I agree wholeheartedly with the concerns Cal Thomas expressed in the “Testing Testing” column published on Dec. 27, regarding the use of COVID test kits by ordinary people.

As a chemist and someone who worked in clinical trials data collection and analysis for 40 years, I have been concerned about the COVID home test kits from the outset.

The need to get to the precise location in the nose is challenging, even for trained medical professionals.

My concern has grown with each FDA email announcing recalls and warnings from the FDA about several of the commercially available tests. Many of these tests are generating false positives or false negatives.

Anyone can subscribe to receive emails about these recall and warnings at the FDA website, www.fda.gov.

Yet the president’s solution to the latest COVID outbreaks is to send everyone COVID tests to do at home.

Citizens need to know that these tests are not free. The president is sending us deeper into debt for something that likely will not be done correctly, will be unreliable, and only promises to increase anxiety and the burden on health care personnel unnecessarily.

JoAnn Paslawsky

Tamaqua