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The free federal COVID program spawned today's home testing market

One home swab now tells a household which of four winter respiratory viruses is present. But it can miss real infections that a lab PCR would catch

Jose Sarmento Matos / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Americans who learned to swab their own noses at the kitchen table during the pandemic can now buy a single home test that tells them whether they have COVID-19, flu A, flu B, or RSV. One swab now checks for the four viruses that drive most winter respiratory illness, negating separate tests or a trip to a doctor to sort out which one a person has.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ACON Laboratories' Flowflex Plus RSV Flu A/B COVID Home Test as the first four-in-one respiratory antigen test for home use last October. It also cleared it for children as young as six months, allowing parents to collect samples and test for RSV, a contagious respiratory virus that can become serious among infants.

ACON built the four-in-one to help people tell all of these viruses apart. "Symptoms of respiratory infections can be similar, so knowing which........

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