Posted on 04/17/2020 10:03:52 AM PDT by eastexsteve
OK. Let's get to the chase. I'm a pilot. I've been flying almost 45 years. I know many commercial pilots who work for the big carriers. Some do international flights, the Far East, Europe, etc. At least four of them now have told me they have had this crap, some as early as November of last year. High fever, bad dry cough, and body aches. They all said they were sicker than a dog. They told me they have flown boatloads of people from China and Europe to here before the travel ban. They tell me they passed it around to other pilots, crews, and their families. They all went to the doctor, and tested negative for the flu. But, back then, nobody knew what this was. Most of their kids got sick, albeit only for a few hours, and then they were fine. They went to school, passed it around, and many other kids got sick. They likely brought it home and infected their families.
During the last part of January this year, my wife and I both came down with the same thing (no doubt after being around some of my pilot friends.). We've both had flu shots. I had it for about 3 days. My wife had to go to the doctor. She tested negative for the flu, and they gave her a Z-pack. She had it for about a week. We were both sicker than I can ever remember. And, although I'm 65, I stay pretty healthy and pass a pilots medical exam as needed.
After talking to my pilot buddies again in detail, I can no longer ignore the evidence that this stuff has been here since November last year. I also can't deny that my wife and I likely had it in January. I remember us both saying that this stuff was so bad it would likely kill most older or unhealthy people.
We need widespread immediate testing on demand, and not just when we show symptoms. We need both antibody and virus tests. We will never know how safe it is, or to what degree we can go back to normal until we do. I'm currently on the hunt for an antibody test.
I’d like an antibody test to find out if what I had in December had anything to do with COVID-19.
You are not alone.
I absolutely had it in November, and I’ve chatted with people at work (over the Internet) that had it then also.
Sounds like it. Don’t know if you read this anywhere, but I have seen it a couple times out there that the virus tends to hit people who got a flu shot this year. FWIW......
I had seen a report a couple of weeks ago suggesting that many people who tested positive for COVID-19 actually tested negative for the COVID-19 antibodies 4-6 weeks after they recovered. One of the reasons people like Drs. Fauci and Birx are concerned about a flare-up later in the year is that there may be NO permanent immunity to COVID-19 after recovery.
We had THE ICK last December
Thanks.
Try Christus Mother Frances in Tyler. They have developed an antibody test.
It may well be super wide spread already, let us assume it is for a moment. What does this tell us about how deadly it is on average? Answer: Not nearly as deadly as we thought.
Welcome to the club. Our company was hit VERY hard with something and almost everyone had it back in Dec-Feb. Have been telling our folks for a while that we were likely on the TRAILING Edge rather than the LEADING edge of this and the sad part is, I think our medical folks in Washington knew it and were trying to take the Obama approach to just mitigate the virus, but the deep state and the media was not going to let a good “crisis go to waste”. This is a serious pathogen, but the inordinately disproportionate response was in part driven by more “nefarious” agendas.
[[I’d like an antibody test to find out if what I had in December had anything to do with COVID-19.]]
Yep- us too- we got something about a month, month 1/2 ago or so (Days just kinda blend together now- not keeping track of how long it’s been)-
We called it the crud- and it seems to keep coming back somewhat with various symptoms (Nausea, diarrhea, weakness, tiredness, chills, though they aren’t as bad now as they were when we first got the crud)-
likely what we got was the flu- but it would be nice to know if we had the virus or not- if so- We’re good to go out in public because ow we have antibodies to protect us from getting it as bad again- (Not that what we had was terribly bad- it was about mediocre in severity- we’ve certainly had much much worse flues before)
I think it’s quite likely you did have it, hope you and anybody else who wants one can get an antibody test ASAP.
What were your symptoms? Thanks
It’s a nice idea in theory.
Problem is that the virus test only tells you if you are currently infected. You’d have to take it daily to keep updated.
The antibody test was just created. They project we’ll have 20 million of them in six weeks or so.
The economics/logistics of testing everybody just don’t work.
They’ll test first responders, nursing home workers, and others in especially vulnerable roles. And do a large enough random sample to convince themselves that the original models were crap.
I totally agree as I had something similar in ;ate November and it lasted until just before Christmas and then in March, I got it worse than before...cough, shortness of breath, headache...it lasted about 4 weeks each time.
Now that you mention it, both me and my wife had a dry cough after returning from a cruise on Feb 29th this year. But it never got much worse, we just ignored it and the cough was gone after a couple of weeks. Like you, we both had flu shots last November.
I agree. If this is as communicable as advertised, it should have run wild through the population between December and February. I believe it did.
Antibody testing should tell the tale, I hope it’s honestly reported.
By the way, I’ve not heard one person propose the common sense solution to restarting things - send everyone under 50 back to work immediately. They have very little to fear.
Many older folk can work effectively from home these days, including the vast majority of managers. Let them do that until we have a verified therapy (not vaccine), and/or testing as you bring up.
Then, everything IS “back to normal”, except that now we know how to prepare for something far more deadly.
On average depends who you are.
The age curve seems to be very steep. I think I’ve heard through the grapevine of three nursing homes that had about a 50% fatality rate among the patients.
Grade school—not that big a deal. Unless you go home and kill grandma.
You need to go check to see if you have antibodies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.