This story was first published through Source New Mexico.
New Mexico is preparing to stop offering free, readily available diagnostic tests across the network for COVID, worrying network fitness advocates who may only seek treatment.
KUNM reports that curative PCR testing sites in the state and country will close until the end of December, ending reliable access to fast and accurate testing purposes and treatment options.
Six days later, state officials announced Thursday that “the state will provide loose home testing in the future” and work with local governments to distribute 1 million loose home tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The elimination of loose PCRs means that many New Mexicans have to go to the hotel to lose at home and will simply delay care. They wait for a quick result, they wait for a prescription, and then they wait for that prescription to be filled.
Experts have pointed out that a PCR test is the most productive way to know if you have COVID in case you have symptoms or if you have been exposed to someone who tests positive.
A PCR test takes molecules from the inner cells of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and multiplies the pattern to the point where a technician can tell what’s in the pattern, said Rafael Rubio, president of NetMedical, an Albuquerque-based medical generation company.
“So if you have a little bit of virus, it can be magnified to the point where it’s like, ‘Hey, this thing that’s developing inside you right now is SARS-CoV-2,'” Rubio said.
It is from this procedure that it gets its name: opposite transcription polymerase (PCR) chain reaction.
PCR tests detect it earlier during infection after exposure than the less sensitive antigen test, Dr. Albert Ko, Raj and Indra Nooyi, a professor of public fitness at the Yale School of Public Health, told CNN.
But on Thursday, New Mexico’s acting fitness secretary, Dr. David Scrase, said he doesn’t see PCR testing as a tool.
Scrase reported that it seems like you want to have two or 3 internal tests to get the most accurate result, and those internal tests are the most accurate 3 days after symptom onset.
The FDA recommends spacing tests at least 48 hours apart.
Paxlovid should be taken within five days of the onset of symptoms to reduce the risk of being hospitalized with COVID and to reduce the risk of having COVID in the long term.
“He’s talking about a five-day window to make pictures of what PCR could have done in a single test,” Rael said. “If the FDA says you’ve had 3 tests in five days, you may miss a window to prescribe Paxlovid. “
But Scrase said it may not be the ability of New Mexicans to get the Paxlovid remedy in time. Having a test that is 10 percent more accurate but 10 times harder to achieve is no better than a less accurate test that produces effects in 15 minutes. he said.
Scrase said most of his patients get through the entire procedure “in a day or two at most. “
“I don’t think we’re introducing a massive buildup that delays attention,” Scrase said. instead of having to take a walk and get around, or having someone help you get to a place to get a PCR test.
Curative featured two-hour PCR and one-day PCR, said Roberta Rael, director and founder of Generation Justice.
“The other people I dealt with are left saying they keep getting the antigen test, and it doesn’t work, but they’re very sick, they have all the symptoms,” Rael said. “They don’t get Paxlovid if they want it. “
There are also considerations that other people don’t know how to get a smart pattern for a house control. If you don’t get a smart pattern, you may not get a smart verification result, Rael said.
“There’s less and less education, and all the other tests I have at home and buy for people, they all have other instructions,” Rael said.
Scrase said other people deserve to read the commands conscientiously if a check requires you to dry a nose or two, and how far to put the swab in your nose. To get a good enough pattern with a house check, “you have to be awkward,” Scrase said.
After Luis Peña, a resident of northern New Mexico, began asking where to get his children tested for COVID, he petitioned state fitness officials to do more protective measures in an underserved area.
He said it’s surely the worst time to take off a layer of evidence.
“Don’t take it off in the middle of flu season,” he said. Don’t do it under the cover of vacation when everyone is entering vacation mode and off guard.
Rael asked Scrase if there were any other options for PCR testing that the public knows about and can send to loved ones when needed.
Scrase said most hospitals in New Mexico will offer PCR tests and asked the public to ask local labs like TriCore Reference Labs, Southwest Laboratories or SED Medical Laboratories.
Peña said a PCR can still be done in an urgent care unit or hospital, but the difference is that there is social distancing at the healing sites and, in some cases, they are outside.
“In opposition, you know, I have to go to the emergency room, or the emergency room, and there are a lot of other people out there, man, I might get COVID just to get tested,” he said.
Marquel Musgrave (Nambé) is the COVID technical assistance specialist for the National Aboriginal Women’s Resource Center. They rely heavily on knowledge and talk to tribal communities across the United States about the effects and truth of COVID.
“When we remove testing tools, it not only affects COVID rates, but suppresses data, which is critical for us to assess the threat and for the public the point of threat,” they said.
Musgrave urges New Mexicans to petition, advocate for access equipment like PCR testing in New Mexico and the collective fitness of their communities right now, especially when the entire state outside the county is experiencing peak transmission.
Everyone knows or has at home someone who has been in poor health with the flu, COVID or RSV, or several at once, Musgrave said.
“We don’t have a mask order yet, although the CDC has masks with this point of transmission, and we’re experiencing incredibly severe cases of RSV,” they said.
Young people did so much for the elderly at the beginning of the pandemic, they said, and are now the hardest hit.
“They actually did a lot for their grandparents and those around them, and right now we love them because they’re the hardest hit right now,” Musgrave said. “How do we protect our children?to decrease transmission?What equipment do we have? Let’s put it to smart use.
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Austin Fischer is a reporter for Source New Mexico.