A Florida official admitted Thursday that as many as 1 million COVID-19 test kits expired in a state warehouse over the last few days of December while coronavirus cases were skyrocketing and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said nothing about the health crisis.
Kevin Guthrie, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, made the startling revelation about the Abbott Laboratories rapid test kits in response to a reporter’s question at a Palm Beach press conference where DeSantis was touting the state’s acquisition of an additional 1 million tests. Those at-home test kits are intended to be available only to the elderly.
“If you’re just young and healthy, you don’t need to be going out and getting tested every day,” DeSantis declared, contradicting many health experts. He said nothing about getting vaccinated.
Guthrie claimed at the press conference that there was simply no demand for the tests that expired — despite massively long lines of Floridians waiting for tests that were available elsewhere, and despite drugstores being sold out of COVID tests.
The batch of rapid tests expired between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30. Continue Reading
