One Family’s Story Highlights the Gross Mishandling of a Pandemic
In the heart of Washington, an example of how COVID cases in the U.S. are being under-reported and unrecognized
Eighteen days ago in Bellingham, Washington, things were still normal. 90 miles north of Seattle, our town’s slogan is The City of Subdued Excitement, and we live up to that name. At the end of February, we’d all heard of Coronavirus, but none of us had added Covid-19, shutter in-place, or PCR to our daily vocabularies. To Janet Danielson*, it was a normal Saturday.
On February 29, Janet shopped, took care of her two young children, then met up with some friends for drinks. The bar filled up like it would any Saturday night, and she went to bed content.
The day she started to feel sick, people in Seattle were starting to take notice of this new, unusual virus.
Three days later, Janet started to feel sick. She developed a fever and a wicked cough, then her husband Michael became ill as well. The day she started to feel sick, people in Seattle were starting to take notice of this new, unusual virus. A petition called for the closure of the University of Washington. Two schools were closed for deep cleaning, with the expectation of re-opening after sterilization.
But that was in Seattle. Two hours north, Bellinghamsters watched the news with no inkling that within 14 days, we’d be on the verge of full lock-down. The Danielsons’ two children became sick with what seemed like mild colds, and the younger one perked up immediately when medicated for an ear infection. Janet ended up at the doctor for her cough, and was told she likely had RSV, and left feeling better after a nebulizer treatment. There was no mention of testing for COVID-19.
Her doctor told her the cough was probably caused by the new coronavirus, but he didn’t think testing would do any good, other than getting her harassed by the local health department.
Several more days passed, and Janet’s mother, Sarah, began to develop symptoms. She went to her doctor’s office on March 12 and was told her cough was probably caused by the new coronavirus, but he didn’t think testing would do any good, other than getting her harassed by the local health department. Stay home until you feel better, she was told, and call if it gets worse or you have trouble breathing.
The next day, Sarah went back and insisted they test her. The swab was sent to a lab in Seattle for testing. Her results took four days to come back, and finally, on the 17th she got a call from her doctor. The test result, he said, was “marginal, leaning towards positive.”
The Danielsons were all confused, but Sarah’s doctor told her that because of the nature of the testing, they sometimes had a hard time getting a solid result. It wasn’t explained why this was, or how testing is actually performed, but there was mention of DNA and RNA.
Frustration was evident on both ends about how things were being handled, but in the end he told her that this was considered a positive result, that she should quarantine, and that someone from the CDC would likely be contacting her. Additionally, he communicated that her case would likely be counted in state and national totals, but that reporting was disorganized at best.
The next morning, the local Department of Health website was still showing only 5 confirmed positives in their county. Sarah decided to call the testing lab directly to question the results and reporting methods. That’s when she found out that her doctor and the lab had different opinions about what a positive result is.
Then, she found out that her doctor and the lab had different opinions about what a positive result is.
At the lab, the person she reached explained, “marginal leaning positive” is considered a negative result because it is mostly inconclusive. As such, the result would not be reported as a positive despite her doctor having told her that’s what it was.
At the same time, Michael talked to the local Department of Health. They told him that that they don’t have enough tests to test him, and that he should just stay home for 72 hours after Sarah’s last signs of fever, and wash his hands. The one hospital in Bellingham has a statement on their website informing patients that there are no tests:
There is currently a nationwide shortage of COVID-19 test kits and limited capacity of labs to analyze results. Testing is not currently available to the general public in our communities. At this time, PeaceHealth hospitals and clinics are only testing people for COVID-19 who fall into several high-risk categories. This includes those needing to be admitted to our hospitals, and those who are at highest risk of spreading the virus to others, including healthcare and public safety workers. We hope to be able to provide more testing in the future and will continue to reevaluate as testing capabilities increase across the nation.
Meanwhile, there have been over 4,000 new cases in the United States since yesterday morning and the United States just surpassed 10,000 cases. 475 people died in Italy yesterday, and with the way our infection rate is moving, that’s exactly where we’re going to be in a week.
As of now, testing for this virus is complicated. There is extraction of RNA, conversion to DNA, and detection, all done on the smallest levels. Due to shortages, labs all over the U.S. are having trouble ordering the necessary supplies. Because of this, the number of cases being reported in the media is likely a gross underestimation.
The number of cases being reported in the media is likely a gross underestimation.
Despite touting itself as one of the most advanced countries in the world, this situation has been grossly mishandled by our government. While in South Korea they’ve got drive through testing stations, we declined tests that had already been developed in favor of developing our own. When those tests had manufacturing defects, our ability to track and mitigate the spread of the virus was crippled.
Beyond that, this administration is likely directly responsible for our unprepared response to this pandemic. CNN reports:
Two years ago, the CDC stopped funding epidemic prevention activities in 39 countries, including China, after the Trump administration refused to reallocate money to a program that started during the government’s response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
At that time, former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said the move “would significantly increase the chance an epidemic will spread without our knowledge and endanger lives in our country and around the world.”
Two years later, here we are.
Like many Americans, I’ve been refreshing my newsfeed constantly, watching information morph, and trying not to let fear get the best of me. Every time I feel like I’m getting my mind wrapped around some actual information about what we need to do, and what to expect, and how much hope is reasonable to have, the rug gets pulled out from under me.
One day, there are absolutely not digestive symptoms associated with COVID-19, and the next day a study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggests that digestive symptoms were the “chief complaint” in nearly half of 200+ studied COVID-19 cases
The reason it feels like no one knows what is going on is because no one does.
Modeling from Imperial College suggests that we may need to quarantine for 18 months until a vaccine is widely available to prevent millions of deaths. I stew on this for hours, then a friend links a review of the study from the New England Complex Systems Institute which says it’s not as bad as it seems and points out issues with the modeling.
The reason it feels like no one knows what is going on is because no one does. Not our doctors, not the Health Department, not policymakers, not the President. Two days ago, I finally tipped from having a shred of optimism to just feeling scared and unsure. I’m watching people around me still not take this seriously despite living in what is likely the most infected, most under-reported region of viral spread in the country.
We all need to do better. Our government needs to buck up and get organized, and to come up with a plan that doesn’t leave millions of Americans afraid of being jobless and homeless at best, and dead at worst. The Danielsons’ story is just one out of thousands, but it’s the perfect example of what’s really happening in the system right now. And until all of the departments and moving pieces begin working together and producing a higher standard of response, it’s a story that will repeat ad infinitum.
*Names and identifying factors have been changed for privacy reasons.
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