Are you anything like me?
You cough or sneeze, and you convince yourself you have Coronavirus. I am obsessed with taking my temperature, too. It’s always normal. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I ever get a fever!
Now, what you should understand is that I have chronic allergies. I get shots every few weeks to manage them. I suffer. I’m allergic to a ton of stuff, including my dogs. No worries, Coco and Josephine, I’ll cough and sneeze forever for you!
But… I keep wondering when is it allergies and when is it Coronavirus?
The easy way to find out? Get tested. The hard part is where?
I am amazed at the number of people trying to get tested but are sent home because the testing sites run out of tests.
When Enrique and I drove back from the Florida Keys on Monday, we stopped in Miami for lunch. Across the street from the restaurant was a testing site.
At first glance, there weren’t many cars. Interesting, I thought. How has Miami managed to mitigate testing? Then, I looked again. There was a line of cars as far as I could see. I have no idea if all those people got tested. I’m sure they didn’t.
The New York Times has a story about the problem of testing in this country. You guessed it; it’s not just Florida. It’s everywhere.
When the pandemic first started, the United States had a severe testing problem. It got better for a while. Then, as states started seeing a surge in new Coronavirus cases, testing once again became an issue.
The problem? Not enough testing supplies. There is also a back up at labs. Consequently, many cities are only testing people who have symptoms. Those that don’t show signs of the virus but may still have Covid-19 are left to wonder their status and continue to circulate among the population.
A vaccine will be the ultimate way to end this pandemic. But even Dr. Anthony Fauci says the vaccine’s protection will be ‘finite.’ Until then, adequate testing is essential to keep the virus under control.
So, for now, I’ll just sneeze and cough like normal, and wonder if it’s something other than allergies.
You will have to excuse me now. I have to go take my temperature… again.
…It’s normal.