As the US government has grown, both in size and scope, Americans have watched its accuracy and efficiency wane in almost direct correspondence. As things get more complicated in Washington, they become more frustratingly complex on Main Street.
At this point, many have come to the understanding that the snail’s pace of American bureaucracy is just a feature of life.
But worse still is the fact that our government can’t seem to get some things right, even if they’ve had months to prepare. For instance, the Biden administration’s plan to send free, at-home rapid COVID tests to American citizens, that this week hit a very embarrassing snag.
The Biden administration’s website to order free rapid Covid-19 tests is up, and some users trying to get the tests delivered to apartments and other multi-unit residences ran into problems.
The website, COVIDtests.gov, went live a day earlier than anticipated in a “beta test” on Tuesday, sending millions of users to sign up for the tests from an order form ahead of a Wednesday morning launch. A White House official said this was “standard practice to address troubleshooting” to make Wednesday’s launch “as smooth … as possible.”
The technical issue was something that was simply overlooked.
Some residents in multi-unit dwellings tried to register to have tests delivered but received error messages saying tests already had been ordered for their address. An administration official said the problem was not widespread and that orders are being prioritized for people in areas facing disproportionate Covid-19 cases and deaths — the first 20 percent of test orders processed will be for people in vulnerable ZIP codes.
Biden’s team has long been accused of a lackadaisical attitude toward the compounding crises that our nation faces, and this latest SNAFU certainly isn’t going to do much to repair that reputation.
