Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #112

[OnlyS]

Thanks @Gemmie and @OnlyS -- I have a friend who is having some of these issues, among others (some from pre-COVID but some more recent). She has had COVID at least once but doesn't take precautions so who knows how many times she has actually had it. I'll send her that article and hope she shows her doctors -- she's been being treated for BPPV and has had mixed results. I'll encourage her to ask the docs about vestibular neuritis since that seems to be more common in that study

I would be interested to hear the feedback. I have had the Epley Manoeuvre which ‘cured’ it the first time and I do the home version to check for it and have used it this time.
Epley

 

[killarney rose]

Good information but this makes me wonder a few things. Mostly how and what they were looking for (and if their tests even looked for what the scientists look for), especially since you had a documented case of Covid.

Were they looking for the correct thing(s)? If however they were testing your blood, were they testing specifically for anti-S antibodies or anti-nucleocapsid antibodies (anti-N for short). I'm thinking likely not. Did you ask?

No. Because I didn’t know to ask. It was Life South and I figured they knew what they were doing. They are a large company that gathers blood donations in this region. I was perplexed but it’s nothing to dwell on as far as I’m concerned.

 

[Gemmie]

After I had a documented case of Covid, as well as a Covid vaccine, I gave blood. A while later I gave plasma. I asked if I had the Covid antibodies. They checked the records from when I gave blood. I had no antibodies.

As I suspected, they do not test for Covid, or specifically, anti-nucleocapsid antibodies (anti-N for short), which appears to be the only way to determine whether or not you've had a previous infection. So, when I ask a question like "do I have Covid antibodies?" and are told "No" after checking my records... my next question would be "Is covid even tested for?". My guess is the answer most likely would have been "I don't know" or "I don't see it on the list of infectious diseases we check for". I never stop at a no if it feels like a maybe. lol

Anti-S antibodies are created by both the COVID-19 vaccines and from previous COVID-19 infection. However, anti-N antibodies only come from previous COVID-19 infection.

Where I got the above info (to keep things together):

How Common are Asymptomatic COVID-19 Infections

www.bridgeportct.gov

What all the Red Cross actually tests for:

Infectious Disease Testing

www.redcrossblood.org

 

[killarney rose]

Oh well.i suppose they are more concerned with what donors will pass on to recipients than whether they’ve had Covid. At any rate, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t let the possibility that I could catch Covid dictate what I do anymore. We have to live with it and I won’t live in fear of it to the point I stay shut away in my home. I have a friend that does this. She lets the fear of possibly catching Covid dictate every trip she makes from her home. She turns down a lot of activities and caught Covid anyway.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

No. Because I didn’t know to ask. It was Life South and I figured they knew what they were doing. They are a large company that gathers blood donations in this region. I was perplexed but it’s nothing to dwell on as far as I’m concerned.

DH is a regular blood donor (into his 19th gallon) and recalls specific blood tests during the early days of Covid. The results were "reactionary" meaning that he had been vaccinated. They no longer do the Covid screening when he donates blood quarterly.

 

[Sundog]

COVID-19 Antibody Testing​

This test may be right for you if:​

• You have never been diagnosed with COVID-19 and want to know if you have been previously exposed to the virus.

(edited by me to just show this bulleted item)

COVID-19 Antibody Testing | Labcorp

Labcorp offers two convenient ways to get antibody tested to find out if you’ve had COVID-19. You can request a test through our site or visit your doctor.

www.labcorp.com

 

[Sundog]

Can Taking a Test Now Tell You if You’ve Already Had COVID-19?

The Scientist asks Brigham and Women’s Hospital infectious disease specialist Lindsey Baden about testing for prior infections.

www.the-scientist.com

If I'm reading this correctly, then it may be difficult to determine if a person who has been vaccinated for Covid-19 can be tested accurately to find out if s/he has had a covid-19 infection in the past. It may be hard to get an accurate result.

Also, this article is from 2022, and it's possible that serology testing for covid-19 antibodies has made some progress since then.


Thanks to Gemmie for helping us figure all of this out.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Oh well.i suppose they are more concerned with what donors will pass on to recipients than whether they’ve had Covid. At any rate, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t let the possibility that I could catch Covid dictate what I do anymore. We have to live with it and I won’t live in fear of it to the point I stay shut away in my home. I have a friend that does this. She lets the fear of possibly catching Covid dictate every trip she makes from her home. She turns down a lot of activities and caught Covid anyway.

DH and I had a discussion about this last weekend. The brochure for a local professional theatre arrived, and DH said, "Are we ever going to go to the theatre, opera, ballet, symphony, or sporting event ever again?" These were activities that have been part of our lives forever, and due to Covid, we no longer consider attending any of them. I haven't even been to the local mall since the pandemic and do most of my shopping online. We cancelled our winter cruise this year because Covid was still prevalent on many ships. We've avoided many entertainment experiences that previously brought joy to our lives. We used to go to entertainment/sports venues or restaurants in downtown Detroit fairly regularly but haven't been downtown since that start of the pandemic. We've put many travel plans on the back burner because we don't want to fly to foreign places and be exposed to Covid and/or other diseases. While we are both in good health, we're not spring chickens (DH will be 76 in early October, I'll turn 75 next January) and hope to stay healthy for many more years. That said, it's probably not a good idea to deprive ourselves of the very things that brought us together in the first place and brought joy to our lives. JMO

 

[Gemmie]

Can Taking a Test Now Tell You if You’ve Already Had COVID-19?

The Scientist asks Brigham and Women’s Hospital infectious disease specialist Lindsey Baden about testing for prior infections.

www.the-scientist.com

If I'm reading this correctly, then it may be difficult to determine if a person who has been vaccinated for Covid-19 can be tested accurately to find out if s/he has had a covid-19 infection in the past. It may be hard to get an accurate result.

Also, this article is from 2022, and it's possible that serology testing for covid-19 antibodies has made some progress since then.


Thanks to Gemmie for helping us figure all of this out.

Great find on that article, @Sundog! Some things that stood out to me:

• An immune response to the nucleoprotein can only be from exposure to the virus. That isn’t true everywhere in the world, because there are parts of the world that use inactivated COVID vaccines, which have the whole virus. There, some of the nucleoprotein may be present and therefore stimulate that immune response.
  • Gemmie's note - Sounds like here in the states we'd have a more accurate results if we were tested for anti-N antibodies as our vaccines aren't made using inactived/killed Covid.
• So we are in the process of learning how well these serological tests behave, given that we’ve only been dealing with SARS-CoV-2 for two and a half years. There’s no way for us to know if the immune responses last for three years because we haven’t dealt with the virus that long.
  • Gemmie's note - I find the last sentence very interesting because it applies to a LOT of what we don't know about Covid because there hasn't really been that much time since the start of the pandemic. For instance, long Covid. Also what multiple infections will do to our bodies, whether they were asymptomatic or they knocked you off your feet for days/weeks. That's the part that's especially worrisome to me because of what it will do to our medical system (unable to get an appointment for a LONG time even for NON-Covid related illnesses due to potentially how many people now with issues that were caused by multiple cases of Covid).
  • If people become seriously ill down the road from what Covid did to their bodies... how will they be able to continue to work to keep an (expensive) roof over their heads, and afford food and utilities? Could they add to the homeless problem that's already way too big IMO? Will they drain SS with all the disability $$ they might receive?
• One of the other issues is understanding the biology of this immune response. Are there factors that can alter it, such as prior vaccination and then infection? Does that change the way in which the immune response [is] elicited?

 

[Sundog]

DH and I had a discussion about this last weekend. The brochure for a local professional theatre arrived, and DH said, "Are we ever going to go to the theatre, opera, ballet, symphony, or sporting event ever again?" These were activities that have been part of our lives forever, and due to Covid, we no longer consider attending any of them. I haven't even been to the local mall since the pandemic and do most of my shopping online. We cancelled our winter cruise this year because Covid was still prevalent on many ships. We've avoided many entertainment experiences that previously brought joy to our lives. We used to go to entertainment/sports venues or restaurants in downtown Detroit fairly regularly but haven't been downtown since that start of the pandemic. We've put many travel plans on the back burner because we don't want to fly to foreign places and be exposed to Covid and/or other diseases. While we are both in good health, we're not spring chickens (DH will be 76 in early October, I'll turn 75 next January) and hope to stay healthy for many more years. That said, it's probably not a good idea to deprive ourselves of the very things that brought us together in the first place and brought joy to our lives. JMO

It's the same for us, and I see the toll that isolating from Covid has taken on our lives, and know that we have to make some changes. We need to return, in some way, to the things we used to do that brought such joy into our lives.

 

[killarney rose]

There is no way I’d go on a cruise ship. They are floating Petri dishes. And I’d feel that way if Covid didn’t exist. I know several people that have taken summer cruises this year and they all came home with some type of respiratory illness. Could’ve been Covid. I doubt they tested.

We have slowly worked our way back into our normal activities. Starting with a vacation we took in ‘21 that we had put off from ‘20. We traveled Rt 66 from Oklahoma to Arizona with a side trip to CO to visit a friend. We stayed in vintage motels. We do most everything we did before 2020. But I do mostly grocery pick ups and order a lot online. I started from necessity but found I prefer it.

DH is 78 and I’m 67. We are both in good health.

 

[gremlin444]

Oh well.i suppose they are more concerned with what donors will pass on to recipients than whether they’ve had Covid. At any rate, it doesn’t bother me, I don’t let the possibility that I could catch Covid dictate what I do anymore. We have to live with it and I won’t live in fear of it to the point I stay shut away in my home. I have a friend that does this. She lets the fear of possibly catching Covid dictate every trip she makes from her home. She turns down a lot of activities and caught Covid anyway.

I'm 52. I've had Covid twice, both times brought home by my high schooler who took off his mask to eat lunch at school. I've had long Covid since the first bout, so 2 1/2 years now. My high schooler has had it 3 times and has had worsening long Covid each time. He missed 3/4 of his junior year last year because of it. He had an 8 out of 10 headache every day for 4 months starting with his last bout of Covid. I have no idea how he's going to get through his senior year with Post Exertional Malaise, inflamed rib cartilage, major memory issues, etc. I used to teach private lessons in sign language...now I teach 1 a week, and I only still have that client because she's very understanding about rescheduling last minute if the inflammation in my hand joints is bad enough to prevent me from bending my fingers and she masks for me.

All members of my family mask everywhere we go. Period--grocery store, empty waiting room while my kid is in a therapy session, etc. If a worker needs to come into our house, we mask up and explain and go on with it. No clue if we are getting funny looks--none of us care at this point.

My family doesn't live in fear--we live in practicality. I can't afford to have the all over joint pain get worse or the brain fog get to the point where I can't drive. My son can't risk getting sick again and losing his senior year of high school, much less than what the long Covid is doing to his personality and mind. And yes, it shapes our choices in our activities because it has to. Because if limiting some of our activities now means my son and I don't end up spending weeks in bed and losing what little progress we've made, so be it. There's no treatment for this--it's just throwing random meds at all the various symptoms and hoping it helps one of them and doesn't make the others worse (which it almost always does).

I'm mostly fine with missing out on concerts--if I could even manage to stand through one now, I'd be laid up in bed for days from the pain afterwards.

There is one thing I do truly miss sometimes--going out to eat in a restaurant. Sitting in a comfortable chair near a fireplace, having food I didn't cook brought to me while its still hot and served on real plates. Eating somewhere that isn't my house, a picnic in a park, or in the car in the parking lot.

Practicality doesn't mean fear.

 

[Gemmie]

I'm 52. I've had Covid twice, both times brought home by my high schooler who took off his mask to eat lunch at school. I've had long Covid since the first bout, so 2 1/2 years now. My high schooler has had it 3 times and has had worsening long Covid each time. He missed 3/4 of his junior year last year because of it. He had an 8 out of 10 headache every day for 4 months starting with his last bout of Covid. I have no idea how he's going to get through his senior year with Post Exertional Malaise, inflamed rib cartilage, major memory issues, etc. I used to teach private lessons in sign language...now I teach 1 a week, and I only still have that client because she's very understanding about rescheduling last minute if the inflammation in my hand joints is bad enough to prevent me from bending my fingers and she masks for me.

All members of my family mask everywhere we go. Period--grocery store, empty waiting room while my kid is in a therapy session, etc. If a worker needs to come into our house, we mask up and explain and go on with it. No clue if we are getting funny looks--none of us care at this point.

My family doesn't live in fear--we live in practicality. I can't afford to have the all over joint pain get worse or the brain fog get to the point where I can't drive. My son can't risk getting sick again and losing his senior year of high school, much less than what the long Covid is doing to his personality and mind. And yes, it shapes our choices in our activities because it has to. Because if limiting some of our activities now means my son and I don't end up spending weeks in bed and losing what little progress we've made, so be it. There's no treatment for this--it's just throwing random meds at all the various symptoms and hoping it helps one of them and doesn't make the others worse (which it almost always does).

I'm mostly fine with missing out on concerts--if I could even manage to stand through one now, I'd be laid up in bed for days from the pain afterwards.

There is one thing I do truly miss sometimes--going out to eat in a restaurant. Sitting in a comfortable chair near a fireplace, having food I didn't cook brought to me while its still hot and served on real plates. Eating somewhere that isn't my house, a picnic in a park, or in the car in the parking lot.

Practicality doesn't mean fear.

I just wanted to explain why I Loved your post and didn't select the sad face. I love your honestness to a roomful of strangers and I love your practicality. However, I'm really sad for what you, your family, and others are going through. Like more than you can imagine which is why I too live my live in practicality, and not fear. I don't want Covid, and I know how it's spread, so I simply do things to not catch it, just like you.

What I hope for people in your situation is that long Covid completely goes away at some point. Well, and Covid period, but I've pretty much resigned myself into believing Covid itself will never go away. Long Covid, on the other hand, might. Hopefully.

 

[LouTanner]

There is no way I’d go on a cruise ship. They are floating Petri dishes. And I’d feel that way if Covid didn’t exist. I know several people that have taken summer cruises this year and they all came home with some type of respiratory illness. Could’ve been Covid. I doubt they tested.

We have slowly worked our way back into our normal activities. Starting with a vacation we took in ‘21 that we had put off from ‘20. We traveled Rt 66 from Oklahoma to Arizona with a side trip to CO to visit a friend. We stayed in vintage motels. We do most everything we did before 2020. But I do mostly grocery pick ups and order a lot online. I started from necessity but found I prefer it.

DH is 78 and I’m 67. We are both in good health.

We just got back from Alaskan cruise it was fantastic! You only have so much time. I want to try and maximize it! Heading to aruba cruise next! We love Celebrity cruises!

 

[LouTanner]

I'm 52. I've had Covid twice, both times brought home by my high schooler who took off his mask to eat lunch at school. I've had long Covid since the first bout, so 2 1/2 years now. My high schooler has had it 3 times and has had worsening long Covid each time. He missed 3/4 of his junior year last year because of it. He had an 8 out of 10 headache every day for 4 months starting with his last bout of Covid. I have no idea how he's going to get through his senior year with Post Exertional Malaise, inflamed rib cartilage, major memory issues, etc. I used to teach private lessons in sign language...now I teach 1 a week, and I only still have that client because she's very understanding about rescheduling last minute if the inflammation in my hand joints is bad enough to prevent me from bending my fingers and she masks for me.

All members of my family mask everywhere we go. Period--grocery store, empty waiting room while my kid is in a therapy session, etc. If a worker needs to come into our house, we mask up and explain and go on with it. No clue if we are getting funny looks--none of us care at this point.

My family doesn't live in fear--we live in practicality. I can't afford to have the all over joint pain get worse or the brain fog get to the point where I can't drive. My son can't risk getting sick again and losing his senior year of high school, much less than what the long Covid is doing to his personality and mind. And yes, it shapes our choices in our activities because it has to. Because if limiting some of our activities now means my son and I don't end up spending weeks in bed and losing what little progress we've made, so be it. There's no treatment for this--it's just throwing random meds at all the various symptoms and hoping it helps one of them and doesn't make the others worse (which it almost always does).

I'm mostly fine with missing out on concerts--if I could even manage to stand through one now, I'd be laid up in bed for days from the pain afterwards.

There is one thing I do truly miss sometimes--going out to eat in a restaurant. Sitting in a comfortable chair near a fireplace, having food I didn't cook brought to me while its still hot and served on real plates. Eating somewhere that isn't my house, a picnic in a park, or in the car in the parking lot.

Practicality doesn't mean fear.

We enjoy dining out, travel, concerts and living our life! Enjoy!

 

[sds71]

After his bronze medal in the 200m, US Track and Field have confirmed Noah Lyles has Covid.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821620937445298346