With the latest variant of Wuhan coronavirus already over, the Biden administration is still bragging about their new government program to send one billion tests to Americans who sign up to receive them.
While many Americans still haven't received their tests, some that did noticed they are made in China.
. @JoeBiden sent everyone in America a Covid test Made in China.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 8, 2022
He & the DC crowd don’t get what’s happening to America. pic.twitter.com/GphbvViykU
Last week White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the administration's curation of tests from China, the very country responsible for the pandemic.
"I would say our objective continues to be to increase U.S. manufacturing capacity of tests. We also needed to meet a need that we had in this country for more tests and a shortage of tests and the understandable demand from people across this country to get tests and make them free and accessible, which required us purchasing some of those tests from China in order to meet that demand," Psaki said.
Further cold winter weather, which the administration didn't factor in when sending tests through the Postal Service, has invalidated a countless number of tests.
Most at-home COVID-19 test brands recommend storing the tests above 35 degrees. The liquid reagent inside the cartridge that comes with the at-home tests is susceptible to freezing, and if that happens, the accuracy of the results decreases, Cindy Prins, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida, told USA TODAY.
"Just as anything with liquid, if it's chilled or frozen, it changes. That's the same with these at-home tests," Baird said. "At a time where temperatures are freezing in most places, it's safer to choose another test."
Dr. Geoffrey Baird, chair of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Washington's School of Medicine, said the issue with the at-home tests is that if the liquid inside the cartridge is frozen, the results can be skewed.
Most studies have found a change in the temperature of the at-home test may result in a false-negative test rather than a false-positive, she added. She said if someone is exposed and tests negative with the at-home test, they should receive a PCR test to confirm the results.