“Two negative COVID tests. Doctors are convinced though that it is COVID so they did a third test,” she wrote on social media. The third test came back positive for coronavirus.
Broadway star Nick Cordero, who has tested positive for coronavirus, is continuing to fight for his life in the hospital.
The second of these above is the headline from an article in People Magazine as posted by MSN news. The first being a direct quote from his wife, Amanda Kloots.
Nick is struggling with a major health crisis and I’m hoping for a recovery … I really am. It’s not looking good. His family does not need to be going through this. According to the writer, Maria Pasquini, the original concern was pneumonia and respiratory distress – Nick had been sick for a while but doctors were still confirming the cause of his health crisis.
Two tests came back negative for Covid. Ok. They had to do a third? Why not be ok with pneumonia and keep trying – as they were – to save Nick’s life? There is no cure for Covid anyway, right? What was the point … if not to pad the numbers in favor of +1 to the coronavirus column?
All that aside, Nick was diagnosed positive – eventually. I do understand this. Again, I wish this wasn’t so. He’s a talented person and needs to be on stage, not fighting for his life.
Here’s my concern. It seems suspicious to me – with a shortage of tests in our country to begin with – that a team of doctors were, maybe, urged to get the diagnosis of Covid. Struck me as odd, that’s all. Maybe nothing to it. Hope not, but if even “some” hospitals are biased toward this type of over-testing to achieve pre-determined outcome, we may not be getting the whole picture.
How many tests? How many times are doctors, over the past weeks / months being pushed to do more tests to make sure there’s a diagnosis of Covid without checking the box? For the safety of all, I guess we need to know who has what … again, I guess. There are smarter minds than mine working over midnight candles, scratching theorems into weeks old data-filled tablets.
There must be respiratory distress problems still going on in our country? These didn’t stop just because a bat-disease flew its way into our collective lungs. Pulmonary diseases, heart problems, cancers, diabetes, … all the, sorry to say, “normal” “ughs” that everyday humans have to push through can develop into breathing problems. I grant testing once for Covid in the midst of this pandemic. “Maybe” twice if the situation warrants it … but three times?
Did we do this for the average seasonal flu? SARS? Swine Flu? Yes, I know we don’t have a natural immunity to this and no vaccine. An unkown and tricky bugger this Covid is. I will still Social Distance – try my level best to remain patient and calm. As with any virus, I want my loved ones, and all of society to be safe and healthy to the best of our ability … simply because I don’t know what I don’t know.
The numbers are still way below any viral flu in the past. Credit given to whatever or whoever. I’m slow to give credit or blame to anyone due to facts flying around like rabid bats from far away lands.
I’ll also be extraordinarily sensitive to anyone, anywhere who lost a loved one to this virus. It’s relentless and horrible to those susceptible to its nastiness.
Doctors are doing a marvelous job. I want them by my side. This is not an indictment of their job saving lives or heroic efforts on the front lines of this crazy, god-awful battle. It’s the system they work under. Test once. If it comes back negative, keep going with the absolute best treatment available. We need some controls here. Maybe twice if the situation warrants it. Again, I’m as close to being a doctor as I am a 7-foot professional basketball player, so take my Spalding and dunk it over my non-qualified, so-un-medical head.
Still, over-testing to achieve a biased result could be happening more than we know. Nick’s case is probably not unique. I have no facts to support my claim. It’s just a hunch.
Before you throw me under that approaching bus, remember who’s driving the bus: it’s a system having the same hunches, but is allowed to keep re-testing until they find what they’re looking for.
Until all of us are tested, this isn’t going away anytime soon, anyway.
DougHugs 