By Eamonn Burke
Heather Valentine, a 24 year old ICU nurse in Houston, is now in the ICU with a case of the novel coronavirus. After noticing heightened exhaustion during her shifts and later a fever and cough, she got an antibody test. She came back negative, but according to the CDC these tests can be wrong around 50% of the time. A viral test for COVID, taken the next day, also came back negative. Her doctor, however, asked her to come in for a CT scan, and based on these results he was certain that she had the illness.
Initially skeptical that she had the virus, Valentine now spreads an important message. “You never think it’s going to happen to you, but I’m a perfect example,” she said. “Take every precaution, wear a mask, don’t go out if you don’t have to, it’s not worth it.”
This comes as Texas sees one of the worst bouts of COVID-19 in the world, seeing new records in cases daily. The hospitals are overrun and running out of supplies, as are many others across the country with the recent surge of the coronavirus across the nation.
