Getting tested for COVID-19 is a disaster in our country, no matter what Donald Trump and the White House says. No, you cannot just get tested. You have to jump through so many hoops and have a presumptive positive due to exposure to someone else who has a confirmed positive, have travelled to one of the countries dealing with an outbreak or be in a special category (older, compromised immune system, etc).
Daniel Goldman, one of the lawyers from the House Impeachment trial, live tweeted his days long journey to finally getting tested. And it turned out he was positive!
Here are the tweets about his journey:
After exhausting options in New York, he went to Connecticut on March 13th.
Two days later: POSITIVE
Mr. Goldman did interviews with various news outlets, including CNN's "New Day". He told the hosts that he is "feeling much better." Goldman made it clear that the Trump administration was largely related to the Trump administration's ineptitude. "My difficulty in getting a test despite the exact symptoms and a negative flu test underscores how shockingly unprepared this administration is to deal with this pandemic," he said. "In fact, I was told that NYC hospitals STILL would not test my wife — with similar symptoms — unless admitted."
Although a horrifying story of the medical maze Americans are going through every day across this country, Mr. Goldman's story shines an even brighter light on how the Trump administration fails to protect all citizens and how the response from the medical community needs to be adjusted to ensure that everyone that needs the test gets one - which can't happen if the Trump administration isn't actually sending tests out.
The unavailability of testing on a broader basis has serious implications for the overall economy. Here's one example:
Person A feels a little tired and run down but goes to work anyway. While at work, Person A starts to run a fever, putting his co-workers at risk. Person A hasn't traveled or been in contact with a person confirmed to have COVID-19. His co-workers go home, blissfully unaware that Person A may be sick, and spend the weekend with their spouses, significant others, children and friends. When Person A notifies his employer that he is sick but untested, every person his co-workers came in contact with now must quarantine themselves because they cannot rely on a test result to tell them whether or not he has the flu or COVID-19.
That takes healthy workers out of the workforce simply because they cannot be tested. This is the PRIMARY failure of the Trump response to this virus. By denying its severity for so long and arrogantly believing they could simply close borders and keep the virus out, the economy is at risk along with the health and well-being of every person in America.
