The Equity Concerns over the Distribution of the At-Home Covid Tests
On January 14, 2022, the Biden Administration announced that it would be purchasing at-home covid tests for Americans to order online in an effort to help control the spread of the virus.
According to the White House’s official website, “…a half-billion tests will be available for order on January 19th and will be mailed directly to American households.” These tests will be available to be ordered through the website COVIDtests.gov starting January 19th and they will take around a week or a week and a half to ship to your current address.
There have been concerns raised over the allowance of only four at-home tests per household. Although this was done to ensure that all Americans can have access to these tests, the majority of households will certainly need more than only four tests. Some households have more than four people due to large families, shared living costs, and roommates. It would also mean that single person households would get four tests as well.
Beyond this issue, there is also the fact that in order to purchase the tests online, an address is required so that they can be shipped to you. This means that the majority of people who don’t have access to the internet, a stable address, or are homeless will not have accessible testing. They will have to find a clinic nearby, wait in long lines, and hope that there are enough tests available so that they can be tested. Furthermore, students that live on college campuses and residents that live in apartments have a harder time ordering tests due the amount of people that live at the same address. The standard definition of a ‘household’ does not apply to everyone.
While there are still major strides in slowing the spread of the virus, we need to do better. Everyone needs access to testing, especially if they are unable to receive the vaccine for a myriad of reasons. Equal testing might sound fair; but we need to keep in mind that most Americans need equitable testing. Only when we are all doing everything we can to get vaccinated and tested will we be able to control the spread of COVID-19 and finally put an end to this pandemic.
