The Rapid-Response Test Approval Is Good News
Our team has written a lot about the appeal of fast-responding though not-super-accurate Covid-19 tests. This week, these rapid-responding tests moved forward. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency-use authorization to Abbott Laboratories for a $5 rapid-response Covid-19 test. The company says it will start shipping tens of millions of the newly authorized tests in September and plans to increase production to 50 million tests in October. The U.S. government also announced a $750 million deal to buy 150 million rapid Covid-19 tests from Abbott. This is all very good news as it will greatly increase the U.S.’s rapid testing capacity.
Not only are fast-responding tests appealing because they diagnose people quickly, but experts say they can play a critical role in stopping chains of Covid-19 transmission.
Abbott’s test is a small, $5 antigen test that turns around results in 15 minutes. While there are important critiques that this kind of antigen testing is not as effective as PCR testing, antigen tests are good at detecting people when they are at the most…
