Barely a week after the first non-prescription at-home COVID-19 test was authorised by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), singer Courtney Love has taken to Instagram to claim the wealthy have had access to such tests for months.
The former Hole frontwoman wrote online that she "and many of my wealthy friends have had access to COVID test kits for over six months".
"Every time I give people without the same money or access as me a box of 20 I get furious that these are not available at every Tesco and at every 7/11 in both of my countries (and globally too) for 5 bucks or even 20," Love wrote, adding the kits test for both the virus and antibodies.
The 56-year-old, who lives in London, said the test kits were now more important than ever, given the UK's new strain of the virus that is thought to be as much as 70 percent more infectious than previous versions.
She said she was moved to comment on the situation because she thought it unfair only the rich had it.
"I've never been great at this 1 percenter shit," she wrote.
"So … maybe I’ll get tossed out of the 'club' for posting this. But I've never been all that comfortable with my own elitism, especially in the area of public health. You ALL DESERVE TO HAVE A BOX OF TESTS IN YOUR FRIDGE! I keep asking why the f**k you don't?" she wrote.
"That’s all I have to say on it now. I feel less dirty and my conscience more clear to post this. Though I'm scared to as well."
It's unclear exactly what test kit Love was using.
The USFDA has authorised more than 200 kits since the start of the pandemic, but the vast majority of those are available by prescription only and in most cases a sample is collected at home and must then be sent off to a lab to be analysed. In recent weeks a number of at-home kits that produce results in minutes have been authorised, but they are also prescription-only.
Only one over-the-counter at-home test has been authorised so far, produced by the Australian company Ellume. That was given the green light last week and is set to become available in January and cost around US$30, giving results in minutes.
Love's post was met with disbelief by many online.
"Wow this is really deep. I had no idea there was at-home COVID tests. You right, it should be available to all," wrote one person.
A question by another person asking Love to "elaborate on how you have access to these?" went unanswered by the rockstar.
