Here's what happened when a friend of mine got tested for Covid19

[FlyingPenguin]

A friend of mine came up from Miami to stay at one of our rental homes for a month. Due to the lockdown he can't work down there, and he didn't feel very safe in a covid Hotspot. Miami's under curfew right now.

Although he has no symptoms, but wanting to do the right thing, he has self isolated and I arranged for him to get a test. Believe it or not, it was hard to find somewhere to get tested. Things aren't as bad here as other counties, but I couldn't find any testing site closer than Orlando which is an hour drive away, and only open for a few hours in the morning two days a week. And Orlando is also a hot spot.

Through a doctor friend I finally found a doctor that has the test kit for his patients and staff, and can send it out to the lab. I wound up paying for it ($100), which I didn't mind, but it seems the only way to get a test around here is to pay or have a referral from a doctor. Not a practical way for someone from out of town, when a first time visit to a doctor's office can take a month to schedule even when we're not in a pandemic.

He took the test on Friday July 10th. Turn around is supposed to be 3 business days.

It's now July 22nd and he still doesn't have the results because the labs are backed up. Since he's at the end of his isolation period, the point is probably mute.

Since then they have opened a drive through test at our local mall, however that's the less accurate 10 minute test. Anyone can go and it costs $20 bucks.

Just seems to me this should be a lot easier, especially with our idiot governor bragging that we're doing a lot of testing.

[Executioner]

I heard in China they get tested 3 times to confirm if they have the virus.

[Err]

I got a call from HR Sunday telling me to stay home because a fellow employee thought he was exposed and get tested. We typically go to lunch together. He was tested last Thursday and is still waiting on results. I got paranoid and scheduled a test at our local Urgent Care. I just got my results about 30 minutes ago and it was negative. Funny enough, the test the used was manufactured by my company.

I was lucky to be able to schedule a time. I only got in due to a cancellation. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to get tested until today. Still, 24 hours should be the maximum in my opinion. Of course, I'm in Scioto County Ohio and not Florida.

[Losbot]

There's simply not enough tests and I'm of the opinion that you really should go get tested IF you have symptoms or find out that someone you've had contact with tested positive.
There's too many people going to get tested just for the sake of getting tested and I'm not believing a lot of the numbers these days. You've got hospitals and clinics now stating there's incorrect results, others have "accidentally" doubled their counts, making it look like massive spikes and my people like a client my wife was speaking on the phone with, who went for testing and left after waiting some 2 hours for his turn. He needed to go back to the office. 2 or 3 days later he was informed that he tested positive. Joked that he was impressed with their contact-less, airborne, particle counting testing methods. LOL

[FlyingPenguin]

If you want to reopen the economy, you need lot's of testing. We've had 4 months to ramp up testing. The problem is that the GOOD test has to be sent to a lab, and takes a fair amount of work, and all get sent to a few labs around the country. The fast automated tests like they use in the White House are less reliable.

Other countries have got massive testing programs and have had no problem ramping up.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has enough supplies to test more people and is continuing to expand capacity.

He said state-run drive-thru testing sites have not been reaching capacity, and said the state has contracted private labs to do an additional 18,000 tests a day. DeSantis also opened the door for pharmacists and places like CVS and Walgreens to conduct their own tests.

He is encouraging people to get tested even if they don't have symptoms because they could still be carrying the virus.

"We think it’s important not only for individuals’ health to know whether they're positive or not, but also for professionals to understand the prevalence of this throughout the community,” he said.

[Err]

Just an update to my situation:

The guy who I had contact with has it. I've been asked to stay home until Monday even though I tested negative. I lucked out because the last time we went to lunch was Wednesday. Thursday, he was starting to feel bad and he didn't go out. Friday, he was out. Luckily he's not experiencing any breathing issues but he can't smell or taste.

We were both tested with a molecular based assay. These assays can't be run but anyone. The persons running them must have extremely good lab techniques. I'm lucky that the hospital that collected my specimen also has the ability to run the test.

One of the other issues was not enough collection swabs. I don't know if this is still an issue. One of my biggest gripes is that the medical personnel collecting these samples aren't getting any kind of hazard pay. I also don't think they are getting routinely tested.

We need everyone to get tested whether they show symptoms or not. Otherwise we really don't know the impact of this disease.

[psypher]

If you want to reopen the economy, you need lot's of testing. We've had 4 months to ramp up testing. The problem is that the GOOD test has to be sent to a lab, and takes a fair amount of work, and all get sent to a few labs around the country. The fast automated tests like they use in the White House are less reliable.

Other countries have got massive testing programs and have had no problem ramping up.

You need to have semi-competent leadership for that. You know how you test 10s of millions of people fast? You don't fucking test them one by one. You test in batches and if a batch comes back positive, you perform individual tests. It took this country 6+ months to finally agree on allowing this type of testing. It will probably take another 6 months before they actually start doing it.

[FlyingPenguin]

You need to have semi-competent leadership for that. You know how you test 10s of millions of people fast? You don't fucking test them one by one. You test in batches and if a batch comes back positive, you perform individual tests. It took this country 6+ months to finally agree on allowing this type of testing. It will probably take another 6 months before they actually start doing it.

Agreed. We're like a banana republic.

Nor is misinformation about masks helping. I got into a polite discussion with someone the other day about "masks poisoning you with CO2" and I had to give up and walk away.

I get that some people have a hard time breathing through a cloth mask on a hot summer day - I know, it's no fun. They can instead wear a disposable paper mask. I carry a box of them in the car to hand out and use myself if I'm getting over heated in a cloth mask. My wife has to use the paper masks too. I get that.

But idiots claiming that masks cause long term brain damage? It really is Idiocracy coming to real life.

[psypher]

Nor is misinformation about masks helping. I got into a polite discussion with someone the other day about "masks poisoning you with CO2" and I had to give up and walk away.

I get that some people have a hard time breathing through a cloth mask on a hot summer day - I know, it's no fun. They can instead wear a disposable paper mask. I carry a box of them in the car to hand out and use myself if I'm getting over heated in a cloth mask. My wife has to use the paper masks too. I get that.

But idiots claiming that masks cause long term brain damage? It really is Idiocracy coming to real life.

I hear you, I feel I get dumber if I listen to people like that. I feel like telling them, you know what's difficult? Breathing through a fucking ventilator, but fuck it, what's the point.

[reno]

what sad is you can take the test today and get a negative result. but one day later go and get retested. even do you have not been in contact with a single person . the test come back positive. also my understanding is if you go in feeling like you have a flu . they will test you but even do the results are not confirmed either way. you are add to the positive for covid 19 count here in florida. it happen to neighbor of mine . he did get tested and then 14 days later get retested .both came negative but he still listed as having covid 19 positive .
i'm thinking no proof of it. but think hospitals are getting more money by listing some one with covid 19. then they would if just a flu patient. when there on medicare as he over 65 .
now we have had family and friends in michigan get covid 19 . one of them is now having to deal with side affects of the virus . it not good as it affected there heart and breathing . they are having to really consider taking a early retirement. they are a nurse and it was contacted from there job working in the hospital. the other still getting winded and having to take it easy .there also having weird medical problem happen to them . none of them are said to be related to covid 19 but makes me wonder if there thing not know and /or not being told. as a possible side affect of this virus.

[psypher]

what sad is you can take the test today and get a negative result. but one day later go and get retested. even do you have not been in contact with a single person . the test come back positive. also my understanding is if you go in feeling like you have a flu . they will test you but even do the results are not confirmed either way. you are add to the positive for covid 19 count here in florida. it happen to neighbor of mine . he did get tested and then 14 days later get retested .both came negative but he still listed as having covid 19 positive .
i'm thinking no proof of it. but think hospitals are getting more money by listing some one with covid 19. then they would if just a flu patient. when there on medicare as he over 65 .
now we have had family and friends in michigan get covid 19 . one of them is now having to deal with side affects of the virus . it not good as it affected there heart and breathing . they are having to really consider taking a early retirement. they are a nurse and it was contacted from there job working in the hospital. the other still getting winded and having to take it easy .there also having weird medical problem happen to them . none of them are said to be related to covid 19 but makes me wonder if there thing not know and /or not being told. as a possible side affect of this virus.

That's not where hospitals make money, please don't go down that conspiracy rabbit hole. A lot of hospitals have run into financial issues since all their hospital space was being taken over by covid-19 patients. A lot of their elective surgeries had to be cancelled/rescheduled for an unknown future date.

[FlyingPenguin]

UPDATE: Day 15. Still no result.

How the can we do contact tracing when the time for the test results is as long as the quarantine period?

[Losbot]

That's not where hospitals make money, please don't go down that conspiracy rabbit hole. A lot of hospitals have run into financial issues since all their hospital space was being taken over by covid-19 patients. A lot of their elective surgeries had to be cancelled/rescheduled for an unknown future date.

True but I still argue that one of the biggest problems with this pandemic versus every other outbreak we've had where we didn't close down anything and yet the human race still existed afterward is that the govt never should have put a price tag or bounty on the virus. I think that really has led to a lot of bullshit numbers out there. Lots of people that have unfortunately died, did so because of all the other problems that were wrong with them but hey, let's claim it was Covid because we MIGHT get some cash from it.

This whole virus has been handled poorly but not just the govt is at fault. Hospitals made lots of dumb decisions too. The media also created a frenzy and still do to this day. Lots of reports that there's no hospital beds available then another report that these hospitals are only at 50% and what about the ones we built to take on the surge of patients, that were never even used? The hospital ships too.

It's been one giant cluster-fuck that should have been handled (in my opinion) like all other virus before. Quarantine the elderly and compromised who are at most risk and have common sense. Trying to eliminate the virus is impossible IMHO and all this talk of a vaccine seems far fetched when we don't have one for the previous versions of this virus, let alone the damn flu. We're all going to be exposed and it's just a matter of when. It spreads too easily. It already went through our family. Wife and daughter spent 8 days feeling like hammered shit yet, I didn't have a single symptom.

I'm so over this crap and tired of hearing about Covid every 30 seconds on TV. I stopped watching live TV and just watch Plex at home because I'm surrounded by the news all day day (work for a news media company). I don't even want to watch or read our stuff.

[FlyingPenguin]

Day 20. Doctor says he heard from the lab that they're now expecting a 1 month turn around.

How the F@CK are you supposed to do contact tracing when it takes longer for the test to come back, than the gestation period of the disease?

[Err]

Day 20. Doctor says he heard from the lab that they're now expecting a 1 month turn around.

How the F@CK are you supposed to do contact tracing when it takes longer for the test to come back, than the gestation period of the disease?

I'm sorry to hear that. I was nervous as hell waiting 24 hours for mine. I can't imagine waiting that long for a test result.

The US isn't set up for contract tracing anyway. While everyone's phone now has the ability to do so, you have to have an addition app for the users to report if they have it or not. I think some states may have it but I haven't looked into it. Since this is 'murica, getting people to report that they have it would be neigh impossible.

If we were competent, the app would've been released via the CDC. That's never going to happen so this disease will continue to run through the US population until we acquire herd immunity. A vaccine would help speed this along but at least half the population won't take it. We're going to have to wait it out. I'm guessing 3 to 4 years before we're down to an acceptable rate of infection.