NYC has seen PPE like engagement rings and vending machines for Brooks Brothers shirts, as well as gloves and cleaning wipes, but this new machine in Manhattan is really testing the limits.
Since January, a storefront at 225 W. 34 St. – formerly home to One Lane Bryant – has hosted two of humanity’s new vending machines from health company Wellness 4, a DIY at-home COVID instead of snacks or soda Sell tests.
For $ 149 – credit or debit card only, no cash – you can do a PCR saliva test, use it at your leisure, label it pre-printed via FedEx to one of the company’s partner labs Can match with and get your result through text. Or email in 48 hours.
“I wanted to get something done as quickly as possible,” said 24-year-old Lauren Foland of Jamaica, Queens, who flew home from a Fresno, California, funeral, with a test from the machine on Monday.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Catering Cancer Center found that, in detecting COVID-19, there is a self-collected oil Accurate as swelling of nose Administered by a health care worker.
Compared to the pharmacy drive-thrus where Folland has been tested 10 or more times during the pandemic, the machine-spread kit feels like “the most luxury way to test: you need to sit in your car Don’t.. You just go and pick up the test and do it at home, “she told the post,” not having to deal with scheduling “was a bonus.
While the FDA has not been approved, the test is among an interchange of in-house nasal and saliva collection kits available under the Emergency Use Authority (EUA) – meaning the FDA allows them “when certain statutory criteria are met” Are, in which there is no sufficient “accepted and available option. ”
Experts say DIY kits can help prevent the spread of the virus by reducing exposure to health care workers and other, potentially infected people, and reducing turnaround time.
In December, Esther Babadi, director of MSK’s Clinical Microbiology Service, said, “The use of self-collected saliva reduces health care worker risk and the need for specialized collection devices such as swabs and viral transport media.” .
Foland received the kit for free from the company, and the assistant property manager said she would not test it on her regular basis. “I would love to be able to stand [the kits] All the time, but they are quite expensive, ”she said (tests may be offered for insurance reimbursement). The machines are also subject to building hours – it is open from 8 am to 6 pm “It would be a lot easier if it was on the road,” he said.
Wellness 4 Humanity aims to install machines in other major cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Dallas. Oakland International Airport already has them, and some colleges have also recently installed COVID test-delivery vending machines, including University of California at San Diego.
While Folland stated that the experience was streamlined, she also acknowledged that it felt like a sad sign of the times.
“It’s strange that this is our life now: vending machines are not for fun things, but [for] PCR is something as scary as COVID testing, ”she said. “The ceremony makes sense, but it’s also like, ‘Wow that’s what you’re living right now.’ “
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