WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 19, 2020 13
The crisis in testing and our personal responsibility
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BY PAUL SCHINDLER
I am in self-quarantine for COVID-
19.
Is that because I know I’ve had an
exposure to the coronavirus? No, not
for certain. And that uncertainty
speaks to how crippling the current
state of this pandemic is for the way
we carry on our daily lives.
A co-worker of mine has experienced
five days of high fevers, chills,
a cough and periods of labored
breathing. He’s been exhausted but
has been so uncomfortable at times
that he’s been unable to sleep.
Thankfully, he’s feeling better
today and it looks like he’s on the
mend.
But here’s something that’s a
damning indictment on our healthcare
system and our government’s
response: He has been unable to get
tested for COVID-19.
His doctor told him he “definitely
could” have the coronavirus, but said
he can’t be tested at this time. Still,
the doctor referred him to an urgent
care center, which in turn told him to
call the New York state coronavirus
hotline. There, he was told that our
local public health resources lack
the capacity to give him a test given
the symptoms he described.
That answer was not surprising
since the city health department
last night tweeted, “Testing should
only be used for people who need to
be hospitalized for severe illnesses
like pneumonia.”
By now, we’ve all seen the reporting
on the failure of the federal government
to have emergency health
crisis preparedness in place — what
with the president’s dismantling of
that unit in the White House National
Security Council — and on the
ham-handed rollout of testing and
the continued red tape hobbling our
ability to expand its capacity. Many
other nations — some considerably
less affluent than our own — are
doing far better on this score.
The nation’s testing failure — as no
less than Dr. Anthony Fauci, director
of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, termed it to
Congress last week — puts the primary
burden for limiting the virus’
explosion onto each of us.
In a New York Times op-ed over
the weekend, Charlie Warzel wrote
compellingly about the whys and
hows of that. He pointed out that
even though millions of workers
were doing their jobs remotely from
home to avoid infection, many were
spending their evenings in restaurants
and bars. Perhaps young and/
or healthy, they may have also felt
invincible. But as Sanjat Kanjilal, of
the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
Institute’ Department of Population
Medicine, has pointed out, epidemiological
“modeling suggests that the
impact of distancing among low-risk
people is more important to decrease
transmission than its impact for
high-risk people who move around
less.”
In other words, it’s not just sick
people, old people, and others whose
health makes them particularly
vulnerable to the coronavirus that
need to avoid social contact in large
groups. Everybody has to. Because
even if you’re healthy and feel fine,
you might be carrying the virus and
spread it in large groups or might
contract it and spread it elsewhere.
That was the logic behind New
York City and other localities closing
restaurants, bars and other
entertainment venues.
But it’s not enough for us to abide
by the rules government is setting.
We need to apply them in our own
lives.
So for the time being, don’t bring
the party home. Exercise prudence
in your social interactions. Check
in on vulnerable people in your
lives. And should you become ill, be
responsible about reporting that
to those you’ve recently spent time
with.
These guidelines provide the best
route to flattening the curve on
infections across the nation. Public
health is a community effort.
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