My family’s personal experience with a potential Coronavirus infection - not good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has had a fever, sweating, chills and fatigue for 9 days. Cough started on day 5. Diagnosed with pneumonia today (day 9). When at the doctor earlier this week, he inquired about Coronavirus because his flu test was negative and this came on within a week of being with a group in which several members had just returned from travel in Europe. Furthermore, he spent time in a US resort over Pres. Day with a lot of tourists from all over the east coast. Doctor said prob not Coronavirus if he hasn’t been exposed to a known infected person and since he hasn’t been to China.

Returned to doctor today because fever and illness continues and pushed harder on the Coronavirus question and she said it’s feasible to be concerned but there isn’t anything she can do other than advise him to call the county health department. She can’t test and has been told only to use screening procedures which inquire about recent travel (as if that even matters anymore).

He called the county health department immediately after leaving doctor and they said that he doesn’t sound high risk because he hasn’t been out of the country. He pushed back and said that that doesn’t seem to matter anymore, and they didn’t budge.

So basically, a person who is legitimately concerned about this is on their own. Good luck getting help.

I’m FURIOUS.

What exactly would you like them to do differently?

Advise us how to proceed to be tested and to take this seriously. Mainly so we know if he needs to be quarantined to protect others. Lastly, two of his family members are immunocompromised, so it would be beneficial to know.

Why don’t you just keep him away from those family members and have him self quarantine. Everyone wins.

New poster. You and some other PPs are totally ignorant of the entire point of getting test results for coronavirus. It is NOT just about the one patient, and saying "just have him self quarantine" is not helpful, nor is the poster who said why bother to test, just treat the pneumonia. The country needs to track ALL coronavirus cases and getting test results is the only way to do that.

If OP's child has the virus, that is a data point in the tracking of the disease and what's more, health departments need to know who else has had contact with him, his family needs advice on how to self-quarantine the ENTIRE family (not just the one child), the parents have to tell their employers they are going into quarantine. Health care workers/doctor/nurses/others in doctors' waiting rooms with him previously need to be told and tracked because they were exposed to him.

How do so many posters on DCUM utterly fail understand that it is a huge risk to many, many more people to think like this: "It doesn't matter if it's coronavirus, don't worry about testing, just treat the pneumonia and everyone else in the household goes about their daily lives." That's a recipe for a cluster of cases affecting the family and possibly every patient, doctor and nurse who has been around him. The OP is entirely right to be concerned for both son, the whole family AND the larger community.

I find OP's experience so far very, very disturbing. Especially the part where the health department said the son didn't meet criteria for testing. I had heard that the CDC had lowered the bar on testing so that people did not have to be showing big-time symptoms or pneumonia etc. to be tested. Sounds like that is not the case, or the news has not trickled down to local health departments.

OP, please -- when you have more news, let us know. Both about your dear son and about your progress or lack of it with the health authorities.

[Anonymous]

The issue is that there are not enough tests, and certainly not the rapid test like there is for the flu. We absolutely need to have these tests to understand the epidemiology of the disease--how far it has spread, areas of community spread, advice on quarantine, and a better understanding of how the disease affects different populations.

Until we can test people the way we can with the flu, we will not be able to understand, deal with or stop the spread of the disease.

I agree with OP that its deeply unfortunate we are not at all prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it is pneumonia after flu, it’s bacterial and will need antibiotics.

If it’s COVID pneumonia that’s a different thing and antibiotics won’t help and he might need breathing support as debris fills his lungs.

so how do you know this? I had pneumonia after the flu (39 year old healthy female) and it was so tough. I was on multiple antibiotics and was sick for months. I recovered thankfully! I just didn't realize that COVID pneumonia is different than a pneumonia that follows the flu

[Anonymous]

It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Duh, op, he has pneumonia.
https://www.webmd.com/lung/understanding-pneumonia-symptoms#1

Which is exactly what happens in the more severe cases of COVID-19...

And sometimes it’s “just” pneumonia. Pneumonia killed my grandfather.

Op, you’re being ridiculous. People still get pneumonia. It makes you feel like crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

My husband is a doctor with an MD and a PhD and is furious too. He thinks criteria for testing should be more inclusive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

The experts just don't know in this case. I have experts in my family and they are very concerned about what will happen.

[Anonymous]

The problem is that hospitals are triaging the use of the tests because there aren't enough test kits out there. Only until this weekend were other labs authorized to make their own test kits--before that only the CDC was able to test for CV-19. So people like OP's dad weren't tested, even though they would have been had he been in Korea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he can breathe well, then why go to the ER? Or the doctor?

So he cannot spread it? He should quarantine irregardless if he suspects he has it.

It's "regardless." Irregardless is not a word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

My husband is a doctor with an MD and a PhD and is furious too. He thinks criteria for testing should be more inclusive.

What kind of doctor is he? Is he an ID doc? Does he work in public health? Because if not, his opinion is pretty much irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

My husband is a doctor with an MD and a PhD and is furious too. He thinks criteria for testing should be more inclusive.

I thought I had read that test kits had been made available to every state health department a couple of days ago. And that criteria had broadened, but to what?

[Anonymous]

The CDC is to blame here. It botched the first batch of diagnostic tests it shipped out to states, and enforces very restrictive criteria for testing, in part due to the small number of available tests, because it failed to produce enough working ones.

This is disastrous, because the first people with coronavirus should be quarantined as soon as we know they have it. If we wait until the virus circulates, like we’re doing now, the epidemic will be severe instead of mild; the healthcare system may be strained beyond capacity; and there will be many more preventable deaths. Not just people dying from coronavirus, but people who fall ill or become injured from other causes and cannot receive the usual standard of care.

I expected better from the CDC. Right now we’re just as bad as all the countries. We’ve learnt nothing, despite having more than a month to prepare.

- microbiologist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

My husband is a doctor with an MD and a PhD and is furious too. He thinks criteria for testing should be more inclusive.

I thought I had read that test kits had been made available to every state health department a couple of days ago. And that criteria had broadened, but to what?

Not enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be a complete waste of resources to sart testing every person who has anxiety and thinks that any symptom could be covid 19. People are still getting to catch the millions of other viruses out there and unless there is a hot spot or known infector, those with anxiety are just going to have to live with their fears that thy are all potentially infected with covid 19. CDC is not conspiring against the public - put the conspiracy theories away. There are experts in public heqlth who research and study pandemics and disease transmission for a living. You may think you personally know more than all the experts but you don't.

My husband is a doctor with an MD and a PhD and is furious too. He thinks criteria for testing should be more inclusive.

And Md and PhD does not make one an expert of any kind on public health.

[Anonymous]

OP I"d be livid too.

If your family member (is your husband?) has COVID then your kids have been exposed and you have been exposed. I am sur ethe school would like to know, and the parents of the kids there would like to know as well.

We haven't been testing for COVID for community spread. as a result, there are likely 1000 cases or more already in PA and MD and VA and NY... they are just starting to find them.

Cases are going to explode over the next three or four weeks, and severe cases will fill up our intensive care as 20% of all cases are serious, severe or critical. It will be a crisis for our heath care workers.

If your husband (or father?) has COVID and it wasn't tested, every health care worker he came into contact with including the doctor who said she couldn't test for it, has likely been exposed as well, and might need to self isolate.

This is a bad situation for us right now. The lack of testing has delayed our ability to react to the situation by about three weeks unfortunately.