"Going on vacation? You might need to get a COVID-19 test — and that isn’t always easy" by Kay Lazar Globe Staff, July 2, 2020
Checklist for this year’s Maine vacation rental: sunscreen, bug spray, hiking boots, plenty of good books … and a required COVID-19 test?
About that last item. New Maine guidelines mandate that out-of-state visitors (except those from New Hampshire and Vermont, and now New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) quarantine for 14 days upon arrival or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test conducted no longer than 72 hours before arrival. That requirement has stymied many Massachusetts residents, who say they’ve encountered a baffling array of rules among different testing sites, making it challenging to get timely results.
Think of it as a certificate of immunity.
Never mind that the guidelines are completely unconstitutional because they restrict freedom of movement.
You go to Maine, and they will ask for YOUR PAPERZ PLEEZ!
They’re finding that many places simply won’t test people who admit they are not experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or have not been in close contact with someone who is known to be infected — the criteria to get tested under state guidelines. Those guidelines, however, give health care providers discretion to test more broadly, if they believe the situation warrants it.
The tests have been part of the experiment.
Among those recently stumped is Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. Pavlos was trying to help her brother and his family find a testing site around Boston because they wanted to bring their mother to Maine early this month.
“My brother is an attorney, and I am head of a public health association, and we couldn’t figure out how to get a test,” Pavlos said. “I think it says something about the accessibility of testing in this state if the two of us, who are pretty well resourced and very experienced doing background work — if we can’t figure it out, that means we don’t have enough access to testing.”
F**k you and your fraudulent, contaminated tests.
The apparent challenges residents have faced getting quick turnaround tests may come as a surprise in a state that has made significant strides on testing and beating back the virus.
Not at all!
Testing availability has steadily grown in Massachusetts since the start of the pandemic, with dozens of sites opening in recent weeks, and some cities and towns, including Boston, are providing testing at public health centers with fewer restrictions.
Avoid them then.
There’s even an interactive website launched by the Baker administration in May that allows residents to search among hundreds of testing sites statewide, with the information supplied directly from the companies providing the tests, but residents will find caveats from many of these places, including restrictions on testing because of limited supplies. Others require a doctor’s referral or prescreening for a test, with an additional charge. The turn-around times for results also vary greatly, from 24 hours to as many as four days.
Think I will just staycation this year and spend no money at all.
While health insurance typically covers COVID-19 testing, residents are finding that sometimes doesn’t apply if they are seeking one for vacation. Some places won’t quote a price, saying they will first try to bill the customer’s health insurance plan, and if that’s not successful, will then send a bill to the customer. Other testing sites post their fees, with each COVID-19 test costing about $160, and it’s not just people seeking a test for vacation who are running into problems, Pavlos said. “For many people who are back at work, they need access because they need to know if they have been exposed [to the virus] and might have exposed their family members,” she said.
You don't want that. They tell you or a family member they are positive and you will never see them again. Will need to be isolated and quarantined! Globe omitted that there.
One critical concern about expanding access is the supply of testing materials. An administration spokeswoman said that while there have not been major shortages as there were earlier in the pandemic, there have been an increasing number of laboratories reporting challenges in purchasing supplies to process the tests, but more testing sites are springing up. One of the newest locations is at NEW Health, a community health center in Boston’s North End. The center launched a COVID-19 testing site Tuesday that offers free tests with no requirements about symptoms or the need for a doctor’s referral. It does, however, require proof of residency in the North End.
That is when I am putting the car into reverse and going the other way, and good luck getting a table.
NEW Health’s chief executive, James Luisi, said vacations and tourism drove their decision to create as hassle-free a testing site as soon as possible.
“With restaurants opening in the North End, we are getting hundreds of tourists,” Luisi said, “and ... we are concerned about people coming back from holiday to the North End, we are concerned there could be an outbreak here.”
I wouldn't be. As the link I put above shows that the attendance is sparse, if any, and the city is engaged in shutting down social distance violators.
Yeah, trust the $elf-$erving liars testing you for accurate results, fool.
The city of Cambridge is also offering free tests, with no restrictions listed, to “anyone who lives in Cambridge,” during the month of July, according to a news release from the city’s health department, but still, many Massachusetts residents are apparently running into problems getting tested, said Sarah Diment, owner of the Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit, Maine. Diment has received dozens of cancellations, and many would-be guests cited hurdles in testing.
“Most people say it’s too expensive because their insurance company won’t cover it because they’re not sick,” she said, “and if you have two adults and two grown children, and you’re up here for three nights, you are adding a fair amount of cost to your reservation.”
One Framingham resident recently canceled after trying several testing sites and realizing it would cost her family $500 just for the tests, alone, Diment said.
Oh, I remember her from before!
So jwho does the Globe go up there with?
The hurdles in Western Massachusetts are equally challenging, said Carol and Andrew Klyman. The couple, who live in Westhampton, usually rent a house in Boothbay, Maine, in early August with some friends. The Klymans recently scoured the state’s website for options and kept running into dead ends: sites that required a person to have symptoms in order to be tested or could not promise a turn-around time within three days, as required by Maine’s rules.
The Klymans, both attorneys, said they are not the type to fudge facts about suffering symptoms of COVID-19.
“I am not that sort of person. At least not yet,” joked Andrew.
That HAS to be a JOKE!
They finally decided to book appointments at a place in Hadley that said it can take up to four days for results, but the Klymans are hoping it’s faster than that.
“It’s just very frustrating,” Andrew said. “We understand how important it is, and we want to do our bit to be good citizens, to make sure no one else gets sick and we don’t get sick, but testing should be more universally available.”
Of course, more tests allegedly means more cases, which means free-falling falling death rates -- and yet the alleged increased caseload is used as a call to lock things down even tighter.
Nice $hell game they got going, huh?
--more--"
You won't want to head toward these places, either:
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday ordered that face coverings must be worn in public across most of the state, a dramatic ramp up of the Republican's efforts to control spiking numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Abbott, who had pushed Texas' aggressive reopening of the state economy in May, had previously said the government could not order individuals to wear masks. His prior virus-related orders had undercut efforts by local governments to enforce mask requirements, but faced with dramatically rising numbers of both newly confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus and the number of patients so sick they needed to be hospitalized, Abbott changed course with the statewide mask order. The order requires “all Texans to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases, with few exceptions.”
Forget the Alamo because this cretin capitulated:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded to a question as Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, looked on during a news conference after Vice President Mike Pence met with Abbott and members of his healthcare team regarding COVID-19 at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center West Campus in Dallas, Sunday, June 28, 2020 (Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press)
You tell me what is wrong with that goddamn picture.
There are 40 or so states you will want to avoid, with North Carolina being one of them.
Good luck finding a flop:
"Airbnb announced Thursday that the short-term-rental company will no longer allow some customers younger than 25 to book entire homes located near their own address. To prevent young people from turning Airbnb listings into party houses — in which users book homes in their own area to host unauthorized guests — the company will restrict the types of bookings that younger customers with few ratings can secure. The new policy prevents guests younger than 25 and with less than three positive reviews from booking an entire home near where they live. Younger users can still book rooms within homes and hotel rooms on Airbnb, the company said, and customers with three positive reviews and no negative reviews can still rent an entire house even in their own area."
It's the under 30 crowd that is going to have to resist and save us from this madness.
The sick $ychopaths in charge want to take away their fun and freedom!
This should clear the way to go somewhere else:
"A New York state plan to redevelop the neighborhood surrounding Penn Station would clear the way for more than 14 million square feet of new offices, a massive addition of space that would accelerate the shift of Manhattan’s core toward the West side. The project would use new construction on eight sites to fund improvements to the existing Penn Station and create underground tracks and platforms to the south of the transit hub, according to a draft proposal posted online. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo first proposed the plan in January, promising to expand the Penn Station’s capacity by 40 perecent and create new development projects to finance improvements to the transit hub."
What univer$e are they living in down there?
Who is going to need any of that?
It's for after we are all gone in the wave of genocide that is coming, isn't it?
Better get on that flight to Europe fast:
"Officials on the Italian island of Sardinia are distancing themselves from a reported decision by local airport authorities to prevent a group of Americans who arrived in a private plane from going to their rented summer house due to European Union anti-coronavirus measures. Because of the number of confirmed virus cases still getting reported in the United States, the EU did not include the United States on the list of countries whose nationals were allowed to resume visiting Europe as of Wednesday. A newspaper reported that the group of about 10 people, most of them Americans and their children, as well as British and New Zealand nationals, landed at Cagliari Elmas Airport aboard a private jet from Colorado on Wednesday. The tourists were prevented from leaving the airport and kept in a waiting area, according to photographs of them posted by Sardinian media. Eventually they got back on the plane and took off for Birmingham, England, the report said."
"Officials on the Italian island of Sardinia are distancing themselves from a reported decision by local airport authorities to prevent a group of Americans who arrived in a private plane from going to their rented summer house due to European Union anticoronavirus measures. Because of the number of virus cases still being reported in the United States, the EU did not include it on the list of countries whose nationals were allowed to resume visiting Europe as of Wednesday. Sardinia’s regional tourism official, Gianni Cessa, said he went to the airport late Wednesday “out of a sense of solidarity” with the Americans. “Rules must be respected, but there needs to be some common sense,” he said in televised comments posted online Thursday by L’Unione Sarda newspaper. The newspaper said the group of about 10 people, most of them Americans and their children, as well as British and New Zealand nationals, landed at Cagliari Elmas Airport aboard a private jet from Colorado on Wednesday. The tourists were prevented from leaving the airport and kept in a waiting area, according to photographs of them posted by Sardinian media. Eventually they got back on the plane and took off for Birmingham, England, the report said."
Wow, that was either a deja vu or a dream:
"A British judge on Thursday refused to give Venezuela control of over $1 billion in gold sitting in a Bank of England vault, ruling that it is unlawful to give it to President Nicolás Maduro since Britain does not recognize him as president of the Latin American nation. Maduro has demanded the gold to help his cash-starved nation fight the coronavirus pandemic, but the central bank for the United Kingdom, whose government recognizes Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as his country’s legitimate leader, had refused to hand it over to Maduro’s socialist administration."
The le$$on learned there?
Never let the we$tern bankers hold anything for $afekeeping, for they won't give it back.
