U.S. Gov Offers Free COVID Tests by Mail in Preparation for Holiday Spike

Updated December 15, 2022

• The Department of Health and Human Services is again offering free COVID-19 tests through the mail in an attempt to control a high spike in cases this winter. 
• U.S. residents can order four more tests to be shipped right to their homes through COVIDtests.gov. Testing kits will start to ship out the week of Dec. 19. 
• This fourth round of free rapid COVID tests is part of the Biden administration's plan to deal with the increase in cases during the holiday season. Government officials are urging the public to test if they have symptoms and before visiting family members. 
• The health department is already seeing a rise in cases as the 'tripledemic' hits, and expects numbers to grow during the second half of December. 

What’s the story?

• With Thanksgiving only two weeks away, health officials warn the public of a new COVID-19 spike. As cold weather drives people inside and pandemic-era safety measures continue to decrease, experts are urging people to get the latest vaccine booster to protect themselves before the big family gathering. 
• Getting the COVID booster as soon as possible is crucial to protecting yourself and your loved ones by Thanksgiving since it takes about 10 to 14 days to become entirely effective. Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Disease, explained the importance of the 14-day period:

"There’s a biological process that takes place…gradually you get more and more [antibodies] into your bloodstream until, by about two weeks, you’re close to having a maximum. The booster actually functions as a booster: You get an increase in antibody that’s faster than if you started from scratch.”

• Health officials are especially concerned about the upcoming winter months because less than 10% of the U.S. population has gotten the updated booster dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Schaffner expresses the concern:

“What clearly will happen if we still don’t have widespread acceptance of this COVID booster is that the anticipated increase that we expect with COVID this winter will increase even more. So we could make this season worse from the point of view of a more serious disease.”

What are they saying?

• In October, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told Americans that the most important thing they can do right now for their health is to get the booster.
• Early in the year, leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci began warning the nation of a COVID surge this fall. After this, the Biden administration predicted that 100 million Americans could get COVID this winter. 
• Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations at the University of Washington, said: 

“We are expecting a rise…in reported cases. There’ll be a rise in hospitalizations and mortality but not as high proportionally to the rise in cases simply because many of us - the majority of Americans right now - have been either infected or vaccinated or both, so we have some immunity.” 

• Mokdad believes the Biden administration’s prediction of 100 million infections could be accurate, even if another variant doesn’t replace BA.5, the dominant subvariant of omicron. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, thinks this number could already be present since COVID cases are drastically underreported. 
• While much of the county has returned to a normal state of life, infections and deaths remain. People are being encouraged to protect themselves from the flu, RSV, and rhinoviruses as well this winter as health officials fear surges in other respiratory illnesses. 

Are you boosted? If not, find out where to get your COVID booster here. 

• Walgreens COVID Booster
• CVS COVID Booster
• Find a vaccine location near you

-Jamie Epstein

(Photo credit: iStock/Michele Ursi)