WEBVTT - Demand for At-Home Covid Tests Skyrocket with Delta Surges

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<v Speaker 1>It's Friday August. I'm Oscar Emrrors from the Daily Dive

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<v Speaker 1>podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. As

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<v Speaker 1>the Delta baron continues to infect so many people, the

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<v Speaker 1>demand for at home COVID test is going up. The

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<v Speaker 1>only problem with that is that the test manufacturers can't

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<v Speaker 1>keep up and they're becoming harder to find online and

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<v Speaker 1>on pharmacy shelves. These antigen tests have faced questions of reliability,

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<v Speaker 1>but work best on people who are shedding lots of

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<v Speaker 1>IRUs particles and provide quick test results. Brianna Abbott, health

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<v Speaker 1>reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins us for more.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us, Brianna, thanks for having me so

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<v Speaker 1>something we had kind of forgotten about a little bit.

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<v Speaker 1>The demand definitely was dropping was for COVID test at

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<v Speaker 1>home COVID test, but as the Delta variant has been surging,

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<v Speaker 1>the need for these tests has become more clear and

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<v Speaker 1>right now, unfortunately, the makers of these at home tests

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<v Speaker 1>are having a tough time keeping up with that demand.

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<v Speaker 1>So we're looking at the laboratories Quadell, Core and a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of other ones that are really starting to ramp

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<v Speaker 1>up the production of these tests again, So Brandon, help

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<v Speaker 1>us walk through some of this. What are we seeing?

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<v Speaker 1>So you are spot on when you say that a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of people forgot about COVID testing, and um, what

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<v Speaker 1>we sort of saw in the late spring and early

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<v Speaker 1>summer was testing demand really plummeted. For a few different reasons.

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<v Speaker 1>We had federal guidance that said that vaccinated people didn't

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<v Speaker 1>really need to get tested anymore and less they had symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>and you had a lot more vaccinated people and cases

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<v Speaker 1>were dropping, and so you know, there just wasn't as

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<v Speaker 1>much demands for testing, and as a results, some of

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<v Speaker 1>the companies, including Abbott, scaled down some of their production.

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<v Speaker 1>They say that they were sort of forced to scale

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<v Speaker 1>back given the lack of demand. And now that we've

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<v Speaker 1>seen things swing in the opposite direction, including cases surging,

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<v Speaker 1>the notion that vaccinated people can and do sometimes spread

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<v Speaker 1>the virus, and you know, just the overall worsening of

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<v Speaker 1>the pandemic, kids going back to school, you're really seeing

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<v Speaker 1>that demand take off again. And as a result, you

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<v Speaker 1>are seeing some of the manufacturers sort of rushing to

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<v Speaker 1>keep up. Some of them never really ramped down, but

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<v Speaker 1>even those who did or did not everybody is sort

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<v Speaker 1>of rushing to keep pain with the demand. Yeah, I

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<v Speaker 1>mean it was just a huge shift. The focus was

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<v Speaker 1>on vaccinations and as you mentioned, cases were dropping, so

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<v Speaker 1>even some of these testing centers converted into vaccination centers.

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<v Speaker 1>So you know, it was that huge ship that we

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<v Speaker 1>were going through. Well, we're talking about specifically so people

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<v Speaker 1>get the right frame of mind. We're talking about these

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<v Speaker 1>at home antigin tests, so we're not talking about the

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<v Speaker 1>PCR test. So if you can brand help us walk

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<v Speaker 1>through some of you know, the major players in there.

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<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned Abbott Laboratories, There's is called by x

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<v Speaker 1>Now and a few other names out there. So when

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<v Speaker 1>it comes to the at home antigen tests, a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of these weren't authorized for over the counter pharmacy drug

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<v Speaker 1>store youth until like March or April, so this was

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<v Speaker 1>the first third where we really had them available like

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<v Speaker 1>on pharmacy shell just for anybody to buy. And so

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<v Speaker 1>we have sort of three main antigen tests, which is

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<v Speaker 1>the binex Now from Abbott Laboratories, There's the Pudel puts

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<v Speaker 1>view from Fudels Corp. And then there's the Aloom at

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<v Speaker 1>home tests from the company Aloom and then there's also

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<v Speaker 1>at home molecular tests like sort of like at home

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<v Speaker 1>pc are that use slightly different technologies. There's one FLoC

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<v Speaker 1>here of health, but those are sort of even the

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<v Speaker 1>harder to find than the antigeny want. There's always been

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<v Speaker 1>a conversation about the reliability of these antigen tests, these

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<v Speaker 1>rapid tests. Sometimes there's false positives or false negatives even

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<v Speaker 1>but you know, experts do say that they kind of

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<v Speaker 1>work when you're using them in succession, you know, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>three tests in a row, something like that. I think

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<v Speaker 1>they call them them they call them contagiousness tests because

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<v Speaker 1>it helps kind of track that a little bit better. Definitely,

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<v Speaker 1>So with antigen tests, they're different than the molecular tests,

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<v Speaker 1>which you know, hunt for the viruses genetic material and

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<v Speaker 1>sort of amplify it, and so there's no amplification process

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<v Speaker 1>with these antigen tests that look for bits of virus proteins,

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<v Speaker 1>and so they are a bit less sensitive, and so

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<v Speaker 1>you're gonna have them miss some more cases, might be

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of false positives, but they are concerned is

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<v Speaker 1>false negative. But all of the data that we have

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<v Speaker 1>show that these ancient and tests they work well when

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<v Speaker 1>viral loads are pretty high, and so if you're just

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<v Speaker 1>shedding virus all over the place and you're incredibly contagious,

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<v Speaker 1>the test will pick you up, but they miss sort

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<v Speaker 1>of those lower rung if you don't if you're not

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<v Speaker 1>carrying a lot of virus at that time, they might

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<v Speaker 1>miss it. And so they work best when when viral

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<v Speaker 1>loads are high. And so the whole idea is using

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<v Speaker 1>them in rapid succession is that the amount of virus

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<v Speaker 1>in your body like changes over the course of an infection,

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<v Speaker 1>and so if you don't have a lot of virus

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<v Speaker 1>in the beginning, the test might miss it, but two

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<v Speaker 1>days later, your viral load could shoot up and then

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<v Speaker 1>the test would pick it up. And so that's why

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<v Speaker 1>you know, you might want to use multiple tests in

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<v Speaker 1>a row. And both the Abbot and the Quiddel tests

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<v Speaker 1>are authorized for screening, and so if you're screening without symptoms,

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<v Speaker 1>you're really supposed to take two of them over the

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<v Speaker 1>course of a couple of days. Yeah, I mean, just anecdotally,

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<v Speaker 1>speaking for myself, I've I've haven't spoken about tests so

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<v Speaker 1>much as in the recent past that you know, I've

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<v Speaker 1>had a couple of coworkers unfortunately came down with COVID.

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<v Speaker 1>They would both breakthrough infections also, but the same thing

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<v Speaker 1>talking about the timing of tests are like, well, you

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<v Speaker 1>know I might have been exposed, I gotta wait a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of days just to make sure the test will

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<v Speaker 1>pick it up. You know, there's so much that goes

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<v Speaker 1>into it costs for these tests? How much did they cost?

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, because you know, to buy at home

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<v Speaker 1>tests can get pretty expensive, it seems like, so these

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<v Speaker 1>at home tests, the cheapest runs run for a two

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<v Speaker 1>pack of twenty or self it's roughly ten dollars for tests,

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<v Speaker 1>but you have to buy two of them, so it's

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<v Speaker 1>essentially twenty dollars. And um, that's okay if you want

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<v Speaker 1>to use it as like a one time screening thing

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<v Speaker 1>or you have symptoms, we really need an answer now.

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<v Speaker 1>But for just something like regular screening, like most people

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<v Speaker 1>aren't going to be able to afford to sort of

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<v Speaker 1>constantly by worth of test. So there there has been

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<v Speaker 1>public health experts that have sort of really been saying

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<v Speaker 1>that if we really want widespread use of these as

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<v Speaker 1>you know, frequent screening tools, the price is going to

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<v Speaker 1>have to come down. Well, there's many ways and and

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<v Speaker 1>options available to get tested. This is just one of them,

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<v Speaker 1>the at home tests. I did check Amazon before we

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<v Speaker 1>came onto this interview. It is currently unavailable and it

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<v Speaker 1>says they have no idea when they're coming back, So

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<v Speaker 1>just something to keep an eye out for when you're

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<v Speaker 1>out there. Brianna Abbott, health reporter at The Wall Street Journal,

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<v Speaker 1>thank you very much for joining us. Yeah, thanks for

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<v Speaker 1>having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can

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<v Speaker 1>check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday

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