A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) warned Wednesday that many tests being sold online and advertised as effective for determining if a person has contracted coronavirus in the past are not accurate.
Adm. Brett Giroir said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends” that the Trump administration worries that many tests being marketed online, most of which are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), could provide “not accurate” results.
“Most of them, almost all of them have not been through FDA authorization, and we are very concerned that many of the tests are really just not accurate,” Giroir said.
Giroir, the assistant secretary for Health and Human Services and a member of President Trump’s coronavirus task force, explained that federal guidance was forthcoming on which tests the public should seek out to determine if they have contracted coronavirus without showing symptoms.
“[T]here’s no need to have this test right now,” he added.
“We are developing the methods. We have the methods and we’re validating which tests are good. And as soon as we do that, you’ll be hearing from us very shortly, probably in the next week, to give the public assurance of which ones really work and don’t, and there’ll be a really national testing plan around these antibody tests as well,” Giroir concluded.
Antibody tests allow users to discover whether they possess a unique immune response to the virus. Finland announced Tuesday that it would begin voluntary antibody testing of hundreds of residents per week, beginning in days.