Back in March, the Food and Drug Administration took the unprecedented step of allowing COVID antibody tests to flood the market without review. The tests were billed as a critical tool to assess where the virus had spread and who might have immunity. But in the government’s rush to get more people tested quickly, it may have missed the mark. Over the course of a three-month investigation, 60 Minutes has learned that federal officials knew that many of the antibody tests were seriously flawed but continued to allow them to be sold anyway.
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The problem started with politicization of the virus. Trump critics complain that the tests should have been vetted by the FDA. At the same time, the hue and cry was that the federal government was dragging it’s feet on getting testing out. Such an environment is lose-lose for everyone. Maybe a better idea is to get government out of health decisions altogether.
And If the government is out of health decisions altogether, who will step in to oversee this stuff? drug companies? FDA who is full of ex pharmaceutical heads? I think a better point would be to see who in our government is benefitting by selling bum tests.
Couldn’t this be addressed with third parties assigned to this task that have no ties to either. No easy answers, I’m sure!
Could not agree more!
JA Absolutely I agree with you 100%
We are all preaching to the choir on this subject on this forum! What we need is a grass roots effort to physically get to people with this message. If you read articles here, please make it your mission to share the information. I mean physically approach people and tell them what you read. The mainstream media will never stop the narrative that is fueled by the power of pharma!
Chris, can you share your efforts/tips to share information. I have to say that my daughter and I have tried that with close relatives and friends and it is extremely difficult for the main reason that we also do not have all the information. Yes this segment on 60 minutes is great, but the argument against it (I can hear it from skeptics), is that why should I trust those people and not the CDC/FDA, or other news outlets? This is not what I think but I am sharing the reactions we received in our efforts to warn people and recommend for them to be cautious.
on another note, it would be great to have the list of all the companies which released tests that were later pulled off by the FDA and which are apparently still in circulation; and release those we could trust in regard to accuracy. Has anyone found that information?
Adding to my previous post. I just looked at the FDA website and found the 67 antibody test kits which were removed from distribution by the FDA in May/June of this year. What I found a bit odd is that ,ost of those were for the most part from Chinese origin. I am not saying that they should not have been removed, as I do not know enough about them and have no way of testing them, but I find it odd that by removing those it paved the way for it appears more American companies to now releasing similar test kits… with it appears still very little testing of accuracy. so what are we to trust now? based on that alone, what do the “number” of cases reported by states and counties really mean?