So the bloviating orange clown says Florida has a surplus of tests..
Florida DUers - is this true? What is your testing experience? I'm really curious.
This maladministration has turned me into a conspiracy theorist. I think all the surplus equipment is being stored at Merde-a-Lardo, being dispensed by Jared to places that send the biggest kickbacks.
= new reply since forum marked as read
our central Florida county's health department and, after brief questioning -- with my interjecting that I'd never had any lung problems before and was living with a 79-year-old husband -- was told I'd be called with an appointment date for a COVID test the next week. So, easy if not "warp speed." Can't guess how those not reporting symptoms are faring, but what I saw on line suggested testing was available.
By then, though, I'd been admitted to a local hospital COVID ward with symptoms of pneumonia and collapsed lung, elevated D-dimer (clot) and possible blood clot in lung. COVID and clot were both ruled out. The test mercifully was the new throat-swab type, which my heroic alien-being nurses (hidden behind both surgical and N95 masks topped with Plexiglass face shields, gowns, gloves, etc) appreciated also. The false-negative rate on the test, quoted to me by different people as running from @12-30%, wasn't reassuring, but it was supported by the doctor's observations, including that the pleuritic pains in my chest when I moved were different from the feeling of broken glass in the lungs when breathing that COVID patients were reporting.
Btw, we're still in FL because there were only 3 COVID patients, empty beds waiting for more, while back home in a north GA chicken-processing county they're expecting a major wave to peak in early June, with great concern that hospitals will be overwhelmed. The FL hospital personnel were concerned about what "opening" would cause but cautiously optimistic that it could be handled.
Fwiw, I was wearing the surgical mask I came in with whenever anyone entered my room, and when I asked if I might have a replacement (assuming it'd be pulled out of a box of many), I was told yes but they'd have to sign for one for me; no idea if that indicated husbanding low supply or just protection against Republican accusations that nurses are stealing the PPE. However, I was told that a black market has developed for the Zithromax antibiotic they brought me and it was being carefully controlled, like narcotics.
