The inside story of how coronavirus spread in Massachusetts - The Boston Globe.    This is an eye opening article and a must read if you want to know how MA ended up having such high numbers of cases and deaths.  Fascinating, well written piece....

No. It’s just not possible, the epidemiologist said. It had to be something else.

Kilayko didn’t know the voice on the other end of the line. But she knew the woman’s role. This on-call epidemiologist for the state Department of Public Health’s hotline was a gatekeeper. And according to the state of Massachusetts on Tuesday, March 3, the virus had scarcely arrived here. Outbreaks in China and Italy were raging, but there were just over 100 official cases dotting the US, most of them a continent away in Washington and California. There had been two sick people identified in Massachusetts, but both were infected overseas and both were quickly isolated. As far as the state was concerned, the novel coronavirus was still a faraway problem.

Kilayko’s patient was a 66-year-old grandfather from a woodsy town of 1,700 people, who had gone to church, the doctor, the grocery store, the dump, and a couple of high school basketball games. He hadn’t recently traveled to China or Italy, and hadn’t, that he knew of, had contact with anyone who was infected. Under federal guidelines, that meant he didn’t qualify for testing.

As Kilayko hung up, she was surprised to feel a flicker of relief. The epidemiologist sounded so sure. And when it came right down to it, Kilayko wanted to be wrong. As an infectious disease specialist, she knew what it would mean if her hunch was right. If Rick had the virus, the virus was probably everywhere, and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives would be lost., the novel coronavirus was still a faraway problem.

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https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/graphics/2020/05/coronavirus-tale/ - https://apps.bostonglobe.com/metro/graphics/2020/05/coronavirus-tale/  

Thank you for posting, very interesting. Couldn't get last bit but got most of it.  

Very like what happened in Italy.  37 year old cyclist in hospital for a week with pneumonia and noone thought to test as epidemiologists said unlikely to be covid19.  Meanwhile he was sent all around hospital, had lots of visitors and even when he finally went into ICU with bilateral pneumonia still none said to test.

Hindsight. 

Hzx