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Personal Foul: NFL Officials Allowed To Skip COVID Testing Line In Manhattan
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 20, 2021
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Jake Offenhartz/Gothamist
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Dec 20, 2021
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Employees of the NFL were allowed to skip the line at a COVID testing site listed as a state-partnered facility on Monday, a facility employee and league spokesperson confirmed, sparking outrage among the 100 or so people huddled in the cold who said they’d spent hours queued up for pre-scheduled appointments.
Outside the BioReference testing facility in East Midtown, complaints of unfair treatment rang out from a line that stretched along a full block of Lexington Avenue and wrapped around 52nd Street. The incident came as New Yorkers throughout the city have flocked to testing facilities as the omicron and delta variants have sent new COVID cases skyrocketing ahead of the holidays.
People in line said they paid $100 for the promise of a PCR test appointment with a result that BioReference claims on its site would come back in under an hour. Instead, several people told WNYC/Gothamist they were forced to wait for up to three hours ahead of their scheduled time slots, as about half a dozen NFL employees were seen marching to the front of the line.
“We're miserable and freezing cold,” said Robin Spigel, a Manhattan resident who made an appointment on Monday with BioReference to get her daughter a test, after she was exposed by a classmate. “It's a state program with priority for the NFL, and who knows who else, with no explanation. It's pretty hard to understand.”
An employee at the facility confirmed that they were instructed to give priority to employees of the professional football league.
“They get seen first, there's nothing I can do about that,” the employee told WNYC/Gothamist, requesting anonymity to protect their employment. “When they come, they come, they get seen and that's it.”
In an emailed statement, Brian McCarthy, a spokesperson for the NFL, said five members of the football operations department received expedited tests “in anticipation of working closely together in the office at the league headquarters for tonight’s double header.” New York officials are often called on to review tape of contested plays and turnovers.
He said the NFL has a contract with BioReference to test players and club personnel.
BioReference is also listed as a partner of the NY Forward Rapid Test Program, a state-run initiative launched by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to expand rapid testing sites. A spokesperson for the state’s Empire State Development Corporation said the site had a six-month contract with the state that has since expired.
But decals on the front windows of the facility also include multiple references to the partnership, and the company is the first partner named on the NY Forward website which, as of Monday afternoon, was directing people to BioReference to schedule an appointment.
The company, which did not respond to a request for comment, charges $39.95 for its antigen tests and $99 for rapid PCR tests.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was unaware of the specifics around the site but said it was inappropriate for anyone to skip the line.
“We are going to ensure that we get the message out to any of the providers of this that there is no skipping of line, I don't care what your job is,” Hochul said during a press conference Wednesday. “That's inappropriate and I don't want anyone to be discouraged when they're waiting in lines. I thank the people who are getting tested. They're doing the right thing. We want to make sure that everyone is treated equally in the process."
Nearly two years into the pandemic, health officials at all levels of government are once again struggling to provide fast, low-cost testing options. As positive cases have spiked to historic highs in recent days, at-home test kits have disappeared from shelves and lengthy waits for in-person swabs have once again returned.
Regardless of its affiliation, people waiting in line Monday were none too pleased at being cut in line after waiting for hours.
"The fact that the NFL is being allowed to have first priority over paying customers is just outrageous," said Valerie Miller, a Harlem resident trying to get an appointment before seeing her family in North Carolina. "We've all been out here for at least two hours.”
Another man, Chad Coronato, said he’d attempted to stop one of the men from cutting, only to be told: "I don't have to wait in line." He noted that the facility supervisors were not permitting more than three people to step inside the testing site, a rule that did not seem to apply to NFL employees who were whisked through the process.
Toward the back of the line, a man who gave his name only as Bruno D. said he and his family would likely miss their flight back to Belgium because of the unexpected wait for the required PCR test.
"It's not really as organized as I'd foreseen," he said. "When you get tested [in Belgium], it's very reliable. It's not chaos."
Jon Campbell contributed reporting.
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COVID-19
testing
midtown
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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