The tubes are then shoveled into smaller bins. The preforms arrive at Fillakit's warehouse in a huge shipping container. When inflated with high-pressure air, the soft plastic expands to the size of a 2-liter soda bottle.
They're much cheaper than glass vials and can be sealed off with a soda bottle cap. Preforms, the small tubes also known in the plastics industry as "baby soda bottles" or "blanks," have a following among elementary school science teachers and amateur scientists, but they don't meet rigorous laboratory standards. "FEMA does not enter into contracts unless it has reason to believe they will be successfully executed," it said. FEMA said last month that it only pays for products once they have been delivered, minimizing the risk of wasting taxpayer dollars. A ProPublica analysis last month found about 13% of total federal government spending on pandemic-related contracts went to first-time vendors. The agency did not answer questions about the size and lack of sterilization of Fillakit's tubes or about why it sought an alternative use for them.įillakit is one of more than 300 new federal contractors providing supplies related to COVID-19. In a written response to questions, FEMA said it inspects testing products "to ensure packaging is intact to maintain sterility that the packing slip matches the requested product ordered, and that the vials are not leaking." It said that "product validation" that medical supplies are effective "is reinforced at the state laboratories." "They're going to sit in a warehouse and no one can use them. "They're the most unusable tubes I've ever seen," said a top public health scientist in that state, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his job.
In at least one state, the shipment of unusable Fillakit tubes contributed to delays in rolling out widespread testing. Epidemiologists say testing is vital to tracking the virus and slowing transmission. has lagged behind many European countries in its rate of testing people for the coronavirus, partly because of supply shortages or inadequacies. Many of those companies, like Fillakit, had no experience with medical supplies. The federal government has awarded more than $2 billion to first-time contractors for work related to the coronavirus, a ProPublica analysis of purchasing data shows. The Fillakit deal shows the perils of the Trump administration's frantic hiring of first-time federal contractors with little scrutiny during the pandemic. "We are still trying to identify an alternative use," said Janelle Fleming, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health.įillakit owner Paul Wexler acknowledged that the tubes are normally used for soda bottles but otherwise declined to comment. FEMA has asked health officials in several states to find an alternative use for the unfinished soda bottles. Three other states told ProPublica that they received Fillakit supplies and have not distributed them to testing sites. Officials in New York, New Jersey, Texas and New Mexico confirmed they can't use the Fillakit tubes. If the company fulfills its contractual obligation to provide 4 million tubes, it will receive a total of $10.16 million. Fillakit has supplied a total of more than 3 million tubes, which FEMA then approved and sent to all 50 states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency signed its first deal with Fillakit on May 7, just six days after the company was formed by an ex-telemarketer repeatedly accused of fraudulent practices over the past two decades. "It wasn't even clean, let alone sterile," said Teresa Green, a retired science teacher who worked at Fillakit's makeshift warehouse outside of Houston for two weeks before leaving out of frustration. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica's observation of the company's operations. Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company's process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. The state officials say that these "preforms," which are designed to be expanded with heat and pressure into 2-liter soda bottles, don't fit the racks used in laboratory analysis of test samples.
But, instead of the standard vials, Fillakit LLC has supplied plastic tubes made for bottling soda, which state health officials say are unusable. Since May, the Trump administration has paid a fledgling Texas company $7.3 million for test tubes needed in tracking the spread of the coronavirus nationwide. This article originally appeared on ProPublica.
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