Covid-19 quarantine leads to surprise medical bills for US family

Always a bit disappointing when the article forgets to mention the disturbingly low number of COVID-19 tests that have been carried out in the US.

It's under <500 since the outbreak.

For comparison South Korea tests thousands of people a day, testing is free for everyone including non-residents and they have setup drive-through locations where you don't need to go to hospital to get a test done.

> Dr. Schaffner said he had a patient come in earlier this week who had developed symptoms of an upper respiratory infection after traveling to Italy, where a cluster of coronavirus infections has been observed. He referred the patient to the state laboratory, but officials there said she could not be tested because she did not meet the C.D.C. testing criteria at the time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/fda-coronavirus-te...

And the US government had the balls to challenge China on their slow response? Gross incompetence by the CDC and the federal government.

This is why people are scared and panic buying. Zero faith in authority to provide accurate and up to date information. Zero faith that the public isn’t being lied to.

The CDC wasn’t even testing people until the last 24-48 hours. There are people from virtually every major city in the US with a story similar to this who went sent home without a test.

> The hospital has told reporters that the bill was sent in error