COVID-19 Testing Delays and Government Incompetence

With these testing delays that are plaguing the country, I am left wondering what value these mass testings have.

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I was recently exposed to COVID-19. A family member with whom I had contact contracted the disease, so I entered quarantine.

The day after I had contact with her, I went to get a COVID-19 test. The testing delays are significant. I was told it would take five to seven days to get a test result.

Fortunately, it only took three. While the test results were negative, I was then told my exposure to COVID may have been too recent to elicit a positive test.

So, I went back to get another test. This time I was told that I would have to wait seven to ten days for results.

It has now been seven days, and I still have not received results. This test has, therefore, turned out to be worthless, as my quarantine time has expired anyway. Fortunately, I never had any symptoms.

With these testing delays that are plaguing the country, I am left wondering what value these mass testings have.

Seven to ten days to receive a test back on a disease that can cause death in that timeframe is worthless. Even for those for whom the disease poses no serious risk, what use is the test if the quarantine period ends before the test results return?

This whole thing has been a giant bureaucratic mess. People want to blame this or that politician, and there may be some merit in that.

But we should recognize that this is par for the course for anything run or spearheaded by the government. To think that the government will ever be able to handle something like this well—or do anything well for that matter—is just frankly naive. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge.

Why people would want a bigger government at this point, after experiencing everything we have over the last six months, is still beyond me.