Covid-19 Test?

[eastofeden]

So - just got my test. Anyone else get it yet?

California now has free and easy tests available so I did it. 

It was easy and fast - no wait time at all. I didn't have any symptoms but figured I should find out if I had been exposed as I am around in in crowds alot pre lockdown.

The thing up the nose is easy too. On a 1-10 scale of uncomfortableness it is only a 2/10.

Now I just have to wait til they email me the results in a few days. I am not worried - no point in worrying. If I have it - have had it or never had it is already is whatever it is or isn't.

[CellarDweller]

No, I haven't gotten it. I've not been sick at all this whole time, so I don't see a point in getting one.

[InbetweenDreams]

I haven't been tested. I haven't had any symptoms. Did have some allergies back in April but that was when pollen was on everything.

A co-worker had the antibody test and was positive, but those are also not very accurate. So who knows if he's had it and if he did then have I?

[eastofeden]

I think the reason I did it is because I don't want to wonder but I totally understand not wanting to get a test.

Some of the first people who died of AIDS in the Bay Area were friends of mine and one in particular I was very close to and I loved very much - before they even had a name for it - and I still have PTSD and grief from that and as I worked in a club I ended up knowing thousands of people who died and pretty much all of my friends died - in their 20s. I never got a test 'til the 2000s because in the 80s every time someone came back and told me they "had it" was after they got a test so I think I figured if I didn't get a test it would be better not to know if I was going to die anyway and I was totally prepared to die. I was expecting it every single day. 

When I got the test results I was negative so all those years of resigning to my fate was for nothing except for the PTSD part watching everyone around you die - no cure for that. 

..and here I am still and I am not going to make that mistake again. Having been through that nightmare already I would rather know if I have been exposed so I don't have to wonder

[Bhp91126]

Not really interested in getting tested. Not sure whether I should get the virus or the antibodies test (I had a cough in winter, but it went away with antibiotics)

[eastofeden]

I am not sure what test it was and I didn't pay attention. I figure whatever it is it will soon morph anyway and probably be a game changer and then I will get whatever new test they have I suppose. 

This round I decided to play the game. 

If I was young I would still get it because whatever they are saying now may be as much as they know now but viruses and disease make their own rules and they do evolve and mutate.  When AIDS first started and was called Karposis there were so many false narratives about how you get it and who can or can't get it doing or not doing this or that - you name it. 

With our "leader" giving false information intentionally every day and everyone saying that young people aren't at risk they are forgetting to say NOT YET because they will willingly say it will evolve and it will but giving younger people too much confidence that it won't evolve into something that may harm them is not very wise IMO. 

It is not over yet - not even close.

[Bhp91126]

I am not sure what test it was and I didn't pay attention. I figure whatever it is it will soon morph anyway and probably be a game changer and then I will get whatever new test they have I suppose. 

This round I decided to play the game. 

If I was young I would still get it because whatever they are saying now may be as much as they know now but viruses and disease make their own rules and they do evolve and mutate.  When AIDS first started and was called Karposis there were so many false narratives about how you get it and who can or can't get it doing or not doing this or that - you name it. 

With our "leader" giving false information intentionally every day and everyone saying that young people aren't at risk they are forgetting to say NOT YET because they will willingly say it will evolve and it will but giving younger people too much confidence that it won't evolve into something that may harm them is not very wise IMO. 

It is not over yet - not even close.

I Think the nose swab is for the actual virus not the antibodies.

Your stories from the early days of AIDS and all your friends passing are pretty harrowing, the insecurities regarding the illness of the early 80s always sounded like a never-ending nightmare to me. I was always glad to come out in 88 after the virus was discovered, safer sex rules established and gay people were aware of it. Don’t beat yourself up over not taking the test sooner, you’re not alone and before the first meds people were discouraged from taking it 
 

[Tjemka88]

Here in Latvia, no one will give you a free test unless there's a real suspicion you might have the virus. If you want to get it yourself, you'll be paying an awfully big amount of money. I haven't taken one. I'm healthy and the virus is seriously dropping in here anyways. If I didn't get it when it was at its peak, then I'm not worried no more.

[Emiliano]

I haven't gotten it, even though they are available here. Honestly I have barely left my apartment in the past three months out of fear of this thing. I haven't seen my family since early March, because both my mom and brother are more vulnerable to it. When i do leave my apartment, its only to the bodega half a block away from me and I'm dressed like I'm going out for a spacewalk.

I've been following covid since January because I've long had what maybe might have been considered an irrational fear of pandemics, so it was surreal and scary watching it cross the globe and then have a huge impact where I live. So even before we got the ny on pause orders, before my job was like yeah work from home, I used a few personal days just because I was too freaked out to take some hour long commute in crowded public transportation knowing this thing was coming.

As the city starts reopening and I am going to be forced at some point to leave my apartment and go out and be around other people again, then I may want to get one. Just to make sure. But I don't think that will be for a while, considering I work with kids, and I don't see schools going on field trips or hosting classroom visitors anytime soon.

So I'm fairly certain I will be able to work from home until the second wave comes to kill us all.

[InbetweenDreams]

I do think there will be a second wave coming into the Fall and Winter. I also think the places where it hasn't been a problem will be a problem. It is kind of scary. My parents, my dad in particular isn't taking it seriously. He's one of those "I'm not wearing a mask unless they make me." That is despite me buying them masks to wear, KN95 and the disposable ones that are easier to breathe out of. My mom has COPD and he smokes, so I get that masks make it hard to breathe...but so does smoking cigarettes for 20 years. It kind of pisses me off. Worried that they might get it before this is all over with.