SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — A North Idaho woman says prescriptions being sent to her home by the United States Postal Service are delayed, despite the postal service saying there aren't any issues in the area.
"It feels like a science fiction movie," Blanchard resident Holly Holbert said.
Holbert is severely immunocompromised, as she only has one working lung. She developed an atypical form of tuberculosis 25 years ago. Her condition makes her susceptible to illnesses, such as mycobacterium avium in her lungs.
"I'm on disability," she added. "I stay home and I try to stay out of crowds."
She gets sick a lot, as she is prone to lung infections. These infections often lead to phenomena, she said.
She is exactly the person doctors do not want walking around, which is why her insurance company lets her mail order her medicines. She relies on USPS to deliver her medicines on time, but delays in service are having her worry about her health.
"And sometimes it'll say it's in there, but it doesn't come for a couple of days," she said when addressing the USPS website's notification alerts. "Now it can take five days, six days, seven days, it just depends."
These delays cause her to order everything super early, she said.
"If I go more than a day or so without taking something when I have a lung infection, it can get pretty bad," she said.
She is not the only person who is frustrated. House Democrats are asking the FBI to investigate the USPS Board over mail delays.
Slowing down the mail could relate to the agency's financial trouble, the coronavirus pandemic, but mainly the desire to affect mail-in voting for the election.
Spokane Postal Service Representative Mary Smith said that despite many viewers' claims that their packages and mail are delayed, there is no issue.
The solution for Holbert's problem is bigger than local delays.
"It's disappointing that it wouldn't be funded," she said about the financial cuts to USPS. "We need to give them the money that needs to be given to the Postal Service."