Matt McNamara, 46, was concerned when he developed a sore throat, cough and fever last Friday.
“Those were the three things that were markers for me to say this is definitely different,” he told Yahoo News.
McNamara is a field operations manager at Spectrum and drives for Uber on weekends, so he was concerned about showing up to work sick and possibly infecting others. After going to Adirondack Urgent Care in Queensbury, N.Y., he tested negative for seasonal influenza and was told he had an unknown virus before being sent home.
But after reading that a pharmacist at a local CVS where he shops had tested positive for COVID-19, McNamara wondered why he hadn’t been tested for coronavirus himself and decided to follow up with the urgent care unit.
The frustrating response he received gives an insight into the experience of many Americans who are seeking the tests, which continue to be in limited supply despite reassurances from the Trump administration.
“They said, ‘Well, we didn’t test you because, No. 1, we don’t test for it here. You’d have to go somewhere else,’” McNamara recounted. “‘But we didn’t recommend any testing because you did not meet the CDC’s criteria of having traveled outside the country to a known nation or place that has it, and you also have not been in contact with anybody who has it.’”
Still concerned, McNamara said he followed up with the Warren County Health Services. But they also told him he did not meet the CDC’s criteria for testing.
J'nelle Oxford, public health program coordinator at Warren County Health Services, told Yahoo News, “It's still cold and virus season,” and symptoms of coronavirus alone are currently not grounds for coronavirus testing. She said they are still prioritizing those who are “high risk” and “high exposure,” including those who had been to a country with a level 2 or level 3 travel health notice or in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
The CDC defines “close contact” as being within six feet of an infected person for a prolonged period, or having direct contact with “infectious secretions” of a COVID-19 patient.
"Frequenting” the CVS where a pharmacist tested positive “does not qualify," Oxford said.
So what can you do if you think you should be tested for coronavirus?
Federal health officials insist that Americans cannot seek out a test for coronavirus on their own — contradicting a claim by President Trump that “anyone who wants a test can get a test.”
“You may not get a test unless a doctor or public health official prescribes a test,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar said at an off-camera briefing at the White House on Saturday. “That is our medical system in the United States, in the same way that you may not get a cardiac medicine if your doctor doesn’t prescribe that.” (...)
But at present, the odds that a doctor’s visit or concerned phone call to your physician will result in a test are incredibly low. Only 6,563 Americans have been tested as of Tuesday morning, according to the CDC.
And for many Americans, the unpredictable process of determining who gets tested and who doesn’t can be frustrating. After returning from a work trip involving stops in Thailand and South Korea, Washington, D.C. native Maggie McDow wrote on Facebook that her doctor was “furious” when the Department of Health refused to run a coronavirus test after she showed respiratory symptoms, despite her travel history. Her post received over 28,000 shares.
“Do I have Covid-19? Who knows. Do we have a broken public healthcare system that is utterly failing during a health pandemic? Absolutely,” McDow wrote in her Facebook post on Saturday.
“Those were the three things that were markers for me to say this is definitely different,” he told Yahoo News.
McNamara is a field operations manager at Spectrum and drives for Uber on weekends, so he was concerned about showing up to work sick and possibly infecting others. After going to Adirondack Urgent Care in Queensbury, N.Y., he tested negative for seasonal influenza and was told he had an unknown virus before being sent home.
But after reading that a pharmacist at a local CVS where he shops had tested positive for COVID-19, McNamara wondered why he hadn’t been tested for coronavirus himself and decided to follow up with the urgent care unit.
The frustrating response he received gives an insight into the experience of many Americans who are seeking the tests, which continue to be in limited supply despite reassurances from the Trump administration.“They said, ‘Well, we didn’t test you because, No. 1, we don’t test for it here. You’d have to go somewhere else,’” McNamara recounted. “‘But we didn’t recommend any testing because you did not meet the CDC’s criteria of having traveled outside the country to a known nation or place that has it, and you also have not been in contact with anybody who has it.’”
Still concerned, McNamara said he followed up with the Warren County Health Services. But they also told him he did not meet the CDC’s criteria for testing.
J'nelle Oxford, public health program coordinator at Warren County Health Services, told Yahoo News, “It's still cold and virus season,” and symptoms of coronavirus alone are currently not grounds for coronavirus testing. She said they are still prioritizing those who are “high risk” and “high exposure,” including those who had been to a country with a level 2 or level 3 travel health notice or in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
The CDC defines “close contact” as being within six feet of an infected person for a prolonged period, or having direct contact with “infectious secretions” of a COVID-19 patient.
"Frequenting” the CVS where a pharmacist tested positive “does not qualify," Oxford said.
So what can you do if you think you should be tested for coronavirus?
Federal health officials insist that Americans cannot seek out a test for coronavirus on their own — contradicting a claim by President Trump that “anyone who wants a test can get a test.”
“You may not get a test unless a doctor or public health official prescribes a test,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar said at an off-camera briefing at the White House on Saturday. “That is our medical system in the United States, in the same way that you may not get a cardiac medicine if your doctor doesn’t prescribe that.” (...)
But at present, the odds that a doctor’s visit or concerned phone call to your physician will result in a test are incredibly low. Only 6,563 Americans have been tested as of Tuesday morning, according to the CDC.
And for many Americans, the unpredictable process of determining who gets tested and who doesn’t can be frustrating. After returning from a work trip involving stops in Thailand and South Korea, Washington, D.C. native Maggie McDow wrote on Facebook that her doctor was “furious” when the Department of Health refused to run a coronavirus test after she showed respiratory symptoms, despite her travel history. Her post received over 28,000 shares.
“Do I have Covid-19? Who knows. Do we have a broken public healthcare system that is utterly failing during a health pandemic? Absolutely,” McDow wrote in her Facebook post on Saturday.
by Rebecca Corey, Yahoo News | Read more:
Image: California Department of Public Health via AP
[ed. Hard to tell with so much disinformation floating around, but 6,500 tests is woefully inadequate. CDC says the number is closer to 11,000 but that's still a very small number (Coronavirus: US admits 'failing' on testing, says Fauci - BBC). See also: 'We are flying blind': Lawmakers fume amid lack of coronavirus testing and answers (CNN). Finally, it's not just tests that are limiting but a lack of ventilators and ICU beds as well (NY Times). [Update: White House Knew Coronavirus Would Be A 'Major Threat' — But Response Fell Short (NPR).]
