Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #112

[BetteDavisEyes]

I tested myself just this morning. For the last several mornings I've woken up with a stuffy nose. I've been pretty sure it's just from working outside in a dusty yard (digging in dry dirt as part of a landscaping project), especially because once I blow my nose, it's no longer stuffed up until the next morning.

But I was headed to a relatively crowded event this morning, an outdoor community breakfast, and the stuffy nose seemed a bit more than yesterday. So I tested just in case. Negative. I know the tests aren't highly reliable but lacking any other symptoms I decided that was sufficient.

I'm not a physician nor do I play one on TV, but your symptoms sound like allergies. I typically have four bouts of seasonal allergies/cough variant asthma each year. I'm actually in the midst of the summer session right now - continuous runny nose, itchy watery eyes, dry cough mostly at night. My symptoms are mild and not troublesome enough to take Claritin or use Flonase, but I do use my cortico-steroidal inhaler once daily.

Are you using an OTC allergy medication? DH takes Claritin when he is going to be cutting the lawn or working outdoors because he has allergies, too. He mostly sneezes - hard enough to blow the roof off

 

[slowpoke]

We went through a case of 86 tests in 4 days this week.
One box with two tests for each member of a family, free to take at the desk.
Many people still have not stopped masking, including coworkers.
At this point, the denial of the potential is still strong. Why wouldn't you test if you think you even have a cold? That's what I don't get.

I recently recovered from a long illness (about 1.5 months) of something—likely a bad flu and not Covid. I have a bunch of home tests (some may be expired by now,though) but did not test myself.

Here are my excuses (insert sheepish look here):

I almost certainly caught whatever I had from my husband, as he was ill first several days before I started not feeling well.

He tested himself two separate occasions/days during the illness, to a negative result both times.

I felt so unwell that I didn’t feel like opening up the box and fiddling with all the steps.

I don’t work, so I don’t have to leave the house—and I didn’t.

 

[gremlin444]

I am so very tired of having long Covid. After 2 years of this, I no longer remember what it feels like to not have painful joints, no tinnitus, and no brain fog. My high schooler has it too, and my heart just breaks for him for all he's going through. And the school just doesn't get it.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Biden has COVID-19 and didn’t wear a mask. The CDC’s guidelines say he doesn’t have to.

Biden emerged bare-faced from the motorcade after he arrived at the airport in Las Vegas, where he had made several appearances, and boarded Air Force One.

www.nbcnews.com

What the CDC says​

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages people recovering from COVID-19 or any other respiratory illness to wear masks as part of an overall strategy to reduce transmission, but masks are not mandated.

The CDC recommends that people “stay home and away from others” if they’re feeling sick. They say people can resume normal activities when symptoms have started to improve and the person no longer has a fever.

The CDC describes masks as an “additional strategy” for preventing disease spread, but it generally leaves it up to individuals to decide whether to use them. It calls masks “especially helpful” when someone is sick and suggests they be used as a precaution during recovery...

What the White House says​

The White House has not responded to an emailed request for comment about why Biden chose not to wear a mask...

 

[Gemmie]

I recently recovered from a long illness (about 1.5 months) of something—likely a bad flu and not Covid. I have a bunch of home tests (some may be expired by now,though) but did not test myself.

Here are my excuses (insert sheepish look here):

I almost certainly caught whatever I had from my husband, as he was ill first several days before I started not feeling well.

He tested himself two separate occasions/days during the illness, to a negative result both times.

I felt so unwell that I didn’t feel like opening up the box and fiddling with all the steps.

I don’t work, so I don’t have to leave the house—and I didn’t.

Just curious how you came to the conclusion that you didn't have covid if you didn't test?

 

[slowpoke]

Just curious how you came to the conclusion that you didn't have covid if you didn't test?

Please don’t judge me too harshly for my faults here. I know I could have done better.

Yes, it’s an assumption on my part that it was not Covid. I’m much better than my husband is about protecting myself when we go out to the grocery store, or shopping, or wherever. I routinely don a mask, but he does not. He got ill first, and at home he is not good about protecting me from catching whatever he has. Because he tested himself and got negative results, I assumed I had what he had, and it would be negative, too.

I could be wrong and it was indeed Covid. But I did not go out in public at all, so I also don’t think I could have gotten anyone else sick.

 

[mickey2942]

I am so very tired of having long Covid. After 2 years of this, I no longer remember what it feels like to not have painful joints, no tinnitus, and no brain fog. My high schooler has it too, and my heart just breaks for him for all he's going through. And the school just doesn't get it.

I am with you on this. And I feel badly for your son. I seriously feel like I am just half awake. And I sleep so much now. I have to work, and it is exhausting. I know people say go exercise, you will feel better. Thanks. I can barely make it through a day of work. And then, I go directly to bed.

We have not been anywhere for years, I am too tired to drive anywhere. If I get time off, I want to sleep. Or catch up on yard work. No garden this year.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

why buy tests when we followed protocol and the dr never mentioned it?

I can't speak for others but for me personally, I want to know if and when I have covid, primarily because of what we are learning about Long Covid. I want to know how many times I have it as the years pass, so that I can best prepare for/avoid as much as possible any lasting disabilities, the range of possibilites of which is now astoundingly long and getting longer with each research study.

A second good reason I'd want to know for sure is to be aware of the possibility of infecting others around me during the contagious phase of the infection. Of course I'd rather not give anyone a case of the common cold either, but I would much rather risk spreading a cold than risk spreading covid.

MOO

 

[killarney rose]

We are very particular about not infecting others no matter what sickness we have. 9 days in the house, not around anyone. That’s sufficient for whatever we might have. We’ve just come to accept that Covid is a part of our lives from now on. We have to learn to live with it.