A doctor campaigning for improved access to rapid COVID-19 tests in three Atlantic provinces has accused them of not distributing them to citizens, who pay for these public health tools using their tax dollars.
The DD Dalia Hasan specifically accuses Newfoundland and Labrador, but also New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, of maintaining its rapid tests that people can do at home in warehouses, and wonders at their reasons for doing so.
More than 140 million rapid diagnostic tests were paid for by the federal government and distributed to provinces and territories.
three provinces behind others
Most provinces distribute rapid test kits free of charge, for example to pharmacies or public libraries, as is the case in Nova Scotia.
Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are the only provinces that do not provide them for free to the public.
In New Brunswick, pharmacists call access so complicated that taxpayers pay out of pocket for tests that other Canadians receive for free.
taxpayer money
It is disturbing to see Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador lagging behind others in the distribution of public health toolssaid DD Dalia Hasan |
It is very difficult to understand why. We just ask the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to be transparent and tell us why it is not freely available to the general public.continued the doctor.
This way, taxpayers will understand how their tax money is used.he says.
The DD Dalia Hasan, who is a doctor at The kitchen in Ontario launched a campaign called #FreetheRATs (Release the RATs), a pun with the English acronym of rapid antigen testing (rapid antigen testing).
He also launched the account last year Twitter“COVID Test Finders ”(@C19testfinders) to help people find a quick review.
The doctor mentioned that the pandemic had been going on for a long time and it was need to use well -known public health tools, which are abundant in Canada, to take care of our health and help us live our pre-pandemic lives, or something like that.
Millions of trials
In a statement Thursday, the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Health said it has distributed 4,957,870 rapid tests to date. Approximately 1,400,000 trials are in storage for future distribution to schools, daycare and long-term care centers.
The tests are distributed to priority locations, the province said.
If there is a lack of rapid evaluations, it would be perfectly normal to give them priority over weaker groups.replied Dalia Hasan.
But because of the enormous amount that the federal government buys with our tax money, and is so heavily distributed to each province, I have a hard time understanding why Newfoundland and Labrador store its rapid tests while the rest of Canada distributes of them free of charge to the citizenshe argued.
According to the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Health, the federal government has promised the provinces to further deliver rapid diagnostic tests, on dates not yet determined.
Source: Radio-Canada