The government is reviewing proposals to shut down the program that ships free covid tests to American households and is considering destroying 160 million tests. The Trump administration has been evaluating the costs of destroying or disposing of tens of millions of coronavirus tests that would otherwise be provided free to Americans, according to two officials at a federal public health preparedness agency and internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
Internal documents show that officials in the Department of Health and Human Services have been considering two options: either disposing of or continuing to ship more than 160 million tests, valued at more than half a billion dollars. Only a small fraction of the tests are expired, according to the officials.