Biden’s announcement days before Christmas came as tests had all but disappeared from retail shelves.
WASHINGTON — As the United States saw a nearly vertical increase in coronavirus cases in late December and a growing backlash over a shortage of rapid tests, President Joe Biden promised that his administration would mail 500 million of them to Americans, free of charge.
The world’s largest testing manufacturers, which were already racing to meet skyrocketing demand from public and commercial buyers around the world, could not possibly provide that many tests for Americans on such short notice.So the administration turned at first to several little-known companies that had supplies of federally authorized tests in warehouses, ready to ship. One of them, Medea Inc.
The company, which previously focused on making medical devices like forehead thermometers, got authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its test in November. Its Chinese manufacturer has since hired 16,000 additional workers and is sending more than 10 million tests a day to the United States on cargo jets, according to Jack Feng, iHealth’s chief operating officer.
There are now 14 authorizations of over-the-counter rapid antigen tests, compared with around a half-dozen at the end of the summer. By the spring and early summer, virus cases had fallen significantly, and demand for at-home testing cratered. Abbott discarded heaps of test supplies in Maine and temporarily shuttered its Illinois factory. At the time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that fully vaccinated people exposed to the virus did not need to test unless they displayed symptoms, guidance that was later reversed.
The Biden administration last year also regularly invoked the Defense Production Act, which can be used to compel companies to prioritize the manufacturing of key supplies; it also took other actions that had a similar effect, including by helping pipette manufacturers get better access to resin needed for test kits, said Tim Manning, a White House supply official.
The tests are also providing an extra layer of security to Americans who are now more in the habit of using them. In an Axios-Ipsos poll conducted in late January, 44% of respondents said they had already ordered free tests through the government. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they supported the plan, including a majority of unvaccinated respondents.
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