Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer Tuesday said he received his freeĀ COVID-19Ā tests through the mail underĀ President Biden‘s new testing initiative, but noted the at-home kits were “made inĀ China.”
Hemmer, co-host of “America’s Newsroom,” praised the federal government and the United States Postal Service (USPS) for getting the tests out quickly after he and many other Americans put in the request last week for free tests. But he noted when he turned the test package over the “fine print” revealed the tests were manufactured in China.
“I got mine yesterday,” Hemmer said, holding up the orange kit. “All four of them came. Congrats U.S. government. U.S. Postal Service did a great job. Got my four tests. And on the back of the fine print, Dana, it is made in China.”
“Of course,” replied co-host Dana Perino.
The free at-home tests were part of the White House’s newly launched initiative to work with the U.S. Postal Service to mail out 500 million at-homeĀ coronavirusĀ tests to Americans in the coming weeks to address a testing kit shortage amid the recent omicron surge.
Hemmer received the 15-minute at-home rapid antigen tests from iHealth Labs Inc. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, but the test is “Made in China,” according to the label.
iHealth is a unit of the Chinese company Andon Health Co. Ltd.,Ā according to Reuters. It was awarded a $1.275 billion contract for COVID-19 rapid tests with the U.S. government on Jan. 13, according to theĀ Defense.gov website.
The Biden administration said Tuesday not all the 500 million tests were made in China, but there are not enough American-made tests to meet the demand, so they sourced kits made “in other parts of the world.”