Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #56

[LvsAMystry]

Just FYI -- I'm pretty sure I had this mid-March'ish and it took me a full 5 weeks to feel perfectly normal. I could tell I wasn't back to normal before then because, although I didn't feel particularly ill, I didn't feel like cooking, AT ALL. Other than not being motivated, the worst was over into week 3, so you should start to feel a little more normal soon. Take care.

I was positive I had it in early March, just before it all broke loose so I questioned it at the time then became convinced. Day 1 to 5 tight chest, awful cough, headache headache headache, intestinal symptoms, fever day 1 around 99, day 2 through 4 got as high as 102, low grade after that for weeks. Aches like a truck hit me and the fatigue, wow I would just hit a wall mod-day even when thought recovered.

I had two negative flu tests the first week, chest X-rays clean so wasn’t sure. No corona test ever offered, even after three weeks in and calling my PCP because I was getting increasingly nervous and convinced not the flu.

Probably felt mostly normal at about 5 weeks. Still getting headaches here and there though. My point of this is however, I was 100% sure I had it but did antibody test last week and negative. Shocked.

 

[musicaljoke]

Speaking of contact tracing.... about ten years ago, a person from the county came by to tell me and my coworkers that we had been exposed to TB. They wanted us to submit a blood sample taken right there in the (pretty dirty) shop. I can't remember what the others did, but I politely declined. I can only cooperate so far when it involves a big needle, a county employee, and dirty space.

I actually felt uneasy about giving the gov't my blood, mostly because I was a pot user and it was still illegal.

Yeah, that sounds pretty sketchy. Why would they request a blood test instead of the more common skin test? I'd be outta there too, and ask my doctor to follow up on it.

 

[KALI]

I read this twice to make sure that I understood your message.
Personally, I completely disagree with your statement.
Most specifically, measuring Covit-19 by how well the hospital's patients are doing.
To me, that is impossible.
Their are good hospitals and there are very bad hospitals. Yes. Right here in the USA.
They are absolutely NOT ALL the same.
Because of this. We cannot assume that their numbers of dead are universal.
<modsnip>Jmo.

Exactly. The lockdowns are to prevent an overload on the healthcare system and to make sure enough beds are available.

That goal got lost in the shuffle of information overload. Yes, we want to slow the spread (of any disease or ailment!), but the covid lockdown was needed specifically because the fast surge would collapse our medical system if not slowed.

So comparing coronavirus DEATHS between countries or states isn't really helpful in that regard. The better measurement, imo, would be how well are the hospitals functioning - and are citizens receiving the care they need, not just for the virus but for all medical issues.

jmo

 

[cody22]

Serious question. If it was you and you were a kid, would you want to go back to school with all of these ridiculous distancing rules?
No playground, no lunchroom, no library...
I get it!
Parents have to work, but yuck.
I just can't imagine how they are gonna manage all the kids in the space they have.
Maybe build tent schools? Like the temporary hospitals?
Moo

I am more concerned with sending a perfectly healthy kid back into any kind of Virus school situation with unknown strange students, teachers, etc......moo

 

[Tillicum]

Ohio sets up virtual program to check on elderly population during shutdown

Ohio also announced the “Staying Connected Program” for Ohioans over 60 who are in a facility or out in the community, allowing them to sign up for a service that calls them once a day to make sure they are doing ok.

“We knew that we had many people not just in facilities but in communities because of the guidance we’ve provided and because of their own desire to keep themselves safe, some of the connections they are used to have changed,” said Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel McElroy.

The service is free and can also connect people who use it to resources such as food or information.

If the resident does not answer after three attempts, a contact or a non-emergency line will be called.

 

[otto]

I'm curious how long the virus lives on concrete and glass.

We know about paper, plastic, metal, and now there is some preliminary information about cloth. Why were sidewalks and buildings disinfected in Wuhan?

 

[musicaljoke]

We had to drive a multi state trip last Thursday and Friday in the Southeast. It was truly horrible and I was very prepared in my own mind, hah!

Pardon the personal question, but where do you stop for bathroom breaks? I have a friend who needs to make a 7hr trip for a medical appointment. There's nowhere to stop.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Before I had seen this article tonight, I called my brother to talk to him about what I see coming - and that is Iowa and western Illinois (because idiots from IL are going over to IA malls and other crap the governor there has opened) are going to get hit hard shortly. There’s no way around it with the way IA has handled things, in our opinion. We live in these two different states and agree on this point. We’re both preparing for whatever comes next.

“Trump's claim that cases are falling everywhere is contradicted by his own task force's report, obtained by NBC News, showing the virus spreading far from the coasts...

The spiking infection rates suggest that the pandemic is spreading quickly outside major coastal population centers that were early hot spots, while governors of some of the states that are home to new hot spots are following Trump's advice to relax stay-at-home restrictions.“

Unreleased White House report has coronavirus rates spiking in heartland

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I'm curious how long the virus lives on concrete and glass.

We know about paper, plastic, metal, and now there is some preliminary information about cloth. Why were sidewalks and buildings disinfected in Wuhan?

I’m not convinced we do know about those other items yet. National library organizations are currently having their own lab tests done to find out how long it lives on various items. I saw an email today stating that although we do not have conclusive answers yet, they are suggesting that libraries quarantining library materials for 3 days is probably not enough time.

I will probably trust their results more than anything our government tells us, especially after being lied to over and over about things like masks.

 

[Seattle1]

It kind of got lost in the multiple replies, but the topic was CV antibody testing- to see if you have the virus in the past. I think most insurances will cover it, but I doubt it would be a freebie to anyone, at least right now. I will follow up if I learn anything.

Thanks and sorry I didn't realize the topic was antibody testing. I saw Otto questioning cost again and happened upon the Colorado tweet at same time.

 

[musicaljoke]

Hi, tresir..... No, I was not joking. I will not participate in any "Contact Tracing" ever.... My free will choice and I am not alone in feeling this way around the USA....Yall participate in "Contact Tracing" if you wish....Let 'em catch me if they can..............moo

In what way will you not participate? There are different aspects, and I wonder if there is some level that you are comfortable with. For example, you could get a call that someone you were with tested positive. Would that be ok with you? Would you follow up on that, or hang up the phone?

Or if you were found positive, may it not be so, would you be willing to assist a health care worker to re-trace your steps so that the health care worker could alert others? If not all your steps, then some steps? No steps? Would you be willing to call co-workers, friends or acquaintances that you knew you had been in contact with?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Do shutdowns work or are they a useless maneuver that doesn’t much change the outcome?

To help me figure this out I looked at Worldometer data for similar nations, as far as population, location when possible, development, health care, etc.

I analyzed Brazil, Mexico and Sweden, none of which employed shut downs.

Here I will focus on Sweden as it is a “westernized democracy” more like ours, as opposed to Brazil and Mexico which are still developing, poorer nations.

I compared Sweden with its Nordic neighbors- Norway, Denmark and Finland. These are comparable nations with similar demographics, economic structures and health care structures. However these other nations all employed shut downs.

The data used was the rates of infection, rates of deaths and rates of testing, based on a million people. So what is the infection rate per million people, what is the death rate from COVID per million people and what is the testing rate per million.

Based on today’s data:

Norway- Sweden has almost double the rate of infection as Norway. Norway has only 13% of the death rate from the disease as Sweden.

Finland- Finland has 40% of the case rate as Sweden. That means Sweden has 60% more cases per million inhabitants. Finland has 15% of the COVID19 death rate of Sweden’s.

Denmark - Sweden’s infection rate is 32% higher than Denmark’s. Denmark has 28% of the COVID19 death rate of Sweden’s.

Sweden has a rate of 2,700 infections per million inhabitants and a rate of 328 deaths per million.

Norway has a rate of 1,504 infections per million inhabitants and a rate of 50 deaths per million.

Finland has a rate of 1,083 infections per million inhabitants and a rate of 50 deaths per million.

Denmark has a rate of 1,828 infections per million inhabitants and a rate of 42 deaths per million.

But what’s significant is the comparable test rates of these nations. Because if Sweden had a much higher test rate than those other nations, then of maybe those results aren’t that significant. Right? If Sweden tests more, then of course they will have higher rates of everything.

Rates of testing = how many tests per million inhabitants:

Finland has a rate of 22,831 tests per million.
Norway has a rate of 37,858 per million.
Denmark has a rate of 57,709 tests per million.

Sweden has a rate of 14,704 tests per million.

Finland has a test rate 1.5 times as high as Sweden’s.
Norway has a test rate 2.5 times as high as Sweden’s.
Denmark has a test rate almost four times as high as Sweden’s.

The news isn’t good for Sweden. Their rates far exceed those of their neighboring nations and are likely much higher than we know given the disparity in testing, compared to those other nations.

Coronavirus Update (Live): 4,337,563 Cases and 292,451 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer

Hi @gitana1 Ive been a bit worried about you. Happy to see you pop up. We’ve missed you. I’m so glad you’ve joined this discussion. You’re full of the common sense we so need right now. Hope your family and friends are well.

 

[Seattle1]

I was positive I had it in early March, just before it all broke loose so I questioned it at the time then became convinced. Day 1 to 5 tight chest, awful cough, headache headache headache, intestinal symptoms, fever day 1 around 99, day 2 through 4 got as high as 102, low grade after that for weeks. Aches like a truck hit me and the fatigue, wow I would just hit a wall mod-day even when thought recovered.

I had two negative flu tests the first week, chest X-rays clean so wasn’t sure. No corona test ever offered, even after three weeks in and calling my PCP because I was getting increasingly nervous and convinced not the flu.

Probably felt mostly normal at about 5 weeks. Still getting headaches here and there though. My point of this is however, I was 100% sure I had it but did antibody test last week and negative. Shocked.

I thought this lengthy article/video of May 12, 2020 was interesting from Dr. Sanjay Gupta

Antibody tests are also plagued by error. Just like the diagnostic tests, "antibody tests haven't been as accurate as they need to be," Gupta said. By their very nature, such tests can easily produce both false negatives and positives.

Why a positive Covid-19 antibody test doesn't mean much of anything yet - CNN

 

[cody22]

In what way will you not participate? There are different aspects, and I wonder if there is some level that you are comfortable with. For example, you could get a call that someone you were with tested positive. Would that be ok with you? Would you follow up on that, or hang up the phone?

Or if you were found positive, may it not be so, would you be willing to assist a health care worker to re-trace your steps so that the health care worker could alert others? If not all your steps, then some steps? No steps? Would you be willing to call co-workers, friends or acquaintances that you knew you had been in contact with?

No to all questions.......................................moo

 

[firebird]

there just to obstruct police officers doing their job you mean?

No. That's not what I mean at all.

 

[musicaljoke]

No to all questions.......................................moo

Oh dear, cody, we are going to have to spank you!

 

[SouthAussie]

But the vaccine will not be here until early 2021, at the earliest.

How can we manage a total lockdown until 2021? Who is going to still be in business and able to keep supply lines for food and meds open?

And it is possible that we may never achieve an effective vaccine.
It is possible that the best we may get are ways in which to treat the virus as herd immunity very slowly grows.

I think of AIDS and the way in which we are still looking for a vaccine - after all this time. Though there are now good treatments for those who become infected.


There is currently no vaccine available that will prevent HIV infection or treat those who have it.
However, scientists are working to develop one. NIH is investing in multiple approaches to prevent HIV, including a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine.

HIV Vaccines
Content Source: HIV.gov Date last updated: February 21, 2020

 

[The Night Watchman]

The antibody test I am getting is by Quest Diagnostics.

Massachusetts has been hit pretty hard so maybe here in eastern MA there are 10% people that are AB positive. So my test has a false positive rate of ~ 1.25%. So out of 100 tests, there would be 10 accurate positive and 1.25 false positives (for my example), an 11% error rate. For a positive result, I would also then have my wife take it because if she tested positive as well, the false positive total error would be ~1%.

Quest Diagnostics recently began selling antibody testing directly to the public for $119, plus an additional lab fee of $10.30. The company uses two testing platforms: one has a specificity of 98.5-99%, while the other has a specificity of 99.4%, a spokesperson told MONEY in an email. The lowest number, 98.5%, gives a 1.5% chance of a false positive. That may sound small, but in areas with a low-single digit percent of the population exposed to COVID-19, it could result in as many as half of all positives being false positives, Kilpatrick says.

“We are committed to high-quality testing,” a Quest spokesperson responded in an email to MONEY, noting that the company had performed its own quality verification tests, and that the two tests it was offering and their performance are listed on this FDA web site for authorized tests.

The Definitive Guide to Antibody Tests: What They Do, Where to Get Them, and How Much They Cost

 

[doublestop]

No to all questions.......................................moo

Why not?

 

[cass523]

Early end to U.S. state lockdowns could cause needless 'suffering and death' - Fauci

During Senate hearing on the novel coronavirus Tuesday, Republican Senator Mitt Romney was critical of the urgency in testing within the U.S. as compared to other countries.

A video from today's hearing. Dr. Fauci, Senators Warren, Paul, and Murray

"He told the 45 states, which have not met the federal guidelines, there was a "real risk" that they'd trigger an outbreak they can't control."