The Biden administration launched a program in mid-January to provide free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests to anyone who wants one. All one had to do was visit COVIDTests.gov, and they could order up to “4 free at-home COVID-19 tests.”
The website said orders were supposed to ship between seven and 12 days. However, I ordered four tests on Feb. 8. It is March 1, and I still haven’t received them.
“There will be free tests available for every household, and to promote broad access, the initial program will allow four free tests to be requested per residential address,” the White House said in a release earlier this year.
As for the distribution and delivery of the tests, the webpage says: “The Administration will partner with the United States Postal Service to package and deliver tests to Americans that want them. All orders in the continental United States will be sent through First Class Package Service, with shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Territories and APO/FPO/DPO addresses sent through Priority Mail.”
Except that did not turn out to be true. It has been 21 days, almost twice as long as the listed shipping time, and I have yet to receive the tests or any update about the shipping status or a tracking number.
My initial reaction was one of patience and understanding. I assumed there was an abundance of orders causing a shipping delay. I figured the demand of the millions of people requesting tests and our government’s typical bureaucratic problems caused the delay.
Then came reports that nearly half a billion tests were still unclaimed. Clearly, my COVID-19 tests were not victims of any supply chain snarls. Instead, it appears they were the latest victim of the Biden administration’s bungling pandemic response.
Biden spent billions of dollars on a COVID-19 testing program that fails to get tests to people in a timely manner. For example, in my case, I could have contracted COVID-19, quarantined, and recovered all before I received the test. Ultimately, such inefficiencies defeat the purpose of sending out tests in the first place. Unless people are planning to stockpile COVID-19 tests in case of emergency, Biden’s program is pointless.
