OT: COVID-19 general thread (read OP, post #841)

[Ripshot 43]

Thank god your mom is okay.

My mom and both sisters also had a very bad fever with a severe cough. I had a severe fever and diarrhea.

I brought my mom and sister to a clinic because they couldn't take it anymore. They both tested negative to the Flu

Thank you.

Incredible. Is there a test yet that could tell you if you had it? Coupled with knowledge that your now are immune (which I understand is not 100% yet) you would be self-vaccined and could, say, go to work etc. or even volonteer at different things where you would know you cannot get infected. This is part of what I mean that testing is so crucial ( I think Cuomo talked about this in this morning's update)

Im not sure if that test is available yet but I had heard they were working on a rapid results test that I would take immediately if made available to me. I unfortunately (although I am appreciative that I haven’t lost my job) work in a field where I am exposed as much as the medical field. I work as a manager for a vendor company that works with grocery stores so I am in grocery stores 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

 

[Billdo]

Coronavirus fact check: Could your December cough have been COVID-19?

Very interesting article...seems like this has been going on since November

I'm fairly confident my entire household, save for me 2 year old, had it as well as my extended family after spending 5 days together around Thanksgiving away had it. It just makes sense.

 

[Call Me Al]

there could have been cases but i don’t think it was as widespread to the point that all of you had it. there’s a reason why just now the hospitals are starting to get overloaded and people are dying in massive numbers like they weren’t before. you most likely just had regular flu

 

[VaxjoDevil]

Thank you.



Im not sure if that test is available yet but I had heard they were working on a rapid results test that I would take immediately if made available to me. I unfortunately (although I am appreciative that I haven’t lost my job) work in a field where I am exposed as much as the medical field. I work as a manager for a vendor company that works with grocery stores so I am in grocery stores 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

You certainly are exposed. It's unreal that testing is not available for you. In a bizarre twist of thinking, let's hope you had the Rona and that you are immune.

 

[Devilsfan992]

there could have been cases but i don’t think it was as widespread to the point that all of you had it. there’s a reason why just now the hospitals are starting to get overloaded and people are dying in massive numbers like they weren’t before. you most likely just had regular flu

This ... I hardly doubt people had it last year unless it was hardly contagious at the time. If it started last year without social distancing, pretty much the entire city of NYC would have already had it.

 

[BahlDeep]

This ... I hardly doubt people had it last year unless it was hardly contagious at the time. If it started last year without social distancing, pretty much the entire city of NYC would have already had it.

Which is possible... 85% of cases are mild. Flu-like, cold-like or asymptomatic

 

[Desert Devil]

I definitely had something that checked all of the boxes of the virus back around Christmas and New Years. It's hard to really say though because the symptoms are all so close.

 

[Devilsfan992]

Which is possible... 85% of cases are mild. Flu-like, cold-like or asymptomatic

Then why are so many in the hospital now? And not before?

 

[TheUnseenHand]

I believe 100% it was cycling the world late last year.

Did I have it? I’m not sure but I did get sick with the symptoms of Covid19 and for the first time in 20 years told my boss that I wasn’t coming into work. I ended up working from home for 4 days and sleeping most of the time. Whatever it was kicked my butt and I actually went to the Dr twice in 2 weeks (which is not like me) and tested negative for the flu. My wife a few weeks later ended up missing almost 2 weeks of work with the worst cough I have ever heard. It kept her up in the middle of the night because of even then still coughing.

To top it all off, the week before Christmas my mother goes into the hospital with shortness of breath, a fever and a bad cough. They ran the gambit of tests and they couldn’t figure out what she had. After 2 or 3 days she ended up being put on a respirator and couldn’t breath without it. Anyone in the room had to wear a mask and “not touch the patient”. We honestly thought we lost her but by some miracle she was able to come off the respirator after 5 or so days in the CCU. They never were able to diagnose what she had. I have no doubt now that she was an early case of this virus.

I was travelling through a lot of airports in late November. Got really sick. Had a fever for the first time in 15 or 20 years (the first night I was hallucinating it was so bad). Tried to go to work a few days later after my fever broke and the QA Manger kicked me out and made me go to the emergicare place down the road. I knew it was serious when I saw her face. She was legitimately concerned. It was the third time in 15 years I'd been to the doctor. The other two times were the times I herniated a disc in my back. They basically said I had several infections, including a respiratory infection. Prescribed a bunch of crap that had no effect.

The thing I remember most was not the fever, cold sweats and inability to sleep for two nights because of it. It was the cough and shortness of breath. The cough was so bad I could barely sleep for two weeks. I'd wake up having almost uncontrollable coughing fits. It was a deep cough like I'd been smoking my whole life, despite having never tried any form of smoking even once. And the cough held on for 6 weeks, very gradually decreasing in intensity. It drove me nuts. Thinking back a few days later on the first night of fever scared me a bit. The first time I've been worried about being sick that I can remember. The hallucinations were a level of sick I've never before been. After that it was really just an exceptional nuisance. But I very, very rarely get sick. At least like that. I never get the flu and colds are always minor. This was very out of the ordinary and I am very convinced it was COVID 19 that did it.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Then why are so many in the hospital now? And not before?

Everyone who has a sniffle now assumes (likely rightfully) that they have it. So they get tested, and if positive and presenting severe symptoms, go to the hospital. If I had the symptoms now that I had in November, while I would not have wanted to, someone likely would have forced me to go to the hospital, and I'd be another statistic. It sounds like that would have been the case for several of us here. But we weren't counted, and didn't go to the hospital, because we were just fighting some unknown thing off. Rested for several days and battled a cough for a month, but kept going about our lives. Thankfully Ripshots mother is OK, but had things gone the other way, no one would have known it was (likely) COVID 19. I'm certain that is not a unique story, and that many people were not so fortunate. But they weren't counted in the statistics because it wasn't known at the time what was going on.

 

[Devils731]

Then why are so many in the hospital now? And not before?

That’s one of the big questions we don’t have the answer to. We think it’s very easy to spread, we see it seemingly bloom quickly, but we also know it was around for awhile and didn’t seem to explode. We also know people have had it in large group circumstances and not seemed to pass it on.

So what happened? Since we don’t have extensive testing of people without symptoms we can’t be sure. Is it harder to pass around than we think? Maybe, but then why does it seem to bloom quickly? Have many people had it and gotten over it? Maybe, but until we test everyone we won’t be able to figure these questions out.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

Starting tomorrow we have a nurse on site that is going to screen and take the temperature of every single person entering the building. I feel like I have to get up extra early to get to the front of the line...

 

[Call Me Al]

Everyone who has a sniffle now assumes (likely rightfully) that they have it. So they get tested, and if positive and presenting severe symptoms, go to the hospital. If I had the symptoms now that I had in November, while I would not have wanted to, someone likely would have forced me to go to the hospital, and I'd be another statistic. It sounds like that would have been the case for several of us here. But we weren't counted, and didn't go to the hospital, because we were just fighting some unknown thing off. Rested for several days and battled a cough for a month, but kept going about our lives. Thankfully Ripshots mother is OK, but had things gone the other way, no one would have known it was (likely) COVID 19. I'm certain that is not a unique story, and that many people were not so fortunate. But they weren't counted in the statistics because it wasn't known at the time what was going on.

We are tapping into our national stockpile of respirators. It’s not because people have the sniffles and think they need to get checked

 

[Call Me Al]

We also don’t know it’s been around that long. These are guesses. It was probably in China earlier than reported but it probably wasn’t spreading in the USA until January. I doubt anyone who was sick in the USA in the fall had corona.

 

[TheUnseenHand]

We are tapping into our national stockpile of respirators. It’s not because people have the sniffles and think they need to get checked

No, but people who are in them now might not have been prior when they stayed home thinking they just had the flu or something.

Clearly it is spreading as well. The more people that have it, the more people that will inevitably get it. Relative numbers of infected in November were likely low compared to now, but that doesn't mean it wasn't around at that time. Who knows, it's possibly even mutating.

 

[devilsblood]

Ya, anyone who had a cold from November to February thinks they probably had it. They might have, but they probably didn't.

It's has just recently started to pick up momentum in NJ, and that is with all the social distancing measurse's that have been put in place.

 

[devilsblood]

No, but people who are in them now might not have been prior when they stayed home thinking they just had the flu or something.

Clearly it is spreading as well. The more people that have it, the more people that will inevitably get it. Relative numbers of infected in November were likely low compared to now, but that doesn't mean it wasn't around at that time. Who knows, it's possibly even mutating.

Heard a week or so ago that this is a very stable pathogen, meaning the mutation rate is very low.