How I discovered Washington D.C. is woefully unprepared for COVID-19

I didn't plan on personally finding out how unprepared Washington DC is for COVID-19, but here's how I spent an entire day navigating the city's health departments trying to find out if I was infected.

As a journalist covering the spread of the coronavirus, I knew to keep my hands away from my face, be extra cautious while taking public transportation and to keep my hands clean. Yet, during a Sunday trip to New York City to visit an old friend who was in town, I caught something. On Wednesday morning, I was shivering at work and things started to go downhill fast. I reached out to my friend who said he was also feeling quite ill.

At the behest of a co-worker, I bought a thermometer. I went to bed with a temperature of about 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) and spent the next day sweating in bed. I maxed out at more than 39 degrees Celsius (103 Fahrenheit) and realized I might actually have COVID-19.

Here's what I did next.

Friday morning, I began my quest to find out if I had been infected.

After a short conversation with my boss and our Human Resources department, I was given a list of numbers to call. I started with 311, the city's information hotline (don't call them, they can't help) then the nearby urgent care clinic (the assistant flat out told me not to come) and hospitals (no answer). I spent over an hour on the phone. Finally, I found the all-important hotline: The DC Health Department's Emergency Preparedness Epidemiology Department. There I was told that the newest guidelines are:

1. Your Primary Care Physician (PCP) 2is your first point of contact. If you feel you might be infected, go see them and they will evaluate you. If they feel you need to be tested for coronavirus, they will contact the DC Health Department and will be told how to collect a sample and where to send it in.

2. There is no test for patients who think they might have COVID-19. That's right, there isn't any place a person can go to get tested at the time I was checking, and I am not aware of any changes to this process.

3. If your PCP decides you may have COVID-19, they just pass along the sample to the DC Health Department's Epidemiology Department, who will conduct the test and get in touch with the patient with the results. When I asked how long the results take, I was told there's no way to know at this time.

I didn't have a PCP, so after triple checking with the Health Department that any urgent care can assess me and take a sample, I headed off to a nearby health clinic.

It was an awful experience.

I arrived at 1:21 PM. I was wearing an N95 mask, and I admit I probably looked like a hot mess, but I was there because I was sick, and I didn't expect to get yelled at. I went to the counter and began telling the receptionist that the Health Department instructed me to come by because I felt I could be infected with the coronavirus. As soon as the last words left my mouth, the two women put on their masks and began telling me how they don't do testing for coronavirus and that the Health Department's guidelines are for me to go to a hospital.

I tried to explain that I know they don't test, but whenever I began to speak I was interrupted and their voices got louder and louder. Eventually, they called a manager who was even ruder and essentially told me there's nothing they can do. I was shocked at the total disregard for basic healthcare practices, not to mention that the manager was telling me the opposite of the health department while quoting the health department.

I then went to the hospital.

The viral test was the most painful of all the exams. It consisted of ramming a long plastic q-tip down my sinus and getting a sample of mucous.

I presented myself at the emergency room at 1:56 pm and after telling them my travel history, symptoms and general info, I was asked nicely to have a seat in an area not close to others and at 2:33 pm, I was taken to the emergency department and put in an isolation room. Now, the room was bare and a bit dirty, but at least they were seeing me.

At 2:52 pm, a doctor came in dressed in full protective gear. She went over all my symptoms again, took my temp and told me I was at high risk and they would run some tests.

A nurse came in to take blood, urine and give me the most horrible virus test I've ever had. It consisted of jamming an 8-inch long plastic cotton swab into my left nostril. Then the nurse hooked me up to a nebulizer which vaporized medicine into a mist that I breathed in. It helped the coughing a lot.

Then I waited.

The doctor told me the virus test is for influenza, and the blood and urine tests would indicate signs of infection.

Why are they testing for influenza? Well, according to the doctor, if a patient has the flu then there is a low likelihood the patient has COVID-19 as well. I could have one or the other, but probably not both.

At 6 pm, the test results began to come back in. The blood was clear, no sign of major infections. The urine was okay, too. Lastly, the virus test came back at 6:13 pm.

I tested positive for influenza-b.

I had a very bad flu, but no indication that there is anything else. My doctor contacted the Health Department and they concluded that I don't need a COVID-19 test.

Since then I have greatly improved, and I am back to work from home for the time being.