Thursday, November 12th, 2020
I am waiting for the results of the various COVID tests to come back. This limbo is a little nerve wrecking, even though I have full confidence that they will come back negative, it is more because of my weekend plans. Unless my tests come back tomorrow, I will not be able to see my brilliant friend. I called both testing facilities to ask for results and was told the tests were still being processed.
It seems part of the country had a public holiday yesterday – Veterans Day. None of that was noticeable at work since we had a five-hour workshop starting at 7:00 ending just before noon. So if yesterday really was a Federal Holiday, the organization owes me a day.
Given anxiety about tests results coming back in time, I decided to in addition take a rapid antigen test, which is less reliable than the PCR tests though as antigen tests tend to produce false negatives. The lab I went to also offers rapid PCR tests returning results within 24 hours, so I had considered it as an option to test prior to our flight to Germany; well may be not. Below is what I shared with the chairman of the board of said lab at the explicit suggestion of staff working there who even gave me his business card with the contact details.
I visited your facilities today to get a rapid antigen test. This was meant to give comfort for me to meet someone autoimmune compromised and was the third and last in a series of tests taken over the past seven days while at the same time quarantining at home. Please understand that I have gone to great length to spend time with someone I do not want to potentially infect.
After visiting your laboratory, I believe it is no longer safe to do so and I will have to consider cancelling meeting this very special person and all of our troubles may have been completely in vain. I am most upset. Taking a test at your facility is the unsafest thing I have done since the pandemic started, only a visit to a COVID ward could have been more reckless.
I had an appointment and a number. There were four people ahead of me so I happily waited in the hallway, however, I was ushered in by one of your staff members and asked to wait in your lobby, even though there were already four other people waiting in the tiny area. When the fifth person was escorted into the waiting area, making any social distancing impossible, I escaped to the hallway again, where two other people were waiting to come in.
Despite an appointment and all paperwork completed before arriva,l it took 20 minutes from the point of arrival until the test had been administered and I could leave. All of that in a tiny space with 3 staff and at least 7 patrons.
I believe it is safe to assume that not everyone getting a test does so out of pure precaution, but also because they are showing symptoms/ may have the virus or have reasonable fear of having been exposed. Over the course of the day by my estimates 160 people will visit your laboratory all breathing in the same tiny space without special ventilation or filters or any other form of air sanitation. Knowing the virus transmits through aerosols you are putting your staff at risk and anyone who is taking tests as a precautionary measure. I am shocked, and rest assured I will share this experience with my listserv and undertake every effort to find a more responsible testing facility. I feel deeply sorry for the staff working at the place. But most of all I am unforgiving about your lack of precautions now jeopardizing something I had carefully prepared for.
Interestingly enough Mr. Chairman responded within the hour. He was terribly apologetic saying staff had been overwhelmed with phone calls by appointment seekers and they had moved to an online booking system that would limit tests to 60 per day. Funnily enough it had been he himself who had, via email, booked my appointment the day before. What did give me comfort is the fact that they do not allow symptomatic people to be tested on site, but arrange for one of their staff to come to a person’s car. Well in the event of not finding an alternative lab before our Christmas trip, I now know what to do – request staff to come to my car!
I did share my experience with the Listserve though, I was just so mad.
The USA is moving ever deeper into “Corona Hell” with people tire of living with the restrictions. The USA added over 140k cases in a single day to reach 10.8 million infected people. Meanwhile the rest of the world added 350k new cases to reach a total of 52.3 million. 248.256 people have to date died from the disease.
More than ever now we are staying in our bubble, limiting interactions with anyone. I am hoping EM’s three bubble friends and their parents are doing the same. As we approach Thanksgiving I am wondering if us and the family we plan to celebrate with should all get a rapid test the day before; just to be safe seeing Thanksgiving dinner will most certainly be an indoor event.
Other than that, I entertained myself with reviewing 800 out of 2400 slides for one of our training courses.