January 4th 2022

Everett, MA

    In today’s news regarding the life of Cece… because the world revolves around me, duh!!!

    Today is the 664th day since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Today I had the idea to calculate the amount of days it’s been. “Two years” doesn’t describe it as well. I am soooo fucking sick of this. Honestly. I know no one wants to hear about any of this anymore but yeah. I don’t know. These past few days have just been sad. 

    New Year’s Day: I spike a fever. Hi 2022. I’m good. Sooooo good. And how are you? 

    My cause of sickness is unknown. I am waiting to get a COVID-19 test so that I can return to work. What ever happened to staying the fuck home until you feel better? Now it’s like, you need to go outside and drive around and talk to people to try to figure out what’s wrong with you, and you just get more sick in the process because you should be in bed resting and watching movies… But I should back up and tell the beginning of the story…

    I had no idea what I was in for… maybe I live under a rock but this testing situation is really out of control.

    Yesterday (on the 663rd day), I went to the Walgreens and I approached the one clerk working at the front registers. He was furiously spraying down the countertops, a motion that I knew well. I waited patiently for him to complete the spraying task and when he looked up at me I could see fear and weariness in his eyes behind his mask. I said I was looking for the covid at-home tests. 

    He stammered, “I’m sorry miss but we don’t have any today, maybe tomorrow or the next day.” He braced for impact. 

    I said, “Okay, thanks anyway, have a nice day.” I think he wasn’t used to this normal and polite response because he didn’t say anything back. I was still oblivious to the covid testing crisis that was going on around me. My partner went into the same Walgreens today and witnessed a customer yelling at the clerk because they didn’t have any at-home tests. 

    Panic is setting in and people are beginning to lose their nerves. 

    On my search to find a covid test my first stop was Rivergreen in Everett where Cataldo ambulance has a pop-up testing center. They opened at 7 AM. I arrive at 6AM to find a line of maybe 30-50 people already waiting outside. It’s probably 25 degrees F out. It is still dark out. The vibe is quiet, resigned frustration. All of us had the same simultaneous thought: you’ve got to be kidding me. I get out of the car and get in line. It’s almost 7 AM now and I can’t stand it any longer. I count the number of people ahead of me and estimate it will be another hour and a half, at least. And that’s if they start testing people right at 7 and it only takes 5 minutes per test. Maybe if I wasn’t sick with a fever I would’ve lasted longer. I get back in the car, muttering to myself about how ridiculous this is, and go home. 

    Later in the day I go to Physician One Urgent Care in Medford. I see a modest line outside on the sidewalk of a strip mall. Maybe 15 people tops. I decide to take my chances. I get in line but after about a half an hour I feel that something is wrong. The line had moved only 1 person and people who weren’t in the line (who had appointments, I assume) were walking right in. An hour and a half passed and I go up to the front of the line to see what’s going on inside. 

    The group at the front of the line say they have been waiting for four hours and now the clinic has told them the people waiting outside might not be seen today. It was 3PM and the clinic closes at 8PM. Tension and frustration was rising. The cold, windy air did not help. 

    I was just about ready to give up when a man comes up behind me and strikes me on the back with the palm of his hand and his arm. I jerk forward from the blow and swing around to see who hit me. His eyes are glued forward as he rushes past without a winter jacket on. A drug addict? A criminal? Who knows. I am not physically hurt but I am mentally drained. 

    “People just don’t care anymore,” someone else in line said to me, sadly. I go back to my spot in line and tell the people there what the group at the front told me: waiting for hours… not everyone in line will be seen today… The people in the line next to me are parents holding the spot for their sick children while the children wait in the car. They offer to hold my spot for me because they know I’m sick. A glimmer of hope for humanity. I say thank you but I will just try again later. Nearly in tears I run back to the car and crank the heat on high. 

    Two Medford police cruisers swing around the strip mall parking lot with their lights on. I wonder about the commotion. I drive around to where the line is and I see the police cars parked and two officers on the sidewalk at the front of the line. One of the people at the front of the line gesturing to the police with her gloved fingers, “Four, four hours.” I don’t know who called the police but it was clear that no one was happy. What was taking so long inside the clinic? I remembered one of the people in line told me each walk-in was required to see a doctor before getting tested. Plus there were probably other patients inside that had different needs. Plus they were probably short-staffed. The frustration was electric in the freezing air. 

    “This isn’t right. This isn’t fair,” they cried out to the police officers. But what could the police officers do about it? 

    It was true. Nothing about this felt right. Why haven’t we come up with a better solution than waiting in the winter cold? It felt dehumanizing to wait out in the cold like that like a bunch of cattle. 

   A huge step backwards. 

    I check back at the Rivergreen location around 4PM. The line looks to be about a half a mile long. Hundreds of people. 

    I pull into another testing center in Lynn and there’s a police officer at the front. He asks if I have an appointment. Since when are police officers the acting secretaries of outdoor medical testing centers? He stood outside in the cold, too. 

    I said, “No.” 

    He said, “You will need an appointment. You can exit this way.” 

    I said, “Okay.”

    That morning I heard that this location did not have appointments. They must have changed it. 

    Disclaimer, I’m not saying people shouldn’t get tested but like, we all need to relax, its more important to take care of yourself than to get tested. If you feel sick stay the fuck in your home. Why do you have to prove what kind of sickness you have? So that we can have data on what percentage of people have covid? You’re more likely to spread your illness if you leave your house and go wait in the cold with hundreds of other people. Like????????? I’m no doctor but what the fuck guys?????????? Isn’t the priority health and safety??? Not collecting the most accurate data of how many cases we have????? Remember at the beginning of the pandemic when we all just stayed home before we had tests widely available? We can just treat it as if we don’t have tests widely available.. because we actually don’t… because there’s a shortage. thank u bye.