Blame China not London

I was treated exactly the same when I saw Dr. Diaz. This was two weeks ago and his staff ALL had masks on and I never saw another patient. Top shelf practice. I'm with your sister. My brain tells me I probably did not have Covid-19 but my lungs and that months experience tells me otherwise! Thanks.

As a nurse, you know that the symptoms are the same symptoms of garden variety pneumonia. As a nurse, you also know that COVID-19 did not exist until November/December of 2019. As a nurse, you know that it is not POSSIBLE for you to have contracted it in May of 2019, since it didn't exist yet.

There are antibody tests available, on a very limited basis. Their accuracy is good not great. No commercial labs are now doing them so telling your doctor you want an antibody test is not going to get you one, yet.

Chalkboard time:
When you become ill and begin to mount an antibody defense the first significant response is from a subclass of immunoglobin named IgM. This rapidly appearing protein has the typical upward then downward curve over time. For each particular germ, the timing of when the IgM appears, peaks, and disappears is different. Studies are ongoing to try to learn the shape of that curve. That information will be essential if you want to have a clue as to when someone was infected.

More slowly your body makes IgG which is your long term immune protection. IgG is not there as quickly as IgM, but in most diseases [there are always zebras] it is either very long lasting or hopefully forever.

The antibody tests being developed can be IgM tests, which are useful mostly for have you became ill very recently, or IgG tests which are useful for if you became ill weeks to months to years ago. Of course you could get tested both for IgM and IgG. Some tests will do that. Also a test can be yes/no. Is there detectable IgM, yes or no as opposed to what is the quantity of IgM. Similarly for IgG. In a yes/no test the manufacturer has to pick a cut off to read as positive. Is it hot out today? 79 degrees no 80 degrees yes. So it can be a bit arbitrary. [ see sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value...] If I say I will call any day "hot" if my thermometer read 50 or more, my results will identify 100% of hot days, but will also call days hot that were not hot. OTOH if I say I will call it hot if my thermometer reads 95, I will not errantly call it hot if it wasn't, but I will miss days that actually were hot. Picking the best cut off is always a compromise between these kinds of errors.

Abysmal? The scientific community, I’m sure, would deeply appreciate this assessment. We are so fortunate in this country for the brilliant and dedicated scientists working feverishly on behalf of the world to reach treatments and protocols for this approximately 3 month old virus. I think the epic failure is in the minds of some American citizens who have no idea what is occurring but continue to tell the experts what they’re doing wrong. If people would watch the Covid updates, they would know there is antibody testing being developed and has been in the works for some time. They are hoping for success very shortly.

So true about the abysmal lack of testing. Until we get testing available to all we can't have an accurate model to determine a roadmap to reopening.



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My family down in Southern Florida was very sick in December and January. The husband had the test and has the antibodies. He did donate his blood so they can use it for the ones who are sick.

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yankygrl,

You gave excellent and important advice. Those who have had the virus and survived could be among our heroes.

Christ Hospital, in Cincinnati, just got FDA approval for a Covid-19 plasma clinical trial.

More info can be found online from Cincy papers and stations. But, of course, Cincinnati cannot be the only place looking for what they are referring to as “convalescent plasma.”

I hope those who can help will follow through by finding a place near where they are that has approval to conduct these trials.

That was exactly my story in late February after returning from Australia. But neither doctor mentioned testing for the virus, although I told them where I'd been. However, there were only 15 cases in Aus, and none in Tasmania when we left, although we did fly from Tas through Melbourne on the way home. And the tests were not readily available. Plus our kids and grandkids had no symptoms even though we were with them for three weeks.



Chest x-ray showed bronchitis, and I am only recovering now after two loads of prednisone and one of an antibiotic for sinusitis.


A cough as bad as mine was is not indicative of the virus.

Have to agree...a terrible URI is an issue and can certainly cause lingering symptoms but that doesn't make it Covid and def not in the stated time frame.


QUOTE=GoodLife;1744554]"There Is zero probability [SARS-CoV-2] was circulating in fall 2019,” tweeted Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has been tracking SARS-CoV-2’s genetic code as it has spread. Allison Black, a genomic epidemiologist working in Bedford’s lab, says this is apparent from researchers’ data. As the virus spreads, it also mutates, much like the way words change in a game of Telephone. By sequencing the virus’s genome from different individual samples, researchers can track strains of the coronavirus back to its origins.


Richard Neher, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, told the Scientist that Nextstrain researchers’ work has tracked the virus back to a single source “somewhere between mid-November and early December,” which then spread in China. The earliest cases in the U.S. appeared in January 2020, according to Nextstrain’s sequencing work.

You did not get COVID-19 in the fall of 2019.[/QUOTE]

Not true.
Military testing people who were sick in early November and they have come back positive for antibodies!

When I got on the plane I only had a sore throat. It was about two hrs. into the flight that I developed a high fever and dry cough. Luckily, I had a surgical mask in my backpack as I like to wear one when I fly. I put it on at that time. So I don't think, if I were screened at that time, I would have been "booted off". But I do agree with this type of screening now, under these conditions and circumstances.

If so, any of them could have been sick from something else in November and subsequently become infected with COVID-19 in the following months.

Abbott released an antibody test today and will begin shipping immediately.

I just found out an 80 year old man who I had known while in college who had heart and other health issues died in November 2019 in Hawaii, likely form the Wuhan virus. They had put him on a ventilator. He lasted 10 days from start to finish of the illness and exhibited the symptoms with which we are now familiar. They could not figure out what caused his demise and attributed it to an autoimmune issue. Of course Hawaii is a major Chinese tourist destination.

This post reminds me when I flew to the Villages with a small cold. I put on my hoodie and SARS mask, this was in late 2003. I noticed the plane was delayed, by 2 hours from take off. I waited patiently thinking maybe it was an engine problems. Then the flight crew approached me and investigated my passport and wanted to know exactly why was I wearing a mask?

That is untrue. There was a military historian who made the claim on behalf of a conservative think-tank but he was not a doctor, or a scientist, or a researcher, or investigator. There is no basis for the theory, and it is just flat out not true.

Looks like it may have infected humans as early as September 13, 2019. Scientists: Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic May Have Started in September

If this is the case then unless your family travelled from China or came in contact with those who did, before they had it, the virus did not come from China. Perhaps we don’t really know where the origin of this virus is. Since we are not in a Communist dictatorship in the US there will be a lot more transparency here.

The "official" date keeps getting moved back...2 Californians died of coronavirus weeks before first US death reported | Fox Business

The National Institutes of Health posted a document on google: Detection of Group 1 coronavirus in Bats in North America.

These bats were caught in August 2006 in Colorado and their feces were kept. When tested for our new virus the feces were positive in some of 2 types of Rocky Mountain bats.

Group 1 coronavirus is also known as SARS. That's a different coronavirus, and not COVID-19.

Yes, you are right a different coronavirus... whew. So it is not our virus then. Thanks for checking.