Coronavirus (No politics)

I think that the likelihood of the PCR test giving a false negative for symptomatic individuals is very very low. However false negatives have been a problem for asymptomatic individuals.
The CDC has struggled with the testing since day 1. I think there’s still so much we don’t know or assume about this virus that years from now we will still be taking about it.
 
My test for Covid-19 was negative. Me nor the dr knows what we had. I guess that ends the updates. Thanks everyone for your well wishes during this time.

Could it have been severe allergy cold? I guess that doesnt make sense if wife had it too.

Glad you are doing better.
 
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State finally added private negatives to their totals 94% negative rate
View attachment 268025

Hopefully that rate stays relatively consistent. Granted its going to depend on where the bulk of the positives are but I would think hospitals can manage 6% positive rate if only a fraction of that need urgent care.
 
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It seems most symptomatic people are being told to not bother with a test and only those with pre-existing conditions or those that are older are being tested. Doctors - if that’s wrong, please correct me. But I now know 6 symptomatic individuals and the only one who was told to come take a test was the one with hypertension and diabetes.

If this is true I’m curious how it will begin to skew the results.
 
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It seems most symptomatic people are being told to not bother with a test and only those with prejudice-existing conditions or those that are older are being tested. Doctors - if that’s wrong, please correct me. But I now know 6 symptomatic individuals and the only one who was told to come take a test was the one with hypertension and diabetes.

If this is true I’m curious how it will begin to skew the results.
It tells me the severity of this might not be as high as many thought.
 
It tells me the severity of this might not be as high as many thought.

I think that looking at hospitalization numbers and scaling those might be best bet now. People that need to be in a hospital are still able to be so it basically would allow for projections on when hospitals might be overwhelmed without being skewed by testing.

Because if the virus less fatal but more easily spread (which is how missing cases in testing would skew the real data) it still results in roughly the same number of hospitalizations. Although herd immunity is built faster in that scenario - so ultimately a better outcome.
 
Currently in Indiana there is around 375 cases and 12 deaths. Supposedly all the deaths have been adults over the age of 60. Illinois has nearly 1,500 cases.
 
Currently in Indiana there is around 375 cases and 12 deaths. Supposedly all the deaths have been adults over the age of 60. Illinois has nearly 1,500 cases.
It’s crazy how high the Indiana death rate is compared to other states with similar case numbers.

Less testing in Indiana (meaning not counting those with mild to moderate symptoms) vs. Indiana patients dying at a higher rate??

I’m starting to think that the only numbers we can really make sense of are those actually DEAD of/with COVID-19 and those HOSPITALIZED with COVID-19. And we don’t have reliable (or easily retrieved) figures for the second group.

Without a consistent percentage of people tested, we simply can’t get a grip on how widespread it is and how lethal it is.

Note that I am not saying that it’s maybe the same as flu; I’m saying that we don’t know how MUCH WORSE it is than flu. Because it is worse, a whole lot worse. Those saying otherwise are just whistling past the graveyard.
 
It seems most symptomatic people are being told to not bother with a test and only those with pre-existing conditions or those that are older are being tested. Doctors - if that’s wrong, please correct me. But I now know 6 symptomatic individuals and the only one who was told to come take a test was the one with hypertension and diabetes.

If this is true I’m curious how it will begin to skew the results.

will make it look more severe with a higher death rate and reduce the number of "recovered".

I assume they don't want the risk of mild cases spreading to HC workers but it definitely messes with the data. If we have the tests we should be administering the tests. So much of the decision making is "data-driven" they tell us but this process guarantees the data is deficient.

S.Korea seems to be best practice and IIRC they were testing massively and being much more selective in how they mitigate the spread
 
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Could it have been severe allergy cold? I guess that doesnt make sense if wife had it too.

Glad you are doing better.

It was not a cold, I get those every year and have already had two this year. Not allergies since I am currently suffering from those now. They tested me for flu and it was not that. I have never been that sick nor that type of sick in my life. Originally the Nurse Practitioner thought it was Covid-19 leading to why I was tested. But it turns out we were all wrong. When I got my results I asked the nurse practitioner what she thought it might have been and she said some type of viral pneumonia.

My two theories right now are the test was a false negative and we had it. Second, my wife's work is currently suffering from a severe rat infestation and they are having to clean up a lot of rat waste. One of the viruses from rats has the same symptoms as viral pneumonia and covid-19. This is a weak theory since that rat virus is not passed person to person so it would be really rare that I would have been infected too. But I do the laundry so if it was on her clothes/shoes I technically could have gotten it when I was sorting clothes and loading the washing machine.
 
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It was not a cold, I get those every year and have already had two this year. Not allergies since I am currently suffering from those now. They tested me for flu and it was not that. I have never been that sick nor that type of sick in my life. Originally the Nurse Practitioner thought it was Covid-19 leading to why I was tested. But it turns out we were all wrong. When I got my results I asked the nurse practitioner what she thought it might have been and she said some type of viral pneumonia.

My two theories right now are the test was a false positive and we had it. Second, my wife's work is currently suffering from a severe rat infestation and they are having to clean up a lot of rat waste. One of the viruses from rats has the same symptoms as viral pneumonia and covid-19. This is a weak theory since that rat virus is not passed person to person so it would be really rare that I would have been infected too. But I do the laundry so if it was on her clothes/shoes I could have gotten when I was shorting clothes and loading the washing machine.

Stillnkeeping you guys in our prayers bud!
 
will make it look more severe with a higher death rate and reduce the number of "recovered".

I assume they don't want the risk of mild cases spreading to HC workers but it definitely messes with the data. If we have the tests we should be administering the tests. So much of the decision making is "data-driven" they tell us but this process guarantees the data is deficient.

S.Korea seems to be best practice and IIRC they were testing massively and being much more selective in how they mitigate the spread

Which is exactly why I'm so dang irritated with all of this stuff. In my area, too, a nurse that we're really good friends with just made a post that said 'if you're not an at-risk group, don't even ask to come in and have a test because we won't give it'. Well, that certainly means it's much more likely that milder cases are being totally left out of the numbers. Could that not drive some serious panic?
 
Updates on the peds front:

Testing is starting to come back now. The local commercial lab is up and running with a 24 h turnaround.

15 total cases in Knox county. 2 deaths in the state, over 650 confirmed positives. The positive rate in the state has ranged from 5-8%.

Nationwide, no critical peds patients, only 2 known to have been admitted to ICU.

In answer to the accuracy of the testing, the local lab was certified at 98.9%. That verifies that false negatives are going to be very, very rare.

It's slow at the office, but we are doing everything we can to reassure patients of our infection-control policies, keep the business running, and keep the staff with an income.
 
NY just dropped about another 1000+ cases and 60 deaths on their website tonight. That will either out today at over 200 deaths or give tomorrow a running start depending on how they allocate those numbers. 10,000+ new cases again today.
 
It's very frustrating trying to decipher what is actual a concern vs fear mongering. I hear the Gov talking of 56% infection rates and NJ saying everyone will get it in the state. I hear of shortages of beds and then I hear stories that some hospitals are so slow that they are sending staff home. Here is another confusing stat I see 4k hospitalized but during H1N1 we averaged 24k hospitizations per month and I don't remember any stories about doom and gloom scenarios
20200324_212108.jpg
 
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So the ones screaming for more tests are now the same ones screaming that the test results must be inaccurate.. Got it..
 
I’m thinking this has been here in the states for awhile now . Back in early December I had a fever for a couple of days and a sore throat along with body aches. I missed one day of work and I never miss but after a couple of days I was feeling better it was very weird though.
 
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Anybody else’s hospital reusing MDIs? We stopped using nebulized treatments on possible patients and are using MDIs for Albuterol/Atrovent. Memo came down today that they are to be collected for reuse.

I found it pretty appalling.
 
Anybody else’s hospital reusing MDIs? We stopped using nebulized treatments on possible patients and are using MDIs for Albuterol/Atrovent. Memo came down today that they are to be collected for reuse.

I found it pretty appalling.
It wouldn't be preferred but as long as each patient had their own spacer and wasn't in isolation
 
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It wouldn't be preferred but as long as each patient had their own spacer and wasn't in isolation

That’s the thing, they aren’t using nebs on them because of potential Covid, but then want to reuse something that has came into contact with them. I know there is a shortage of inhalers now, but not sure I agree with this move.

Either way, things are getting interesting out there.

Edit: Shared Metered Dose Inhalers Among Multiple Patients: Can Cross-Contamination Be Avoided?

This makes me feel a little better about it, but if it really starts hitting the fan I kind of worry about proper and thorough cleaning between uses.
 
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