I’m letting Sedgwick County test me for COVID-19. Should you?
I’m not feverish or coughing or congested.
I haven’t been exposed to anyone with the coronavirus — not that I know of, anyway — and haven’t traveled outside Wichita recently.
But I want to get tested for COVID-19 because I’m curious, and I have some time, and I want to help Sedgwick County officials get a better picture of this virus in our community.
On Wednesday, more than a week after my initial call to the United Way of the Plains’ 2-1-1 hotline to request a test — and after reaching out in the meantime to the HealthCore and GraceMed clinics — someone with the Sedgwick County Health Department finally called me back with great news:
I have a date with a nasal swab mid-morning Thursday, at a drive-through testing site in west Wichita.
I’m not exactly looking forward to the test. I cringed watching videos of local officials getting their swabs, and I may need to practice my yoga breathing.
But now that COVID-19 tests are widely available in the community, it’s important that more residents — even ones with no symptoms or known exposure — get tested.
Widespread testing could prevent asymptomatic people from infecting others. It also could help identify trends and give officials a more accurate picture of what percentage of the public is carrying the virus.
And that information is crucial in deciding how and when we can safely reopen schools or resume public gatherings.
So far, that level of testing has been a struggle in Wichita.
Over the past few weeks, county officials have called about 4,000 residents, trying to recruit at least 1,400 to participate in a county-wide COVID-19 study.
Only about half answered the call or returned a message, Deputy County Manager Tim Kaufman told commissioners this week. So far, fewer than 100 people have signed up to be tested.
“The message we’ve gotten out, asking people to help us understand the disease in the community, has not resonated very well, for whatever reason,” Kaufman said.
“We have not had the level of responses we had hoped for.”
Beyond that, only about two-thirds of people who sign up to be tested show up for their scheduled appointments, further reducing the overall data, Kaufman said.
Why the reluctance? Maybe people without symptoms don’t see the point. Maybe nasal swabs make them queasy. Maybe they’re paranoid about someone harvesting their DNA. Maybe they prefer blissful ignorance — no test, no virus, right?
Or maybe it reflects widespread indifference about the danger of the virus and its potential impact. Judging from the public’s disregard for even basic safety precautions, that may be the likeliest reason.
As of Wednesday, 25,666 people in Sedgwick County had been tested, and about 958 — 3.7 percent — were positive.
With some exceptions, I’ve heeded precautions: distancing, hand-washing, avoiding crowds, wearing a mask. I hope I’ve managed to avoid contracting the virus.
After Thursday’s pit stop, I’ll know for sure.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
