City-Approved COVID-19 Testing Not Reliable
In a follow up to a letter submitted to City Attorney Jeffrey Melching, Irvine resident Robin Gurien has submitted the following statement on her Facebook page. The COVID-19 testing decision will be revisited at tomorrow’s City Council meeting.
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Here is a breakdown of the concerns addressed in the above letter:
No Legal Enforceable Contract Was Provided
“Given the substantial amount of time that Councilmember Carroll himself claims to have put-in on vetting US Health Fairs, it remains a mystery why some of that time wasn’t spent drawing up a legal, enforceable contract.”
US Health Fairs Is Already Behind Providing Test Results in City of Carson
The City of Carson has been working with US Health Fairs to provide antigen testing for their 91,000 residents and they “have fallen behind on calling thousands of people” with their test results.
The City of Pico Rivera also plans to use US Health Fairs to provide testing for their residents starting May 26th. How can US Health Fairs handle an additional 343,000 residents from Pico Rivera (63,000 residents) and Irvine (280,000 residents) when they have not been able to keep up with the 91,000 in Carson?
US Health Fairs Lost Patient Files
“We also know that US Health Fairs lost registration and testing information from residents—information that included personally identifying information—and that residents had no recourse unless they provided their information to the company again.”
All companies should be able to maintain the safety and privacy of its customers and their data as one of their most basic functions. For a medical company to lose its patients’ testing information — on top of their private registration information — casts serious doubt on that company’s ability to do anything properly. It is unclear why the City of Irvine would enter into an agreement with US Health Fairs to perform such an important service. Were there simply no other vendors available?
Need Confirmation As To Who Will Be Administering These Tests
“We also know that the US Health Fairs uses self-administered tests, where the resident swabs their throat or nasal cavity themselves. Will our residents be informed those tests should be used only when someone is currently experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, lives in or recently traveled to an area with an ongoing spread of COVID-19, or has been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19? And will they be informed that the reliability of their test results is only as good as their untrained swabbing and sample-gathering skills?”
