Inherent Flaws in COVID-19 Testing Mean Some of Those Infected Don ’t Get the Treatment They Need

In late February, several weeks before the coronavirus outbreak shut down American cities and rose to the level of a national crisis, Kerri Rawson began to feel sick. “I was hit out of nowhere with what feels like the flu at first,” says Rawson, who also has asthma and takes cardiac medication for high-blood pressure. “You’re fine, and then all of a sudden you have a fever below 100°F and chest congestion.” Rawson is a 41-year-old writer and mother of two in Florida. (You may recognize her name from her 2019 memoir, about growing up as the daughter of a serial killer.) Her fever lasted for 11 days, during which time her children also developed above-normal temperatures. Her son’s fever rose to 102°F but tapered off in a few days; her daughter, however, developed a barking cough that Rawson had never heard before. A doctor diagnosed the 11-year-old with bronchitis. “That’s when my first conversation about COVID-19 started,” Rawson says. On March 6, still struggling with fever and chest congestion, she asked her family doctor whether she might have contracted the coronavirus. He was skeptical. (There were, at that point, fewer than 10 reported cases in Florida.) “He asked me questions about traveling and contact,” Rawson says. “He said, ‘Our hands are basically tied by the CDC [the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. We can’t test. Call the state health department, call th...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 feature Source Type: news