Impeachment Lawyer Daniel Goldman, Who Has Coronavirus, Tells MSNBC It Was Almost Impossible to Get a Test
Daniel Goldman, an attorney who served in the House impeachment proceeding as counsel for the Democratic side against President Donald Trump, has tested positive for coronavirus. But the process of actually getting a test, he says, was “very difficult” and “very frustrating.”
Appearing on Morning Joe, Goldman — a former MSNBC commentator — sought to dispel the notion that coronavirus tests are easy to come by.
“[T]here’s a lot of misperceptions out there that tests were readily available to anyone who wants them,” Goldman said. “That was simply not the case. I had symptoms. I had not been in contact with anyone that I knew to be positive for coronavirus. Basically, that meant I could not get tested.
“So I got tested for the flu, which has very similar symptoms, and was negative. I got a full viral panel to see if it was anything else. That was negative. And once that came back, I was told by the New York Presbyterian Hospital that I had to go home and self-quarantine because my symptoms were not bad enough to be admitted into the hospital. And unless you’re admitted, you don’t get a test.”
Goldman spoke of being given an astonishing mixed message from the hospital.
“[T]hey sent me home,” Goldman said. “But because I had no known contact with anyone with coronavirus, they told me that I needed to self-quarantine, but that the rest of my family should go on acting as if they are normal. And that anyone I had come into contact with could continue to go around and live their lives normally.”
The attorney eventually said he “wouldn’t take no for an answer,” and drove to Connecticut to get a test — which came back positive.
Goldman went on to say that the president, when it comes to the availability of coronavirus testing, has been peddling a falsehood.
“Donald Trump can keep saying that anybody who wants a test can get it,” he said. “I am living proof, right here, that that is not the case.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
