Like every other American, I have watched the coronavirus spread throughout our country––and change our lives forever.
And, just like them, I have listened while Pres. Trump has tried to convince all of us that his administration was on top of the problem from the outset, that everyone who wanted to be tested would be tested, and that the time has come for states to start thinking about rescinding the “stay-at-home” orders that allowed us to save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Now, I want to hear some truth––and I want to see some real action.
Just this week, I was personally confronted with a coronavirus-related situation that could be life-threatening to me. My situation came about when I went to a dialysis clinic for one of my thrice-a-week treatments.
Like many other health care issues, the need for dialysis is particularly high in the Black community. That’s why even though Blacks only represent 13.2% of the overall population in the U.S., they constitute more than 35% of all the patients receiving dialysis treatments because of kidney failure. Although there are different types of dialysis treatments, they all last several hours––and they all require the person being treated to report to a hemodialysis facility several times per week.
In my case, I have dialysis treatments on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays––and each treatment lasts for at least four hours. It was in one of those sessions that I saw a clinic staff member that I had not seen for several weeks.
When I asked him if the reason I hadn’t seen him recently was because he had changed his work schedule, he answered: “No, I was dealing with that corona stuff.” When I pressed him for more details, he explained that after developing several of the common symptoms of COVID-19––a dry cough, shortness of breath, and general tiredness––he had called 311 several times to see if he could get tested.
Even though his symptoms continued to worsen, each time he called he was told “No.”
Which is how he ended up in New Jersey being tested at an urgent care facility there.
In addition to charging him a $60.00 co-pay that is supposed to be waived for all such testing, the urgent care facility also told him he would have to wait a week to get his test results. So it was this man who was working at the same facility where, along with 19 other patients, I was receiving my dialysis treatment––and he still didn’t know whether or not he had COVID-19 (it had already been 10-days since he took the test).
How is it possible that people who are working in the health care industry are not being tested regularly for COVID-19? How is it possible that dialysis patients and workers are not being tested and at least prioritized? We blew it when it came to nursing homes where we knew seniors and people with underlying conditions were all in one place, dialysis clinics are where you get a triple hit, seniors, minorities and kidney failure which is an underlying condition linked to diabetes if ever there was one.
And how is it possible that it still takes more than a week for someone to get their test results?
I listen to Pres. Trump brag about getting his test results in “less than 15 minutes”––and I wonder why that type of testing is not offered in my community.
Is it because most of the residents in my community are people of color?
Are white people in New York City being tested more often––and are they getting their results faster than Black and Brown people?
Of course, they are. But how is that possible in a city whose majority population is made up of minorities? And what do we need to do to ensure that minority residents in New York City get the same type of testing that other residents get?
How can we even be discussing the possibility of re-opening the economy when we don’t know who’s had COVID-19 and who hasn’t? Wouldn’t that just be setting ourselves up for a second wave of COVID-19?
Everyone needs to be tested before we spend any more time worrying about how many baseball games the Yankees are going to play this season. Despite Pres. Trump’s continual boasting of our “great testing capability,” we have still only tested a little more than 1% of our total population.
And we need to figure out how to get test results back to people within 24-hours before we have any more discussions about re-opening our bars and restaurants.
We also need to ensure that people of color have access to the same tests as others do. Currently, no car means no test for many minority residents because they cannot access the drive-thru testing facilities.
And, lastly, we need to start testing everyone for COVID-19 rather than just those who have symptoms.
Being tested for COVID-19 should be a basic right of every American, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity or age.
TestEveryoneNOW
Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of the Black Institute.