PARAMUS, N.J. – The night was cold and silent, and John Dougherty wasn’t taking any more chances. He drove slowly. When he arrived at the test site, he pulled his white Honda minivan onto the shoulder of the three-lane suburban highway. He spun the key to kill the engine. It was 2:55 a.m.
Testing wouldn’t begin for another five hours. Dougherty would wait. Almost two weeks ago, his wife got sick. They worried she had coronavirus, but the first test came back negative. They thought: Maybe it was just the flu. Dougherty kept scrubbing the house with disinfectant wipes.