This past week I have endured a beyond frustrating experience with COVID-19 testing.

My Not-So-Rapid, COVID-19 Rapid Test Experience

In short, my daughters weren't feeling well last Friday, so on Saturday, I took them to get a COVID-19 rapid test at one of the testing sites set up by the CherryVale Mall. We have used this testing site before and received immediate results, but not this time. The email I was supposed to receive within an hour of taking the test Saturday, was finally received Tuesday afternoon after I made my second phone call to the lab requesting results.

I'm not going to say this particular testing site isn't "legit", but I am going to say that there are a lot of shady ones set up throughout Illinois, so beware.

Peoria Woman Rats Herself Out to Police for Doing COVID-19 Tests

When it comes to shady COVID-19 testing going on in Illinois, I just came across an article shared by the Rockford Register Star about a woman in Peoria named Erin Shanks that recently called the police and basically ratted herself out for administering COVID-19 tests to the public. No, she didn't purchase a bunch of rapid tests in an effort to help her community, but she did start working for a company she soon learned was not so legit. According to the article;

Shanks has tested 170 people in Peoria since she started working for Advocate Mobile Testing in late December. She found the job on Craigslist and it was a great opportunity for the mother of two, who had just lost her job. The company sends her the tests, which she administers at no cost to people she finds through an ad on Facebook. She gets paid $10 for every completed test kit returned to the company.

Umm, am I only the one seeing red flags in how that testing system works? The article goes on to say that Erin Shanks started to worry about the legitimacy of the company she was employed by after receiving angry comments and messages on Facebook about not receiving, or having delayed, test results. Some people were even worried that their identity may be stolen even though the testing was free. Fed up with all the blowback, Erin Shanks decided to do something about it. Shanks said;

I called the cops on myself at 10:30 last night because I couldn’t take the harassment anymore on Facebook,” said Shanks on Thursday. "I showed them all my proof, I showed them the labels I do and all the information that I have. The cop said it looked legit to her.”

The moral of this story is; answering an ad on Facebook for COVID testing is not a great idea, and secondly, do your research about the lab companies hosting testing sites before you go there and stick something up your nose...else you might be waiting days for your "rapid" test results like me.

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Keep reading to discover answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions.

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