desymbol: Heavily Sick Man Tries Getting Tested For Coronavirus And His Story Exposes How Unprepared The USA Is

The coronavirus has become a pandemic, but the US is having a tough time coping with the crisis. Especially when it comes to testing to see if people have the illness.

One woman from Colorado told the harrowing story about how she tried to get her 33-year-old husband, Jacob, tested for Covid-19. The chaotic situation she described shows that the US still has a way to go until its response to the health crisis is considered adequate.

The woman’s story was widely shared on the internet, with over 10.6k upvotes on Reddit and over 3.8k upvotes on Imgur. Some people were shocked at what they read and came to the conclusion that the current system has to be improved. For everyone’s sake.

One woman from Colorado (where people are panic-buying hand sanitizer) wrote about the difficulties her husband had trying to get tested for the coronavirus

Image credits: CDMJ

Apart from the bureaucratic hoops the couple had to keep jumping through, the other worrying thing is that the woman’s husband fell seriously ill despite having a very healthy lifestyle.

It’s no secret that the coronavirus testing system in the US has some glaring flaws. According to Dr. Anthony Fauci from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the system isn’t geared towards what’s needed at this point in time. There are currently over 1,300 cases of the virus in the US; it has spread to 47 states.

The BBC writes that US government officials aren’t aware of the number of people being tested for Covid-19 in the country because some tests are done in private hospitals and laboratories that haven’t reported their findings to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The idea of anybody getting it [testing] easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we’re not set up for that. I think it should be, but we’re not,” Dr. Fauci said during a congressional hearing.

Meanwhile, Republican senator James Lankford shared similar sentiments: “We’ve got a long way to go to be able to get rapid, efficient testing.” Senator Mitt Romney mirrored Lankford’s frustration: “You can’t get wipes for your countertop. You can’t get alcohol… and it’s very difficult to get tests.”