A vaccine-injured Canadian woman from northwest Ontario and her family say they are justifiably angry, frustrated, and confused after suffering at the hands of incompetent testing agencies and a COVID-19 testing system..“We had a wonderful time and experienced ‘normal,’ again while in the US,” she said..Connie, who chose to use only her first name, travelled to Salt Lake City in the US for a business convention mid-June. The family returned from their Utah road trip and crossed the US-Canada border at the International Falls/Fort Frances crossing in northwestern Ontario..They dutifully answered all the standard questions from the border guard and were told everything was in order, including their ArriveCan app submission. The guard added, however, that Connie had been randomly selected for COVID-19 testing..That in itself came as something of a surprise to her and her husband, since this would be the third time Connie’s name had been chosen for random testing..The border guard gave Connie a test kit and explained that she had 24 hours to get online and register the test kit, take the test home and, in front of a LifeLab technician, conduct a COVID-19 test in real-time..“These tests are a huge inconvenience. This was the third time I have been randomly selected. I am fully vaccinated and have the vaccine injury diagnosis to prove it,” Connie told the Western Standard..“My PCR test was scheduled for the afternoon of June 29th. … They walk you through the test and watch you do the test collection. My test kit was missing stickers to label the test vial and to seal the bag that the vial tube goes into. The technician made me feel like an idiot. She kept saying the stickers are all in the box.”.Despite Connie’s insistence the labels were absent from the test kit’s contents, the technician argued, “Take everything out of the box again ... look on your table ... look on the floor. The stickers are there — just look!”.Exasperated, Connie followed instructions from the technician and completed the test under supervision. At the conclusion of the test, she was given a number for FedEx so she could arrange collection for the specimen..“I was to arrange pick-up the following day. I called FedEx and was told due to the July 1 holiday, my package couldn't be picked up until July 7th — it was June 29th,” she said. “The 7th seemed like a long time to wait for it to be picked up. I told FedEx that the 7th wouldn't work because I needed to be in Winnipeg, Manitoba for appointments with my respirologist and to have a chest CT scan and to do a pulmonary function test. I've had to travel into Winnipeg two to three times a month since my vaccine injury.”.Connie was diagnosed with chemically-caused multiple organ sarcoidosis. It had been suggested to Connie by her medical team that she relocate to Winnipeg, since she was having such regular appointments in the city..“After determining that the 7th [July] wouldn't work, I asked FedEx if I could drop off my test kit somewhere [else.] FedEx gave me an address that didn't seem familiar. It was a street address in Niagara Falls. I told FedEx the address wouldn't work for me to drop off,” she said..“FedEx gave me another number to call to get the address for a package drop-off. I called that number and was told to leave my test kit outside in a drop-box at the taxi station. This was on June 29th. FedEx said it would be picked up July 4th. My completed PCR test kit sat outside in the summer heat from June 29th until July 4th.”.Connie reminded the Western Standard that she was told the test was to be completed and dispatched within 24 hours of receipt. Instead, the test waited in a drop-box for five days in unsuitable conditions. Connie said she didn’t know exactly when FedEx picked up the package..On July 6, Connie was notified by telephone her test result had come back positive..“She covered a lot of information and I was having difficulty understanding [the agent] with her heavy accent. She went over some protocols [saying] that my family members in the home needed to quarantine. She said I needed to contact my husband immediately who was at work and tell him he needed to come home and quarantine,” Connie said..Connie was ordered to quarantine for five days. It meant her husband would have to take more time off work — in addition to the dozens of hours he’d already missed at work as a result of taking Connie to various medical appointments..She was told an agent from Health Canada would call to check they were obeying the quarantine protocol and to reiterate the quarantine instructions. Connie was also informed she would have to take a Day-8 test and that a test kit would be mailed to her..Connie said the COVID-positive diagnosis sent her into a bit of a tailspin. And Connie's husband, John, was also upset by the positive test result..“At this point I was feeling scared," Connie said. "I have a compromised immune system due to the prescription medications I take for my vaccine injury from the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine.”.John expressed his frustrations over Connie's result: "When I found out she was positive, the most frustrating part was them telling me I had to come home. I'm an essential worker. So I mean, to just pull me away from a job that I'm the one and only in the whole town that does the job," he said.."And I just came back from being gone for a week and a half. And here they are. They want me to take more time off. My boss is just chomping at the bit. He's like 'We got too much to do.' I mean, it was more frustration on my part.".Connie said never wanted to take the COVID-19 vaccine, but she said she was coerced. Connie said she only took it because authorities said the family would lose custody of their long-term foster child if she refused..“I was worried for my family. I was worried that my husband was at work and could be spreading the virus with those he came in contact with. I was pissed off! My family is fully vaccinated and this is our third time dealing with COVID-19!”.Connie never did receive an email with instructions on how to get her test results or further information on testing positive..During dinner that evening, Connie’s phone rang. The family let the call go to voicemail and continued with the family meal..After the meal was done, Connie called the number. It had been LifeLabs calling to let her know that they’d received her test kit and requisition form. To Connie’s surprise and consternation, LifeLabs was informing her in the voicemail that her testing collection kit had leaked out in transit and the lab had been unable to process the specimen..She was told she would need to resubmit to testing and send in another test specimen. Since Connie had already been informed by LifeLabs that her test was positive, news that the same test had been damaged in transit and therefore useless left them both completely baffled..News that Connie might not have been positive after all angered John after having lost so many workdays already and currently in quarantine for what now appeared to be a mess-up in the system..Connie called LifeLabs immediately to try and get a handle on the increasingly unfathomable and infuriating situation..During the exchange and after some standard questioning, the LifeLab agent proceeded to insist Connie must have submitted two tests — Day-1 and Day-8..“I submitted one test! She kept saying two tests, two results. One test was all I submitted. She insisted I'd sent in a Day-1 test and a Day-8 test. I haven't received a Day-8 test to submit. She asked if I'd been self-isolating away from my family. I told her we had been quarantining and following instructions. She said we needed to quarantine until this misunderstanding was resolved and I [needed] a retest.”.“At the time, in my mind I thought to myself is this for real? This is our government!,” Connie said. “She asked me for the requisition or ID number for my Day-8 test. I continued to explain that I was never sent a Day-8 test — that I had only sent in one test kit from June 29th. She said she was confused and would have to call back. I requested she email me.”.Connie and her husband were in disbelief about what was happening and explained that no one seemed to know what was going on. She had to reschedule all her Winnipeg appointments..“Was my test leaked and unable to be processed, or was it processed and positive for COVID-19? This is our government! How many others are given the wrong test results?,” Connie said..After chasing up LifeLabs several times since, via email and telephone, Connie said that no one seems any the wiser about what has been going on and what happened to Connie’s tests..John has a message for the federal government: "We've done this for well over two years, we've come to [accept] something that they consider to be a pandemic, and it's more endemic than anything else. It's time to move on from it."."Yes, people get sick from it. Yes, there may be some people that die from the flu every year. ... It's time to move on and get on with our lives instead of causing people more and more stress," he said..On Thursday, the Western Standard reported the federal government reintroduced random COVID-19 testing to resume at Canada’s airports for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers on Tuesday July 19th. The testing requirement had only been lifted for five weeks.
