Emperor's New Clothes Or I Am Forced to Submit to Cov 19 Testing Depending on which source you read, I live in a county with either zero or two confirmed cases of the Cov, as I like to call it. But I am also in a blue state, so many people around me are afraid and wearing masks. During the midst of this panic; I discovered that I have a real health problem--a not good one, at all. So, I am now making numerous trips into the heart of our blue hothouse hell to go to the hospital. It's a three hour drive one way.  Now, prior to any medical procedure, I am required to obtain a Cov test. The hospital I go to requires that the test be taken at least 24 hours prior to a procedure, and not more than 72 hours before, and a negative result is good for 7 days only--and you still have to wear a mask. This seems a good time to disclose the following: I don't really believe in the virus but I also understand that precautions must be taken at hospitals. We are riding a tidal wave of fear that peppers the perceptions of even the most skeptic among us.  My goal then was to take this test without making the six hour long trip to the hospital, in other words, to source locally. This presented a huge number of problems. The county will test only if you present symptoms. The hospital will do it, but not on weekends. I called the hospital and they told me to call the emergency hotline. I did so on Friday afternoon at 12:30. They were closed. I called the hospital again and said the hotline is closed. The same person who had given me the number said, 'yeah, I know.'  I spent at least twenty minutes going back and forth about whether or not they would test me on a Sunday--they finally decided they would not. So I tried the county hotline and was told that they were done testing until Monday and that I could only get a test if I 'presented.' I asked if they had any information about other counties and their testing, 'no.'  Any information about anyone else testing, no. This hotline is a little cold, I said. I managed to solve my problem by cancelling both procedures and rescheduling both so that I could fit in the COV test. But I vented my frustration with the process--I think I was on the phone for three hours--to all involved. I said, if it is important enough to shut down the entire government for two months, then I should be able to access a test within a reasonable period of time. Within an hour it is clear to me that I could have designed a better system for communicating with the public. It really isn't, or shouldn't be that difficult. As I was unwinding in the garden, trying to cleanse myself of the anger the experience engendered in me, I realized something rather chilling. This is how they catch us in the net. Hospitals, which are non-government entities--can set whatever policies they deem reasonable and we the people will have no say in the matter. It may be that they decide in the end that they will require incoming patients to be vaccinated against the disease. I think this is how they get around us. I am seeing the writing on the wall.  I am starting to think that this is not going to go away. It doesn't matter what data we unearth, they have 'their' data.  Unless we can somehow completely smash them, we are going to be living in their fears, their rules.