A friend got suddenly sick after flying, with all the #coronavirus symptoms. He called the hotline in NYC and was told in order to even *find out where to get tested,* he has to have ALL of these: 1) cough too uncontrollable to speak 2) difficulty breathing and 3) fever > 102
He was told that in order to even *get tested,* he has to have not just *all 3* of the above symptoms, but also fit 1 of these risk factors:
1) contact with confirmed case
2) previously been under quarantine
3 recent travel to an affected country
4) history of respiratory issues
1) contact with confirmed case
2) previously been under quarantine
3 recent travel to an affected country
4) history of respiratory issues
We are so fucked.
I was not overly worried until just now. You have to be practically at death’s door to get tested at all.
This is going to sweep our country.
This is going to sweep our country.
👇🏽
Full disclosure: the friend is me. I wasn’t ready for the panicked reaction until I’m sure I have it, after which I was planning to tweet a detailed retrace of my steps for the past week, but I wanted everyone to know right away how hard it is to get tested. So...here’s the deal:
I called the hospital after I got off the phone with the hotline. They told me to ignore the hotline and come in right away. I was there in isolation for 7 hours. The doctors said that until that day, they were being told not to test unless someone fits the criteria listed above.
“It’s complete confusion,” one doctor told me. The policy [about testing] changes one day to the next. The whole thing is crazy.”
I am now waiting for the test results. In the meantime, I’ve canceled all travel plans and am in self-quarantine. If the test comes back positive, I will tweet exactly where I was and what I did over the past few days.
I could just have a cold but I also want to do the right thing and make sure that if I have it, I alert everyone who was in contact with me. I tried to address and contain this as soon as I showed any symptoms. It’s just hard to do that when people can’t get tested.
