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We’ve all seen the hype and heard of the great dangers of the Covid-19 virus. It seems the talking heads can’t stop talking about the dangers and the need of the anti-virus injections. Every once in a while, we hear someone from the outer fringes trying to tell us that this virus is no worse than another flu virus. Yes it can be deadly, but no more or no less than the flu. Of course the voice of those fringe naysayers are quickly drowned out by dozens of experts any time one rases their head.
How many here have been, or have friends or family that have been tested positive for Covid?
I’m considered an essential employee so I have been at work through the pandemic and it has been an interesting time as we try to keep everything running smoothly so everyone else can work from home.
Since the lockdowns, work from home, distance learning for kids and all that began I have only known of two people tested positive for Covid, both co-workers. One told that it was very much like having the flu. The other, who is the type of person that makes hang nail sound like they have lost a finger, said it was the most terrible thing ever. Now I know of a 3rd that has it. ME.
Saturday evening I came down with a dry cough, didn’t think much of it as the cough wasn’t persistent although by Sunday morning my entire chest and ribcage felt like I had went 10 rounds in the ring with a professional boxer. The coughing remained the same, no coughing fits or anything of that sort, just a few dry coughs every once in a while, although the ribs felt quite sore. By midday Sunday I felt like I might be gaining a fever and began checking that. Highest it ever rose was to 98.8 Sunday after noon (My normal temp is a bit lower than the norm 97.8) Never lost sense of taste or smell.
By Monday the coughing had decreased to only occurring a few times during the day, the soreness in my ribs was still there but much better and temp was back down to 98.4. Other than being tired and taking a lot of naps during the day I would say I was already back to 70% of my normal.
Called my doctor’s office to describe the symptoms and see if they thought it would be wise to come in. I was called back that afternoon and told that with where I worked it would be a good idea to test for Covid and stay home until the result were in. Tuesday morning coughing still there but even less and ribs even less sore. Temp down to 98.2. Still easy to find myself napping a lot. I’m convinced this is not Covid and just a 24-48 hour bug or a very mild flu. Doctor’s office called that afternoon informed me the test was positive, I had Covid. I got the spiel about staying home, etc.
Today, Temp down even further, not quite my normal but getting close. Soreness in ribs from coughing completely gone. The only thing I can say has been different from Covid to having a bad cold or a mild flu is throughout Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I couldn’t get enough to eat. I would wake up starving, eat a large breakfast, by mid morning I was hungry again. Eat a large early lunch, then end up having an early dinner and hours later a 2nd dinner. Piling the food on the plate each time.
So there you have it, My experience with coming down with Covid.
Oh by the way, As I am over 60, have experienced two heart attacks and I am type 2 diabetic, I would be considered in the high risk category.
Comments
Most people don't have that
Most people don't have that bad of a reaction, but some do. I know someone who was at death's door because of it, and I have another high-risk acquaintance with severe asthma who was almost killed by pneumonia a number of years back. I doubt her reaction to a respiratory virus would be any better. The precautions aren't to protect the mild to moderate cases, but to prevent people who will have a severe case to begin with and to keep the virus from overwhelming our health care system. The United States has the highest case count in the world, because so many people aren't taking it seriously.
Have delightfully devious day,
I see your point
and agree that doing all we have done to protect those in the high risk category that would have a severe reaction is a good idea.
But that is not what we are being told by all the "Experts"
Also one of the main symptoms they have said over and over is a temperature of over 100 degs.
But if the only people that are truly at serious risk are those with lung and or breathing problems, why lie about the conditions that make up the "High Risk" category (which I have 3 of those listed conditions)
Don't get me wrong, Covid just like the Flu can be a very serious problem. People seem to forget that the flu takes a considerable number of lives each year too, and yes I have known people that had the flu in years past, to wear a mask and attempt social distancing. But the talking heads make it sound like Covid-19 is an extinction level virus.
Which leads me to wonder if the numbers have been intentionally inflated, and thus ask my friends here on BC, who I assume most live in heavier populated areas than I do, how many do you personally know have had it and how bad was it for you or those you know?
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
comparison 2020
The CDC as of November 2020 estimated the death toll for influenza all strains in the USA would be around 20,000+. At that time, Covid had already claimed over 300,000, with the total now rapidly approaching 400,000.
Several family and extended family members of mine had tested positive, My niece's father is in hospital for the second time, now finally clear of Covid, but extended ventilator treatment led to needed planned tracheotomy, which in turn has been postponed due to severe lung infection. His family has been told to prepare for the worst, since he cannot go back on ventilator.
My niece has more than occasional contact with them but so far has tested negative. Her step-mother and two step sisters came down with but weathered the disease. Meanwhile her fiance's father and grandmother tested positive.
My brother's in-laws tested positive, with his youngest brother in law having a horrible bout with this. Three of my in-laws tested positive but also weathered it. One blithely remarked that he was okay now, as if nothing had happened. But that's just it. We can easily lapse into minimizing this. My son and daughter-in-law both work as medical professionals in NYC. They've seen the refrigerator trucks. She has colleagues who have lost family members. My brother's daughter is a nurse in NJ whose best friend/class mate lost her mother. If anything, the totals are probably underreported.
Love, Andrea Lena
Think of it this way. With
Think of it this way. With most viruses, there's an 80/20 split. That is, 20 percent of the population is vulnerable to it.
Coronaviruses seem to have an increased ability to infect. I'm not a virologist, and I don't know the percentages, but let's just say it's double. 40% of the population gets it. Of that, 10% will have a severe reaction of some sort. (That's the normal percentage for influenza - 10% of the 20% that catch it)
There are a few problems with this current coronavirus strain. Because it hasn't been around long, there are very few mutations of it (viruses mutate to become less deadly), and with modern transportation systems, it's spread globally _very_ quickly. It also is causing things that they haven't really seen before. Where Ebola and similar cause hemorrhaging, this causes coagulation. They've also found that it appears to be causing mental illness in a small percentage of people that have had it - even the mild cases - so it's obviously capable of mucking about with brain chemistry.
I have doctors as customers. The hospitals are NOT having fun. They're all overloaded with people in the severe to critical categories - far beyond what the high end flu seasons would cause, which is 11% P&I mortality rate.
It _is_ real. No, the average person isn't seeing the 1 in 100 people that's come down with it, because of the mild cases. I've known a few people that had it and recovered, and I have customers who had friends and family members die from it - they didn't recover. It's a crap shoot, and considering how minimal side effects are for modern vaccines, _not_ dropping the 35-100 dollars to get vaccinated when it's available is reprehensible. Everyone keeps talking about 'me me me me me', and they need to start doing what's allowed humans to outgrow tribal societies, and start thinking "us us us us" - which is _you_ might have had a mild case, but how many people did you infect while you wandered around with "Just a cold". Maybe none. Maybe 50. How do you know? You can't, really.
Get the vaccine, and you won't be a transfer point for the virus. It's as simple as that.
I'm going to be getting it as soon as it's more easily available (I'm figuring that for the US, it'll be early February, after Johnson & Johnson finish their Phase 3 trial). I have bad reactions to flu vaccines, but even if this causes that, I'll take it over the risk of carrying something home to my family as I drive around town from customer to customer.
BW
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Zinc
Seems to be the common denominator for fighting this particular "flu". Like the lady who had three tests and all came back negative, I had two negative tests. Alas we both had it. My blood pressure stayed a little low, heart beat usual count around 52 to 61, Highest temp was 102 for four days. My blood oxy stayed at96 to 98. I think my lungs filled up with fluid as getting enough air to walk more than ten or fifteen feet was a challenge and I had to take several breaths to complete a sentence. Put plans in motion if I died animals would be taken care of. Was afraid I wouldn't (die). Who wants to live forever anyway? Smell, taste is still messed up but slowly coming back around.
Officially, I never had it. Hospital sent me everything to self monitor and told me to stay home. Bottom line in my case, bad as a severe case of flu. Yes, different people are going to react differently to it.
Okay, here is the other side of that stupid flu. The hospitals receive money for every victim and a lot of patients were listed as having it when they didn't and a lot of deaths attributed to Covid wasn't. The numbers were inflated out the wazoo. Plan on digging deep and long if one wants to find real data instead of propaganda.
Take care hon, lots of rest, don't push, self medicate as you're the one inside that body. If you didn't destroy it in your wild abandonment and youth, it will tell you what it needs to heal.
The two things I strong recommend is zinc and electrolytes (baby section Walmart).
Hugs Nuuan
Barb
Life is a gift, treasure it.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
I'm also a believer of Zinc
and keep both tablets and those Zicam nasal swabs in the medicine cabinet to use when I first notice something coming on.
Another thing I was told at the doctor's the other day, is taking vitamin D boosts yourself against Covid
And while I'm sure it has nothing to do with how mild my symptoms were, I did happen to eat a good southern meal of slow cooked October beans (similar to Pinto beans but larger) a large helping of Turnip greens and homemade cornbread on Sunday when the worst of it hit me, and come back for 2nds, then 3rds later :)
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
A lot of it depends upon your Immune System
If yours is robust then it can be no serious than a bad cold/flu. If not then you could be in trouble.
My immune system was basically non-existant in spring 2009 due to leukaemia.
I'm in a high-risk group and I should be getting my jab by mid-Feb.
I've not had any close contact with any living person since early November. That is tough and zoom/facetime calls really don't cut it.
The sooner that the majority of the population is vaccinated the better.
Many thousands of people have recovered from the virus very well but have suffered many really bad side effects some are really serious. Kidneys, Lungs and Heart seem to be the top things encountered by those suffering with 'Long Covid'.
Very few people who talk about CV-19 being mild talk about 'Long Covid'. I wonder why?
Samantha
It's still bad, even with a "healthy immune system"
Please note the word "can."
"can" is not the same as "will."
There are a fair number of young, perfectly healthy people who have died of it, including, most recently, a US Congressman (Luke Letow), who died at age 41 of covid-19 at the end of 2020, and who had no health issues before. And the young adults I know who've gotten it said it takes a long time (like months) to recover.
As for the long-term damage, being young and healthy does not protect you from it. For instance, in children it seems to frequently cause multisystem inflammatory syndrome.
I live near NYC, in the county where the first big outbreak occurred, and a lot of people have gotten it, and a lot of people I know have lost relatives to it. Back in April and May, the hospitals here were basically full of COVID patients, to the point that they weren't taking any other patients other than emergencies. And in NYC, a lot of people died because the ERs were full and they couldn't be seen before they died. (Especially in the poor neighborhoods.) BTW, that seems to be the situation in California now. And it's getting worse. People travelling and partying during the holidays (at least in the USA) is causing a huge surge, on top of the expected winter increase.
tl;dr: It is a nasty disease and very, very contagious. We don't have any cure for it, and there aren't any really effective treatments (there are some of limited effectiveness.) Mainly, they just try to keep people alive long enough to recover, but they're frequently not successful. The main "cure" is to not get exposed in the first place.
That's why it's so important for everyone to wear masks, keep their distance (6' is what's recommended, but 30' is better), and for God's sake don't go to bars or restaurants or do much of anything indoors except with your immediate "pod." ("Pod" is the local term for a group of people who interact every day but try to avoid interacting with other people outside their "pod.")
The only kind of "hype" I see about it is the "hype" that it doesn't exist or that it's not serious.
Going to bars?
I do find it amazing that people are still going out and doing that. Of all reasons a person needs to leave their home that has got to be the worst one on the list.
I was surprised that I got Covid, not that I have been a perfect follower of all the do's and don't, it's that before Covid, most would have said I was somewhat of a hermit. I live alone and my hobbies are reading, quilting, quilting and building 3D scale models out of paper. I like craft microbrew beers, but I don't like paying the price for a six pack for one beer, so I buy my beer and store it in my own fridge for when I want one.
I go to work and I go to the grocery store, in warm weather I go fishing. Oh before Covid, I would go to local youth symphony's concerts as my youngest is a member.
I am HERMIT, hear me cough :)
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
My family and I all had it back in March, 2020.
My job has me traveling weekly, and even though I live north of Albany, NY (Saratoga County), my office is in Reading, PA.
We closed our offices on March 20, 2020, under mandate from the state of PA, and I drove home that night. At that point, no one was sure how long we would be closed - but as a retailer all of our stores had already been closed, and the offices and DC’s closed on 3/20. Our e-commerce business was still operating, and the plan was for a limited senior staff (myself included) to work from home until we were allowed to re-open.
So, I arrived back in upstate NY late 3/20. The following morning, 3/21, I got up early and headed out to the pharmacy as I had a prescription to pick up, stopped at the post office to drop off a package, and then stopped to fill the gas tank on my car on the way home; as the trip home from my office is roughly 280 miles, it takes the better part of a tank of gas to make the trip.
While at the gas station, I got a call from my spouse letting me know she was heading home from her office as they just found out that a woman who worked in an adjoining office had just tested positive. Apparently, said Covid carrier had been visiting most of the other offices the previous several days - meaning that nearly everyone had a chance to be exposed.
My spouse works in City Hall, she is the Commissioner of Accounts, and basically this pretty much closed down the entire building.
I finished up, and headed home to begin quarantining - laughing about how I was sent home for my own safety, just to be exposed my first day home!
Over the course of the next 7 to 10 days, everyone in the house got Covid-19. First my youngest son, then my oldest son, then my spouse - all three ran a fever in the range of 101 to 103, had the usual severe aches and pains, a dry cough, intestinal pains, shortness of breath, and an extremely severe headache - to the point that they could hardly lift their head off the pillow, as well as a loss of taste and smell. As for me, I had a dry cough for about four days, loss of taste and smell for a few days, and some light headedness when running up the stairs - but nothing else.
I spent the entire time taking care of everyone else, cooking and doing laundry, and got so bored I spring cleaned the entire house top to bottom. All this on top of spending 8 hours each day working from home on my laptop and via phone.
We were kept isolated in our house for 20 days, with the county health department contacting us several times each day via phone to check on our symptoms. We had to go three days with everyone in the house symptom free without any medications (primarily acetaminophen) before they would clear us to leave. As I stated, it ended up being 20 days.
My wife, as an essential employee, was given a Covid test within the first two days, and tested positive. The rest of us were tested a few days later and also tested positive.
My oldest son and I both took part in NY State’s antibody testing program, and both tested positive for antibodies several weeks later - being the only two out of 100 volunteers to test positive. I have since been tested three more times, the last one being last week - and am still testing positive for antibodies.
So, in answer to your question, yes, I know someone who has had it. I actually know quite a few people who have had it, as well as having several friends and acquaintances who died from it, and many more who were hospitalized - over multiple states.
I don’t know where you live, but all I can tell you is that it is not hype, nor is it no worse than any other flu virus. Many people don’t show symptoms, or like me, only mild symptoms. But the issue being is that as this is a brand new virus, there is no built up immunity among the general populace as there is to many other viruses. The consensus is that this will never go away completely, but over time it will become essentially like the flu or even the common cold as we build up immunity to it. Case in point, the virus which causes the common cold is also a form of Corona Virus - but most of us simply find it annoying rather than deadly.
Also, my oldest son, who happens to be a marathon runner as well as a teacher at one of the areas high schools, and also coaches cross country, indoor, and outdoor track, spent about six months dealing with the after effects of Covid. He had trouble breathing and suffered from low oxygen levels for a long time after recovering - to the point where he wasn’t able to run for months and is only now getting back into shape.
So you see, although you and I, and many others may not see any I’ll effects - many others do. Perhaps the fact that I live in NY State makes it more relevant to me, or perhaps you have simply been luckier than others.
We are approaching 400,000 deaths nationwide either directly due to Covid, or due to complications caused by Covid. This is nearly seven (7) times the annual death rate of influenza over the past ten years. So yeah, not just another flu.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
It's Real.
I'm convinced it's real, supposed to start Vaccines on the 23rd of January. I have COPD but the Inhalers I use seem to keep it at bay. The Chaos we are having in America is due to Trump, mostly, and the problems in the rest of the world largely Trump again. Were he unfettered, he would have ended civilization on Earth.
Gwen
Let's please keep political views out of this
Gwen I love your stories, I believe you when you say that you are convinced it is real. I know the Covid virus is real, but I am unsure of it being as bad as we continually see on TV. I would ask what facts do you have to back up your belief that it is that bad? How many people do you personally know that have come down with Covid? Because honestly without anything to back up your statement, it is only an opinion.
You see I live in a small village, 1900 people spread out over several square miles. So what I can see, is quite different from what someone in Albany, NY can see. what I am looking for with my original post is confirmation that the talking heads are not blowing the metaphoric 'smoke up our asses'
As for adding in your opinion of Trumps blame in all this, first off you have been around long enough to know that I really despise people bringing their political opinions into a conversation. Secondly, Trump did many things while in office that many disagree with and is at fault for several things but Covid and all the worlds problems? That's ludicrous.
We the willing, led by the unsure. Have been doing so much with so little for so long,
We are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
Nice work if you can get it
I certainly agree that political views have no place in a medical discussion. One (major) problem though. In the case of covid the political aspect is inextricably intertwined with the medical aspect. Almost from Day One many decisions were based on political expediency rather than medical decisions. That has muddied the waters badly. In particular, any discussion of faults of our response will involve the political decisions made at the time. IMHO, without assigning blame, many of the decisions made were based on furthering some political agenda rather than medical soundness. That has echoed down the line causing problems in other areas.
Example: I was scheduled for a heart procedure Thursday AM, but today I was called and told it was postponed for the foreseeable future due to hospital overcrowding. So this could possibly shorten my life by one or more years.
I'm also in the so-called "ultra" high risk category for covid 19, my age plus my Cystic Fibrosis and my heart condition. Yet I am low down the list for the vaccine here because the county has determined its own order of priorities that run counter to the Federal Guidelines. Political expediency again.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Exactly
Money was the motivation to muddy the response to this pandemic. If you keep people at home then they can't work and make money for the millionaires, billionaires etc. It is to the financial benefit to do so, so spreading disinformation is a good thing as far as they are concerned, keeping people working longer. We all pay for it in the end in deaths, higher health insurance rates, loss of possibly essential people whose intellectual prowess will be gone from our country. Sweden is the result of a unrestrained response to this pandemic so I suggest doubters read up on the issue from that country too.
For a good tracker of what the covid epidemic is doing, try the bing tracker:\
https://bing.com/covid/local/unitedstates
For people who think it is not 'as bad as all that', that has been partially due to the efforts that seem to be working right now.
The only problem is with deniers are that when they die of it, they will have no opportunity to report their repentance.
The messaging was wrong.
So people have doubts, fine but even if there are some doubts the messaging from our leaders should have been that this is a time to hang together as a people, as a country. Wearing a mask is not fun but we ask that you do so as an offering of Service to your fellow countrymen who may die from it.
It is about Compassion!
No, it wasn't money driving
No, it wasn't money driving people to muddy the origins of the pandemic.
It was an inevitable result of the way totalitarian regimes work (the people first seeing the problem didn't want to report bad news up the chain, because they like to kill the messenger), and then how various countries can, or can't, control their population.
In the case of the US, and a lesser extent Canada, Australia, and the UK, the government doesn't have the ability to _do_ what people kept demanding. Which was for everyone to stop moving, stay in one place, and yet _still_ manage to feed themselves, pay for their housing, their utilities, and so forth. It's not possible.
(Edit - in the US, it's called Freedom of Movement. It's part of the base documents of the country. People have basically always assumed they could go where they wanted, when they wanted to, without fear of reprisal.)
It was particularly bad for me. We were having to leave the house that we had spent 13 years in, and find another house. We had to do that in _April and May_ of 2020. (Be out by the first of June) Suddenly, we couldn't look for a house. I had to be out (essential worker) keeping people able to work from home, and my wife couldn't do it - because she had to sit at home and make sure the kid did her remote school work, and homework. It's STILL screwing things up that way. Once we found a house and signed a contract, we had to somehow find people that could move us - because they weren't essential personnel. Yes, we probably could have thrown a fit and refused to move because of the lockdowns, but things were becoming uncomfortable for various reasons.
There was confusion to start with, Faucci lying about the mortality rate of influenza didn't help matters (He contradicted the statistics directly posted on the site of the people that wrote his paychecks. 11% P&I. Not 1%). However, there was clear information given out. VERY clear information. Wash your hands, stay away from people, stay home if you have any illness signs (get a flu shot). The _people_ - not businesses, not governments - decided that they didn't like doing that. I'm STILL running across SOB's that refuse to wear a mask, and then stand too damned close to me. Usually to yell about how it's a conspiracy, and they don't need a damned mask, etc.
BTW - comparing it to the flu? Made perfect sense. The exact same way to treat it. Stay away from people, wash your hands regularly, don't touch your face, and get a flu shot. It's not the flu, but you treat avoiding it the same way.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Fauci
Well like Jill said below, that was early on when not enough was known about the virus and the messaging was uneven. It was underplayed in some quarters due to fear of being accused of overreacting and causing Economic damage (there is that money thing again).
Later on billionaires started hiring their own 'grassroots' protesters like that notorious one in Michigan that turned out to be organized by one. I have no doubt our traditional enemies like Russia has joined into the fray in social media to sow FUD.
The death toll is a solid statistic in my opinion, why is that not sufficient?
What will it take to convince the deniers that this is real? A youtube video of each and every 300000 deaths and what they go through before they die?
People seem to be demanding hard data proof with with 6 sigma uncertainty and that is not going to happen. This is one situation where one just have to give the benefit of the doubt to others' needs. That is what I am saying.
Well, one of the problems is
Well, one of the problems is that there are groups of the "Economically disadvantaged" who also fall into a racial group that seems to have a disproportionate infection rate. Those groups already distrust anything from the 'gummint', but yet are prone to believe in "The man in the pub said". Oddly enough, poorer people often have tighter family groups, so trying to tell them that 'memaw' can't watch the kids while the parents work, is extremely hard. Not to mention the multi-family meals on Sunday (and other days). They end up being incubation hot spots, then spreaders.
I don't know if there's a way to fix it, other than starting up some alternate rumour like 'The government doesn't want you to get vaccinated because it means you'll take more benefits from the broke social security"
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
You are of course correct.
Thank you for holding me accountable on politics.
In an apartment building with 170 units, I think that we have had around two deaths and no one told me that they were owing to Covid 19. My own health is very compromised by COPD but even that seems to respond to therapeutic efforts like Inhalers and exercise. Cigarette smoke, Cologne, and household cleaners really set that off. I used to love sitting around a camp fire, but not now.
Peace.
Gwen
Unfortunately the hype is real just like the boy who cried WOLF
I don't deny the dangers of covid, especially for those at risk. I'm a school bus driver. I've been out every day since the start of the school year (except for a 3 week break at the holidays. Not one of our 80+ drivers has tested positive. The media presents everything as if it was a world ending catastrophe. They are constantly crying WOLF! They go from one crisis to another, never admitting they overhyped the last. They have many people terrified of their own shadows.
We need real reporting with accurate follow-ups.
Boys will be girls... if they're lucky!
Jennifer Sue
Different people are effected differently.......
Due to genetics and their individual immune response. Geography also plays a large part in it - if you live in a more densely populated area, as well as an area which sees a high percentage of transient population (keep in mind that New York City is not only the single biggest tourist attraction in the US, but is also a major travel and freight hub), then you are much more likely to be exposed. Also, the higher the population, the higher the chances of interaction between people.
Those who live in rural areas or the so-called fly-over states are much less liable to be exposed due to less interaction with outside populations.
There are multiple essential workers in my family - my three sons include a teacher, a Detective Sergeant for the Sheriff’s Department, and my youngest works for the New York State Department of the Aged. My spouse is the Commissioner of Accounts for the city we live in, and I am VP of Logistics for a large retail company. We have all been working through the whole thing, and probably in areas with a much higher chance of exposure. Four of us have had Covid.
One thing to consider is that as a new virus we have no idea what the long term effects of exposure might be - even for those who are exposed but asymptomatic. Follow the link to read an article regarding evidence of scar tissue development in the lungs of those exposed to Covid. This is what we have yet to find out; who may think they are fine, only to find out down the road they have permanent damage to their body.
https://apple.news/AdOTVenalQGKl-IlE4Y4ETQ
Always remember, just because the danger isn’t on your doorstep doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It just means it hasn’t gotten there yet.
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
Borrowing a military maxim
It is always best to be cautious when dealing with an unknown enemy.
One does not know what its full capabilities, pretty much an unknown initially, are and to just go about blithely without true understanding can lead one into an ambush.
Covid is a Novel Virus with the ability to kill, just not all hosts.
Actually this will lead to Covid being a persistent thing as a disease that kills all its hosts cannot propagate.
We are in it for the long haul with this one.
The maxims for viruses are
The maxims for viruses are that viruses that cross into humans start off at maximum lethality, then mutate to become less lethal. With the length of time that humans have been dealing with most coronaviruses (1/2 to 2/3rds of the common cold, the rest being rhinovirus and adenovirus), we've put coronaviruses in a category of "just a nuisance for a few days".
The only way this could have been less destructive is if the various governments and organizations had allowed funding to create the initial vaccines for SARS in 2007, or even in MERS (that should have been the real warning). Instead, they got partway, then had to shelve them.
That's part of how they could create these vaccines so 'fast'. They were using what they'd already done 13 years ago.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Friend
A friend of mine is intubated and on life support right now. I think the stats are still hovering around 20% of cases have more significant symptoms. About 5% of cases end up hospitalized, and right now from confirmed stats only, the US is seeing a mortality rate of about 1.5%. (That's been pretty stable, decreased slightly) The question that I think people need to keep in mind is that in order to lose that taste/smell that about 70% of cases report, there's inflammation occurring in your nervous system. What long term effects continue past this? It's still too early to really know, but there are enough people continuing to experience symptoms down the road that avoiding it is the best course.
I've been exposed to numerous cases at this point, but fortunately masking/distancing seems to be keeping me from catching it.
Glad you had milder symptoms, but remember you can catch it again. It seems a bit more common for the less symptomatic individuals to get reinfected as well. The real problem with this bug though is it's way too contagious, and not deadly enough to burn itself out. Hoping the vaccines get rolled out quickly here.
Covid killed my mother on May
Covid killed my mother on May 23; it is listed on her death certificate. I was going to post photo of her bag of ashes but elected to not do so.
Be cautious. Be prudent. Be reasonable. We're all in this together.
Dee
Donna
My brother-in-law is dead
It's real.
FWIW, 1 friend dead, dentist dead,
and several others that I know have been sick with it described it like you did, so ymmv. Friend had had heart issues and was older, same as dentist. That said, lost 2 close friends to cancer last year, too. Meantime I am staying home hiding with no immune system to speak of, most of the comorbidities, trying to keep away from the virus
Thank you for sharing this
My middle daughter had it in January 2020, two nephews are currently recovering from it, and my oldest daughter’s father-in-law was hospitalized for it.
Please recover, and drink plenty of dihydrogen monoxide.
Voldy
The flames...
... are afire. The post and 21 comments within the past few hours, or since I last checked in here.
I'm not sure I want to read them.
-- Daphne Xu
The Experts Are Not Lying
While I understand how the news world is making $billions by stirring controversy I also understand that Covid didn't come with an owner's manual.
The Experts have had to build the airplane in the air while they were flying. The controversy stirrers have had a field day going back and taking shots at Fouci for saying not everyone needs a mask. That was early on when there was a huge mask shortage and he was saying that it was more important for hospital workers to have them than the man on the street. The world knows a lot more today than it did last March.
All you have to do is look at the number of deaths annually for the last several years and note the predictable trend and number. Then look at the number of deaths in 2020. The increase clearly matches what is being attributed to Covid.
It's all relative. As they say, a recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. 350,000 deaths is a catastrophe in my estimation. I plead with my family to take it seriously.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
I'm going to jump in here
While I live in a small community (about 2500) I'm just a mere 45 minute drive from the major metropolitan area in Oregon. I have many friends who live in and work in the metro area and my daughter's family live in that area as well. My daughter and granddaughter were "exposed" to Covid-19. They were never tested and showed no symptoms, not even mild.
I'm sure that Covid-19 is real and it's more severe than the usual kinds of flu we deal with. That said, I'm also sure that the vast majority of people who are exposed will shake it off with little or no noticeable symptoms and even a large majority will manage to survive the pandemic without being exposed. However, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be concerned.
Data, true, accurate data, is hard to come by. There has been a lively discussion on the Facebook groups associated with my small town. Every time someone quotes statistics put out by CDC or other medical authorities, other people put out seemingly contradictory stats from other authorities.
One such is that the overall death toll for 2020 wasn't any worse than for 2019. What with Facebook's penchant for "fact checking" I expected to see that stat squashed, but no one challenged it. I still don't know how accurate it was or is.
As a person, I'm as sure as anyone can be that I won't be exposed, and if I am I'm sure that in all likelihood I'll be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. I personally feel no great dread of the virus. But, while I don't think I really need it and don't really like the idea of going to the trouble (I routinely forgo flu vaccines even at age 75) I've decided that when given the opportunity, I'll go ahead and get the vaccine. I say this because the only way we can hope to approach returning to normalcy it to achieve herd immunity. That means over 70 percent of the population needs to have had Covid-19 and recovered or get the vaccine. So, I'll do, my part to end the madness and take my chances with the vaccine and up the numbers needed to achieve herd immunity.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Deadly
I lost a brother, a cousin and a couple acquaintances. If you don’t take this seriously you are making a mistake. I talked to some younger people and their symptoms were mild but when you get older it can be very deadly. I am finally on a list for vaccination but it is a lottery system so I may or may not be chosen soon. This virus is deadlier than the flu and it will, like the common cold, never completely go away. Like the cold and flu it will mutate and evolve so we may have to get vaccinated along with flu shots each autumn. Everyone wear your masks so you don’t inadvertently kill someone like me.
COVID-19
Assessing fact from fiction about this virus is complex. We have the Trump government approved statements, we have data from the CDC, we have facts from Qanon, we have data from other nations. We have reports through WHO, we have media reports. The salt for the tales tail seems to be what gain can each source get from their reported facts?
NPR news seems least tied to profit by sensationalizing. Health department data has to be salted by state politics. Some state officials have pressured their health departments to massage the data to support policy.
Mortality seems to be fairly reliable. Morbidity much less so. (Here morbidity is used to include both who gets sick as well as how sick they get.
No effort to massage influenza data is apparent. The two mortality numbers would suggest the best virulence comparison.
To sum it up: Yes COVID-19 is a very real problem. The virulence appears much greater than influenza. It seems reasonable to be concerned about anecdotal reports of long illness and recovery times as well as crippling effects for some. No need to panic, but standard airborne precautions and social distancing as advised are a reasonable idea.
We know more than we did a year ago. By next year we’ll know even more.
BAK 0.25tspgirl
I'm glad your experience of it was mild, Dallas.
However, sadly there are thousands who have died from it or its effects. We have readers who are suffering from long-covid. There are people who believe everything is some sort of conspiracy from autism to xenophobia, it isn't it is real and it could kill you. Take precautions and you might avoid it.
Angharad