Illinois State University has entered into a $5.5 million contract with the University of Illinois Shield program for Covid saliva tests despite lack of FDA approval.
The tests and lab partnership costs will account for nearly 8% of the school’s new spending the year.
Covid tests appear to be big business for cash-hungry schools. The Department of Health and Human Services has dedicated tens of billions of dollars in federal funds to testing efforts.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker
However, a recent study found that up to 37% of tests in certain cases returned false positives. Harvard Health notes that the accuracy of such tests are gauged by the FDA.
In the University of Illinois’ case, the saliva tests and lab they just sold to ISU are not FDA-approved.
The U of I previously stated the university had developed its test in a “bridge study” that was later found to have never been registered with the FDA and thus could not have possibly led to approval.
The lack of FDA approval was noted only after over 10,000 had been administered and following an announcement from Gov. J.B. Pritzker, in which he incorrectly stated the U of I had gained “emergency FDA approval” for the saliva tests.
The FDA said Pritzker and the U of I “mischaracterized” the authorization status of the tests. The FDA also asked Pritzker to delete a tweet saying the test had been accepted under “Emergency Use Authorization powers.”
Meanwhile, FDA-approved saliva tests have been available elsewhere on the market for months.
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