With Australians struggling to find rapid antigen tests, people are turning to ad hoc online resources and communities to find where they’re available — but they’re still often coming up short.
Demand for RATs spiked when PCR test results began taking longer to get and COVID-19 numbers soured. Unlike PCR tests, which were available free at pathology sites and hospitals listed on state health websites, RATs were available at shops ranging from chemists to supermarkets. Retailers scrambled to source them and would quickly sell out, often at inflated prices. Meanwhile Australians have reported driving from store to store — sometimes while ill — hoping to find a test.
Facebook groups dedicated to finding some popped up across the country. Thousands of people joined.
The administrator of Rapid Antigen Tests (COVID-19) Brisbane wrote to the nearly 10,000 members of her group on January 3 that she had set up the group to help others: “I am hoping as a collective group we can assist each other in where to buy these RATs at the lowest price.”
Others took it even further. Matt Hayward, 24, developed a website that allowed people to crowdsource information on where RATs were available called findarat.com.au. Users could search for their location or look at a map to see if any places near them had tests for sale.
While these online resources and groups have helped some, they’ve had significant problems. The Facebook groups are filled with posts from people who’ve been unable to find tests.
Both group members and findarat.com.au users have complained that details are out of date or wrong.
Some entries on the findarat.com.au website, like one listing RATs for sale at Hillsong for $6.66, are clearly trolls.
(There have been claims that anti-vaxxers had sabotaged the website by putting in false entries, but Crikey has been unable to find any evidence supporting them.)
This information has real-world effects. People are lining up at retailers before opening, sometimes to be told none are available.
Meanwhile other opportunistic individuals and stores are finding ways to evade bans from selling tests on platforms like Facebook and other online marketplaces.
While individuals have sought to fill the gap left by governments by using technology to help each other, their best efforts have been unable to overcome the barriers to finding rapid antigen tests.
Providing reliable information about where Australians can access a basic medical good during a pandemic requires a top-down system and the investment of dedicated resources. Governments, for whatever reason, have decided Australians are on their own.
Have you used the internet to hunt down a RAT? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name if you would like to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
“Governments, for whatever reason, have decided Australians are on their own.”
As well as not authorising Aussie-manufactured tests for use and all the other obstacles put in the way of RATs, according to some reports e.g. SBS News, as mentioned in the Crikey Worm, the government is now seizing or confiscating RATs ordered by Australian businesses before they can be sold to customers. To coin a phrase, it’s a government of RAT-fukkers.
It fits in with the ScoMolean Pentacostal world view: the End Times are upon us, the Elect will be raised up in the Rapture; the rest of us – tough bikkies
I’m tempted to say bring on the Rapture, if it means we’ll finally rid ourselves of this jerk.
As well as not authorising Aussie-manufactured tests for use
I’ve asked this before. Do we know that the manufacturer has applied to the TGA for authorisation ?
This is the reality of lots of small communities taking charge…as opposed to what Morrison sees in his mind’s eye, a pastoral tableau straight out of one of those Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets, with all the neat white people distributing RATs, smiling beatifically, Jesus looking on in approval.
How good is having an absent federal government? And how good is having a PM who lives in a religious Norman Rockwell painting?
I ordered a stuffed Rat online and it arrived within two days, no problem.
They are reusable, washable and can be used by the whole family.
The dog ripped the squeek out of it within ten mins., but after sowing up it can still be used.
A bloke in the pub who knows the cousin of a Lib pollie said he was told they work by scaring off the virusses.
Sounds like something CMOTD would sell – on a stick, with extra gravel for the vertically challenged lawn ornaments..
The govt is now requisitioning, ie seizing or commandeering, RATs ordered by private agencies and organisations who were trying to take responsibility for their staff. I reckon these will be distributed to aged care homes (a Fed responsibility) for use by staff and visitors, so Hunt and Morrison can then announce you can visit Grandma again.
And lying about it. https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/department-of-health-denies-rats-are-being-diverted-after-pharmacies-claim-their-orders-are-being-seized/news-story/2180e3622b80c46d66c1479bdd5ceb9c
Demand for RATs spiked when PCR test results began taking longer to get and COVID-19 numbers soured
Soured ? Soared perhaps.
Or maybe both? The soaring numbers could make some bitterness.
But with Crikey, how would you know?
Not that it matters much – how much credence would anybody put in what is written in the ‘articles’ here?
Between the fractured syntax, poor grammar and constant typos & malapropisms (hi, grundle!) I have far more respect for the posts of some of the commenters than anything churned out by the salaried scribblers.