‘An Arm and a Leg’: The Rapid-Test Edition: Who’s Making a Buck?

Rapid, at-home covid-19 tests are close to essential if you want to see friends and family this holiday season, and do your best to stay safe.

But they’re freaking expensive and can be hard to find. What the heck happened?

In this episode, we talk to reporters who investigated the shortage of tests and traced the U.S. rapid-testing problem all the way back to the Food and Drug Administration and other government agencies.

Plus, Dr. Céline Gounder talks about why these tests are so important in the first place and how best to deploy them this holiday season — if you can find any.

Here’s a transcript of the episode.

“An Arm and a Leg” is a co-production of KHN and Public Road Productions.

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This is original content from Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation. It is reprinted here with permission.