FACT CHECK: COVID-19 Rapid Test Results Are Not Rigged in Advance.

With the highly infectious omicron variant, demand for rapid COVID-19 test kits has soared. Shortages abound, prices have at times gone crazy and misinformation continues to spread on social media.

One widespread falsehood: The rapid tests are “preset” to show positive results as part of a conspiracy to control global population. Though such claims have repeatedly been debunked, they have reemerged in popular podcasts and YouTube videos.

For example, an unverified, anonymous Twitter user, “The Architect,” has nearly 30,000 followers. The account has spewed out a raft of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

Variations of “The Architect’s” claim have been circulating across social media for more than a year, despite being repeatedly debunked. For example, on Instagram, thousands of users shared a false claim that rapid tests were invented so Bill Gates and George Soros could use them to secretly vaccinate those refusing the COVID-19 vaccines.

That claim was debunked by factcheck.org. Another version baselessly claimed that rapid tests were a way for the government and “big pharma” to “harvest” people’s fingerprints and DNA. Misinformation about test kits inflicted fear or disbelief and often were the reason many refused to be tested, Reuters reported in 2020.

The claim that rapid tests are “preset” is false.

LINK: www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-covid-rapid-tests/31651421.html