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

[Anonymous]

Watch this video

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/03/02/coronavirus-testing-emergency-room-doctor-cdc-department-health-squawk-box.html?__source=sharebar%7Cfacebook&par=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR36wETv6QhBOAAFHfM8jPcmXVzKg3etXPKyyBafAzJbhyWWd6Tb4Ttuexc

[Anonymous]

Northern Italy went in 11 days from 3 confirmed cases to hundreds of sick people in the ICU, closing schools for at least two weeks, shutting down all public events, and needing ti hired a hundred more doctors and 200 more nurses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

I’m the OP and this is exactly how I’m feeling. I’m not positive my family member has COVID-19, in fact, I think the chances are quite low. However, the entire purpose of my thread was to say how the way it has been handled is frightening. The current “criteria” for testing does not make sense given that it’s spreading via community contact in our own country, yet criteria states to even be considered for testing, you must have had to travel to a high threat level country or have been knowingly exposed to a current COVID-19 infected person. That’s just not enough anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so sorry for your experience. I hope he will get well. Chances are if he did not go to the doctor with the initial cold/flu symptoms but just stayed home he might have been better. Perhaps getting out of the bed strained the system and also might pick up few other bugs at the office. Unless obvious pneumonia and trouble breathing I would not go with flu symptoms that could be managed. You can bring more form there then you take to check.

Which state are you in if you may?

I see what you did here!

[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.

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.

He’s a virologist, a specialist in the study/ treatment of viruses and viral epidemics. His opinion counts much more than others’, but he’s not the one making decisions. Read the piece in the NYT, where a lot of doctors are very frustrated with the CDC.

You need to wake up and smell the incompetence of our public health officials, PP.

[Anonymous]

The NY Times is interested in hearing from people - your family member hasn't been tested but you could reach out nonetheless?

Tried to Get Tested?
The New York Times would like to hear from people who tried to get tested for the coronavirus but were not, and were later tested. Please contact us at [e-mail].

[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.

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

Better than you...

[Anonymous]

I use to work for a public health department. Those of you saying that public health experts are completely clueless and just sitting arouns twiddling their thumbs with no more idea of what to do than the general public are fools.

There is a ton of expertise and plan in that happens as the heads of public health agencies and departments are in constant communication. The world has dealt with epidemics and pandemics before. That doesn't mean there is an instant solution to a new one but it means that there are groups of experts assessing the situation by the second, and making decisions about next steps based on global knowledge of the disease and their own expertise. They make the best decisions with the information they have. They is tidy risk levels and risk factors and sources and create tons of stats and graphics.

The idea that they don't know anymore than the general public and are completely caught off guard is ridiculous. This is what they study and research and practice.

They are humans, they work with incomplete and ever changing data sets and they make the best decision they can in collaboration with others around the world. They have limited resources and are not going to instigate mass panic and lose those resources because people have a tendency to catastrophize.

You can have faith that people who know a lot more than you are very closely monitoring this situation and making decisions that are far more informed than the decision you would make.

[Anonymous]

The NY Times has a good article about it:

In February, the C.D.C. rolled out a three-step diagnostic test kit and distributed hundreds of kits to state and local health laboratories. But the third step in the diagnostic process was flawed, and produced some inconclusive results.

A full three-step replacement was promised but never arrived; the agency has not fully explained why, except to say that there was a manufacturing defect. As a result, diagnostic testing was only conducted at the agency’s labs in Atlanta, not state and local labs.

“The incompetence has really exceeded what anyone would expect with the C.D.C.,” said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. “This is not a difficult problem to solve in the world of viruses.”

[Anonymous]

OP I would lie. Recently Chinese National coughed all over me on an airplane. I got very sick unlike I’ve ever been sick before. This was 1/27. I have been wondering ever since. However if it was my DC as sick as yours I would say what happened to me happened to him. He should be tested.

[Anonymous]

I use to work for a public health department. Those of you saying that public health experts are completely clueless and just sitting arouns twiddling their thumbs with no more idea of what to do than the general public are fools.

There is a ton of expertise and plan in that happens as the heads of public health agencies and departments are in constant communication. The world has dealt with epidemics and pandemics before. That doesn't mean there is an instant solution to a new one but it means that there are groups of experts assessing the situation by the second, and making decisions about next steps based on global knowledge of the disease and their own expertise. They make the best decisions with the information they have. They is tidy risk levels and risk factors and sources and create tons of stats and graphics.

The idea that they don't know anymore than the general public and are completely caught off guard is ridiculous. This is what they study and research and practice.

They are humans, they work with incomplete and ever changing data sets and they make the best decision they can in collaboration with others around the world. They have limited resources and are not going to instigate mass panic and lose those resources because people have a tendency to catastrophize.

You can have faith that people who know a lot more than you are very closely monitoring this situation and making decisions that are far more informed than the decision you would make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

Better than you...

So logistically what is his solution to test every American with a fever or with anxiety who thinks they have a symptom that maybe could be corona virus based on what they heard on the news?

How does he plan to staff the labs to deal with the additional millions and millions of samples? How does he think the swabbing should happen? Should the people with potential cases go out in public or is he going to hire millions of health care professionals and send then to the house of anyone with a symptom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use to work for a public health department. Those of you saying that public health experts are completely clueless and just sitting arouns twiddling their thumbs with no more idea of what to do than the general public are fools.

There is a ton of expertise and plan in that happens as the heads of public health agencies and departments are in constant communication. The world has dealt with epidemics and pandemics before. That doesn't mean there is an instant solution to a new one but it means that there are groups of experts assessing the situation by the second, and making decisions about next steps based on global knowledge of the disease and their own expertise. They make the best decisions with the information they have. They is tidy risk levels and risk factors and sources and create tons of stats and graphics.

The idea that they don't know anymore than the general public and are completely caught off guard is ridiculous. This is what they study and research and practice.

They are humans, they work with incomplete and ever changing data sets and they make the best decision they can in collaboration with others around the world. They have limited resources and are not going to instigate mass panic and lose those resources because people have a tendency to catastrophize.

You can have faith that people who know a lot more than you are very closely monitoring this situation and making decisions that are far more informed than the decision you would make.

Some of us are just as expert if not more. The entire brain pool of specialists in viral pandemics and emergency crisis management is not restricted to people at the CDC.

No one is saying these CDC people are not generally conscientious and knowledgeable. We all know every country has theoretical plans for pandemics. We all know, or we should, that no plan on paper is adequate to confront the reality of a modern pandemic - experts themselves have said so for years.

The CDC made a costly mistake. Costly in terms of viral spread and lives soon to be lost.

If you can shrug this off as “human error, they know best”, then you are stupid.

[Anonymous]

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.

Curious. If someone is sick, wouldn't they be automatically quarantining themselves away from others, especially the immunocompromised?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the US under-testing so we can pretend it isn’t here?

I think it's just because we were unprepared and don't have enough testing capacity.

Bingo! and if you can't test it, you cannot report it! I think we have many more walking around with CV who don't know (yet) they have it....