Our "governor" here in Arizona is Rethuglicon "Douchebag Ducey," as we anti-corruption activists prefer to call him.
Kate Gallego is the Democratic Mayor of Phoenix proper, a city surrounded by the suburban towns and gerrymandered districts of Maricopa County, which is itself largely controlled by Rethuglicon mayors and Rethuglicon state legislators.
With 4.5 million people, Maricopa County comprises half the population of the entire state of Arizona and it is America's 4th largest county by population, larger than the individual populations of 23 states.
Only Mayor Gallego has stepped up to the plate with a Covid-19 testing site. None of these asswipe Rethuglicon mayors in the suburbs have done jackshit except to parrot the stupidity spewing from Ducey's and tRump's mouth-holes.
Thus, we have only one place to try to get testing---one site to service not only the 1.7 million residents of Phoenix, but also the surrounding 2.8 million residents of the suburbs.
I have a neighbor who has a son who was symptomatic for the virus. Their whole family went to the testing site about a week and a half ago. We gave them extra cans of gasoline to take because of the stories about 8-to-12-hour waits in your car---in 110+ temperatures, mind you. Even with the extra gas, they still weren't able to make it to the front and finally left the line in the evening when they only had enough gas left to drive the half-hour back to the suburbs.
They finally took their son to the hospital, as others in the family also started getting sick. The son was able to get tested at the hospital, along with his mother, because they each had "enough" symptoms to "warrant" testing. The rest of the family were deemed "not sick enough" to dip into the hospital's precious supply of test kits. Even though both the mother and the son tested positive, the rest of the family living under the same roof still could not get tested at the hospital. Instead, the doctors told them to just assume they too have it and to act accordingly.
What, you may ask, is "acting accordingly" if you are positive for Covid-19 in Maricopa County? Well, in the case of my neighbors, neither the mother nor the son were accepted for admittance to the hospital because, even though they are positive and clearly sick, they apparently aren't on their deathbeds---yet---and the hospital is already filled to capacity with those expected to die.
The mother and son were given some steroids and the entire family was admonished to quarantine themselves for 14 days; no clear advice on what to do after this two-week "self-monitoring" period if things go from bad to worse, other than to try returning to the hospital, which will probably still be full. Oh, but they were given instructions for some breathing exercises. That's something, I guess?
Both parents in this family work. The mother told her retail employer that she was sick and had to quarantine for two weeks. Because Arizona is a "right-to-work" state (i.e., you can be fired without notice or reason), her manager did just that. He "let her go" and immediately replaced her with someone else. Because of this, the father is saying he's not telling his employer anything. He continues to go to work every day with his mask on, but remaining mum about his family's quarantine and the fact that he himself is probably asymptomatic.
Think about all of this for just a moment. The latest figures from the Phoenix testing site for those who miraculously make it to the front of the line is that nearly 1 in 4 are testing positive (24% to be exact).
We have 4.5 million people in Maricopa County. We are being told to assume that one-quarter of us are positive for Covid-19: That's over 1 million people assumed to be infected here---all living in a situation where, because there are no mandatory work shutdowns and no enforced health precautions in the workplace (like masks & distancing), anyone catching this virus or anyone too scared to go to work because their employers are incapable of acting responsibly will be fired.
This is the hellhole we reside in. This is the hell that Mayor Gallego finds herself surrounded by trying to service not only her own constituents but those of all the Rethuglicon mayors of Maricopa County who stand around laughing and thumbing their noses at her.
One can only wish that Mrs. Gallego was Governor of Arizona rather than Douchebag Ducey.
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