Walmart and Kroger are raising prices for one of the more widely used at-home coronavirus tests, leading critics to accuse the U.S. retailers of exploiting an Omicron-fueled surge in demand for the kits to pad their bottom lines.
The companies said Tuesday that they are moving to hike prices for Abbott’s BinaxNOW tests following the expiration of a September deal with the White House under which they sold the kits at cost—$14. Abbott is the firm that, in mid-2021, instructed a factory assembling its tests to destroy millions of the products, citing then-dwindling sales.
Walmart will now offer the highly sought-after kits—which include two rapid Covid-19 tests—for $19.98 per box and Kroger will sell them for $23.99.
“This is pandemic profiteering, plain and simple,” the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy organization, said late Tuesday. “Shame on Walmart and Kroger for price gouging these essential tests during the height of the worst pandemic surge.”
Critics also argued that the price hikes reflect the Biden administration’s failure to use its authority to ensure the universal availability of at-home coronavirus tests, which have been expensive and often difficult to obtain in the U.S. over the course of the pandemic. In October, as Vanity Fair reported last month, the Biden White House rejected a plan that would have significantly ramped up test supply in time for the holidays.
Jeff Hauser, founder and director of the Revolving Door Project, demanded the firing of White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients, “whose failure to utilize the Defense Production Act for tests or [personal protective equipment] demonstrates a greater fealty to private profit than the public interest.”
Attorney and healthcare advocate Matthew Cortland similarly warned that “the failure of the Biden administration to fully leverage the Defense Production Act and related legal authorities is costing American lives.”
During a media briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to say whether the administration is engaging with Walmart or Kroger in an effort to bring the prices for the BinaxNOW test back down.
“I can’t give you an update on any conversations,” Psaki said in response to a reporter’s question about the price hikes. “I can tell you that our objective is, of course, to increase and scale up access to free tests.”
In the 1980s, scientists concluded that if current trends continued the ozone layer that protects our planet would be nearly destroyed in a couple of decades.
What followed was a massive international effort to ban or severely reduce use of chlorofluorocarbons–and the reason you probably haven’t heard much about the hole in the ozone layer lately is because those efforts worked. Rather than seeing the ozone layer completely destroyed by 2050, it is instead well on its way to full recovery.
Sometimes it seems impossible that our world could severely limit or halt our reliance on fossil fuels when they are such an ingrained part of modern life. In the 1980s, when scientists started sounding the alarm about a hole in the ozone layer, it seemed similarly impossible that the world would come together and agree to limit their use of chlorofluorocarbons.
It was not easy, but they did it, and we are living in a better world as a direct result of all those who took action to protect our planet from the threat of impending environmental disaster.
“Even with the complications and caveats, the world’s response to the
ozone crisis should be seen as an instructive, even inspiring, success
story–one that can perhaps inform our response to the climate crisis.”
So many people I know who are skeptical about climate change hold up the Ozone Layer crisis as an example of environmental alarmism. “Oh, you don’t hear anything about the hole in the ozone layer anymore, do ya?” as if it was never a big deal, and as if it was a problem that just went away all by itself. Nah, bah, you don’t hear about it anymore, because we took steps to fix the problem. How about we do that again so you assholes can still be hear in 30 years to tell us all how climate change wasn’t that big a deal actually.
Delphi was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the god Apollo. Located on Mt. Parnassus near the Gulf of Corinth, it was home to the famous oracle of Apollo which gave cryptic predictions and guidance to both city-states and individuals. In addition, Delphi was also home to t…
