I probed my nasal cavity for the new coronavirus—here’s what I found

SEATTLE—I've kept my eyes on the Seattle Coronavirus Assessment Network (SCAN) since its formation in March, in part because I desperately wanted to know whether I might've caught COVID-19. Hence, "coronavirus assessment" sounded good to me. SCAN's pilot program landed in one of the United States' earliest confirmed outbreak regions, and its pitch—hundreds of tests a day, all conducted via free take-home swabbing kits—was open to public sign-ups.

Clearly, I wasn't alone in wondering about possible COVID-19 contraction. (In my case, a seasonal burst of nagging cough and sinus-like chest tightness couldn't have come at a worse time.) SCAN's site was hounded by demand, and it typically informed visitors that a given day's tests were accounted for, please try again tomorrow.

Roughly one month after public sign-ups began, something in the supply-and-demand chain opened up widely enough for me to successfully sign up this past weekend—as a civilian, mind you, not as a member of the press requesting special access. What follows is my anecdotal experience with what remains the United States' only free take-home COVID-19 testing program—and what health officials and citizens alike can learn from it.