COVID Testing
McKnight’s reported that Becton Dickinson or BD will investigate why their COVID tests failed. Trump selected BD as one of two companies to distribute COVID-19 point-of-care testing devices to each nursing home. Becton Dickinson supplied nursing homes with at least one Quidel Sofia 2 Instrument or BD Veritor™ Plus System. They are not very accurate though.
BD’s COVID-19 point-of-care testing equipment produces false positive results. Some nursing homes reported multiple false positive results from its Veritor testing equipment according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. BD is seeking additional details regarding their situations.
The WSJ report stated the Department of Health and Human Services is closely monitoring the situation. The Food and Drug Administration is also looking into the issue. HHS is now working with BD and other distributors on supply chain issues in an effort to ensure testing equipment can be restocked for nursing homes.
“BD takes its responsibility very seriously under our agreement with HHS to provide more than 11,000 nursing homes with high-quality and reliable tests to support their efforts to protect residents and staff from COVID-19,” the spokesman added.