Former FDA commissioner suggests every household have a supply of at-home COVID-19 tests

Rapid, at-home COVID-19 testing could be key for Americans going forward, especially with the holiday season swiftly approaching and younger children not yet eligible for vaccination, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation.

The White House recently announced last week that it's purchasing $1 billion-worth of at-home tests, which Gottlieb argued is the right call. "I think every household should have a supply of at-home tests," Gottlieb told Brennan. "That's what they're doing in the U.K."

However, he acknowledged that price will likely be a concern for many people, since the tests are not cheap. With that in mind, he believes the federal government "could be doing a lot more to subsidize the availability of those tests," including potentially distributing them in the Medicaid program. The good news is that "it looks to be what the Biden administration is aiming to do," Gottlieb said. Watch the clip below.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.