Coronavirus Updates

Brenda Archer

Brenda Archer

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bubblesort said:
The more I read about this, the more I find myself believing things I am not certain of, for one reason or another, because the authorities are horrible at communicating.

Why are they so bad? Look at the symptoms list from the CDC:

Fever
Coughing
Trouble Breathing

I have absolutely no idea what trouble breathing could mean. Does the neck constrict? Do the chest muscles constrict? Am I out of breath like I just ran a marathon, because the blood oxygen levels get low? Does fluid build up in the lungs? Is this like ebola, where lungs hemorrhage and fill with blood? WTF is going on? (unofficial sources seem to say corona basically causes pneumonia)

After that... what's the path that the disease takes? Do I get coughing first, then fever, then breathing problems, or do I just wake up unable to breathe normally one morning, and then get a fever? This is important stuff. The CDC is silent on this. (unofficial sources give timelines like this)

For treatment, what should I take? I have zero medical training. I just got tylenol for fever, nyquil for coughing, and mucinex for trouble breathing. I decided on these treatments on my own, without any medical training, because government officials are, again, silent.

So we have to go to less reliable sources than the CDC and the WHO, because those organizations aren't giving us anything to work with. The problem with less reliable sources is I'm second guessing myself on everything. The best solution to that is probably cunnighham's law.

So at the risk of embarrassing myself, I'm going to throw out a lot of stuff I believe right now, and why I believe it, and you guys can maybe tell me where I"m wrong? People here seem to love to tell each other they're wrong, so it's a good forum for that, right?

Here goes...

1. Corona is airborne. An expert on Joe Rogan said that some German doctors observed some people as the disease developed. They said that the virus multiplied in the throat to such an extent that the virus infects the air around the person. That's why the cruise ships were so thoroughly infected. (I know, it's Joe Rogan, his show isn't the most reliable, but his guest, Michael Osterholm, looks legit)

2. Children carry the disease without displaying symptoms, turning them all into little typhoid Marys. That's from the same Rogan interview as #1.

3. 50-75% of all coronavirus cases are asymptomatic. The source is me using auto-translate on an article in an Italian newspaper called La Republica. I'm not Italian, so I don't know if that's a tabloid or a paper of record. More than 50% of the population turning into typhoid marys is pretty scary.

4. COVAD-19 lives on surfaces for hours, not days. This is from a YouTuber named Doctor Mike. I instinctively distrust doctors who use their title and first name, instead of their title and surname. At the same time, there is a lot of conflicting information out there about how long COVAD-19 can live on various surfaces, and this guy seems credible to me. I live with an 86 year old woman, so every day, I'm putting our mail in plastic zip lock bags and keeping it there for 24 hours before opening it. I do the same thing with cash. I don't know if 24 hours is overkill or not long enough, but I think it's a reasonable amount of time to wait.

5. Anti-inflammatory drugs (AKA NSAIDs) make corona worse. This comes from The Guardian, citing the French government, through twitter. Science journalism is usually garbage, but when the information is filtered that many times, I don't know if it's any better than word of mouth rumors. Still, I don't have anything refuting it.

6. I generally don't believe people who say masks are not helpful. I wear latex gloves and a mask whenever I go out, and they can laugh if they want. I think it probably gives a marginal benefit, even if it just stops me from touching my face. The basic principles of marginal benefits should be taught in schools.
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This is one person’s experience of “shortness of breath” from lung causes (mine).

Ventilation is the ability of the lung tissue to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the air. This can be affected by pneumonia or something like COPD. Perfusion is the ability to get oxygen and carbon dioxide into/out of the blood and circulate it. This can be affected by problems like pulmonary embolism or heart disease.

When you’re short of breath, you can get one or more of the following:

Heavy or labored breathing
Tightness or pain in the chest
Can feel like “not enough air”
Heart rate going up significantly, may feel like racing or pounding
Fatigue (which can accumulate)
Dizziness
I get an effect I informally call “woozy”
Unclear thinking
The feeling you could faint if you don’t rest
You might also actually faint (syncope)

You can get a pulse oximeter over the counter because pilots use them, or have a doctor prescribe one. It’s small and goes over a finger. It shows you if your blood oxygen is lower than normal. If you see this and especially if you have any of the other symptoms call an ambulance. I actually drove myself to the hospital with a mediocre ox, but that’s not going to be safe enough for all situations. Unclear thinking is insidious (why pilots use pulse oximeters).

Pneumonia and bronchitis make you cough up a storm. Coughing is good - get that crap out (why people take guaifenesin, but ask a doctor), but coughing itself is not shortness of breath, and you can have shortness of breath without coughing. If I had coughing and shortness of breath too, that’s one more sign.

You can get a watch or wrist monitor to show heart rate. I wore one of these after my first PE to help see when it was time to rest. It meant my heart was working harder trying to circulate gases, and some heart rate increase can be good (exercise) too much too often requires a doctor (probably a cardiologist).

If I get significantly SOB right now I don’t know if it’s coronavirus, some other pneumonia, pulmonary embolism or diastolic dysfunction. This is why I cling to my health insurance by any means possible, even though I look pretty good doing very light activities. This is an example of how expecting Americans to go without healthcare until they literally keel over is pure, unmitigated cruelty.

We could have a revolution over it.

Breathing Problems | Shortness of Breath | MedlinePlus
 
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Bartholomew Gallacher

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bubblesort: look, the symptoms the CDC describes are quite well known and understood. If you've got real troubles to understand this an explanation in a forum probably will always be a little bit vague for you, and therefore insufficient.

Aside that my willingness to help people displaying passive aggressions the way you did is always very thin:

"So we have to go to less reliable sources than the CDC and the WHO, because those organizations aren't giving us anything to work with. The problem with less reliable sources is I'm second guessing myself on everything. The best solution to that is probably cunnighham's law.

So at the risk of embarrassing myself, I'm going to throw out a lot of stuff I believe right now, and why I believe it, and you guys can maybe tell me where I"m wrong? People here seem to love to tell each other they're wrong, so it's a good forum for that, right? "

That's for sure by any standard not the proper way to ask a community for help, which community does not matter. And this depleted my willingness for now to add something to this topic; maybe others have more fun in doing so, I'm out for the moment.
 
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Kamilah Hauptmann

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Bartholomew Gallacher said:
That's for sure by any standard not the proper way to ask a community for help, which community does not matter. And this depleted my willingness for now to add something to this topic; maybe others have more fun in doing so, I'm out for the moment.
Click to expand...
One douchebag gonna stop you? Use the ignore button if you need to and keep on trucking.
 
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Fionalein

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bubblesort said:
5. Anti-inflammatory drugs (AKA NSAIDs) make corona worse. This comes from The Guardian, citing the French government, through twitter. Science journalism is usually garbage, but when the information is filtered that many times, I don't know if it's any better than word of mouth rumors. Still, I don't have anything refuting it.
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Errr, the body naturaly concentrates blood in infection areas. The white blood cells then do their work and that is what causes the inflammation. You do not want to suppress inflammations by default - it is like placing traffic bumps in front of paramedic vehicles. Why should putting a break to the immune response be beneficial, unless immune response is going out of control?
 
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Jolene Benoir

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Fionalein

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Jolene Benoir said:
Interesting. I suppose my AB+ is vulnerable to that as well.
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In most cases I can think of: Yes, either as bad, or somewhere in between, but I would have to need to take a closer look at the mechanism behind the vulnerability. It also could be something different alltogether (like bloodgroup A being more widespread in a certain ethnic group, which also has a higher occurance chance of some other biofactor that is beneficial the virus - correlation does not always mean causality). Data like this really needs some further looks and interpretation or halftruths gleaned from it can do more harm than help.
 
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Kara Spengler

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Beebo Brink said:
The idea that blood type could affect a specific person's reaction to the virus is intriguing and worth further study, but this is clearly very preliminary data and shouldn't be interpreted as predictive of the outcome for anyone yet.
Click to expand...
Yes, it could be causative or just a statistical fluke.
 
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Isabeau

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Jopsy Pendragon said:
Sadly the one gun nut I know is likely stocking up on ammo and guns so that no one will come and take... his ammo and guns.

It's not like he has much else of value.
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Seriously, I don’t really understand how this happens every time something dire happens, which seems to happen a few times a year. How many guns do these people need? You get one (2?) then you’re pretty much set for life, no? I know zilch about guns, are they made to last only a limited time? Don’t they already have guns at home? How can there be line ups?
 
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