From an email from Quest Diagnostics:
Even with the asterisk their statement about the antibody test seems irresponsible.
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Glad UE help is ending. At least I’ve received $0 so far in the 9 weeks since I applied. And my job probably isn’t coming back this year. And I’m about to lose my health insurance that covers care for a chronic illness. Murica #1.
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Also, I know all of us here are smart enough not to fall for this, but maybe give your parents a heads up. Apparently scammers are calling people and posing as COVID-19 trackers in attempted phishing scams, according to the NJDHS.
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Free COVID-19 testing is now available for all Santa Clara County residents, including those who aren’t exhibiting symptoms, local leaders announced Wednesday.
Testing sites are located in San Jose at PAL Stadium and the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
To get tested, residents have to be 18 years of age or older and electronically sign a COVID-19 public health authorization form and lab consent. They also need to schedule an appointment online.
“You do not need health insurance,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said. “You do not need to pay. You do not need symptoms.”
Santa Clara County COVID-19 Testing Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said the actual test is “safe and easy.”
“We’re no longer using a long swab that goes all the way to the back of your throat," he said. "That’s rather uncomfortable. We’re going to use a nasal swab. It will be self-administered.”
After receiving a swab at a testing site, people simply have to swab each nostril for 10 seconds, put the swab in a container and then turn it in.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez implored residents to get tested as soon as they can as the county seeks to reach an average of 4,000 tests per day. Chavez also said that local officials can and will help residents who struggle to sign up for testing due to obstacles like language barriers.
Sounds like I’m going to confirm that I’m negative soon, I hope.
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I think we also have the highest # of tests per capita in the US though too.
Illinois is third in absolute tests, 12th per capita.
In other news, DeSantis goes after the media for not giving Florida credit for a good response, with his evidence being a low “death rate”:
Sorry, you’re correct. But we’re crushing it lately.
I should have looked for daily numbers instead of cumulative.
Hmmm, I’d read about approval for a saliva based test, but not for a nasal swab. Have you seen anything that nasal is legit?
Going to be little solace to him when he is proven right after thousands of idiots and non idiots die because they have to drink beer in a bar.
The most amusing defiance is joesixpack on 22 who claims most people just want to go back to work. Weird we are not seeing a bunch of hyped to be back to work videos.
I suspect if everything was open BUT work that the complaints would be nearly non existent.
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One thing I learned is USPS is absolutely slammed with packages. They have greater than holiday time packages to move but with much fewer employees.
Mail is actually down but with so many people getting stuff shipped packages are through the roof. I found this out after having an issue with a package I was waiting on. I found others in my area having similar problems and then started reading the USPS reddit forum which is mostly postal employees.
I think their contracts with other shippers like amazon require on time metrics so they are taking priority over their own shipping. Apparently priority express is still getting there next day but depending on the sorting office regular priority could be delayed a long time.
A package I am waiting on went out Friday from South Texas to North Texas. It hit the sorting facility by my house on Saturday, and was supposed to be delivered Monday. Today is Thursday and it won’t be here today either. I talked to the shipper and they said they have been seeing this lately and that the packages eventually get there.
Just a heads up about the postal service trump hates so much.
Don’t be so pessimistic. I am sure you will be positive!
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My wife started running a fever last night and is hurting all over, she’s going to see about getting tested here in a little while. Hopefully with those symptoms its the flu.
She did say she called some drive in testing place near here and got asked a bunch of questions over the phone and basically got ads for shit over the phone and then got disconnected? Not sure what to make of that but she’s checking on a different one now.
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Nope, I’m pretty much just hoping that county officials know what they’re doing.
Yeah but your dish sponge is even worse than the toothbrush after cleaning the toilet bowl.
Keep us posted with wife updates please. Boots on the ground at hospitals seems to be the best info. and really good for backing up or questioning official stats. Especially if they can find out what’s happening at other hospitals in the area - like Will did.
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You can get a test in LA if you say you have symptoms, same in KC. I’d be really surprised if you can’t get one in Sili Valley.
You guys may or may not find this interesting but I have generally been pleased with the safety precautions for her at her hospital. She got some custom fitted N95 masks and they wear face shields and in some cases use PAPR(? might have the name slightly wrong) space suit type hoods. Some of her coworkers have gotten sick but it mostly happened at the beginning when there wasn’t anywhere near adequate PPE. She wasn’t working then because of her surgery.
They also give all of the nurses scrubs each day. So you wear your street clothes in and change into hospital issue scrubs when you get there and then change back out into your street clothes when you leave and leave your scrubs there and the hospital washes them. She has also been taking all of that off in the garage when she gets home and throwing it into the washer immediately (which is thankfully the first room coming in from the garage) and immediately going and showering. So far we do not have Covid-19 that we know of even though she has had a couple patients die from it over the last month or so since she has been back. She did take an antibody test at the hospital yesterday and if I want to brave the hospital I guess the hospital will test me for antibodies also. Still on the fence on that one.
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I’m not disputing the availability of tests, only the reliability of ones based on a nasal (as opposed to pharyngeal) swab.