This is true, but it varies greatly from municipality to municipality as many are setting guidelines for who can and should be tested. Add to this healthcare facilities own guidelines and variable lab capacities and there truly is no universal answer. Here in Philadelphia, all testing required a primary care provider referral and my PCP had been instructed by the city that only healthcare providers or people with a confirmed exposure to someone who had tested positive should be referred. Gradually this expanded to high risk (60+) and just yesterday they broadened the guidelines to anyone symptomatic, including fever. There was also drive thru testing available at a couple places where you do the swab yourself, but you needed a vehicle to go, of course, and still needed a PCP referral. Rite Aid began offering drive thru commercial testing after completing an online screener, but I wasn't able to go there because I don't have a vehicle and they said they wouldn't see me. That site had a type of DIY testing. The only reason I got tested at all was because my breathing got bad and I had to take an ambulance in to the ER. They gave me the brutal nose swab, but to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. They do jam it way in, but only for a second then they do the other nostril. I got my positive test back within a few hours.
I was all stuffy for a full day afterward, so I don't envy the fighters who have to go through it, but if Dana and the UFC are determined to go through with this, I'm glad they're at least testing. My question is what happens when someone tests positive? If a cornerman is positive and their fighter is negative, do they both get sent home assuming one may be incorrect? Once they're tested, will they be quarantined? Who are they giving the antibody test to and which version are they using (because there's vast variability of reliability in those tests in particular). I'm really hopeful that this one event doesn't end up costing anyone their health or their life.
