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[Richard230]

As of today you can order four free home Covid testing kits paid for by the U.S. government by visiting this website. They will be shipped directly to your U.S. home address via the USPS: www.COVIDTests.gov

[TheRan]

Are you saying that before now you've had to pay for them, or just to get them shipped? The UK has handled the whole situation quite terribly and wasted a lot of money but the tests have always been free.

[Richard230]

Are you saying that before now you've had to pay for them, or just to get them shipped? The UK has handled the whole situation quite terribly and wasted a lot of money but the tests have always been free.

According to the nightly news, you would have to visit a pharmacy and pay between $30 and $60 for a home rapid test kit. (Too rich for my blood.) And apparently, they were almost always sold out of the kits. However, you could drive your car to a county testing site and wait in a long line of cars for a few hours to have your nose swabbed for free, unless they ran out of kits, staff or time. Again, according to recent TV news reports - which do tend to exaggerate somewhat. The U.S. government is only providing four kits per house address. After that you need to go buy your own again.

[ESokoloff]

Ours were ordered yesterday. 

I needed a test two weeks ago when my employer informed me that I needed to submit a negative test before reporting back to work as they said I was in “Close Contact” with a fellow employee that tested positive.   

I spent about 1/2 hr scrambling to find a test & then came to the realization that I had not come in “Close Contact” with ANYBODY but my wife pretty much since this whole ordeal started.
My employer defines “Close Contact” as being in contact at 6’ or less, for 15min or more, in a 24hr period. 
Fortunately I was able to plead my case with HR & they cleared me.

I’m wondering if these (4) tests will be delivered before this whole thing blows over?…….

[TheRan]

I've got about 40 boxes of 7 tests, could have made an absolute killing if I was able to sell them over there. A lot of employers here require (or did require) regular testing regardless of contact, usually twice a week. We had a shortage of tests recently (think it's all good now) and had to supply a friend of mine with some from my stash so she could go into work.

[Richard230]

The U.S. President just said that he was ordering another 500 million tests to be sent out to the public. That makes a total of 1 billion test kits that the U.S. Government is ordering and paying for. No wonder they are in short supply at retail stores. Especially when so many people need them due to many schools and employers wanting their students and employees to be tested a couple of times a week. That amounts to a whole lot of tests. I've got to tell you, someone is making a financial killing off of this virus situation - and it isn't most of us. 

[TheRan]

I think all the tests I've had have been Chinese made, but I'm sure whoever got the contracts to supply them to our government sold them for a lot more than they paid. Not that the people handing out the contracts cared, most went to old friends. Same goes for all the PPE supplies, the company that made the track and trace application, and most other stuff related to the pandemic where there was money to be made.

[Richard230]

I think all the tests I've had have been Chinese made, but I'm sure whoever got the contracts to supply them to our government sold them for a lot more than they paid. Not that the people handing out the contracts cared, most went to old friends. Same goes for all the PPE supplies, the company that made the track and trace application, and most other stuff related to the pandemic where there was money to be made.

Speaking of PPE supplies the county that I live in paid over $10 million for all types of PPE, including K95 masks, face shields, medical gowns, and just about everything else you can think of. They used a U.S. government grant to buy the supplies. They received over a thousand pallets of the equipment in cardboard boxes last September. They were stored inside a large building at the county fair grounds. During late September the fairgrounds had a 3-day event in the building. So they moved all of the stuff outside and stored it in a large parking lot. Then they forgot about it and it started to rain for the next couple of months. Last week a reporter discovered the piles and piles of rotting cardboard boxes containing all of the PPE and blew the whistle on their TV nightly news. The county manager said that he had no idea that the PPE was in the parking lot rotting away. The county now has volunteers sorting through the products to see what can be salvaged. Whatever is in OK condition they plan to give to non-profit groups for their use. Meanwhile the county has hired an investigation company to see who is to blame for the mess. I bet they pin the tail on the county fairgrounds manager's donkey.

[TheRan]

We also had a massive cock up with PPE, think it was stuck on a container ship or something like that. Don't know if we did ever get it but there was a big shortage due to the delay and we had actual decent people all over the country making things like face shields for the medical staff, even the design and technology department of the school I work at joined in.

[Richard230]

Last night a SF TV station was doing a news story praising the free Covid test kits being mailed to everyone by the U.S. government and they presented a short interview by a Bay Area Congressman. He said that if we all keep testing we will be able to quickly end the Covid-19 crisis and return to our normal lives.       (Oh my aching brain.)   

[ESokoloff]

Last night a SF TV station was doing a news story praising the free Covid test kits being mailed to everyone by the U.S. government and they presented a short interview by a Bay Area Congressman. He said that if we all keep testing we will be able to quickly end the Covid-19 crisis and return to our normal lives.       (Oh my aching brain.)   

I’ve been watching (nearly) daily COVID-19 updates from Dr. John Campbell & he’s claiming (likely accurate) that we are will on the path to normalcy soon…….

[Richard230]

Vaccinations should get us there, but I don't think mass testing is going to do the job.

[ESokoloff]

Per Dr John, exposure is going to get us “there”.
Vaccinations are going to lesion the (harmful) effects.

[Richard230]

Per Dr John, exposure is going to get us “there”.
Vaccinations are going to lesion the (harmful) effects.

I would say that unconformable symptoms and the harmful effects are what most people are concerned about.

[Richard230]

I received my two test kit boxes last night. Now all I have to do is to wait to become sick in order to use the kits.