As the country undergoes a national testing shortage, @GovRonDeSantis let as many as a million COVID tests expire.
Dereliction of duty, plain and simple. https://t.co/tXaKc3FxZP— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) January 7, 2022
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Posted on 01/13/2022 12:07:16 PM PST by conservative98
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed that the Food and Drug Administration agreed to extend the expiration date for almost 1 million rapid COVID-19 test kits.
The tests initially expired last September, but the expiration was extended to December before they expired again. The new extension will last for three months.
"At the end of the summer they expired. The FDA agreed to extend it for three months, but during those three months there was almost zero demand for testing because we had such low COVID prevalence," he said during a press conference Wednesday. "The Division of Emergency Management had been asking for an extension for a long time."
The governor noted that the kits were not at-home tests and were designed for testing facilities. He said they will be distributed to different testing centers throughout the state.
The state had between 800,000 and 1 million rapid test kits from Abbott Laboratories that expired between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30, Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said during a press conference last week.
DeSantis faced criticism for the expired tests from his 2022 gubernatorial challenger Nikki Fried. Fried, a Democrat who currently serves as the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture, said the expired tests showed "a complete failure" on DeSantis's part and proved he was "not fit to serve," Florida Politics reported.
The FDA agreed to extend the expiration date after the manufacturer was able to prove the kits would remain stable after 15 months at room temperature, according to documents obtained by WFTS reporter Forrest Saunders.
Last week, DeSantis announced that the state will distribute 1 million free at-home COVID-19 (expired) test kits to Florida seniors.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
LOL...so this confirms what we’ve all suspected about expiration dates — they are meaningless. They can just extend them three months and then again another three months? What a joke.
No sh*t, I guess I'll drink that milk that expired two years ago that I just found in the back of the fridge.
Please report back to us on your dairy experience!
As the country undergoes a national testing shortage, @GovRonDeSantis let as many as a million COVID tests expire.
Dereliction of duty, plain and simple. https://t.co/tXaKc3FxZP— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) January 7, 2022
🍍
They expired because there was no demand for them in the fall as Florida’s cases had dropped so low. It is like being mad at McDonalds because they cooked too many hamburgers for the lunch rush that didn’t materialize and then throwing them out because they were past their time.
People are trying to buy these tests on the market and can’t because they’re out of stock. They’re supposed to be OTC product so people can do their own test. Guess they don’t want you to do that. No doubt Abbott is right now performing stability testing on these kits, and they probably have the data (hopefully) to extend the dating 3 months.
“LOL...so this confirms what we’ve all suspected about expiration dates — they are meaningless. They can just extend them three months and then again another three months? What a joke.”
No, that’s not how it works lol. I’ve been involved with aging tests for med devices numerous times in my career. Over a dozen. It’s scientifically based.
The manufacturer designs an unbiased test, with protocol, signed by all the big shots in the food chain. Acceptance criteria established, before the tests are run. Hypotheses testing. Designed experiment. Statistically balid and justified sample sizes. Error Of Measurement studies.
The experiment is run. Data analyzed. Either it meets the pre-agreed to acceptance criteria, or not.
Regardless, pass or fail, the report is written, with protocol and data attached.
Bigshots sign off. It it passes, it is sent to the FDA for review, after more bighors sign off. Legal document.
Then the FDA approves or not.
It’s an expensive, significant effort. Any fudging will definitely lead to bankrupting lawsuits, and even jail time if people are seriously harmed.
It’s a pretty trustworthy process. Not for amateurs.
A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.
Henny Youngman
So, given all that scientific rigor and bigwig sign-offs, how would you explain TWO three-month extensions?
There is demand now and they’re expired. Biden should have planned ahead like Trump did.
“how would you explain TWO three-month extensions?”
In general, accelerated aging tests are used. Higher temperatures and humidity than normal, shipping test simulations on big shaker tables. The shaker tests simulate transport and higher temps storage.
The Arrhenius equation, for example, is used to speed up decomposition reactions via higher temperatures, in a very predictable manner. There are all kinds of published standards on how to do these tests.
So you might design, say, 1 day accelerated equals 10 days normal. Entirely scientifically justified. But for 3 year shelf life, that is still almost 4 months long. Include the protocols, report, signiffs, edits, and it will easily be a 7 month process to get a 36 month shelf life.
Want to extend it? Add another xxx months for the entire process.
Often they go short shelf lives to get it out to market faster, then run longer tests in parallel in the background. Then file for a label change. Takes time and money. Do it again? Sure...more time, more money.
The FDA can grant extensions for exigent reasons, too.
So it’s not unusual at all, the double extension thing. Happens all the time. Been there, done that. As have a lot of med and drug makers and people.
“What difference at this point does it make anyway?”
It was probably going to give a false positive result in any event. (The test probably comes complete with a little positive sticker)
ps Are the test kit makers exempted from suits as are the vaxx makers?
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