The rush for a coronavirus testing kit is on.
Startups and charitable foundations are rushing to create their own coronavirus testing kits that can be sent to people, while the government works to ship enough kits to help regions get a grip on the outbreak.
But that rush has also created an opening for scams and fly-by-night operations making unverified or outlandish claims in an effort to capitalize on public fear of the virus — including for at-home tests.
The FDA responded to the shortage of tests this week by relaxing regulatory restrictions, which approved the emergency distribution of new tests and allowed for states to authorize laboratories to develop tests.
But there are currently no FDA-approved at-home COVID-19 tests available in the U.S.
“No at-home test has been granted an emergency use authorization,” an FDA spokesperson said in an email. “And at-home test kits are explicitly exempt as part of our recent coronavirus diagnostics policy. We are looking into this further.”
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Several private medical companies have said they are working on test kits. Nurx, known as the “Uber of birth control,” said it was working with lab testing partners on a home testing kit. Everlywell, a lab-testing startup, said its test kit will be available starting on March 23, though people will still need prescriptions for the tests, which will also need to be sent off to a lab for analysis.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is reportedly funding a project that would provide home-testing kits for Seattle residents, though it is unclear when such a product might be ready.
Beyond legitimate efforts to create home test kits, thousands of coronavirus-related internet domains have been registered globally in recent months
Thousands of coronavirus-related domains have been registered globally so far this year. More than 400 of them specifically refer to testing in their site names, according to an NBC News analysis of records using DomainTools, a cyberintelligence platform. Most of the websites, registered anonymously and named with variations of official-sounding words mashed together like FDACORONAVIRUSTESTKIT.COM were likely purchased with the intent to sell them for a profit. A handful are currently offering test kits for purchase.
On Monday, Mycoronavirustestkits.com offered two test kits for $75 and $150 — half-price according to the site. The site, which offers few details about its operation or owner, displays a banner reading, “THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE” – JESUS.” The website has an operational checkout process that accepts Paypal and major credit cards.
The website’s owner, Kirk St Johns, CEO of MedTech National, which specializes in electronic health records, according to St Johns’ LinkedIn page, said in a phone interview that the listings were a mistake, and explained that the test his company might eventually offer would be an initial test to rule out influenza.
“I’ll be the first person to say we’re not ready yet, hold the phone, that was a little premature,” Kirk said. “But we do have the experience necessary to do legitimate testing.”
By Monday afternoon, the COVID-19 tests had been removed and replaced with influenza test kits selling for up to $389.
Public demand and collective anxiety over testing is clear. On Google, the coronavirus is quickly becoming the biggest trend in the search engine’s history and searches related to how to access testing have surged. “How to get tested for coronavirus,” was the top “How to …” search on Coronavirus this week, eclipsing how to prepare, prevent, or treat.