Covid testing is tightening even further in New York City, perhaps as a sign of what’s next in the pandemic, judging from our experiences at the testing van we support in an undervaccinated neighborhood in Queens. City data shows that the rate of hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid is not extremely high and appears […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the tests: Texas man charged $54,000 for Covid tests at hospital emergency room
“A Dallas man was charged $54,000 for his COVID-19 tests at an emergency room in Lewisville, Texas –- a staggering fee that is not only legal, but hardly the only coronavirus test to break the bank for a time-desperate person during the pandemic,” Scott Gleeson writes for USA Today. “Travis Warner told NPR that his […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and test avoidance: Why are some people not getting tested?
Earlier this fall, the predominantly Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, N.Y., managed to drop its positive Covid test rate from 34.2% in the last week of September, to a shocking 4.2% just one month later, the Jewish-American news organization The Forward reported. According to The Forward, town leaders and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and New York Testing: Where’s the quickest test right now? — October edition
We reported back in August on how to get tested in New York City and which locations were providing fast results – and which were lagging behind. After documenting my relatively pain-free (except for that awful nasal swab, of course!) experience at Woodhull Hospital, I’ve since gotten three additional tests at that location – in addition […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and the tests: At-home tests are hard to find, and there’s some price gouging
By Jeanne Pinder and Virginia Jeffries At-home Covid tests are very hard to find. And the prices are spiraling up, despite promises by city, state and federal governments in the United States to make them available for free. New York Health + Hospitals, the New York public housing entity, is passing out free boxes of […]
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Coronavirus (Covid) and the tests: Growing use of home tests leaves health agencies in the dark about unreported cases
“When fans of the band Phish started falling ill with Covid-19 all over the country after a Halloween concert weekend in Las Vegas, public health officials were largely in the dark about what appears to have been a superspreader event,” Kathleen McLaughlin writes over at Stat. “In a Facebook post from mid-November with hundreds of […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and testing: Our vaccine van takes a primary role as a test provider
Looking back over the last year, our Covid work has taught us some really important and interesting things, culminating in our five months helping distribute vaccines an undervaccinated neighborhood in New York City. We started the year in a flurry of reporting on why people were having a hard time getting access to the new […]
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Coronavirus tests wrong: What are false negatives? Why do inaccurate tests happen?
American patients who have gone through hell and high water to get a coronavirus test may be alarmed to learn about false negatives – what happens when a patient who actually has the virus gets a negative result on a laboratory test. The rate of accuracy for nasal swab tests, the mechanism overwhelmingly used to […]
Posted inCosts, covid
Coronavirus (Covid-19) antibody tests: How do they work?
How do you tell if an antibody test is effective? Shouldn’t this be a simple process? In medical testing, it’s not always black and white, positive or negative: a test’s ability to read specific pieces of information can vary. The latest place where this becomes important is in the antibody or blood (serology) testing for […]
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Coronavirus (Covid-19) and tests: How would you go about getting a reliable antibody test?
Let’s say you want a trustworthy Covid antibody test, to establish that you have coronavirus antibodies. Where should you go? Should you avoid or disbelieve any tests or testing locations? What else should you know? Does a trustworthy test exist? Has the technology improved to the point that we can believe any of the tests? […]
