Americans Ramp Up Google Searches for Covid Tests Amid Scarcity (bloomberg.com) 50
Searches for Covid-19 tests on Google are surging as the delta variant spreads in the U.S. and more employers and large-scale events require testing. From a report: The number of Americans looking up "at-home Covid test near me" on the platform has doubled in the past month, according to Google Trends, while those asking how long rapid test results take is up by 250%. In the past week, users were also more interested in searches related to tests, rather than vaccines, in most states, with Louisiana and Mississippi as exceptions. The highly contagious delta variant has kept cases high in the U.S. This is creating the need for more tests as children return to school, workplaces resume activities and consumers head back to concerts and events. This appears to have taken manufacturers by surprise after months of flagging demand. The Biden administration also recently announced plans to require either vaccination or weekly testing for companies with 100 or more employees. That comes on top of the federal-worker mandate.
Re:Nature's test (Score:4, Informative)
Given that you're already infectious a couple of days earlier, it's not exactly a useful metric.
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I think they do it twice a week in schools around here now. Having no kids, I have no idea. And being vaccinated, I have not use for it myself either, so frankly, I don't know.
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For employees at many businesses and institutions in my area the policy is daily testing if you're not vaccinated and not wearing a mask.
wow what a lot of trouble and expense (Score:3, Insightful)
In over 99 percent of cases, the folk doing this for employment could have just been vaccinated, but instead opt for this PITA. Holy crap and unbelievable.
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That may be so, but getting tested has more hurdles to cross for BIPOC and the poor in general than getting the vaccine.
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They should have gone with the Chinese recommendation to acquire the test samples rectally. Would have picked up a few percentage more of the population vaccinated.
Re:wow what a lot of trouble and expense (Score:4, Informative)
In over 99 percent of cases, the folk doing this for employment could have just been vaccinated, but instead opt for this PITA. Holy crap and unbelievable.
You're missing the point. Because Democrats, and Biden in particular, are telling people to get vaccinated [imgur.com], it's considered bullying so people aren't getting vaccinated [imgur.com] out of spite.
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oh yeah, they're really showing them. Hope they're sure to take selfie with middle finger raised while getting intubated
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Begging for vaccine... (Score:4, Interesting)
I recently took my mother to the hospital for what she thought was a heart attack (turned out she was OK).
While there I had a few minutes to just chit-chat with the ER Doctor. I asked him about COVID and how it was going. He said he had intubated a woman earlier in the morning and she was begging him for the vaccine before the did the procedure. She kept saying "I thought COVID was a scam by the liberals! I didn't know how serious it was! Just give me the vaccine!" Of course its way too late for that in her case.
He said unfortunately the majority of COVID cases he is seeing are all people who refused to get vaccinated either out of fear or for political hogwash and they are paying the price.
Sad the world we've allowed politics to create.
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Uh huh. Good story. Only 45% of African Americans are vaccinated.
I'm trying to find some thread of connection between this post and the comment that it's a reply to, but can't.
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Politics didn't create this [youtu.be].
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Covid is an intelligence test.
The woman failed it.
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Re:Begging for vaccine... (Score:4, Interesting)
https://edmonton.citynews.ca/2021/09/23/alberta-covid-party-hospital/
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Good to know that Canada has incredibly stupid people too. Makes me a little less ashamed to be an American.
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Good to know that Canada has incredibly stupid people too. Makes me a little less ashamed to be an American.
They're Albertans, full on right wing, their government declared the pandemic over the other month, no more testing, contact tracing, quarantining or other restrictions, and they believed it. Now they're being triaged as their medical system collapses. It's pretty sad.
Re:Begging for vaccine... (Score:4, Insightful)
>and then everyone clapped
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Seriously, a doctor told you, in the ED, details about another patient? The political part especially sounds like bullshit.
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Actually Plenty of Tests (Score:5, Informative)
Europe doesn't have this problem. They also don't pay as much for their tests. You can get a rapid test for $1 at a supermarket in Germany.
But the FDA hasn't approved any internationally developed rapid tests (and even the available domestic tests don't have full approval).
Maybe we should relax some of those barriers.
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But the FDA hasn't approved any internationally developed rapid tests .
Of course, how else do big pharma make big bucks out of this pandemic? Their plans for gouging the world for their vaccines was already stopped short by cheap Chinese vaccines, gouging Americans for test kits is one of the few avenues left. Where would they be if FDA allowed cheap European test kits to come in?
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Waiting for hours? Get your act together, US, the longest I ever waited to get tested was like 10 minutes.
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Me, too. Didn't even have get out of the car. (In fact, I wasn't supposed to.) Most of the 10 minutes was me filling out the forms on my phone.
Huh? (Score:2)
Delta peaked Sept. 1st at about 75% the peak of the first wave. Demand for tests should be going down. Hospitalizations are about half of what they were at the peak of the first wave too, probably due to vaccinations and the people getting infected tending to be younger and healthier (and those most vulnerable already recovered or about 5-15% of them dead).
https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info]
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Interesting)
Delta peaked Sept. 1st at about 75% the peak of the first wave. Demand for tests should be going down.
The main problem is that Covid is not the only thing that causes symptoms similar to covid. So even if it's declining, the other things that cause similar symptoms ("common cold", allergies, flu) are out there too, and they tend to pick up this time of year (school starting, fall, etc.).
For example, last week I had a mild fever, a dry cough, nasal drip, and sinus congestion. I'm vaccinated, so maybe it was a mild breakthrough case? I had to stop taking my first grader to school and isolate until I could get tested and determine I likely didn't have covid. But I clearly had "something" and needed a test to ensure I wasn't putting my family at risk.
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Were you able to find a rapid or PCR test near you? I haven't had to get tested in a long time, but I thought they're still widely available.
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I'm a veteran and got a PCR test at the VA the day after I called in. The home rapid tests are continually sold out and all the drive-through testing sites had appointments out a week later.
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I drive by a drive-thru test center between work and home. 10 minutes, no cost (to me), results in 18 hours for the PCR test (while you wait, I gather, for the antigen tests, but there's a $100 copay).
I noticed the drug store had a sign limited home tests to four per purchase. No idea if they had any in stock.
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Based on the endcap of cold remedies I saw in the drug store last week, I'd say it's "summer cold season." That's what I had (got tested as soon as I noticed the symptoms). They way 25% of common colds are caused by some variety of coronavirus, and that the vaccine for that coronavirus tends to make other varieties milder and shorter lasting. This was the mildest and quickest cold I've ever had.
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nah, cold dry weather hasn't hit yet. You just wait, plenty of unvaccinated to have 2nd wave of slaughter
Stopped Manufacturing (Score:2)
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It's not just unvaccinated getting tested (Score:2)
We messed up in the
Poor Advertising (Score:2)