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Warriors guard Stephen Curry was with family at his mansion on the Peninsula when I started to feel a fever set in.
It was the night of March 6, and Curry was only a day removed from posting 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds in his first game back from a left hand injury that sidelined him four months. As he saw the thermometer hit 101 degrees, Curry feared the worst: Could he have the coronavirus?
The next afternoon, after receiving a test at what a team spokesman called “a local public health facility,” Curry was relieved to learn that he only had the flu. This was the first time an NBA player had been tested for COVID-19. And though few fault Curry – a leading voice on curtailing the spread of the respiratory disease – for being cautious, his ability to obtain a test so quickly underscored what many perceive as preferential treatment in the testing system.
“I had flu-like symptoms two days before the NBA shutdown, and I got a test pretty much right away,” Curry said during his March 26 conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I know there’s a conversation now about just the overall accessibility of tests, and how those are starting to roll out in different parts of the country.”
The Warriors declined to reveal exactly how Curry tracked down a kit in such short order. Though tests are still difficult to find in areas of the country, prominent personalities have acquired them with relative ease. Some have been tested without showing symptoms or having come into contact with someone known to have the virus.
Before the NBA told franchises in a memo Thursday not to arrange COVID-19 tests for asymptomatic players and staff, at least eight entire teams had been tested. Fourteen players, including Nets forward and ex-Warrior Kevin Durant, tested positive.
Shortly after news broke in March that four Brooklyn players had tested positive for the coronavirus, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, “With all due respect, an entire NBA team should NOT get tested for COVID-19 while there are critically ill patients waiting to be tested. ”
This raised questions about the league’s plans to try finishing the season. Per ESPN, the NBA expects to need roughly 15,000 tests – enough for every person associated with all 30 teams – to resume play.
It’s difficult to envision that, within the next couple of months, the U.S. will have enough kits to justify testing that many asymptomatic people. Even if the NBA can acquire the necessary number of tests to complete the season, it would risk a public-relations problem.
“Of course, there will always be people who say, ‘Everyone who needs a test should get a test,’” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, an Alameda resident who is the director of the New York-based Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives. “That’s not very specific. It’s definitely improving, but we still have room to grow there. It could be a while before we get where we want to be. ”
The Warriors have been among the NBA teams that are only testing symptomatic players.
“One of the things we learned quickly was there just aren’t enough tests, which there still aren’t. So, the decision was really pretty easy for us, ”head coach Steve Kerr explained on a Zoom call last week with Jennifer Azzi, the former Stanford guard and ex-USF women’s basketball head coach.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Curry, had he not been a celebrity or had an NBA team backing him, probably wouldn’t have been able to acquire a coronavirus test within hours of first exhibiting symptoms. When Curry was tested March 7, fewer than a thousand people had been tested for the coronavirus in California. Fewer than 10,000 test kits were available in the state.
At that time, tests were generally offered only to people who were hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms, had recently returned from a high-risk place such as China, or were in close contact with someone who had already tested positive. People with mild symptoms were being told to quarantine at home. Even health care workers, a group at high risk of contracting and spreading the virus, were having a tough time getting tested.
It’s worth noting, however, that Curry’s situation was unique – and not just because of his status as a global phenom. As the NBA confirmed when Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus on March 11, a single positive test was enough to immediately suspend play.
According to a FiveThirtyEight.com analysis that factored in the loss of ticket, merchandise and food sales and other sources of revenue, the league could lose more than $ 1 billion if it is forced to cancel the rest of the season. The Warriors would miss out on at least $ 25 million at the gate alone if they can’t play their final seven home games – a prospect that has become the expectation.
“Thankfully, my test came back negative,” Curry wrote in a Time magazine article published April 16. “But that experience hit me, and it hit me hard.”
Even if Curry’s ability to obtain a test quickly was merely a perk of his fame and wealth, few health-care professionals would have been surprised. Celebrities have received preferential treatment as long as the U.S. medical system has existed. Asked at a news conference in March whether “the well-connected go to the front of the line,” President Donald Trump said, “Perhaps that’s the story of life.”
Hollywood’s elite have personal doctors on speed dial when the world isn’t navigating a pandemic. When one arrives, A-listers don’t suddenly lose their sway. Andy Cohen, Rita Wilson, Prince Charles, Prince Albert of Monaco, Idris Elba and Kris Jenner are among the celebrities who had no problem acquiring a coronavirus test – even though some didn’t exhibit symptoms.
“Before all of this started happening, rich people or celebrities had no trouble getting an MRI if they needed it,” Shahpar said. “Whether it’s concierge medicine or those kinds of things, you can always access the proper networks or care providers if you’re connected. That’s just how it is. ”
The good news for non-celebrities: As laboratories conducting tests expanded, access to kits became easier. As of Sunday, more than 553,000 tests had been conducted in California, according to the state Department of Public Health.
“Testing has ramped up, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Shahpar said. “In terms of the efficiency of the way we use the tests in general, that’s far from optimized.”
Staff writer Erin Allday contributed to this report.
Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Con_Chron
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