Those testing swabs you’ve heard so much about? For the COVID-19 test Donald Trump swears on grandfather Friedrich’s brothel anyone who wants one can get? Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker told the CBS show “Face the Nation” on May 3 that his office had arranged for the Trump administration to ship the state 600,000:
“Much of what came out of the White House for many weeks was not helpful,” Pritzker said. “We needed the White House to lead on the Defense Production Act to help us get swabs, to help us get VTM [vital transport medium], to help us get reagents. That really hasn’t much happened.”
But at least the swabs were on the way.
WTTW News in Chicago reported Thursday night, however, there has been a slight mix-up:
Some arrived without issue: A shipment of 5,000 came on May 4, then another 39,600 arrived a week later, on Monday.
But this week, Illinois got what appeared to be – at first glance — some 23,000 cotton baby swabs.
Packages marked “Comforts for Baby: Cotton Swabs” arrived in a cardboard shipping box; 180-count packs that look the same as what Illinois received are selling for $1.50 on Instacart.
“What are we supposed to do with these?” a spokeswoman with the Pritzker administration said. “Not helpful.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) swears on its public-safety mandate the confusion lies only in the packaging. The swabs are, in fact, not cotton as labeled but the polyester material required for upper respiratory sampling. To expedite delivery, the supplier simply used existing packaging for the test-grade supplies. A letter from the manufacturer swears on its stockholders’ letterhead the supplies it sent are good for swabbing uncomfortably deep into a patient’s sinuses. Yet, what was delivered are the length of a Q-tip and not individually packaged.
Washington, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania received similarly packaged swabs, CNN reports this morning:
The FDA said it had worked with US Cotton to design the swabs, which are shorter than the swabs used by technicians, doctors or nurses to collect samples to test people for Covid-19 infection.
CNN reported on the shorter swabs in April:
“The type of testing at the front of the nose used in this study is notable because it allows self-collection by patients thereby limiting exposure of healthcare providers; it is more comfortable for patients and it can be performed by a swab that is more readily available and manufacturable at scale,” the FDA said in a statement.
The shorter swabs are designed for at-home testing, but it is not clear that is the type swab these states requested. CNN added for clarity, “Commercially available cosmetic Q-tips are not suitable for use in testing because their cotton fibers absorb too much snot.”
Jordan Abudayyeh of the Illinois governor’s office called the mislabeled shipment another Trump administration effort to “check a box and say we sent them.”
“It’s helpful for (the Trump administration) to say, ‘We sent swabs.’ But it’s more helpful if you say, ‘We sent you swabs where you can actually use and deploy right now without having to take additional steps between now and then,'” she said.
In March, Illinois was expecting a shipment of 300,000 N95 respirator face masks from the Trump administration. Basic surgical masks arrived instead.
Sorry about the “Baby Shark” reference. I swear on my great granduncle’s schooner I shipped a different headline.
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Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.