COVID-19 detected in United States

[Brice]

I don't know about corona as much as y'all may do but, some of these "new" symptoms are questionable. A headache is a symptom? Are you actually kidding me? So apparently if you have a headache you have corona. It can't be from a migraine? I'm taking the virus seriously but come on. Now IF you get a symptom before the headache then yeah, you may have it. I can agree with this and I can disagree about it.

 

[KoD]

I don't know about corona as much as y'all may do but, some of these "new" symptoms are questionable. A headache is a symptom? Are you actually kidding me? So apparently if you have a headache you have corona. It can't be from a migraine? I'm taking the virus seriously but come on. Now IF you get a symptom before the headache then yeah, you may have it. I can agree with this and I can disagree about it.

What do you mean? Who is perpetuating the idea that a random headache could be covid-19?
Just off the top of the head, a headache can be a result of dehydration secondary to infection. Or hundreds of other things. A symptom is something you can experience with a disease process. Nobody should believe they have covid-19 if they have a headache but it's certainly a possible symptom. You can have a fever, dry cough, weakness and shortness of breath and not have covid-19. On the other hand you could have mild malaise or nothing at all and be infected with SARS-CoV-2

Headache seems undoubtedly like a possible symptom but it's not remotely useful for diagnosis.

 

[Jacob]

Glad to see places like Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia (among others) opening back up. I'm hopeful that Governer MeeMaw will let Alabama mostly open back up on Friday.

I hope these states don't give into the media pressure when they start seeing an increase of cases after opening back up (which is expected, though not guarenteed). Hopefully with the help of summer, being mostly open but limiting certain types of gathering/crowds will help everything get back to close to normal.

 

[Kory]

Here comes the meat shortages...several large processing plants are shutting down.

 

[Brice]

• Chills
• Repeated shaking with chills
• Muscle pain
• Headache
• Sore throat
• New loss of taste or smell

So I should've said a headache is a potential early symptom, sorry, but these are the 6 new potential symptoms that can be mild to severe.


My info came from this link:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/watch-out-for-these-six-new-coronavirus-symptoms-2020-04-27

 

[skelly]

Here comes the meat shortages...several large processing plants are shutting down.

Better to raise or hunt your own meat, or buy directly from a farmer.

 

[Kory]

Not much is changing with Kay Ivey's new order. Cool.

 

[Mike S]

So Birmingham is criminalizing leaving the house without a mask. Potential for a $500 fine. Stars May 1st.

I have thoughts. Boy do I have thoughts. But in the interest of keeping this a fact based, informative thread I'm just going to share the article.

Masks or face coverings are required in all public places in Birmingham effective May 1.

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday morning approved the ordinance requiring face coverings for all 2 and older.

You’re not required to wear a mask when exercising outdoors, but a mask is required if you’re “encountering and interacting with groups of other people in a park or other public place.”


While children 2 and older are required to wear a mask, the ordinance recognizes a mask can cause a choking hazard for young children. The ordinance suggests parents and guardians use a stroller with a covering so children can breathe freely. It suggests keeping children who don’t want to wear a mask at home.

Birmingham makes it law: Masks required

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin asked that all 2 and older wear face coverings in public in Birmingham.

www.al.com

 

[Kory]

We need some form of normalcy. This will help.

University of Alabama planning to reopen in the fall

The UA system will return to campus for instruction barring any issues that might arise from COVID-19.

www.al.com

 

[ghost]

Researchers at Oxford with some hopeful news...

In Race for a Coronavirus Vaccine, an Oxford Group Leaps Ahead (Published 2020)

As scientists at the Jenner Institute prepare for mass clinical trials, new tests show their vaccine to be effective in monkeys.

www.nytimes.com

 

[ghost]

Could Remdesivir be the "Tamiflu" for COVID-19?

 

[KoD]

Could Remdesivir be the "Tamiflu" for COVID-19?

Certainly could be, only tamiflu was heavily stocked and distributed to pharmacies all over the country for H1N1. I remember finding boxes of the stuff back in the early-mid 2010s about to expire and the pharmacist told me it was from from the swine flu pandemic and never used. I don't think tamiflu is very useful nor do I think remdesivir will be either. It has shown promise with other coronaviruses though so it's been the only thing on my radar since this whole thing got started. Only time and diligent science will tell.
I don't expect any silver bullet though when it comes to viruses. They're so primitive and invasive that it's hard to find something that disrupts their function without disturbing the natural processes in living cells.

 

[Evan]

Personally, I don't believe anyone (including myself) truly knows what is the right answer for when states should loosen some of their COVID related restrictions. Nor am I certain as to whether some states already should've loosened OR tightened their restrictions.

Too many variables. States and their economies/populations are too different. This is a novel virus and its impacts are still not fully understood or realized. We are rapidly learning more about the virus, potential treatments, and improving our epidemiological modeling, but none of those things are currently able to give us the certainty that we crave.

I believe public health experts are doing the best they can. It is unfortunate that this situation has turned into yet another wedge political issue. It really shouldn't be, but I guess that's simply a sign of our current society, culture, and political system.

I think state-level or community-based restrictions are only part of what controls how people are actually responding to the virus. Human psychology is complex stuff, and I think there's plenty of people that exist that will never take any precautions and others that will err on the EXTREME side of caution irrespective of what our government says or does.

I wish I had a crystal ball or even an educated guess as to when our country will be able to return to a sense of normalcy, but all I've learned over the past two months is how little I truly know and how complicated all of this really is. Sure, I have opinions -- just like most people do, but I'm not confident enough about most of them to even consider them worth sharing.

What I do know, however, is that our country will get through this eventually. We humans are dynamic, creative, and amazingly organized organisms. As Americans, we take those base characteristics and amplify them even further.

Even though I remain optimistic, that doesn't mean that any of us should ignore the mistakes that have been made or forget the lessons that we are learning. This is a generational event -- I certainly won't say it has restored my faith in humanity, it hasn't -- but I do think it will eventually lead to a number of positive outcomes.

Hopefully we can balance those positives against a proper retrospective of the contrasting negatives and costs that we incurred. If I have one predominant fear, it is that we will forget the things we should have learned and remembered, and draw the wrong conclusions about what was important and what wasn't. Balance is important, yet we often seem to forget that. We let our historical perspectives be driven by slanted narratives and the benefit of hindsight instead of improving our outcomes by learning from the past.

Maybe my optimism is more short-term than long-term? Maybe it doesn't even matter if we're all just living in a computer simulation!

 

[skelly]

I’ve been wondering about Africa, still am, but this is an interesting article.

Low Covid-19 death toll raises hopes Africa may be spared worst | Free to read

Continent has limited confirmed virus fatalities but experts warn it is too early to draw conclusions

www.ft.com

 

[Kory]

I honestly don't remember Tamiflu being that effective when I had the flu in early 2018. I definitely started taking it when I went to a clinic and tested positive for influenza the day after my symptoms began. Honestly, I didn't feel normal until about a month later getting the flu...between the first several days of laying in bed and not moving due to aches and fatigue (the most bizarre symptom was by eyeballs hurting when I looked around) to bronchitis that lasted for weeks after.

Now, I heard Relenza for influenza that people said it helped cut their illness down by a few days.

 

[Jacob]

(the most bizarre symptom was by eyeballs hurting when I looked around)

Oddly I get that sensation anytime I have a high fever, I remember it multiple times growing up when I was sick.

Now, I heard Relenza for influenza that people said it helped cut their illness down by a few days.

I'm not sure on Relenza, but the Dr. that I took my wife to see in late February said that Xofluza was working like a miracle drug among his patients compared to Tamiflu. He claimed a lot of his patients were symptom free 48-72 hours after starting it.

 

[ghost]

I honestly don't remember Tamiflu being that effective when I had the flu in early 2018. I definitely started taking it when I went to a clinic and tested positive for influenza the day after my symptoms began. Honestly, I didn't feel normal until about a month later getting the flu...between the first several days of laying in bed and not moving due to aches and fatigue (the most bizarre symptom was by eyeballs hurting when I looked around) to bronchitis that lasted for weeks after.

Now, I heard Relenza for influenza that people said it helped cut their illness down by a few days.

I missed my flu shot this year for the first time in 25 yrs and I got Flu A in Feb. I started Tamiflu about 24 hrs after my fever began and 24 hrs after I started it my fever left me. I was diagnosed on a Tuesday and I went to a men's church event that Friday evening that I had helped organize. My Dr said I could go after I had been fever free for 48 hrs. I still felt fatigued for about a week after I was diagnosed and I carried a lingering cough for several weeks. I believe Tamiflu helped me because the last time I had the flu back in the 90's, I remember being in bed with fever for a week. I had a friend get prescribed Relenza and they had good results too. I understand with either medicine if you wait past 48 hrs after the onset of symptoms that neither help very much.

 

[bjdeming]

Just read Oregon's plan for opening up the state (PDF download from https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19 ) . I suppose something like this is the only alternative to mandatory masks, but I don't like it. There's too much historical precedent for bad things happening when such a detailed plan is unrolled, calls are made for hundreds of new workers to implement it, and this is stressed: "Isolation and quarantine are completely voluntary and non-punitive."

Don't think it will work, either. People in, say, South Korea go along with such things, but not here. I have begun wearing a mask, though it's not mandatory here, because that seems like a good way to transition back to normalcy. And most people weren't, when I went out for groceries this week, though they kept at a distance.

But for the first time in this crisis, I got scared after reading this of what would happen if I did develop symptoms. For the first time, I thought of not contacting medical people and getting treatment, hoping for the best at home.

Of course, I would immediately seek treatment because I'm sensible, responsible, and have 25 years of medical transcription behind me and know this is serious. Also I like the system and the people who work in it here and trust them not to abuse it.

In the short term. Over the long term, everybody ruins things -- it's human nature's darker side showing up. Most of history's nightmares began with honestly good intentions.

But now my post-1960s red-white-and-blue is ruffled and it will be a much tougher decision. I hope even more now that I don't get sick.

And I think they've just scared a whole bunch of people right out of the system.

Well, we'll see. Hopefully, there will be no steep rise of new cases in the states that are loosening up restrictions and everybody can relax some.

That's part of the genius behind our US system -- all sorts of different approaches can be tried by different states and eventually everyone benefits.

 

[Jacob]

Well the CDC threw a big juicy bone to plenty of conspiracy theorists last night.

They revised their death numbers and as of May 1, the CDC shows that the COVID-19 death toll in the US stands at....37k.

 

[gangstonc]

Well the CDC threw a big juicy bone to plenty of conspiracy theorists last night.

They revised their death numbers and as of May 1, the CDC shows that the COVID-19 death toll in the US stands at....37k.

That data does have a 1 to 8 week delay.