The 6-year-old and I found COVID-19 tests on sale today at CVS in Jupiter, Florida:
I placed my order for taxpayer-funded tests (“free”) on January 19, the advertised first day in “The Biden Administration to Begin Distributing At-Home, Rapid COVID-19 Tests to Americans for Free“ (whitehouse.gov) and haven’t gotten anything yet except an email from USPS promising an update “once your package ships.”
In other words, relief from the central planners will arrive some weeks after CVS was forced to mark COVID-19 tests down due to oversupply.
I remarked on the low price and ample quantity available, saying “Those would have been very valuable a month ago.” The 6-year-old immediately responded, “let’s buy some now and keep them at home and then sell them for $20.99 during the next wave.”
I’m not going to leave him alone with any Dr. Seuss books (re-sold for up to $1,700 on Amazon before being banned there)!
Readers: Did your tests from the central planners arrive? If so, when? It was supposed to be “seven to 12 days” from January 19.
Speaking of COVID-19, let me take this opportunity to give a shout-out to selfless front-line workers, such as the physician (see the license plate) who parked this Ferrari on the street near the above-mentioned CVS:
Who knows Ferraris well enough to say what model this is and estimate the value? My guess is a Portofino retractable hard top (worth about 250,000 in 2022 mini-dollars).
Related:
The tests arrived a week ago with the expiration date 6/22. I ordered on 1/18. The brand is iHealth (made in China). I also got blue N95 masks from local health department that a too small for my face.
Never bothered with the free tests, but did get some free masks. Guess millennials are using them to renovate their mansions. Meanwhile, when was the last time someone saw a GPU?
Our GPUs will be here soon. https://www.reuters.com/technology/white-house-zero-chip-shortage-meeting-with-company-officials-2021-04-12/ says “As Biden works to fix chips shortage, Intel promises help for automakers” (10 months ago)
Like you, I ordered them the first day. Other than a Jan 18th email from USPS confirming my order, no sign of them.
Thanks, Paul. I wonder if the apparatchiks decided to allocate these scarce items to counties with high rates of COVID-19 “cases”. Our comrades in central planning may be wiser than we suspect!
re: “I wonder if the apparatchiks decided to allocate these scarce items to counties with high rates of COVID-19 “cases”. ”
Or to blue states/counties: I ordered mine January 18 and received the iHealth tests February 1st in Boulder, and due to delivery notice I got them from the mailbox before the cold temperatures that day had an impact based on what I’d read. Its unclear how many others got left in the cold too long.
I live in the Florida Space Coast area, ordered the tests on January 19th, and received them a week later about Jan 26.
Your Hidden Spark ordered them the morning of January 26th and has not seen any sign of them via email, shipping or wireless transmission. However, in Massachusetts the towns are being alerted through their Boards of Health that at-home test kits are available for distribution by the Boards esp. in 102 poor towns. Here are some details:
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-statewide-contract-resources-for-antigen-test-kits#upcoming-webinar!-
At least one of these recent webinars has entailed enough work for the person administering the test that a town would presumably create a position – either temporary or permanent – to perform the duties of receiving the tests, administering the tests, collecting and tabulating the data from the tests, and promulgating that data.
And a month ago the Baker-Polito administration announced it had ordered 26 million rapid test kits for schools and childcare settings, to be distributed by the end of April.
https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-secures-contract-for-26-million-rapid-antigen-tests
Bzzzt!–== Over and Out! –==Bzzzt!
Yup that’s a Portofino and your estimate is a tad high but in the ballpark depending on options. It’s easy to lift the price of any Ferrari with options.
https://www.caranddriver.com/ferrari/portofino on a new model:
“”…and the twin-turbo 3.9-liter V-8 that hides beneath the Portofino’s elongated hood is excellent. The engine sends 612 horsepower and 561 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.”
So even with the vestigial rear seats, it moves out.
Jersey plates on that one! and according to the free lookup, it’s a 2019 model (a little less power than ’22…the Portofino began in ’17.) No violations reported. I wonder if the owner hoofed it down there from Alpine, NJ (I’m guessing)? Ferraris are more than reliable enough now to make those trips with no trouble and if you keep the top up the Portofino has some usable luggage space.
I haven’t received anything yet.
I live in Tampa, FL. Ordered on Jan 19 and received on Feb 12th. S
From Kaiser Health News:
https://khn.org/news/article/what-are-taxpayers-spending-for-those-free-covid-tests-the-government-wont-say/
“What Are Taxpayers Spending for Those ‘Free’ Covid Tests? The Government Won’t Say….
The Defense Department organized the bidding and announced in mid-January, after a limited competitive process, that three companies were awarded contracts totaling nearly $2 billion for 380 million over-the-counter antigen tests, all to be delivered by March 14.”
COVID has disrupted American’s lives as such our government saw the urgency to mail and deposit checks into our accounts without anyone of us doing anything — the money just arrived like a tooth-fairy. Why this time around are American’s forced to go online and request masks and at home testing kit? What about those poor American’s who either don’t have internet (but they do via ObamaPhone) or cannot read (but they read to use their bank account or EBT) or don’t have the time (but they play on XBox)? Won’t they be left out of free at home COVD test and N95 masks?
Home tests have been available in French supermarkets reliably for weeks now, sometimes as low as as 5.90eur for a 5 pack (1.18eur per test). Supermarkets sell them at cost through some emergency authorization magic (only pharmacies are supposed to sell them – rules are rules until something important happens).
They were hard to find in the first two week of January. Pharmacies had them quite reliably even back them, at the much higher regulated price of 5.xeur per test.
Selling them online ? Crazy talk, maybe for the next pandemic.