After failing spectacularly to provide enough test kits for COVID-19, even after saying anyone who wanted a test can get one, President Donald Trump dumped the onus on testing back on the governors. He’s just passing the buck because he doesn’t know what to do in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that is clearly the responsibility of the federal government to deal with.
And now we have hazy guidelines on when and how to restart the economy but those guidelines clearly rely on doing enough testing to insure we are post-peak and can identify and respond to hot spots immediately.
Well, we don’t have those tests or the reagents or the cotton swabs needed…yet.
And the folklore around the spread of the disease holds that this is an issue for the elderly or those with underling health issues. Well here are two Wisconsin instances of 30 year olds who clearly have/had COVID-19 and couldn’t get tested and were seriously impacted by the disease. So we are under counted in Wisconsin by at least two…and we know there are more.
This should be shared with Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow…they need to see some faces.
Alexis Garuz, 30 year old, of WAUKESHA:
Inside an emergency room at ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital, Alexis Garuz knew only one thing for certain: She could hardly breathe.
It’s the reason she had been rushed to the emergency room on Monday, presuming that medical staff would confirm what she strongly suspected — that she had COVID-19…
Instead, she was sent home untested.
It’s not that medical personnel didn’t believe she had been infected. Medical screenings, first by phone and then through ER tests at the ProHealth Care hospital in Waukesha, left little doubt.
“The (physician assistant) said you absolutely have COVID-19,” Garuz noted in a post shared on the social app NextDoor. “My X-ray confirmed pneumonia, my liver enzymes were elevated … plus my coughing, fever and recent travel abroad (were all factors).”
What the PA told her next left her more numb than the feelings caused by her affliction: “But I can’t test you even though I want to.”
She was told to self-quarantine at home and monitor herself closely for the next 36 hours, a critical window that would help determine whether she was getting worse or better.
But this just blows my mind that this is the United States of America, and this is the best we can do.”
Testing would seem to be a critical component of controlling the spread of the virus, Garuz said.
According to Garuz, the physician assistant acknowledged that on the day of her visit, more than a dozen other people had likewise come to Waukesha Memorial Hospital with overt symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infections. They were all sent home untested, hoping for improvement.
emphasis mine
Ms. Garuz gets it…”and this is the best we can do.”
Joshua Roos, 30 year old farmer from POLK COUNTY Wisconsin:
The truth is … it’s kicking my ass,” the 30-year-old farmer from Polk County wrote.
“I don’t know where I was infected, and I pray that I haven’t infected anybody else,” he added.
Early on, he had a dry cough and chest pain. Then came chills and a bad headache. Around 5:30 p.m., he was feverish and lay down for a while. Three hours later, his temperature was 103.4 and he headed to an urgent care clinic in New Richmond.
Tests revealed it wasn’t influenza or strep throat. The doctor on call that night, familiar with COVID-19 patients in the Twin Cities, was nearly certain Roos had the virus. Fever, chest pain, trouble getting deep breaths, droopy eyes, the symptoms were there.
After listening to his lungs and reviewing X-ray results, the medical staff wouldn’t even come back into the small room where Roos was waiting. Instead, they spoke to him over an intercom.
They also declined to give him a formal COVID-19 test because the test kits were in extremely short supply and were being reserved for the elderly and patients admitted to the hospital.
“Because I’m an otherwise healthy 30-year-old man, they sent me home to self-quarantine,” Roos said.
At times, the simple act of breathing was painful.
“My lungs still burn, especially when I get out of bed,” he wrote on Facebook. “Lungs are on fire still, but my cough seems to be getting clearer and less intense. My worst symptom now is the massive headache I have.”
“I’m really sorry if anybody gets this virus from me,” Roos wrote on Facebook the day he went into quarantine. “I have been diligent on staying six feet away from everybody and washing my hands regularly. Apparently, that wasn’t enough.”
It could be a month or so before he’s fully recovered…
“I’ve never been so physically beat down in my life,” Roos said.
emphasis mine
btw: Polk County is as rural as they come…and…”I don’t know where I was infected”
All of the states need more testing…a lot more testing…we need to know how many people actually have or have had the disease and where they are and where they’ve been. There is no substitute for accurate data. And if we don’t want to have a second wave and/or a second shutdown, we need to get a handle on this.
No body is immune (yet). No area of Wisconsin is immune. I would ask that ALL of our leadership in Madison get on board with helping to solve COVID-19 issues in Wisconsin and stop the stupid partisan politics and policies.
Of course our conservative friends here in Madison have their shorts in a bunch over Land of Lakes butter changing the Indian woman on the box. Yeah you blaska. No need to worry about people going bankrupt, no testing available, a nit-wit as president, etc etc. And who is to blame for this change in packaging; us lefties of course.