Re: availability of over-the-counter rapid tests, a commenter on ACX who works at a pharmacy asked the following:
Question—in Germany and other places with cheap rapid tests, is the pricetag doing all of the work of matching supply and demand? Or do they have it just as bad, with the actual price hidden in non-monetary forms? Are they merely “cheap”, or actually plentiful?
I’m from Germany but haven’t bought any of the rapid tests myself, so I don’t have any first-hand experience with the situation. From what I understand, you can use these tests to test yourself, but they aren’t considered accurate enough to fulfill a condition of having to get a validated test for the bureaucracies.
These validated tests (PCR and antigen tests) are currently being subsidized so citizens can get them for free, but this will end at some point in October (FAQ by the German government).
This random German article from June, which I haven’t fact-checked, claims that the supermarket self tests used to be sold at 5€ (vs. bought by them at >=3€), but demand at that price eventually ran out (e.g. because these tests aren’t considered validated, or because other tests are subsidized, or because the stores overestimated demand and bought too much, or something), so now stores like Aldi and Lidl are selling them at a loss at 0.8€ to get rid of them.
Ultimately this scenario sounds consistent with the philosophy of “let people try to profit from disaster, and supply and demand will equilibrate at an acceptable price; forbid people from trying to profit from disaster, and that won’t happen”, but that sufficiently fits my preconceptions that I’d want to find more reporting before truly updating on that.
In any case, whether at 0.8€, 3€, or 5€, all those prices are a far cry from the prices in the U.S..
I’m from Germany but haven’t bought any of the rapid tests myself, so I don’t have any first-hand experience with the situation. From what I understand, you can use these tests to test yourself, but they aren’t considered accurate enough to fulfill a condition of having to get a validated test for the bureaucracies.
I spent some time in Germany recently, and this is (or at least “was”, when I was there) wrong. The tests themselves are considered accurate enough, but the bureacracies usually don’t trust you to do it (or do it correctly). In some German states you can do a test at the restaurant to be let in. You can buy a test, take it to a pharmacy, and let the pharmacy do it and then validate it. In some German states it is ok for some jobs to test yourself regularly. Back then I think employers also had to provide take-home tests for free (or if not required, strongly encouraged).
Thanks, I appreciate the clarification. I’d indeed misunderstood that part of the rules—I figured since there’s such a thing as a “gold standard” test, rapid tests wouldn’t be considered “good enough” by the bureaucracies (even if they sound good enough for individuals who understand type 1 and 2 errors), but it makes sense if their main worries are instead that one might lie about the test result, or not perform the test correctly, or something.
And e.g. this page (in German) says that the Covid self tests are indeed identical to antigen tests except that they have to be administered by oneself and are hence only available / useful for private citizens.
(Side note: Somehow your quote from my comment ends on “As far as I know, the “antigen tests” are the same as the “rapid tests”.”, but that sentence isn’t by me. Presumably it was meant to be part of your own comment?)
Re: availability of over-the-counter rapid tests, a commenter on ACX who works at a pharmacy asked the following:
So I looked into this topic a bit, and here was my response:
I spent some time in Germany recently, and this is (or at least “was”, when I was there) wrong. The tests themselves are considered accurate enough, but the bureacracies usually don’t trust you to do it (or do it correctly). In some German states you can do a test at the restaurant to be let in. You can buy a test, take it to a pharmacy, and let the pharmacy do it and then validate it. In some German states it is ok for some jobs to test yourself regularly. Back then I think employers also had to provide take-home tests for free (or if not required, strongly encouraged).
Thanks, I appreciate the clarification. I’d indeed misunderstood that part of the rules—I figured since there’s such a thing as a “gold standard” test, rapid tests wouldn’t be considered “good enough” by the bureaucracies (even if they sound good enough for individuals who understand type 1 and 2 errors), but it makes sense if their main worries are instead that one might lie about the test result, or not perform the test correctly, or something.
And e.g. this page (in German) says that the Covid self tests are indeed identical to antigen tests except that they have to be administered by oneself and are hence only available / useful for private citizens.
(Side note: Somehow your quote from my comment ends on “As far as I know, the “antigen tests” are the same as the “rapid tests”.”, but that sentence isn’t by me. Presumably it was meant to be part of your own comment?)