Biden is prioritizing rapid testing to counter omicron. Other countries are far ahead
Original article from The Washington Post , 2021
As many governments impose fresh restrictions to curb omicron, the Biden administration is making rapid testing a pillar of its response. President Biden announced a raft of new measures Tuesday to broaden access to coronavirus tests, including the delivery of a half-billion free rapid tests to homes next month and the establishment of testing sites across the country. Earlier this month, Biden also announced a reimbursement scheme for at-home antigen tests.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States’ testing infrastructure has been widely criticized as inadequate — hampered by supply issues, high costs and what critics describe as an inflexible, pricey and convoluted process for test makers to obtain government authorization.
Biden pledged during his campaign to address the problem and took some steps to do so this fall. But images this week of Americans waiting outside in lengthy testing lines as at-home test kits sold out at pharmacies underscored the challenges to mass testing that remain. People lucky enough to get their hands on an at-home test kit often pay $25 for two tests.
Public health experts praised the measures announced Tuesday, but many described them as too little, too late to curb a highly infectious variant that is proving frustratingly adept at sidestepping antibodies from vaccines or prior infections. Pressed on Tuesday about why Americans were struggling to access tests, Biden became defensive.