Sundown, March 30, 2020: two Sheriff’s Department SUVs, lights ablazing, sirens a-howling, escort a red 18-wheeler pulling an empty flatbed trailer into the parking lot at the entrance of Clear Choice ER (logo very visible, pretty good video; is this an ad?).
The passenger door of the Kenworth (JDK logo visible; oh, it is an ad) opens and a couple of cardboard boxes are handed out.
Cut to an ear-to-ear grinning District 28 Congressman Henry Cuellar in shirtsleeves who carries one of the boxes for the camera and who is credited with expediting them to Laredo through FDA and CBP clearance. (I’m confused; who does this gratuitous ad belong to?)
Someone else carries the box for him the rest of the way into the ER facility.
The two boxes hold COVID-19 rapid test kits that the City of Laredo and Webb County bought from Clear Choice on a buy one-get one free deal. They paid for 2,500, got 5,000.
COVID-19 rapid test kits were green-lighted by the FDA only very recently. With FDA emergency use authorization, Abbott Laboratories technology for rapid testing began shipping out Wednesday. (The Washington Post, 4/1/2020)
The rapid test kits that arrived in Laredo on Monday, March 30, came from Anhui Deep Blue Medical Technology Company, Ltd. in Anhui China.
The Oregonian/Oregon Live, a Portland news source, reported on March 27, 2020, the seizure of fraudulent COVID-19 rapid test kits shipped to a Portland man from the Anhui Deep Blue Medical Technology Company, Ltd. in Anhui, China. They were labeled, as were the kits the City and County ordered as Blue Dolphin (Colloidal Gold.)
The Portland buyer, who was not a physician, a nurse, a nurse practitioner, or a pharmacist — but had once been a former senior vice-president of a defunct cannabis oil company — purchased the kits for 50-cents each.
The rapid test kits shippped to Laredo, which were slated for use at an upcoming drive-through testing event at the City’s Park and Ride facility on Hillside, fell below the reliability range guaranteed by the company that issued the kits when standard quality control assurance tests were conducted by the City of Laredo Health Department.
A press release issued by the City Thursday evening also called into question the validity of the FDA certification of the kits. The release said that the Laredo Police Department has initiated an inquiry and is working with other authorities to investigate.
No rapid tests were administered to the public and no payment was made for the test kits by either the city or the county.
More than the reliability of the rapid test kits has fallen to the floor. Hope has skittered a way a bit out of reach, at least for the moment — the hope that we could quickly do more as a community to understand and manage the peril we face.
(Both the City and the County continue their efforts to respond to COVID-19 cases locally and are working with all medical providers to administer testing, conduct contact tracing, provide care and quarantine exposed and positive persons. The city and county also continue public education efforts regarding COVID-19 and public health. For more information, please visit www.cityoflaredo.com or www.webbcounty.tx.)
Nice show! Conned? Thanks for trying, pero…
como dicemos en El Siete Viejo, “Who’s that in the cape standing by a red semi cab pulling an empty flatbed trailer?
Is it Superman? ….No, it’s Supermamón!”
Cuellar was trying to help. I don’t think he medically try to deceive his constituents. Do you really believe that he would really use a photo op with defective masks or kits? Honest error. He was trying to help.