Scheduling a COVID Test in the Hudson Valley is a Nightmare

The COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, not better.

Like many people, I had a potential COVID-19 exposure. And in the current climate, anything that is potential is considered an exposure. So here I am, quarantined. I found out on Sunday, December 13, that I may have been exposed and have been quarantined since. So the first thing I do is obviously make an appointment to get tested.

Well, I thought it would be the first thing I'd do. I tried to make an appointment at various locations throughout the Hudson Valley. The soonest appointment I could get? Wednesday, December 17. I was willing to drive all the way to Westchester to get a test on Monday, but nothing was open. Why is getting a test so impossible to do? I talked to multiple people who said variations of "Oh if you go on this place's website at midnight, they release appointments then!"

We're in a pandemic. Yes, a PANDEMIC. People shouldn't have to be racing to get the next COVID-19 test as soon as a lab opens a spot. I remember doing that for grocery delivery in the spring, I didn't think this is how testing would be. Aren't we boasting that we're testing more? If so, shouldn't getting a test be accessible? This is not against healthcare or frontline workers by any means, it's against people setting up the systems for testing. This is against our local officials who have shut down county-run testing sites. We should be testing more. Getting a test should be easily done. I shouldn't have to wait three days to get tested.

I know this doesn't apply to all test sites, but for the location I went to I also had to be pre-screened. I sat in a virtual waiting room for nearly an hour. What kind of dystopian hell do we live in where even a telehealth appointment makes me sit in a waiting room for a ridiculous amount of time?

The healthcare workers are true heroes and deserve no ill-treatment. The people in charge of these testing companies, however, need to get it together. I'm lucky I wasn't having symptoms and have so far tested negative. For people who actually are sick, and actually have exposed others, I hope they don't