Corona Virus Now Spreading

Jem

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When I did the test, it was nasal. I don't know about other people, but it was pretty bad for me :ohwell:
Here in Ontario, we are doing the nasal too. It's just that I was watching the press conference update and one of the reporters asked our Premier why the saliva test which is less "invasive" can't be used. He compared the nasal test to someone trying to scrape your brain.
I think he was mostly asking for back to school, if kids were going to have to be tested, as the saliva test would be better for them. But the nasal test is much more effective and reliable, so I vote nasal all the way...I'm sure it's uncomfortable but from what I've heard from those I know who've been tested, it's done in seconds. They just go up, rub rub, out and done. A client of mine has to be tested every two weeks so he can go visit his mother in the nursing home, he's been tested 3 times so far.
 

Willowy

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Yes, it was nasal, and I had heard the "scraping your brain" thing so I was expecting it to be very unpleasant. But it was a very thin little swab and just tickled a bit.
 

artiemom

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I had the nasal swab Covid test also.. It was so weird.. While I would not call it painful, it was different.
Yes, it went back much further than I thought. It was weird having a brush, scraping your 'sinuses'...

My eyes and nose starting running, tearing, immediately. My sinuses were a bit clogged for the rest of the day.. but on the whole.. not bad.

I think my senior housing building is going to be part of a research study from the Brigham and Womans Hospital.
We will be offered the test again, along with a possible antibody screen--blood test.. I want the antibody screen. Personally, I feel that is more important to me. I can tell when I am sick with something. I just know it.

The verdict is still out on the saliva tests. It is less invasive; however, the results do seem to be inconclusive.. many false negatives... I would rather the nasal swab.
 

denice

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I just heard that the saliva test has a 90% accuracy. Not great but if it helps get more people tested then that is a good thing. It might be a good option if they ever start mass testing to find asymptomatic people.
 

goingpostal

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Cases are slowly rising in my little town, we've had one death now. There was no city 4th of July festivities but a local bar under new ownership had food trucks to draw in people and there was a small community run thing nearby. One owner of the bar was home sick that whole day, couldn't get out of bed and feverish. It's Covid they announce a week later. His bf, the other owner is now Covid positive as well. Owner of the local golf course (with a bar) and owner of a popular resort bar announced they are positive with it as well in the last couple days. All of these people are social butterflies so you can't tell me there aren't more cases on the way. There's probably about 2/3 of the town wearing masks but people are getting back together with family and friends too, I know several cases came directly from out of town. My supervisors parents both got it from a relative that came up for a visit, their cases were mild but their relative carrying it is on a ventilator now.
 

WillowMarie

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My friend who tested positive posted on facebook warning people to continue wearing masks and being hygenic, etc. She's feeling terrible and even though she is in her early twenties and considered low-risk, the illness is knocking her on her butt.

She said it started like a stomach flu, evolved into regular flu symptoms but about five times worse, and now super bad upper respiratory infection. She's never felt this bad before. She is on day 8 now.


One of her friends who posted on my friends post said she had it and only had one day of fever and body aches and another day or awful stuffy nose.
 

jcat

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Well, I thought I had it but tested negative. This is a bad cold though, I've never had one like this.

They're going to start testing the people who were at Mt Rushmore for the 4th of July. So that'll probably net a bunch of positive results.
I hate to say this, but I hope it wasn't a false negative. More than a few people have only tested positive on the second or third go.
 

Leomc123

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Well in December 2019 I went to a work party in the city, the next day I woke up with a headache that was pretty severe like I as if I was hit by a truck, I just put it down to drinking alcohol and felt very exhausted for the entire week, here in December is summer. Then two days later I wake up to having an eye infection which only infected one eye, this eye infection did not go away for 1 months. During December and January, I remember I would feel very lethargic for the whole month that I would fall asleep at the computer at 12 pm in the afternoon which is not normal for me and randomly throughout the day, I would feel also dizzy at times and out of breath when walking up the stairs. There was one particular day 1 week after celebrating new years eve in the city, it was a warm day around 28 degrees Celcius, but my body felt like as if I was on fire and I was sweating to the point that sweat was dripping down my face and I was feeling lethargic and my heart was racing, but I thought maybe I am just getting too hot in the house even though the cooler was on, that I took off in the car like a crazy person to the shops to buy a tub of ice cream to cool me off, for the next two weeks I was eating ice cream non stop to cool me down internally because I was feeling extremely hot all the time.

Then I returned to work on the second week of January at the end of this week on a Friday, I was sitting in the office feeling very feverish and out of it, I couldn't think properly and I was feeling nauseous and couldn't function in the office but I stayed for the whole day because I was thinking it might go away. I am a person who is considered cold-blooded by work staff and family and I always feel cold, even in the summertime which my parents think I am weird, but on this day I was begging for the air con to be put on. On Monday the following week, I went to work with a runny nose, I was sitting in the office blowing my nose constantly where I literally used up 5 boxes of tissues, my office bin was filled to the max and I even resorted to using toilet paper as I was going through office supplies at an embarrassing rate. I was coughing up a lot of phlegm non-stop which was white and cloudy, coughing a ridiculous amount non-stop, sneezing non-stop and I can say the sneeze is a different sneeze very strong sneeze which takes the energy out of you. The nasal spray saved me as it worked effectively in drying up my nose, but I had to keep using it. I also lost my sense of smell and taste, I remember for a few weeks food tasted really bland even though my nose was not stuffy because I was using the nasal spray. This went on for 4 months straight, I bought so much cough depressants 5 bottles to help me stop coughing and used 5 bottles of nasal spray to clear up my nose, used tonnes of tissues, took paracetamol a lot I went through 4 packets. My lungs felt like as if someone was sitting on my chest and it was hard to take a breath at times and I would feel a rip in my lung every time I would breathe or cough like as if the fluid was in there and I couldn't get it out. I also had these sharp zaps in my head which would happen randomly like maybe a few times a day probably around three times at the most.

I also remember having a sharp pain in my right eye just under the brow bone and behind the eyeball and above the brow bone and there was also a weird pressure there.

My left eye had the eye infection with a cyst that wouldn't go away for 1 month straight and went away after using all the antibiotic cream ointments, antibiotic eye drops, using isopropyl wipes to no avail and until I surgically stabbed it with a needle to get the infection out cause I had enough. When the eye infection finally went away after one week. Then I noticed my left eye and right eye this whole time was always red and bloodshot in the outer corner of the eyes, always burning, so I again used eye drops to clear the redness. Then again a month after this I got the infection again in my left eye, my vision was blurry in both eyes for 3 months straight, I kept cleaning my glasses thinking it's my glasses may be scratched, but something was wrong with my eyes. Driving at night was very difficult as the glare from the car headlights made my vision worse. This is all up until April and May.

In June and July, I feel fine, no flu or virus symptoms, no coughing, sneezing, I have my taste. My eyes feel normal there is no blurry vision at all when reading at the computer during the day and night, but at night when driving I still get the glare which I never had before. I also feel strange in the mind and I also feel some lethargy at times, I feel slower in thinking and in movements, I feel something is wrong even though I feel better than I did since January.

I never have been tested for the COVID 19 virus but whatever it was and I am sure it was some virus, it was full-on and was hard to shake off. I don't know what the hell it was.
 

NY cat man

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I finally felt safe enough to visit my older brother, and he told of his covid experience. His daughter-in-law, who has been undergoing treatment for cancer, had it, but she was really sick for only 2 days. His son and grandchildren tested positive, but were never symptomatic. Just prior to her illness, they had been over to my brother's house for his 80th birthday, but he never got sick. Neither did her 89 year old father, who lives with them, although he did test positive. It's funny how some people die, others get deathly sick, and for others it's a nothingburger, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
 

NY cat man

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The thing is, according to all I've heard on the news, my brother and Wendy's father should be prime candidates for the mortuary, given their ages- of course, my brother seems to be made up of whalebone and rawhide, but Wendy's father isn't. I'm left asking myself how much of what is on the tv is real and how much is 'scare the bejazzus out of 'em'.
 

denice

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That huge difference in how it affects people is so perplexing. It would be good if they could definitively figure out the why of it. The only firm thing seems to be for some reason, don't know why, people with Type A blood are more likely to become seriously ill. That has to be genetic in nature. The only thing that has been found that they know the why is that smokers are less likely to get seriously ill then nonsmokers. Smokers have a lower level of the enzyme that the virus needs to invade and take over cells. They don't publicize that one much because it certainly does not justify picking up the habit.

I know the 'virus load' the amount of the virus that someone takes in when they are first exposed would have something to do with it. The only virus in recent memory that has been a little like this is the Hong Kong flu. It spread a lot because some people had such mild symptoms that they didn't think they had it, they though they just had a cold so they didn't stay home. People weren't completely asymptomatic though.
 

Jem

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It's funny how some people die, others get deathly sick, and for others it's a nothingburger, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.
I've been trying to piece together all the information I've gathered about this virus. And I have a theory. It all boils down to if the person has a balanced immune system and which side of the immune system is suppressed or reactive. I've studied the immune system (even before this virus) and whether someone is TH1 or TH2 dominant combined with the new information about the inflammatory response some people get, does help explain....to a degree. But then of course, risk factors outside the immune system compounds the confusion. The reason I am focused on our immune response is because of the studies about vitamin D and the fact that those who are passing from this that would have "seemed" otherwise healthy, is all due to a severe inflammatory response.
"They" need to start being specific about what people are actually dying from and not just saying "covid". Passing from "covid-19" is very different from passing from "complications" from covid-19.
I also wish they would be more consistent with their reports on this virus.
The novel coronavirus (SARS CoV-2) and Covid-19 are different. And I would like to know where the inflammatory blood vessel condition and blood clots fall in the mix.
 

LTS3

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I get the non-invasive nasal test done at work every week. It doesn't hurt but irritates a little.
 

denice

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I think it definitely comes down to the immune response, the same was true of the Spanish Flu all those years ago. I think a lot of people with serious illness actually involves the immune response. I think the high death rate among the elderly is a red herring, very elderly people can end up dying from a common cold. This huge difference in serious illness vs mild illness among people who are not elderly or have underlying health conditions is where the key to this virus as far as people go lies. It isn't even about general health, people with a healthy lifestyle get seriously ill while people who are sedentary, smoke and have a lousy diet get mildly ill. Figuring out the why of this is the key.
 

Jem

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Figuring out the why of this is the key.
But that's where the TH1 and TH2 dominance of the immune system comes into play. Someone can seem healthy but still have an imbalanced immune system.
For example. Someone who rarely ever gets sick (and has no known underlying conditions) would think they have a great immune system, when in fact that in itself could mean they are mildly TH1 dominant. And because this is a new virus, even a TH1 dominant will be susceptible to contracting this virus because TH1 dominance doesn't mean immunity. And when/if they contract it, that TH1 dominance causes the immune system to over react causing the inflammatory response that could kill them.
The why of the imbalanced immune system has many factors like stress, nutrition, vitamin and mineral deficiency, gut flora etc...
Of course this is only one aspect, but one I find very interesting and compelling.

I'm not downplaying the effectiveness of this virus, but I really believe that the timing of this virus with how our society is today, is playing a HUGE factor. But further discussion on that I think goes into the IMO thread. 🙂
 

Willowy

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I hate to say this, but I hope it wasn't a false negative.
Bleh. Well, I can't stay home from work with a negative test so if it is a false negative I guess I'll be spreading it around. Seriously, the American system is NOT conducive to containing a pandemic.
I'm left asking myself how much of what is on the tv is real and how much is 'scare the bejazzus out of 'em'.
Don't get complacent. My dad likes to say the same thing but he's already lost a couple classmates to it (because my parents grew up overseas, their classmates are scattered all over the US). He'll probably keep saying that until he or one of his local buddies dies or gets very sick from it, then it'll be the worst thing to ever befall humanity :rolleyes2: .



I have heard that people with type O blood are less likely to have complications. I wonder what's up with that. But I did read something interesting: that because Native Americans almost all have type O blood, but the ethnic groups they descend from have more of a mix, maybe there was a similar sorting disease in the Americas that weeded out the other types at some other point in history. But only in the Americas because every other place has a fairly even mix of A and O with some B/AB. (That has nothing to do with COVID-19; I just thought it was interesting :D.)
 
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