4 ms·

Complete waste of taxpayer money to line the pockets of big pharma.

nikolay 3y ago
Hug disservice to Americans as the false negatives actually are fueling a new wave! So many people around me are with COVID-19 and it's not symptomless "thanks" to the new variants. Yet, PCR tests now don't seem to be covered by insurance... unless you have HMO, I guess.
- agensaequivocum 3y ago
  Why for goodness sakes would I ever take a COVID test again much less because I have the sniffles. It's a contagious disease much like the flu. It's part of life, the vast majority of people get over it, and it will probably always be with us now.
  - nikolay 3y ago
    Why? Because it's not the flu! You don't have to die immediately from COVID-19 - you can die 2-3 years later from a heart attack, a stroke, kidney failure, and God knows what else. SARS-CoV-2 infects cells in various organs and tissues unlike the influenza virus. It damages your immune system, which could lead to cancer, autoimmune disease, and so on. There's no long-flu, but there's long covid, which is affecting more and more people. I have long covid and it's no joke - massive hair loss, palpitations up to several per minute, poor sleep, headaches, etc. I had no symptoms when I had covid back in April. In fact, I did a few PCR and antibody tests, and they were all negative, but I caught I had it when I did a antibody tests for the entire family. Then I realize what those problems were caused by! 99.9% of people do no test, do no do antibody tests, and worse of all - do not care. Suddenly they say "oh, I suddenly got a heart problem." Yeah, suddenly. Not! Every reinfection accumulates damage. Again and again, this is not the flu and stop comparing it only because it has respiratory symptoms! Many, many, many other diseases have flu-like symptoms! It's the long-term damage that's important, not if you die immediately or not!
KorematsuFredt 3y ago
USPS has mailed me countless tests and I have thrown them in dustbin. Not sure why taxpayer money is being wasted on this crap. As long as tests are available at reasonable price in the market, only poor people should be getting them from government and even there relying on local city administration is ideal. This USPS business looks like scam to me.
- ipython 3y ago
  I don't understand, I thought you had to take initiative to order them? At least that's what I've done... I've never received them unprompted.
  - LeafItAlone 3y ago
    I, too, have never received them unprompted. And, at least in my experience, they don’t eventually send them unprompted, because I never requested them and never received them, as I had another source.
  - KorematsuFredt 3y ago
    I never wanted this tests and never requested them, in fact I have no idea how to tell USPS to send me those. It is possible that is a simple form ? Good chance that either someone entered my address incrorrectly or local USPS has some target they need to meet.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- seattle_spring 3y ago
  > countless Maximum allotment was 4 > USPS has mailed me countless tests You only received them by explicitly filling out and submitting a request form.
  - KorematsuFredt 3y ago
    > Maximum allotment was 4 I have lost the count already because it is not worth my mental cycles to actually wont them. This is 4 tests one time or several boxes 4 times ? > You only received them by explicitly filling out and submitting a request form. Never did such a thing. In fact HN is the first time I am finding out such form exists.

Hug disservice to Americans as the false negatives actually are fueling a new wave! So many people around me are with COVID-19 and it's not symptomless "thanks" to the new variants. Yet, PCR tests now don't seem to be covered by insurance... unless you have HMO, I guess.

agensaequivocum 3y ago
Why for goodness sakes would I ever take a COVID test again much less because I have the sniffles. It's a contagious disease much like the flu. It's part of life, the vast majority of people get over it, and it will probably always be with us now.
- nikolay 3y ago
  Why? Because it's not the flu! You don't have to die immediately from COVID-19 - you can die 2-3 years later from a heart attack, a stroke, kidney failure, and God knows what else. SARS-CoV-2 infects cells in various organs and tissues unlike the influenza virus. It damages your immune system, which could lead to cancer, autoimmune disease, and so on. There's no long-flu, but there's long covid, which is affecting more and more people. I have long covid and it's no joke - massive hair loss, palpitations up to several per minute, poor sleep, headaches, etc. I had no symptoms when I had covid back in April. In fact, I did a few PCR and antibody tests, and they were all negative, but I caught I had it when I did a antibody tests for the entire family. Then I realize what those problems were caused by! 99.9% of people do no test, do no do antibody tests, and worse of all - do not care. Suddenly they say "oh, I suddenly got a heart problem." Yeah, suddenly. Not! Every reinfection accumulates damage. Again and again, this is not the flu and stop comparing it only because it has respiratory symptoms! Many, many, many other diseases have flu-like symptoms! It's the long-term damage that's important, not if you die immediately or not!

KorematsuFredt 3y ago

USPS has mailed me countless tests and I have thrown them in dustbin. Not sure why taxpayer money is being wasted on this crap. As long as tests are available at reasonable price in the market, only poor people should be getting them from government and even there relying on local city administration is ideal. This USPS business looks like scam to me.

ipython 3y ago
I don't understand, I thought you had to take initiative to order them? At least that's what I've done... I've never received them unprompted.
- LeafItAlone 3y ago
  I, too, have never received them unprompted. And, at least in my experience, they don’t eventually send them unprompted, because I never requested them and never received them, as I had another source.
- KorematsuFredt 3y ago
  I never wanted this tests and never requested them, in fact I have no idea how to tell USPS to send me those. It is possible that is a simple form ? Good chance that either someone entered my address incrorrectly or local USPS has some target they need to meet.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
seattle_spring 3y ago
> countless Maximum allotment was 4 > USPS has mailed me countless tests You only received them by explicitly filling out and submitting a request form.
- KorematsuFredt 3y ago
  > Maximum allotment was 4 I have lost the count already because it is not worth my mental cycles to actually wont them. This is 4 tests one time or several boxes 4 times ? > You only received them by explicitly filling out and submitting a request form. Never did such a thing. In fact HN is the first time I am finding out such form exists.