thats $10 million of your taxes.
================================================
The Australian government spent almost $10 million on 500,000 antibody tests that have been found to be inaccurate at testing for COVID-19.
The federal government confirmed on Thursday it had spent $9.9 million buying 500,000 OnSite antibody tests from MD Solutions, an Australian distributor. It said the tests could still be used in conjunction with further laboratory tests.
The Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity ran lab tests on the antibody test kits and found they were far less accurate than claimed, and were not sensitive enough to diagnose an acute COVID-19 case.
Earlier, the government received separate official advice saying the tests could not be used at all in Australia.
In March the government announced it had bought the tests and would roll them out to GPs and hospitals within days. They never arrived at clinics.
As late as last Thursday Health Minister Greg Hunt said they were still undergoing analysis.
He told media there was no chance the antibody kits the government had bought would hit the same problems encountered by the UK government – which discovered $US20 million ($30.9 million) of kits it had purchased from China did not work.
"That’s because we’ve been very cautious and took a preliminary sample – we wanted to make sure that we had the option if the science stacked up," Mr Hunt said at the time.
"The advice that we have is that what Australia has purchased is of the highest quality."
The OnSite tests were cleared by Australia’s medical regulator on the basis of data the company supplied. No independent tests were conducted before they were approved.
