In a health care system that is already difficult to navigate, some patients describe Kafkaesque quests for tests.
BOSTON — First came the tickle in the throat. Then, a hacking cough. Then, a shortness of breath she had never experienced before. Hillary King, a 32-year-old consultant in Boston who lives down the street from a hotel where dozens of Biogen executives contracted the new coronavirus, decided that she had better get tested.
But getting tested is far easier said than done, even as testing slowly ramps up nationwide. Five days after President Trump announced that anyone who wants a test can get a test, Ms. King’s experience shows how difficult it can be in the United States to find out if you have the coronavirus.
Many who fear they have the virus have faced one roadblock after another as they try to get tested, according to interviews with dozens of people across the country. Continue reading.