“It’s clear that [testing] demand greatly exceeds supply.”
Is this true? Are people that want tests unable to get them? Or do people just not want to get tested? Or did we tell people early in the pandemic that testing capacity was limited and that they shouldn’t get tested unless they’ve been exposed and people still believe that now? I suspect it’s the last.
I’ve had three tests, all paid for 100% by insurance (I think it would be $64 w/o insurance, IIRC). Turn around time on the first (early June) was three days, second (Nov) was three days, and the third (a few days ago) was a day and a half. The only thing I had to do each time was tell them that I was exposed at work, which was varyingly true. My brother gets tested every other week through work. Fiancée got tested at CVS and they didn’t even ask her that screening question. I haven’t had a single experience leading me to believe tests are in short supply.
Don’t tell my employer that. The guy in the office next to me got it (from a meeting at work) and gave it to the girl across from me. There are a total of four offices in my building. I was deemed “not to be a close contact”.
The money question to me WRT the UK strain is what it’s doing in other countries. Are other countries where the strain has been detected seeing the same rise in cases? Are they doing enough sequencing to know it even if they are?
Anecdotal, but I’ve lived in a few cities in the United States over the past few months, and testing still varies wildly:
In Los Angeles, during July and August, testing was great. I could get tested whenever I wanted, in a drive through test that never took more than 20 minutes. There were a ton of people getting tested, but the overall operation was efficient, so they were able to process a huge volume of cars (6 lanes, probably around 4 minutes per car) per day. I got tested > 5, < 15 times here.
In New York (Manhattan) things were not as easy. I’ve been able to do walk in testing at a lab, but it was a 2 hour wait. I’ve done this twice, and once left due to the wait. This is what is available to the general public. Note that I also get tested through work, and thats self service and reports are within 24 hours, but this is not available to the public. I’ve been tested >20 times for work, and only twice on my own.
In Montana, we could only get a COVID test if we were 1) prescribed one by the doctor and 2) scheduled an appointment before hand and 3) had an exposure or “reason” we were being tested.
Anecdotally I’d agree that testing demand greatly exceeds supply. A few key locations have matched their testing availability supply with the demand, but by and large the demand still exceeds it across the majority of the United States. I don’t think the public conscious still thinks of testing as in the early days (dont get tested unless you show symptoms) - most large metropolitan areas is now used to relatively frequent tests when available, and more rural places simply don’t have the same access to testing, so they don’t get tested unless they know they’ve been exposed.
Again, this is anecdotal and not grounded in facts or figures from objective sources. These are just my observations over >20 tests in the past 150 days.
Amazing how it differs by region. Here in the UK, anecdotally tests are pretty easy to come by and turned around rapidly—but are still restricted only to those with canonical COVID symptoms (fever/cough/change in sense of smell or taste).
Is this true? Are people that want tests unable to get them? Or do people just not want to get tested? Or did we tell people early in the pandemic that testing capacity was limited and that they shouldn’t get tested unless they’ve been exposed and people still believe that now? I suspect it’s the last.
I’ve had three tests, all paid for 100% by insurance (I think it would be $64 w/o insurance, IIRC). Turn around time on the first (early June) was three days, second (Nov) was three days, and the third (a few days ago) was a day and a half. The only thing I had to do each time was tell them that I was exposed at work, which was varyingly true. My brother gets tested every other week through work. Fiancée got tested at CVS and they didn’t even ask her that screening question. I haven’t had a single experience leading me to believe tests are in short supply.
Don’t tell my employer that. The guy in the office next to me got it (from a meeting at work) and gave it to the girl across from me. There are a total of four offices in my building. I was deemed “not to be a close contact”.
The money question to me WRT the UK strain is what it’s doing in other countries. Are other countries where the strain has been detected seeing the same rise in cases? Are they doing enough sequencing to know it even if they are?
Anecdotal, but I’ve lived in a few cities in the United States over the past few months, and testing still varies wildly:
In Los Angeles, during July and August, testing was great. I could get tested whenever I wanted, in a drive through test that never took more than 20 minutes. There were a ton of people getting tested, but the overall operation was efficient, so they were able to process a huge volume of cars (6 lanes, probably around 4 minutes per car) per day. I got tested > 5, < 15 times here.
In New York (Manhattan) things were not as easy. I’ve been able to do walk in testing at a lab, but it was a 2 hour wait. I’ve done this twice, and once left due to the wait. This is what is available to the general public. Note that I also get tested through work, and thats self service and reports are within 24 hours, but this is not available to the public. I’ve been tested >20 times for work, and only twice on my own.
In Montana, we could only get a COVID test if we were 1) prescribed one by the doctor and 2) scheduled an appointment before hand and 3) had an exposure or “reason” we were being tested.
Anecdotally I’d agree that testing demand greatly exceeds supply. A few key locations have matched their testing availability supply with the demand, but by and large the demand still exceeds it across the majority of the United States. I don’t think the public conscious still thinks of testing as in the early days (dont get tested unless you show symptoms) - most large metropolitan areas is now used to relatively frequent tests when available, and more rural places simply don’t have the same access to testing, so they don’t get tested unless they know they’ve been exposed.
Again, this is anecdotal and not grounded in facts or figures from objective sources. These are just my observations over >20 tests in the past 150 days.
Amazing how it differs by region. Here in the UK, anecdotally tests are pretty easy to come by and turned around rapidly—but are still restricted only to those with canonical COVID symptoms (fever/cough/change in sense of smell or taste).