Mad scramble at Gold Coast chemists for precious rapid antigen tests
Gold Coasters have swarmed shops and chemists after a website showing where to find a rapid antigen test went live. But should they be free? Have your say.
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A new website showing where people can get their hands on a rapid antigen test has caused a mad scramble at chemists and shops around the Gold Coast.
‘Find a RAT’, developed by Matt Hayward from software agency PipeLabs launched on Monday night and allows people to access data on which chemists and supermarkets in their local areas have stock available.
The website has led to people swarming Gold Coast stores stocking RATs, which are rapidly selling out.
The launch of the website comes amid an escalating political spat, with testing kits in short supply, and the federal government ruling out making them free for all.
Currently, the website’s data is crowdsourced from user reports, who are able to mark a store green for ‘in stock’, orange for ‘low stock’, or red for ‘no stock’.
Users can search via postcode to find local data.
It comes as a peak body representing employee pharmacists on Tuesday joined the growing chorus of voices urging the federal government to make RATs free and available for all Australians.
Professional Pharmacists Australia (PPA) chief executive Jill McCabe said: “we should be protecting the health and safety of all workers and their families, not just those who can afford to buy the tests.”
“We represent the vast majority of pharmacists in Australia – employee pharmacists – and we’re calling on the federal government to act urgently and provide the tests free to all given the surge in cases and the change in testing regimes,” Ms McCabe said.
PPA president Geoff March said working pharmacists wanted people’s access to RATs to not depend on how much they could earn and afford to pay.
“Employee pharmacists are on the frontline of this issue, constantly running out of supply and seeing the look on people’s faces when they struggle to pay for tests,” he said.
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Originally published as Mad scramble at Gold Coast chemists for precious rapid antigen tests
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