WHY DOESN’T EVERYONE GET TESTED?
Have any of you tried to get tested and been told you can’t get tested if you don’t have a heavy cough and a high fever … and because you are over 70, you know this information is not true? Apparently, you are more knowledgeable than the medical people to whom you are talking.
I had that kind of a day today.
From The Washington Post:
He was talking about this story on the front page of The Washington Post this week that found at least a dozen states have more tests than patients taking them. Health officials aren’t sure why — maybe people don’t realize there are more tests now after months of scarcity, or that you can get a test now in some states even if you only have mild symptoms. African Americans, who are being hit hard by the coronavirus, tend to be wary of medical professionals, one expert said.
If any of you have tried to be tested, you’ve run into the same barriers. If you don’t have a specific set of symptoms, you can’t get tested. Never mind that they have plenty of tests, they are hoarding them from the people who need to be tested. The point of getting all these tests was to track the disease. See who has it, had it, where are the hotspots, and are you living in one of them. Where is the virus going and are you wearing a target?
Or are you one of the people who have had it, but had different symptoms? If they are going to trace, they are supposed to be testing everyone, not just those people that happen to have the specific initial symptoms that were typical of the disease.
All the children hospitals are finding who have had heart attacks after having had the disease. Which isn’t supposed to kill children, but its after-effects are killing children. Of the people who instead of coughs and fevers get gastrointestinal problems. Diarrhea, vomiting. Or instead of coughing got severe aches and pains that go on for weeks.
Garry and I that problem in January and no one knew what was wrong with us. We went to the doctor. We didn’t have anything anyone could figure out and we went home. Some weeks later, we were better. I wrote about it at the time, but officially, there was no Coronavirus in the U.S. The virus wasn’t supposed to be here but I’m sure it was. Now, researchers at hospitals are discovering people who had it in December.
So when did it arrive? November? December? Definitely by January. How long was it lurking in China and how many people traveled back and forth to China on business, vacation or to visit family?
The symptoms for people over 70 are not the same as symptoms for younger victims or older victims. This virus is not well understood. The high fevers and coughs are less common, especially high fevers. People our age rarely run high fevers for any reason. Since I passed 65, I don’t think — even when I had pneumonia and was recovering from heart surgery. By the time I hit 99, that’s a serious fever for me because my normal body temperature is around 96-point-something-or-other. By the time it hits 99, it is a fever.
The virus shows up in with a boatload of symptoms that may or may not be the officially listed symptoms. If they actually want to get everyone tested, get the vans ready. Go into neighborhoods — rich, poor, and otherwise — and TEST people. My son has been trying to get tested for months and has yet to be tested.
In Massachusetts, we only test people who are near death. We miss the rest.
In Australia, they sent vans around to give tests to everyone they could find. I was on the telephone with a woman at our hospital and she wasn’t sure how you got a test unless you had a heavy cough and a high fever and thought maybe you would die.
So why aren’t there more people who want testing? Everyone wants to get tested, but they refuse to give tests to people who don’t meet their very specific criteria. What a waste! They aren’t even trying to track the disease and I’m pretty sure they are guaranteed an autumnal jump in cases that will be worse than the first round. Because they aren’t doing what they promised to do.
Sometimes, if you want the answer to a question, ask regular, frustrated, pissed-off citizens who have been trying to get tested but no one will order the tests, even though our insurance (Medicare) covers those tests 100%.
Share this:
Categories: #Health, Coronavirus - Covid 19, Epidemic - Pandemic - Plague, Medical
OLD MOVIES, NEW YEAR 
A THANK YOU NOTE TO AMERICA FROM THE CORONA VIRUS – BY TOM CURLEY 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Here in Australia they have testing stations in our shopping centre car parks. Nice and easy and you don’t have to leave your car. Results back in 24 hours. Peace of mind.
LikeLike
I was anxious about getting the test and wanted to do it. I haven’t had a fever in ages, don’t even know if I can get a typical one or not. Either I have a broken thermometer or my average temperature is a few degrees lower than 98.6. I was working at the job alone for 3 and a half weeks as everybody else had to either not work or work from home because I needed the money but was concerned about all the folks laid off that needed the background check services for licensure or future jobs. I worried that if I ran out of protective supplies (or they weren’t enough), I could get sick or make others sick.
I really was worried when I read that in younger people who got it, abdominal pains could be the main beginning system rather than fever and coughs. And I had stomach pains for a few days. But the pre-screening just had the basic few: fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing. I was willing to pay for piece of mind if there was a doctor, but apparently there was a weird appointment process I’d have to abide by and because I didn’t have any of the three, they weren’t gonna let me test.
What’s stupid about this is if the virus is mutating–as they often do–then testing everybody might give a clue as to other transmission methods, the time-frame of contact to symptoms, or how people can be asymptomatic and pass it on. To be meaningful, they need to test everyone, dang it. They need to get all those folks who were supposed to go door-to-door for the 2020 census, train them with medical personnel, and in pairs with PPE go door to door and test everyone they can. Or get as close as we can.
As a country, we look damned stupid to the rest of the world, I’m sure. I’m resigning myself to just staying home as much as humanly possible again outside of work and groceries. I can’t stand the idea that I could get someone else sick if I get careless.
LikeLike
This is EXACTLY the problem here. Exactly. People my age — maybe yours too — don’t GET high fevers. We rarely get any kind of fever and our body temps run several degrees lower than 98.6. It’s all over the news that the virus IS mutating and if they hang onto those tests long enough, they will probably be useless.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m in my mid-30s, and thanks to my job, I’m around strangers and kids quite a bit. That’s why I’m doing my best to be as cautious as I can when I’m around other people, doing what I can and not leaving the house anymore unless I have to. But I admit I’ve resigned myself to the possibility of getting it, because I’m sure there are far more asymptomatic people that are carrying it than we can possibly know, and I have to physically touch people for my job, up to 50 a day (with gloves on and sanitizer over them. I would demand a shutdown or quit if I ran out of gloves).
I hope I don’t get sick, but considering how maybe only half the folks around here protect themselves, it’s just too likely for me. The line between fatalistic and realistic is very very thin right now.
LikeLike
My son is also out there. He’s 51 — not so young — and he inspects cars, among other things. So he has to get into the cars and even with masks and gloves, who knows what’s in there? HE can’t get tested either. it’s a real mystery, the really creepy kind.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if they should just give tests to every hospital and neighborhood emergency clinic and do some random testing. Get at least 10% of the population to start and see if there’s anything else we can learn. We’re shooting blind here with a poorly-outdated rule book telling us what to look for.
LikeLike
so sorry you cant get tested! You should be able to as your in the vulnerable age category, its disgraceful that you cant. xo
LikeLike
To not even allow medical personnel to get tested is even MORE stupid. I’m at a real loss. I don’t understand anything anymore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The person who lives upstairs from me has it. I advised my doctor because I am in a high-risk group. I need to have some more symptoms besides the sore throat I have. Those states with extra tests can send them to Illinois where we need a lot more.
LikeLike
I’m baffled that we have the tests but won’t let people be tested. We fought hard for the tests … and yet we aren’t using them. The nurse in the hospital tody can’t get a test until she is already sick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can not get tested until it is too late. Republicans are pleased, methinks.
LikeLike
You probably have plenty of tests, but if you don’t have the “right” symptoms, they won’t test you. Even though they KNOW the virus is mutating.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I talked to my doctor. I said I only had a sore throat. He said to call if I get a fever too. You can not get a test without a doctor’s orders, or if you show up with lots of symptoms. Even then they may send you home anyway.
LikeLike
Maybe people just don’t realise they can get tested now. Lots of people aren’t watching the news at the moment because they find it depressing. Here in South Africa they are doing their best to test people and are going into our townships to do so. Why is the disease worse among African Americans?
LikeLike
I was at UMass hospital today for a pacemaker interrogation. I talked to the nurse about the problems getting tested and she told me SHE couldn’t get tested either. You have to be symptomatic in the “classic fashion” for testing. So basically, they aren’t checking to see who has it, who hasn’t had it or tracing the pathways, which is what all those tests were supposed to be used for. They have not allowed ANY free testing anywhere. If the nurse at the hospital can’t get tested UNTIL she is already sick, this is an idiotic misuse of the materials..
LikeLiked by 1 person
I assumed that when testing was available, they would let us know and we could all get tested. Instead, it’s sort of a secret, yet I know for a fact that we are loaded with tests, but you can’t get tested unless you are sick with the classic earliest symptoms of the virus. Does this make sense to anyone?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nope, it sounds really weird.
LikeLike
Out of curiosity I just checked my county and tests are free but you must have symptoms and have a physician’s referral. In the next county over there is a testing site run by a local hospital in a strip shopping center where testing is ‘come one, come all’, free but it would be nice if you would make an appointment. Quest Diagnostics (the company that does all blood work/labs testing in this area) will be happy to do the test for anyone who has $119…(I live in Northern Virginia, which is often called ‘Metro Washington, DC area’. The Maryland and Virginia counties that border DC are called ‘the Washington DC suburbs. I have always resented that LOL Even 25 years ago, the first time I lived in this area, I disliked being associated with DC.)
LikeLike
That’s pretty much a good description of our state. If you are not symptomatic — and you have to have the classic original symptoms that many people, including older people — don’t get. There is ONE free clinic and it’s many miles from here, at the other end of the state. This is not the way they said it would be. It’s supposed to make testing available to EVERYONE.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My cousins grew up right where you are, but when they moved in, it was still farm country. Now, she and her family have moved to Silver Spring in MD. DC suburbs again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Still a lot of farms in Arlington, probably a lot smaller, this is one heck of a beautifully green and forested area with pockets of urban surrounded by mini forests…
LikeLike
Good stuff about testing. Realized today is Wednesday. I hope your recharge is quick and easy.
LikeLike
It was really easy. Last time they tested it — more than a year ago — I had 3 years on my battery. Today I had six and a half. Did I charge up? Each time I get tested, the result is substantially different. Weird.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Everready… good for you.
LikeLike
Aside from the idiocy of the statement by that orange buttwad that you shared that “we have the tests but no takers”…the fact that he’s trying to blame this mess on Obama (who was out of the picture for nearly FOUR years when C-19 cropped up) reveals just how stupid T-dump is. Does he have Alzheimers or some mental illness? I know that Reagan was ga-ga at the end, but he didn’t play God with American lives. The only thing the testing availability/non-availability game seems to be doing is adding more fear to this whole situation. One is made afraid to even go outside now. I had to go to Salt Lake City for Pudge and my interaction (small as it was) with places like the hair salon has made the subsequent weeks since filled with doubt and fear. Not a good way to live. I have to wonder what the hidden agenda is with this particular plague. We KNOW better, we have the tools to deal with it, and yet we’re acting as if we haven’t learned anything from the other plagues and epidemic/pandemics that we’ve faced. Fear and stress are the worst symptoms of this horrid virus.
LikeLike
But bizarrely enough, even though OBVIOUSLY Obama had nothing to do with this since he’s been out of office for more than three years, he’s right that there aren’t “takers” for the tests because of the idiotic rules they have set up. You can’t get tested unless you are already ill AND you have to have the “classic symptoms” they found when the virus arrived, even though they have long since found there are a variety of manifestations of the disease that do NOT fit those “classic symptoms.”
The nurse who was running my tests has been unable to get a test and she’s a nurse at the hospital. What is wrong with these people? Your state – Utah – is probably better run than most because LDS does not answer to anyone but its own rules.
I simply don’t understand why they wanted the tests if they won’t let people have them.
LikeLike
You probably did have it. My brother thinks he had it. You’ll never know without the test. This is crazy.
Leslie
LikeLike
Really stupid and NOT what they promised. Fortunately, our doctor was a little more “on the ball” than most, so he ordered them and I checked to make sure they were paid for by insurance. If ordered by a doctor, they are paid for, 100%. They need to get people to be tested and they need to get out of the big cities and wealthy suburbs!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed they do!
LikeLike