An important piece of news this week for those who may be unaware: The Biden administration has authorized a third round of free Home COVID-19 tests (8 tests) for anyone who wants them. Having received one set and ordered another for my parents, I can attest it takes all of 30 seconds to order them. Go to covid.gov/tests, type in your address and hit the green “check out” button — you’re done! No personal information is required except your name and address.
Retail stores sell these tests at prices ranging from about $10 to as much as $40 (I know, I’ve bought them), and if there’s a new variant approaching out there or a significant uptick in infections (which seems to be occurring in various regions right now), trust me, all those tests at the store will be snapped up and unavailable in a matter of days. You’ll have to drive all around just to find them. Nobody wants to deal with that! With the Memorial Day Holiday coming up and hundreds of thousands of backyard barbecues and pool parties planned, there is absolutely no better time to stock up.
The initial round of tests took weeks to arrive; according to the administration USPS is now delivering them within 48 hours, although that seems a little remarkable even to me.
From Popular Science:
Those living in multi-family, co-living, or other shared living spaces can order more than the two sets of tests as long as the USPS knows the address houses multiple unrelated families, but may be unable to if the government doesn’t know several families live there. If that happens, you can file a service request or call the USPS help desk at 1-800-ASK-USPS to try to get it fixed.
If you need help placing an order, you can call 1-800-232-0233 any day between 8 a.m. and midnight Eastern Standard Time for assistance in English, Spanish, and more than 150 other languages. There’s also a teletype (TTY) or text telephone number at 1-888-720-7489 and the aforementioned USPS help desk.
People with disabilities can call the disability information and access line at 1-888-677-1199 between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, or email DIAL@usaginganddisability.org.
Thanks to the Biden administration there are literally hundreds of millions of these tests available through the link above, right now. And the advantages of home testing are unique in that they work for Americans with every conceivable opinion about COVID-19. You may think the pandemic is completely over; the test will still work for you. You may still be masking up everywhere you go and avoiding crowds; the test will work for you, too! You may even think that the whole thing was a “hoax,” and that the one million officially dead from the virus so far were simply “crisis actors” suffering from nothing more than “the flu; ” guess what? The test still works!
As long as your tests haven’t expired, the government recommends you take them if you begin having COVID symptoms like a fever, sore throat, runny nose, or loss of taste or smell; at least five days after you are in close contact with someone who has since tested positive for COVID; or before you gather with a group, especially if that group includes people at risk of severe disease or who aren’t up to date on their vaccinations (keep in mind that you may not know who’s at risk, either).
Some perspectives on that number may assist folks in making this decision.
One million deaths is far more than the number of people who have died from AIDS in the U.S. since that pandemic began decades ago, and more than died from the 1918-1919 flu pandemic. It's about the population of San Jose, Calif., the nation's 10th largest city.
"It's one of these things where the numbers are just so large, it's hard to even wrap your head around it," says Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University epidemiologist. "It's just unfathomable to think that those are people — loved ones — who are now missing from this earth. It's really, really hard to comprehend."
It should go without saying that absent some prohibitive medical reason or advice from their doctor, anyone in this country over the age of 50 should not only be fully vaccinated with the two requisite doses, but should also have had two --not one but two — booster shots (assuming its been four months since their first booster). All medically-eligible adults and now kids age 5 and up can get at least one booster shot. These are also free and available at most reputable drug stores. You might think this seems obvious, but for a number of reasons only half of the vaccinated population has received just one of those booster shots. Boosters matter because the immune response provided by the initial vaccines wanes over time. This is particularly important for those over 65 years of age, the folks most susceptible to dying from COVID-19.
There’s no better way to keep yourself and those you care about safe from COVID-19 than testing yourself if you feel sick. As NPR reports:
The idea is that these tests can be used if someone develops symptoms, has a close exposure to someone with COVID-19 or wants to spend time indoors with someone who would be at high risk if they were to catch the coronavirus.
Most of the tests out there take about two minutes to set up, swab the inside of your nose and insert the swab into the test fluid. It takes about 15 minutes for the results to appear (as a “red line” if positive or “no red line” if negative), while you go about whatever else you’re doing during those 15 minutes. It’s about the easiest thing you can possibly do short of pressing the “like” key on your friend’s Facebook postings.
So if you haven’t yet, just get the tests. They’re free.
