ScottySkis
Well-known member
Well, there's really nothing like being the first on your block with the bubonic plague.... but life comes at you fast, as they say. SO, let me tell you about my Covid-19 experience over the last couple of days. This is a letter I sent to our local (town and county) representatives this evening (I live in Port Washington, NY in Nassau County):
Thank you both for your interest and assistance with this urgent matter. Despite my intense efforts to avoid this novel Coronavirus I seem to have indeed contracted it. After having what I thought was a mild head cold over the last few days I woke up on Friday morning to aches and chills. By noon I had a fever of around 102. I went to the Northwell GoHealth Urgent Care Center on Shore Road in Port Washington after calling and ensuring that they did indeed have tests at their facility. I arrived there at 4:45pm and announced upon entering the facility that I suspected I had Covid-19. They took their time in intaking me (I had to ask for a mask) and even suggested that I first make an appointment on their touchscreen monitor. I explained that that was a terrible idea and perhaps they had somewhere else I could wait other than the waiting room. When I was seen I reported my symptoms (fever, headache, cough, aches etc) and was tested for the regular flu. I tested negative. I asked to be tested for Covid-19 once the regular flu had been ruled out. I have not traveled out of the country since December and I have not KNOWINGLY had close and prolonged contact for at least ten minutes with an individual who has tested positive for Covid-19. On that basis, I was denied the test. The doctor did not listen to my lungs or give me advice or any other kind. I begged him to give me the test but he told me the orders from the DOH and I had failed the impossible criteria that had been set up. If no one can get tested, how can I possibly prove that I have been knowingly exposed? It is a Catch-22 that keeps almost everyone from getting tested and will lead to people dying. I spent the entirety of today in bed calling every hotline / resource I could identify; I got the same answer from everyone. So, we know that Nassau County has the tests but apparently are unwilling to use them despite North Hempstead being declared in a State of Emergency. This is a public health disaster in the making… only days away. Call me the canary in the coalmine, but at this point I don’t care whether I test positive (I mean, I do, but I’ve given up on trying to get tested – it’s been an exhausting process and I’m better off watching reruns and resting). I am, however, acting as if I have tested positive and have self-isolated for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the lack of testing is what is keeping schools open, not allowing our hospitals to prepare for what is about to hit them (as the respiratory failure phase of this lovely disease seems to enter during week 2 and the first line of defense at that point is the ER and a respirator). This is a false deflation of numbers going on that is out of sync with the kind of testing going on in New Rochelle, let alone other hotspots. We are losing ground by the hour. I urge you both to bring this matter to those who can intervene and create testing and reporting protocols that make sense. Time is closing in on our opportunity to rectify this unmitigated disaster; please act quickly on behalf of our community. I beg you.
To my neighbors: please stay safe and take #socialdistancing seriously. Please feel free to share this. And if you, as many of my friends are, involved in government, public health, media, etc PLEASE share this story and, if you can, act on it!!!
Extra credit if someone can teach me how to create a thread on Twitter to post this.
Thank you both for your interest and assistance with this urgent matter. Despite my intense efforts to avoid this novel Coronavirus I seem to have indeed contracted it. After having what I thought was a mild head cold over the last few days I woke up on Friday morning to aches and chills. By noon I had a fever of around 102. I went to the Northwell GoHealth Urgent Care Center on Shore Road in Port Washington after calling and ensuring that they did indeed have tests at their facility. I arrived there at 4:45pm and announced upon entering the facility that I suspected I had Covid-19. They took their time in intaking me (I had to ask for a mask) and even suggested that I first make an appointment on their touchscreen monitor. I explained that that was a terrible idea and perhaps they had somewhere else I could wait other than the waiting room. When I was seen I reported my symptoms (fever, headache, cough, aches etc) and was tested for the regular flu. I tested negative. I asked to be tested for Covid-19 once the regular flu had been ruled out. I have not traveled out of the country since December and I have not KNOWINGLY had close and prolonged contact for at least ten minutes with an individual who has tested positive for Covid-19. On that basis, I was denied the test. The doctor did not listen to my lungs or give me advice or any other kind. I begged him to give me the test but he told me the orders from the DOH and I had failed the impossible criteria that had been set up. If no one can get tested, how can I possibly prove that I have been knowingly exposed? It is a Catch-22 that keeps almost everyone from getting tested and will lead to people dying. I spent the entirety of today in bed calling every hotline / resource I could identify; I got the same answer from everyone. So, we know that Nassau County has the tests but apparently are unwilling to use them despite North Hempstead being declared in a State of Emergency. This is a public health disaster in the making… only days away. Call me the canary in the coalmine, but at this point I don’t care whether I test positive (I mean, I do, but I’ve given up on trying to get tested – it’s been an exhausting process and I’m better off watching reruns and resting). I am, however, acting as if I have tested positive and have self-isolated for the foreseeable future. The problem is that the lack of testing is what is keeping schools open, not allowing our hospitals to prepare for what is about to hit them (as the respiratory failure phase of this lovely disease seems to enter during week 2 and the first line of defense at that point is the ER and a respirator). This is a false deflation of numbers going on that is out of sync with the kind of testing going on in New Rochelle, let alone other hotspots. We are losing ground by the hour. I urge you both to bring this matter to those who can intervene and create testing and reporting protocols that make sense. Time is closing in on our opportunity to rectify this unmitigated disaster; please act quickly on behalf of our community. I beg you.
To my neighbors: please stay safe and take #socialdistancing seriously. Please feel free to share this. And if you, as many of my friends are, involved in government, public health, media, etc PLEASE share this story and, if you can, act on it!!!
Extra credit if someone can teach me how to create a thread on Twitter to post this.
