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# FDA Hit on ‘Slow’ At-Home Covid Test Approval
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-hit-on-slow-at-home-covid-test-approval/
- Published: 2021-03-04T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T16:49:28.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Devices, #legacy-id-D5148811

Taxpayers Protection Alliance senior fellow **Ross Marchand** says FDA “must reverse its misguided aversion to life-saving coronavirus tests.” Writing online in *The Center Square*, Marchand praises the approval of three Covid-19 vaccines but says Americans still must make do with a subpar testing regime that takes a day or longer to deliver results at considerable expense.

“The lack of rapid, reliable testing for Covid-19 reflects a dangerously uneven regulatory process that jeopardizes lives in the name of risk aversion,” Marchand writes.

The post says FDA has given emergency use authorization to more than 330 tests and sample collection devices, but only four at-home tests. Three of the four tests require a prescription to purchase and the fourth costs $30 per test, putting it out of reach and impractical for most Americans, Marchand says.

The post quotes Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health epidemiologist **Michael Mina** saying “It’s very, very unfortunate when our regulatory agency, which is meant to help protect Americans, is really at the center of preventing Americans from getting tools that will help them limit the spread of an infection like SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19.”

Mina suggests rejecting the idea of one-off testing when people feel ill and instead mass-producing rapid tests for workers regularly going to at-risk locations such as nursing homes and healthcare facilities. “But that won’t happen if FDA retains its bottleneck on approving rapid at-home tests,” Marchand says.

He says the agency’s position is not surprising as it is famously risk-averse and, according to former employees, fearful of blowback stemming from approving a product that malfunctions in full view of the news media. “Regulatory officials’ worst nightmare is a test that doesn’t perform as expected (perhaps due to consumer negligence) and patients infecting others based on false information,” Marchand writes. “But this lowest common denominator logic effectively shuts out millions of Americans from access to a fast, affordable test they could use before seeing loved ones. It’s long past time for FDA to give Americans the tools they need to exercise caution and stop the spread. Millions of lives hang in the balance.”