Julie Zauzmer Weil, " The public library is the latest place to pick up a coronavirus test. Librarians are overwhelmed", Washington Post, Jan 18, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/18/librarians-coronavirus-tests-workers/
As public libraries in the District and across the nation have been pressed into service as coronavirus test distribution sites, librarians have become the latest front-line workers of the pandemic. Phones ring every few minutes with yet another call from someone asking about the library’s supply of free coronavirus tests, often asking medical questions library workers aren’t trained to answer. Patrons arrive in such large numbers to grab tests that the line sometimes backs up for blocks. And exhausted librarians also are getting sick with covid themselves.
“The library has always been a community center, a place where the public can get something they wouldn’t have otherwise, like free Internet,” another D.C. children’s librarian said. “But it feels like we’ve become too good at our jobs. It becomes, ‘Oh, the library can handle it.’ We’re getting more and more tasks and responsibilities that just feel overwhelming.”
COMMENT
While public libraries are an obvious location to distribute COVID tests, it's typical that nobody thought of sending over a few medical staff as well. Librarians are in no way prepared to handle suddenly becoming a public health center. yet where else is there?
