It’s 2021 and most Iowans still don’t have access to affordable, rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests

In a flashback to the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowans are having trouble finding tests.

It represents a remarkable failure of state and federal governments that after the better part of two years, there still is not easy access to rapid at-home COVID tests. The technology exists but the government chooses not to make it available to us.

In response to the testing situation, an Iowa software developer this month launched a free Test Hunter website, which allows users to search for available COVID-19 tests based on their location. He’s the same guy, Todd Brady of Ankeny, who built the Iowa Vaccine Hunter tool.

“Based off the things I’ve heard, it’s not a matter of finding a test — people will find a test. The problem is the time between the tests and the results,” Brady said, per The Gazette’s Michaela Ramm.

The timing is crucial. But the state government this year phased out its in-person testing sites and replaced them with a slow-moving test-by-mail system.

The federal government ought to ease its regulatory standards and quickly approve more at-home tests we can buy at pharmacies.

I went to a large event last month, my first one since the start of the pandemic. It was outdoors but densely populated and given the demographics — at a country music concert in Nebraska — I figured a large share of other attendees likely were not vaccinated.

I knew I would want to take a COVID test a few days after, so I planned ahead. The day before the show, a Friday, I ordered a few kits from Test Iowa.

The tests didn’t arrive until the following Thursday, almost a full week after I requested them. It took me about 10 minutes to spit in the vial and then two more days to get my results.

I was fortunate to be negative, and especially fortunate that I could isolate myself for a week while I waited for my test kit and results. Others who have dependents or in-person work don’t have that luxury. Iowans who don’t live as close to the State Hygienic Laboratory as I do face an even longer turnaround.

The solution is rapid at-home testing, which is available for free or a few dollars in many parts of Europe. In the United States, though, federal bureaucracy stands in the way.

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized only a handful of such tests, depriving the market of volume and competition that would increase access and drive down costs. It’s a repeat of last year, when regulators bungled the early lab testing rollout by stifling alternative test designs.

The Biden administration plans to purchase 280 million rapid tests, but that is inadequate at less than one test per American. The federal government ought to ease its regulatory standards and quickly approve more at-home tests we can buy at pharmacies.

Iowa is not going back to business closures and individual restrictions, no matter how high virus figures reach. Gov. Kim Reynolds has said as much and even if she wanted to restore her 2020 orders, many Iowans would simply ignore them.

Vaccines are our best weapon against the virus, but they are limited by breakthrough infections and a lack of universal uptake. To manage the disease, Americans need tests and we can’t afford to wait for the results.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com