DESPITE ample warning from overseas that rapid antigen tests or RATs were destined to become a major part our national pandemic response, a slow government response has left Australians scrambling for test kits while omicron detections spread like wildfire.
RATs - known as "lateral flow" tests or LFTs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere - have become a central part of the global effort to keep life as normal as possible, because they allow people to quickly test themselves.
RATs may need to be verified by the more complicated polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests analysed by pathology labs, but they are extremely useful at a time when the main government-run testing systems are barely coping with the load.
But in insisting that most people should pay for repeated tests that were $10 each at minimum before the clear price gouging of the past week or so began, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pulled the wrong rein, inviting comparisons of his inadequate response to the 2019 bushfires and his infamous "I don't hold a hose" attitude.
As we have observed here before, the reopening decisions taken in the second half of last year by National Cabinet were put in place before the sheer transmissibility of omicron was fully evident.
With omicron causing lower rates of death and illness than earlier variants, a determination to keep COVID at bay has given way to predictions our entire population will be infected.
The QR codes and contact tracing that helped keep delta in check are winding down, with the onus on the individual to look after their own health.
Crucially, by insisting most people pay for their own rapid tests, Canberra is putting the financial burden onto the population, and justifying it on the grounds that public spending on COVID could not continue at the rate it had for the first two years.
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There would be billions more in the kitty if the otherwise laudable JobKeeper had included a New Zealand-style mechanism to claw back some of the more egregious payments.
Mr Morrison is right to say Australia has done better than many countries during COVID but that is not an excuse for dropping the ball now.
Given the sheer number of omicron infections, this should be a time to reinforce the official government testing regime, not a time to step back and leave it to "the market" and individual conscience.
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