Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears

[baseline bum]

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/08/829955099/federal-support-for-coronavirus-testing-sites-end-as-peak-nears

Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears
April 8, 20201:38 PM ET


Updated at 3:30 p.m. ET

Some local officials are disappointed the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this Friday. In a few places those sites will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available.

In the Philadelphia suburbs, Montgomery County has a drive-through site that has tested 250 people a day since March 21.

"It has been a very successful site. We are hoping by the time it closes Friday afternoon that we will have tested a little over 5,000 individuals," says Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, who chairs the commission in the county of more than 825,000 people.

Montgomery County has been hit hard by the pandemic. By Tuesday the county identified 1,294 positive cases and reported 32 COVID-19-related deaths.

Arkoosh says local officials staffed the site and the federal government provided much-needed testing supplies and access to a lab. "This site came with a contract with LabCorp, who accepted 250 samples from this site every day," and she says the county is not able to secure the supplies and tests on its own.

Arkoosh says the site, located on a local college campus, will shut down Friday. Similar announcements have been made in Colorado Springs, Colo., and nearby Philadelphia.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells NPR, "Many of the Community-Based Testing Sites (CBTS) are not closing, but rather transitioning to state-managed sites on or about April 10."

The agency and a spokesperson for FEMA say the CBTS program originally included 41 sites. It was intended as a stop-gap to bring testing to critical locations, especially for health care facility workers and first responders.

"The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most," the HHS spokesperson said.

But that doesn't satisfy Arkoosh in Montgomery County, who says, "I am understandably disappointed that the supplies and federal contract for lab testing is ending just as we are heading into the surge here in southeastern Pennsylvania."

Arkoosh says local hospitals do have their own testing sites set up now, but it's not yet clear if they will be able to handle the extra testing now that the federal help is being withdrawn.

[CosmicCowboy]

Got an email from Texas Med clinic about their Covid19 testing...fuck going there for anything else...who the fuck wants to sit around a waiting room for 30 minutes filling out forms with a bunch of people that think they have the boogievirus?

[boutons_deux]

"The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy

to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and

to prioritize resources where they are needed the most," the HHS spokesperson said.


:lol pandemic happy talk from political toadies, aka B U L L S H I T

[ChumpDumper]

Welp, crisis over!

https://media.tenor.com/images/c55b96731ab0c02d8b5925b33c7a4915/tenor.gif

[boutons_deux]

Got an email from Texas Med clinic about their Covid19 testing...fuck going there for anything else...who the fuck wants to sit around a waiting room for 30 minutes filling out forms with a bunch of people that think they have the boogievirus?

there are drive through testing sites, eg, Joe Freeman Coliseum

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/13/drive-through-coronavirus-testing-comes-san-antonio-texas/

[Winehole23]

Withdrawing federal assistance for testing during a pandemic: today's GOP leadership.

[Thread]

Withdrawing federal assistance for testing during a pandemic: today's GOP leadership.

Testing everyone is total nonsense. As soon as they skate back out the door at negative they're in the pool again. It'll never end.

& this thingy they're yakking about no end...test and track. That's a humdinger there. Can you imagine the millions, please, the billions that's gonna entail? Everybody driving around in a sub compact tracking Americans? And they'll ALL be making $19.50 an hour + .49 cents per mile.

Can't wait.

[DMC]

I said a week or so ago that the feds (and states) will be bringing testing online as soon as they get their's up and running. That should be seeing some daylight real soon.

[Winehole23]

I said a week or so ago that the feds (and states) will be bringing testing online as soon as they get their's up and running. That should be seeing some daylight real soon.Wish in one hand and shit in the other, be sure and tell us which fills up faster.

[picnroll]

Don’t worry Trash testing everyone that gets within a quarter mile of him. We good.

[DMC]

Wish in one hand and shit in the other, be sure and tell us which fills up faster.

If that's all I was doing then your comment might make sense.

[Winehole23]

If that's all I was doing then your comment might make sense.if there's good news, by all means share it. all you're doing right now is waving your hands at alleged, about-to-happen good news.

[Thread]

Don’t worry Trash testing everyone that gets within a quarter mile of him. We good.

& you bitched & moaned when he didn't, picky.

[picnroll]

& you bitched & moaned when he didn't, picky.

Nope. Bitched and moaned he didn’t get it.

[Thread]

Nope. Bitched and moaned he didn’t get it.

Damn ya, picky!!!

[picnroll]

Damn ya, picky!!!

Just want what’s best for the country.

[Thread]

Just want what’s best for the country.

Renounce your citizenship then, picky.

[hater]

its obvious we are moving onto herd immunity/take it on the chin

the billionaires have had enough of babysitting the sheep. some will die. billionaires have had plenty time to prepare and negotiate their bailouts. let the sheep fend off for themselves now. its time to save the economy and their billions

[hater]

my sources have told me equity investments are asking government for bailouts.

thats right equity investments is the industry that manages billionaires investments. they only cater to billionaires. my sources have told me they literally issued a memo saying “we are talking with Mnuchin to have federal government give us a break”

:lmao

todays “democratic” United States :lmao

[Winehole23]

my sources have told me equity investments are asking government for bailouts.

thats right equity investments is the industry that manages billionaires investments. they only cater to billionaires. my sources have told me they literally issued a memo saying “we are talking with Mnuchin to have federal government give us a break”

:lmao

todays “democratic” United States :lmaoWhen billionaires start losing money risk gets socialized pronto, few strings attached.

I thought investors got the big rewards because they took big risks. Is it really capitalism anymore when the public bears the risk when hedge funds (or any other private company) shit the bed?

[baseline bum]

When billionaires start losing money risk gets socialized pronto, few strings attached.

I thought investors got the big rewards because they took big risks. Is it really capitalism anymore when the public bears the risk when hedge funds (or any other private company) shit the bed?

Like Chomsky always says, nanny state for the rich, tough love and market discipline for the rest of us.

[SpursforSix]

Testing everyone is total nonsense. As soon as they skate back out the door at negative they're in the pool again. It'll never end.



It's like getting an AIDS Free certificate from a hooker that's dated December 2019.

[SpursforSix]

When billionaires start losing money risk gets socialized pronto, few strings attached.

I thought investors got the big rewards because they took big risks. Is it really capitalism anymore when the public bears the risk when hedge funds (or any other private company) shit the bed?

Billionaires have such a built in cushion that it's not relatable to anyone else. So we're all equal because everyone loses 50% of their net worth? And that's not even taking into account the hedging and tax advantages of the 1%.

[Thread]

its obvious we are moving onto herd immunity/take it on the chin

the billionaires have had enough of babysitting the sheep. some will die. billionaires have had plenty time to prepare and negotiate their bailouts. let the sheep fend off for themselves now. its time to save the economy and their billions

To me "take it on the chin" is surrendering the economic and saving the populace.

We never did. We cheat and kept and now keep a portion of the economy, not so much so we don't lose it, because it ain't enough to really count, we lost our ass, but, we did because we're fucking stubborn, we're wrong and we're wrong headed.

It was a false economic ruin. Fuck, a blind man could see that. Take care of Corona and we'd be back at 29k imminently with a lot less body bags.

We didn't even give that March lock down a minute of consideration. "No. Just cheat and we'll get back."

If we'd a sealed March, we'd be at the end, instead of the end of the beginning.

[Thread]

It's like getting an AIDS Free certificate from a hooker that's dated December 2019.

Precisely.

[hater]

To me "take it on the chin" is surrendering the economic and saving the populace.


Communist!!

[DMC]

if there's good news, by all means share it. all you're doing right now is waving your hands at alleged, about-to-happen good news.

Maybe I'm not allowed to share it.

[Thread]

Gonna be a real treat, a rich one as to how Gov't & this Media make it acceptable to test Americans who don't want to be tested.

Let us proceed...

[Winehole23]

Maybe I'm not allowed to share it.Are you a government employee or contractor?

[DMC]

Are you a government employee or contractor?

Maybe I'm not allowed to say

[Winehole23]

Maybe I'm not allowed to sayMaybe you're full of it.

What's the time frame on the ramping up? How soon, roughly?