Senator Chuck Schumer is calling for a federal crackdown on the sale of "fake" at-home coronavirus test kits.
The New York senator says unregulated antibody and diagnostic test kits are too easily accessible online. He wants the Food and Drug Administration to issue cease and desist orders to anyone selling kits not tested or approved by the agency.
"While the coronavirus itself continues to risk infecting people, varying at-home test kids for the virus's antibodies, and even the disease itself, are now infecting the internet and the consumer marketplace," the senator said in a statement, who calls the majority of at-home tests "unproven, untested and totally unregulated."
If the FDA does not have the funding to oversee this kind of surveillance, Schumer says they should ask the White House for the money.
Schumer says a simple Google search for at-home tests show countless results not "validated for accuracy by the FDA."
"The stakes are too high to let bad actors prey on vulnerable New Yorkers and add even more anxiety and uncertainty to this crisis," he said.
On Tuesday, the FDA approved the first at-home diagnostic test for COVID-19. The "home self-collection kit" will allow the user to collect a nasal sample that needs to be mailed into a lab for testing.
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The FDA anticipates the newly approved test, authorized by a doctor, will be available in most states in the coming weeks.
Schumer's home state of New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., with a majority of all confirmed cases and deaths related to the virus.
