getting COVID doesn't prevent getting it again in the future - reinfections of already infected are rife with Omicron.

spookthesunset2• 5 years ago

Why? It’s endemic. Unless your treatment depends on knowing which specific respiratory virus you have, getting tested doesn’t really tell you anything new. You are sick. Stay home. Get rest.

tssva• 5 years ago

That's why you order your tests before you actually need them.

Symbiote• 5 years ago

There's a dead comment (so I can't reply to it) wondering how much these cost. In October, it was reported that US states were overpaying compared to Europe [1]:

Rapid antigen tests can cost as little as $2 each to make, according to Mologic, one of the largest British testmakers. But in the United States, bidding wars between health systems, state governments, and employers have contributed to much higher prices. ... In Germany, large government purchases allow it to offer rapid tests to residents for less than $1 each

Here in Denmark, they're about 25kr ($4) each in shops, or a little less if ordered online. However, most people go to the public test centres, which are free. (We've reached an average of 19 tests per person, which I think doesn't include home tests.)

[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

neogodless• 5 years ago

The cheapest I've seen in U.S. retail was $7.50 / test ($15 for 2-pack) from Wal-mart, which has recently increased to $10 / test.

david_allison• 5 years ago

Christ, I can go to a chemist and get a pack of 7 free of charge, or order online for next day delivery.

dgellow• 5 years ago

In Germany, large government purchases allow it to offer rapid tests to residents for less than $1 each

I bought some at Lidl and Aldi for less then 1€ a few months ago. You can buy them almost everywhere, the current price is ~2-3€ now. I don’t really see what the government has to do with this, they don’t sell tests as far as I understand.

wskinner• 5 years ago

Honest question: what is the expected impact of this intervention compared to an alternate world where the intervention is not performed?

WCityMike• 5 years ago

Gaming it out in my head, I would assume that this increases access to testing for those who are either uninsured or those who could not afford the turnaround time for their insurance to reimburse them for purchase of at-home testing.

As such, in this alternate world without the intervention, a chunk of the populace cannot afford to test. If one wanted to make slightly rasher assumptions, this segment might include those who are in jobs (Walmart, food preparation and service) that expose them to a large part of the population.

owenmarshall• 5 years ago

Efficiently being able to source a test when needed may serve to reduce the load on the medical system.

As of today, if I want a test, my options are

* private seller - hard to source with high demand and expensive for those with limited income

* public test center - availability is a nightmare right now

* medical provider, be it PCP or ER

I don’t personally know how many people are choosing option 3, but anecdotally I have heard from friends and colleagues that they’ve chosen it for when their kids/they are sick.

There’s also an interesting side effect here: every at-home positive is a positive public health authorities won’t know about.

nradov8• 5 years ago

How will this reduce the load on the medical system? Most ERs already turn away patients who come in asking for a test unless they have severe symptoms.

spookthesunset2• 5 years ago

It doesn’t accomplish anything beyond causing undue chaos. Covid is now part of the larger ecosystem of exciting respiratory viruses you catch every year. Knowing it is Covid specifically and not some other virus doesn’t really give the sick person additional information—for the majority of infections the response will be the same: stay home, get rest, get good sleep, take your vitamins and recover.

All this mass testing is a colossal waste of health resources that doesn’t add any useful information beyond bumping up the case count.

Covid is endemic. Part of learning to live with it is to not test everybody that comes down with flu/cold-like symptoms. We’ve never done this for other respiratory viruses except before prescribing very specific medications like tamiflu.

smallmouth• 5 years ago

This isn't going to go away until people stop testing.

basisword• 5 years ago

How is this only happening now? Do any states already do this?

In the UK we’ve been able to order a box of 7 lateral flow tests, for free (no shipping costs either), once per day, since last April. In other words 49 tests per week (per household). They’re not a perfect solution (since you can test negative when in the very early stages of an infection I believe) but they’re pretty good. They’ve made all of my group interactions so much safer, particularly during this latest wave, and have saved me from hanging out with people who are positive (and asymptomatic at the time) on numerous occasions.

The British government is a joke and they’ve still managed to get basics like rapid testing and vaccinations right. How can a country with resources like the US not have this available?

dillondoyle2• 5 years ago

Colorado did. I got a couple free tests mailed to me.

But agree it should have been done nationwide. Same with masks. Trump canceled the idea of USPS mailing free masks and at least one supplier publicly complained he couldn't get a federal commitment for long term production.

When I visited France last summer during low point tests where available everywhere and super cheap.

abeppu• 5 years ago

4 per "home" -- but in the US the average number of people per household is a bit above 2.5. Similarly 500M tests in a country of 330M people. Both get us to more than 1 but less than 2 test per person. But to make a difference at a public health level, shouldn't we be testing regularly? If you have one test you have to decide when you're going to use it, which will surely be after you're symptomatic. If you want asymptomatic people to realize they're carrying it around, we have to provide enough tests that they can check regularly.

Yes, for those with private insurance it's good that in principle one can be reimbursed for buying home test kits (starting tomorrow) but good luck finding them! When I traveled recently I checked 3 pharmacies, and got responses ranging from "try again next week" to "we've been out of stock for 2 months".

panarky• 5 years ago

Seems predictable that a government website won't handle the load on day one.

But this site is hosted by Akamai so maybe this time it's different?

benpiper• 5 years ago

Calling these Covid tests is disingenuous. They're PCR tests for viral fragments. We all know someone who had a positive "Covid test" and never showed any symptoms.

throwawaygh• 5 years ago

No they aren't. Literally the first item in the FAQ on the site says "NOT PCR"...

COVIDtests.gov – Free at-home Covid-19 tests

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