When employees of Massachusetts biotech company Biogen were informed in late February that several among them had been diagnosed with COVID-19 after a company-wide meeting, they immediately went to hospitals for testing, but were turned away. Because of the scarce number of tests available in the U.S., doctors, upon the advice of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), were following strict protocols for who could be tested: people who had symptoms and had traveled to a country where cases were endemic, or had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive. Most of the Biogen employees didn’t have any of the symptoms of fever, cough or difficult breathing that are the hallmarks of COVID-19, but understandably wanted to know if they had been exposed.
