Posted on 03/14/2020 9:38:17 PM PDT by GLDNGUN
Has the Coronavirus already come and gone for most of the US? Adam Houseley, formerly of FoxNews, says that MAY be the case...
The pockets likely in rural areas where it is more likely to just fizzle out on its own. Now the bigger cities (some with) with older populations are getting hit and that's where the death toll could climb. But we still don't even have widespread testing.
We don’t have intentional highly precise widespread testing to directly detect the virus - but there are a number of ways of using any of a variety of existing means to diagnose with less precision. CT-scans and x-rays, which are things people with chest issues have done all the time, are two such.
As widespread as the reports of the respiratory flu this season were, there would have been millions of cases where it would probably require less than a thousand or so to notice the pattern - especially in localized outbreaks where the same group of doctors would see them.
https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020200241
“A study of CT scans of 21 patients with 2019-nCoV infection (10) showed three (21%) with normal CT scans, 12 (57%) with ground-glass opacity only, and six (29%) with ground-glass opacity and consolidation at presentation. Fifteen patients (71%) had two or more lobes involved, and 16 (76%) had bilateral disease. Interestingly, three patients (14%) had normal scans at diagnosis. One of those patients still had a normal scan at short-term follow-up. Seven other patients underwent follow-up CT (range, 14 days; mean, 2.5 days); five (63%) had mild progression, and two (25%) had moderate progression.”
“Overall, the imaging findings reported for 2019-nCoV are similar to those reported for SARS-CoV (1113) and MERS-CoV (14,15), not surprising as the responsible viruses are also coronaviruses. Given that up to 30% of patients with 2019-nCoV infection develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (8), chest imaging studies showing extensive consolidation and ground-glass opacity, typical of acute lung injury, are not unexpected (16,17). The long-term imaging features of 2019-nCoV are not yet known but presumably will resemble those of other causes of acute lung injury.”
It’s not recommended as a first-line test, because it is only 80-85% indicative in the 30% of cases that present with severe breathing issues...but that is more than enough to detect large numbers of the infection.
Went back to hospital on Monday. Now they are saying it’s pneumonia (despite being cleared for pneumonia last month). Also, my new chest x-rays came back with issues. Doctor said I need testing for COPD, while my x-rays last month were clear.
They still did not test me for coronovirus because they are only testing people with fevers. My fever rolled all weekend and only broke on Monday morning. It’s back up again today. I’m on 3 meds now with an inhaler.
Week 5!
I’ve used up my accumulated sick and vacation time and won’t get paid for this week.
My college aged son told me this morning that his office closed till further notice so now I’m having to help him carry his bills, too. He’s a great kid with some savings, but he will need that for when he goes away to college in the fall. He’s getting his Associate’s degree locally so he’s still home based for now.
Can’t wait for this to be over.
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