You have three days to get your free COVID tests before the program is suspended

[boingboing]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/06/you-have-three-days-to-get-your-free-covid-19-tests-before-the-program-is-suspended.html

…

[MagicFox]

Thank you, just placed my order.

[Melizmatic]

Thanks for the reminder!

[Gryphon]

I ordered free tests a couple times. Both times I got test kits that were near or past the expiration date on the box. I know there’s a web site where you can go look up the “real” expiration date, but you’d think after 4 years they would have started printing those later expiration dates on the box if they were really accurate. Makes me wonder if they were getting a discount on test kits that were no longer sellable at retail.

[DukeTrout]

Probably not. Here’s how medical device expiration dates work:

1. Develop your product, packaging, and production processes;
2. Use accelerated aging to determine how long the product stays sterile and functional.
   a. If you’re in a hurry to get to market, you might test your first batch to a simulated 6 month shelf life, which takes about a week. You then release that product.
   b. Right away, you test the bext batch to one year, which takes a few weeks, but if you have multiple test setups you can do it in parallel.
   c. Repeat as desired to get to the maximum shelf life you want.

All that, and if you are clever enough to hold onto a statistical sample of each step along the way, you can do comparative testing to you 3 or 5 year product and write up a justification to FDA that those 6 month, 1 year, etc products are equivalent to the long shelf life product. Normally, you would relabel them with the new expiration date, but if they have been sitting in a government warehouse, it might be more practical to release a cross-reference online to correlate expiration to lot number.

[MissCellania]

I ordered some last November, but never got them. Now they say I have reached my limit and cannot order more.

[raines]

Note the fine print: If you haven’t ordered any since September, after your order is confirmed go back and click Checkout again to get a second set of 4 tests.

[ClutchLinkey]

Thanks! This is interesting. We have a bunch of old tests and have been updating expiration dates based on the cross-reference, and I wondered how that worked about extending the deadlines.