By Dan Murphy
I purchased my first at home COVID test kit on Amazon last night (Dec. 30). It will take 7-10 days to my home. None of us in my family are experiencing any COVID symptoms but I thought it would be wise to have a 2 pack kit just in case. I bought the On-Go 2-pack for $24.99 and was happy to read that its made in the U.S.A. Most every pharmacy that I have checked are sold out.
New York City’s new Mayor Eric Adams said, “testing and vaccination. testing and vaccination, testing and vaccination,” repeating the two most important things that new yorkers need to do and know. But as one of the 85% of new yorkers who are vaccinated, I would say that its all about “testing, testing and testing.”
I say this because the 37 million Americans who have not been vaccinated will be reluctant, difficult or impossible to reach and have them agree to get the shot.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and NYC Mayor Adams continues to try and reach the unvaccinated. Hochul said that New York State has ordered 37 million COVID at home tests, which have not arrived and she gave no date when they will arrive. The State of Connecticut ordered 3 million tests a week ago and they remain stuck on the West Coast, caught in the middle of our nation’s supply chain troubles.
Gov. Hochul, who has started to feel the critcisms on her handling of COVID and testing that come with her office, spoke the truth when she said “We’re basically preparing for a January surge. We know it’s coming and we’re naive to think it won’t.”
What that January surge will mean for New Yorkers is not clear. The first hurdle will be what to do with children and students starting next Monday Jan., 3 when they are supposed to return to the classroom from the holiday recess.
Hochul has proposed a “Test to Stay” program through which at-home COVID tests are sent home with children when someone in their class tests positive. If parents administer the test to their child the next morning and it comes back negative, that student will be able to return to school, then get tested again a few days later. That is what many of those 37 million tests the state ordered will go to, with the rest going to health centers and clinics, to hand out to those who can’t afford to buy one, or to seniors who can’t get one.
Hochul is hoping that the “Test to Stay” program will roll out on Jan. 2. School districts will have the option of testing students once they return, or sending kits home. But millions of tests will be needed and soon.
“The bottom line is that our ‘Test to Stay’ program says, ‘We want children back in schools,'” said Hochul, and most New Yorkers agree.
22% of New Yorkers who are getting tested at walk in locations are testing postive. Those are the latest figures as of Dec. 30.
The blame game of who is responsible for the lack of test kits across our country has begun. NY GOP Chair Nick Langworhty said, “Kathy Hochul is failing New Yorkers on COVID testing. She is in over her head and her incompetence is on full display. People are being forced to wait for hours and hours for tests where state run sites exist.
“However, there is a lack of state run testing sites in many areas, particularly Upstate. Those state run sites that do exist are difficult to get to for most of the population that they are supposed to serve. The New York State website directs people to pharmacies that do not have appointments available until after their quarantines would be over.
“Taxpayers are resorting to spending hundreds of dollars just to get their hands on reliable and timely testing from for-profit services. At home kits are less accurate, if you can even find one.
“One must ask why we are not returning to mass testing sites in the population centers across New York. Could it be because Governor Kathy Hochul is already using the National Guard for hospital and nursing home shortages to address a crisis of her own making with her vaccine mandates, when they could be deployed to run more state testing sites?”
The negatvity from Langworthy and many republicans to Gov. Hochul may not work, as many New Yorkers just want a few test kits just in case. And if we have to hunker down for another month, so be it.
