Some Thoughts on Getting Tested

Several people I know (including both coworkers and friends) have somehow managed to get tested for COVID-19. The tests have uniformly* come back negative for antibodies, indicting that they were all still quite susceptible to getting infected.

In the early days of the AIDS crisis, I lulled myself into a possibly false sense of security by telling myself the disease was so rare at the time that anyone who got sick in Arizona was going to have their name splashed all over the news…and I knew I'd never be that famous.

As the years passed with no cure in sight, and after seeing so many of my friends and lovers die—some quickly, some excruciatingly slowly—when testing for HIV started becoming readily available I made the conscious decision not to get tested. If I was going to be stricken with this horrific disease, I wanted to be diagnosed and be gone within a matter of days or weeks afterward.

I took some solace in knowing that my own sexual preferences in combination with adhering to safer sex recommendations when I strayed outside that comfort zone were probably keeping me safe, but let's be honest here…there were occasional slip-ups along the way that introduced enough doubt in my mind that when therapies started becoming available and the SF AIDS Foundation finally came out in favor of testing everyone, I marched my ass down to the Health Center and had my blood drawn.

While I'm sure pure dumb luck played a factor in it as much anything else, it was only when my HIV test came back negative that I could finally breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that what I'd been doing (or rather not doing) all those years to protect myself had actually paid off.

Although direct comparisons can't be drawn between AIDS and COVID-19, other than the US Government—under Republican leadership (surprise, surprise)—ignored the problem for far too long, there are similarities. I'm not rushing out to get tested because honestly, with no cure or vaccine available before the end of the year at the earliest, what difference will knowing actually make? Will it change my current behavior in any way? If I don't have antibodies, I'm still susceptible. If I do, at some point I was exposed, asymptomatic, and got over it. Would that mean that I could go back to my normal existence? Oh hell no. Unlike what happens with most infections, no one can yet say with any certainty that if you have the antibodies to the Corona virus you're immune to reinfection.

I mentioned all this to my colleagues yesterday during a discussion of how and when returning to work will be implemented, and added, "So if we're forced to return to the office prematurely, y'all will have to forgive me because I'm going to continue to mask and glove up until there's a tested vaccine fully in place."

Not surprisingly, everyone was in agreement.

We get it. Why doesn't the government?

*UPDATE 5/15: I learned today from one of my friends—who I just found out was very symptomatic last week—was tested this week and came back positive.