Artron： The Dangers of Rapid Testing
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the safety and efficacy of rapid test kits and the ingredients used in them. We also talk about the process of obtaining test kits from manufacturers and the process for listing the ingredients on the inserts and lab test kits.
Transcript
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yes I'm still here yeah yeah so unfortunately for the buffer ingredients we are not able to
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provide you that information because it's confidential information but for the um the
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swabs and so the tip of course is made of the plastic plastic tips um and then for the tip tip
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like the tiptoes it's the um it's made out of the nylon fiber and it's the abs material so it's abs
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nylon on the swab tips and sorry what was the other thing you said just before that on the swabs
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so the the like the stick oh okay yeah yeah is there ethylene oxide used on the swab for um sterilization
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oh sorry could you ethylene oxide it's often on swab tips for sterilization is that is that on
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there as well the other it's just it's different because I've seen and used the abbot test kits
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before and they fully disclose all ingredients including that their tips on their um swabs have
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eo which is ethylene oxide but also that their liquid which I'm assuming that your test would
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be similar to has sodium azide in it I find it confusing that you have a privacy um happening on
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your liquid to not be able to say what's in it but yet it's being handed out sold handed out
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distributed you have to be able to say what is in that liquid what what is private about that when
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you're giving it to people especially school children what what could not be disclosed in that
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okay well could you give me a quick second please I'll follow up with our technician again with that
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with your inquiry sure maybe I can speak with your technician directly I think that might be more
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clear while she was in the meeting uh just now uh could you give me a quick um second again I'll go
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oh hi there yeah I'm just calling in regards to the the rapid test kits specifically the these
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artron ones that have been sent out to to our kids um I'm looking at the inserts and there's no
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information on the ingredients of the extraction buffer can you can you tell me what's what is in
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the extraction buffer liquid uh so um actually I cannot provide the precise information because of
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the copyright issues but I can definitely let you know that it's basically a trust uh buffer uh and
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all that information has been provided along with the um authorization documentation to the government
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to health canada to federal government with the orders so this buffer is extremely safe and is not um
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uh you know toxic uh that way um but uh we unfortunately we cannot provide uh this information
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to the end user however this has been the safety and efficacy of the buffer and the test kits
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has been established um in the lab as well as in different clinical sites across the world
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so hold on if it's safe then why can't you say what it is
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it's it's company policy we just cannot say that but we have provided that information to the government
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but not to the end user I I can't buy a bottle of soap out of a store without an ingredient list
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but but the problem is uh we are not selling this this product to the end users so I would recommend
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uh you know contacting your distributor or wherever you have got these uh uh whoever is distributing
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their test kits to you so that they can provide you more information because we are not supplying
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these test kits to the end users directly it's the federal government so it is their responsibility
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to provide you with that information um however I can tell you that um this is a basic trust buffer
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and it is uh it doesn't contain any toxic material so sorry you call it a trist buffer is that t-r-i-s-t
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trist yes and so um I just I question this because I use an abbot test which looks identical to your
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test and there is absolutely sodium azide in there and they list it they have no problems listing it
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even though it is very toxic so how how can you have what looks to be an identical test
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but not have the same the same ingredients wow is that ever allowed uh yeah actually we were not
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asked uh to provide this information on the the inserts and the labeling sorry you were you were
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asked to not provide it by health canada we were asked to provide them with the information but they
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did not specify us to put this information on the insert and out there if they would have asked us to do it
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they would have done that because all these documentation have gone through careful review
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by health canada and other regulatory authorities huh that's fascinating um have you had any other
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calls like this any questions regarding uh so far no I haven't received any such calls yet
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so if I was because I I see I can buy this off of a website for 145 dollars would if I bought it off a
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website would I not get a list of ingredients that way like like afraid that we this is a professional
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and point of care use test we as a manufacturer are supplying this to the federal government and other
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distributors uh we are not claiming it to be a home use test so it is not our responsibility to um you
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know supply these to end users and we are not even distributing it on websites and like online sales
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it's uh with the federal government who is providing it to different pharmacies or maybe different schools
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and school districts and different organizations or maybe distributors where you are buying it um but um
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so yeah we cannot provide this information to the end user however we have provided all the necessary
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information to health canada as well as other regulatory authorities okay because because our schools just
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received it with no information like our kids have it with no information so if the understanding was that
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health canada was going to submit information our families do not have that information so so you're
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you're saying though i need to go to health canada and ask them for the ingredients of your product
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i'm afraid you need to talk to the distributor or you need to discuss with the pharmacy where did
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where you bought it or no we didn't buy it it was distributed to our kids at school
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then probably the school authority would be able to have some documentation with them
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but the major component of the buffer is trist buffer which is totally harmless and doesn't have any
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toxic ingredients so if i was to ask you because this other test has sodium azide it's a powder that's
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added to liquid can you confirm or deny that sodium azide is in that trist buffer as an additive
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i'm afraid i won't be able to provide that information to the end user directly so i i could buy your test
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right now off of gen biomedical website it's an artron covid19 anti-rapid anti-rapid test
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a five test nasal it looks identical to what came home with our kids are you saying like i can buy it
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online i could buy this right now for 145 it looks like it's on sale for 70 but but i could open this
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could i order this open it up and see ingredients in this version like it's very important to see what
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these ingredients are so are you if i bought this do you ever send out test kits that actually have the
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actual ingredients in them uh no that's do you not find that odd no yeah so we don't put that
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information out on the label uh for the end user that information is for the regulatory authority and
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health canada to know because they are the ones to make sure that all the test devices which are
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coming on in the market are safe and um have been checked for their safety and efficacy so yeah we
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provide that information to the government it just it's odd because if it was safe why wouldn't
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we put that information on there just like do you do you understand what i'm asking no i know where
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you're coming from ma'am but sorry we cannot provide that information to them i appreciate the
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information so so us talking you can't even give that to me even if i'm not an end user myself
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yes i mean we do not um it's just that we are trying to because we we realize that federal
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government has been distributing these tests to the end users so we are uh kind of trying to make
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sure that we are trying to help the end users to the best of our abilities if they come back to us
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regarding any any technical questions or anything related to the test kits or buffers or like that
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this kind of information but we cannot provide the ingredient information to the end users as part of
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policy because we are not distributing this test as a home use test to the end users it's the federal
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government who are then distributing it to children as end users but the safety and efficacy of the test
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device has been established um in children and uh in different age groups and that information is
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with health canada based upon that information on only this test has been authorized by health
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canada it has gone through very strict scrutiny by the review teams at health canada okay so i can
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assure you that the test is safe and um it is not toxic there is no toxic ingredient in the buffer
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and it's safe to use safe and effective okay yes okay that's very helpful um thank you can i sorry
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can i get your name dr umma sorry say that again umma how do i spell that umma umma okay and would
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you have a contact at health canada that i can ask for this end user information that that they're not
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allowed that you're not allowed to send out um i am afraid they have multiple uh uh teams we are we
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actually just deal with the review teams i'm not sure if they have any customer support team
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i think you can find that information on the health canada website but which group like where
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would i like how would i they they must have uh some some um contact information for the end users
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to reach them because we as a manufacturer deal with different uh review teams and we don't deal
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with their customer support teams okay okay all right okay thank you very much i appreciate your
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your information and your time yeah yeah you're welcome thank you dr yuma okay you too bye-bye