• COVID-19 Testing Chain Opened Pop-Ups Across The US. Now, It’s Temporarily Closing Amid Federal Investigation And Mounting Complaints

The Center for COVID Control's lab wasted 40,000 tests, according to a federal report... Again and again, people testing at one of the hundreds of Center for COVID Control sites have reported getting negative results there — only to get a positive elsewhere. Others never received results, or received them so late the test was effectively useless. Some people who didn’t even test at the sites were still sent results.

Another concern for many: People who were emailed a negative test result were provided with a PDF that contained a QR code. Scanning the QR code took the viewer to a Doctors Clinical Lab website that tells anyone who looks at it they are negative — even people who never tested at a Center for COVID Control site. The website was not coded in a way where its result would change, and it was not customized to show the results of individual patients. The only element that would change on the website was its timestamp. It was publicly available to all.

Customers have also reported being told to not put down their insurance information even if they have insurance. In those cases, the federal government likely ends up paying for those tests.

Despite the complaints, the chain has exploded in recent months, opening sites across the country. Its website boasts of 300 locations.

While that confusion has unfolded, Akbar Syed, Siyaj’s husband, who represents himself as a leader of the company, has posted on social media about buying luxury sports cars thanks to “covid money" ... He also posted videos trying to recruit people to the business on Facebook; in one, he recorded himself speaking to an employee and asking the man to say what he makes. The man said he has been with the company for four months and makes $1.45 million.

The business and the lab are run by Siyaj and Syed, a suburban Chicago couple who, before focusing on COVID-19 testing in 2021, ran axe-throwing lounges. Syed also created wedding videos.