Zero tolerance for labs’ illicit profiteering

On May 14, Pushi medical testing lab was reported to have provided test result data that was obviously lower than the number of tested samples.

On Saturday, the municipal public health department of Beijing revoked the lab’s business permit and the market regulatory bureau began an investigation. Six people have been detained by the police in relation to the case, including the lab’s manager and its legal representative.

This should be a warning to all testing agencies that they should not engage in any wrongdoing.

Nucleic acid tests are an important way of identifying novel coronavirus infections, and mass nucleic acid testing is a key to cutting the virus’ transmission chains. Since the new wave of the virus appeared in late April, most districts of Beijing have already held multiple rounds of mass nucleic acid tests, which have become a normalized move to control the virus.

The testing has become a new business opportunity for many medical labs as well. Their participation is important, but there are some agencies trying to profit from the testing in illicit ways. Instead of rendering all efforts toward fighting the pandemic, they falsify data to make illegal profits.

The case of Pushi shows how the police and other law enforcers will deal with such agencies. Before that, there had already been reports about independent agencies losing their samples or having problems with data. In Shanghai, 13 people tested positive but hospital tests later found they were negative, as the previous data had been doctored by relevant testing agencies.

It is the basic responsibility of any nucleic acid testing agency to fulfill its duty faithfully. Timely submission of inspections, accurate reports, and true data should be the most basic responsibilities and obligations of them.