"I Have The Coronavirus"

Friends -- Should you not know, I want to share this info with you as a way to inform and better understand this new widespread contagious disease. It can be a lethal disease and is confirmed active in 60 countries of the world. You like me, do not want to get sick, not even the common cold.
On the other hand the coronavirus is treatable with an excellent prognosis. But naturally the media here in the good old USA likes to sensationalize most news. Worst is the politicians who now have politicized the event rather than join together to help or country get through this.
Here in the good old USA, to fight this disease, we have the best doctors and medical care in the world. Not so good in other countries. Another way to combat this disease is through truth and communication. That is the purpose of this post, which is lengthy, but both interesting and informative from a gentleman who contracted the virus . . .
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Copied from The Drudge Report

I have the coronavirus. And it hasn't been that bad.

I am in my late 60s, and the sickest I've ever been was when I had bronchitis several years ago. That laid me out on my back for a few days. This has been much easier: no chills, no body aches. I breathe easily, and I don't have a stuffy nose. My chest feels tight, and I have coughing spells. If I were at home with similar symptoms, I probably would have gone to work as usual.

I caught the virus on the Diamond Princess, the cruise ship that was quarantined outside Yokohama for 14 days, at the end of a 16-day cruise I took with my wife, Jeri. When I left the ship a couple of weeks ago, I felt fine. We checked our temperatures throughout our quarantine. Jeri and I got a swab test for the virus. Our temperatures were normal; they'd get the swab results back in 48 hours. Our test results had not arrived before we boarded buses for the airport, where two U.S. government planes waited for us.

As we took off from Tokyo, I had a bit of a cough, but I chalked it up to the dry air in the cabin. I felt pretty tired - but who wouldn't, in our situation? I dozed off.

When I woke up, I had a fever. I made my way to the back of the cargo plane, where the Air Force had set up a quarantine area cordoned off with sheets of plastic. They took my temperature. It was over 103 degrees. So I took a seat in the quarantine area and fell back asleep until we touched down in California, at Travis Air Force Base.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came onto the plane and said that three of us who had been cordoned off would fly to Omaha (with our spouses, if they wanted to come along). The CDC had a quarantine location at the University of Nebraska's hospital. We arrived on Feb. 17, greeted by a fleet of ambulances and police cars. Officials put me on a stretcher and wheeled me into a van, which made for a very dramatic scene. I easily could have walked despite my exhaustion.

On the hospital campus, they put me in a biocontainment unit. The space was sealed off, with two double-paned windows that looked out on the hallway, and a large, heavy, insulated door. Two cameras watched me at all times; a set of computer monitors were equipped with microphones, so that the medical staff and I could communicate with CDC officials at central command down the hall. The room had last been used for the Ebola outbreak in 2013.

A doctor and nurses reviewed my case with me and took a bunch of lab tests. They wore heavy-duty hazmat suits sealed with duct tape and equipped with motors that helped with air circulation. It looked like something out of "The Andromeda Strain." When the test came back a few hours later, I wasn't surprised to learn that I had the coronavirus. Later, the Tokyo swab confirmed the result - I had caught the virus even before I left the ship.

It didn't scare me too badly. I knew my number was up. The way I saw it, I was going to get stuck in at least 14 more days of quarantine, even if I didn't get the virus. So many fellow passengers had come down with the illness, including one of my friends, that I'd gotten somewhat used to the idea that I might catch it, too. My wife, however, tested negative and headed to quarantine at a separate facility a few blocks away. After those days being cooped up on the ship together, I think we both relished the alone time; we still could communicate through our phones.

During the first few days, the hospital staff hooked me up to an IV, mostly as a precaution, and used it to administer magnesium and potassium, just to make sure I had plenty of vitamins. Other than that, my treatment has consisted of what felt like gallons and gallons of Gatorade - and, when my fever rose just above 100 degrees, some ibuprofen. The nurses came to the room every four hours or so, to check my vitals, ask if I needed anything and to draw my blood. I got very good at unhooking all the monitors checking my oxygen level, blood pressure and heart rate so I could go to the bathroom or just pace around the room a little, to get my blood flowing. I never quite got the hang of hooking them back up without making a tangled mess. After 10 days, I moved out of biocontainment and into the same facility as Jeri. Now we can videochat from our separate quarantines, in neighboring rooms.

As of my most recent test, on Thursday, I am still testing positive for the virus. But by now, I don't require much medical care. The nurses check my temperature twice a day and draw my blood, because I've agreed to participate in a clinical study to try to find a treatment for coronavirus. If I test negative three days in a row, then I get to leave.

The time has passed more quickly than I would've expected. With my laptop, I get as much work done as I can, remotely. I catch up with friends. I take walks around my room, trying to take a thousand more steps each day. I also watch the news. It's surreal to see everyone panic - news conferences, the stock market falling, school closures - about a disease I have. It does seem likely that coronavirus will spread in the U.S., but it won't help anybody if we all panic. Based on my experience, I'd recommend that everyone get a good digital thermometer, just as a comfort tool, so they can reassure themselves if their noses start running. I have been relatively fortunate: At least six Diamond Princess passengers have died from the virus, of the around 705 passengers who caught it. But coronavirus doesn't have to be a horrible calamity.

If you told me when I left home in January that I wouldn't be back until March - that, instead, I would be confined for more than 24 days because I'd catch a novel virus at the center of what could become a pandemic - that would have completely freaked me out. But now that it's happening, I'm just taking it one day at a time.
_ _

As told to Washington Post editor Sophia Nguyen.

 

As they are finding in China, the toll isn't as much in human lives as it is in economic production. In order to prevent
the spread of the disease, 14 day quarantines and it's accompanied loss in production makes this disease
much more serious than the experience of a retired dude in Omaha.

The other problem with taking the disease lightly, is that while this one guy is getting top notch care, it's because
he was caught early, there are only a handful of cases, and he seems to have enough personal wealth to shrug it off.
Now imagine 2,000 of these cases, which would really strain the hospitals, and most of the patients being poor or working class people - and another 2,000 cases running around with undiagnosed symptoms. This dynamic can change in
a second.

 

I am rather surprised that the Washington Post would print anything that upbeat. That's not like them.

 

Absolutely right. I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't printed in the Washington Times.

 

It is good to see an actual article about the virus. Most headlines having the words "corona virus" and "Trump" in them are no more than political hit pieces.

 

Don't get too excited Daniel.....this man, as he stated, was treated as a "case study". Of course we don't know where this is going to go and should not pretend to, however, infection from the TDS virus seems to make many feel they know the outcome.

 

Many more people are going to die from run of the mill respiratory viruses this year. Our hospitals are currently full of people with pneumonia and severe exacerbations of COPD , many on ventilators, many drawing their last breaths as we speak, and none of them have Corona virus

 

It seems to me the issue with this virus isn't that the prognosis is worse then the flu, but that it's new and most of the population has no immunity to it which very well can flash in mass through a population, the workforce and overwhelm the healthcare system.

I am not into flu shots....with so many versions of flu out there I have trouble seeing the point...plus people I know who have gotten the shot....have also gotten the flu afterwards...makes me a little wary.

I would definitely take a corona flu shot though.

 

I have to say again, the lengths to which the media are driving the panic is unconscionable. It's the best case scenario for them though. They get to pander breathlessly absent any additional fact and speculate at the horrific outcomes and their masters all think it's excellent television. And meanwhile, they also understand that a little economic instability might shift the political support for the current president, and of course, most of them are all on board for that, and are obviously willing to whore themselves out to get that done while the NDP preschool club continue to embarrass themselves at every outing.

Fear is the tool here. The virus is just the method. We shouldn't lose sight of that.

 

Are you doctor, CKW? Well, then, you take on flu shots is meaningless to me.

However, you first and third paragraphs are right in the wheelhouse of reason, I think. I would take a vax as well when they develop one.

 

This guy is in his late 60's The death rate for people 60-70 is 3.6%

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics

What is more interesting is that the coronavirus death rate is around 3%. The 1918 Spanish flue was under 2%.................

 

Oh, this has me thinking. Maybe It's a propaganda piece to try and stop the panic and get the markets to go up again.

 

Ha! It might have occurred to some of these propaganda outlets that deliberately panicking the stock market might just injure their own bottom line depending on what they or their company have got by way of investments.

 

And think of how many will die in auto accidents on the highways of the country.

 

It's 3% in China, the only other place as high or higher is Iran. Here we're still stuck on zero.

 

The death rate will be quite different for those with strong immune systems, good nutrition and competent medical care than those without.

It does seem to leave some scarring in the lungs tho, and given a similar mutation tendency to 'the flu', theres th a good chance of re- (or even re-re) -infection, with each instance diminishing lung effeciency and eventually compounding complication.

 

3% of people who actually check into hospitals, with positive radiographic signs of pneumonia, being labeled as Corona virus, without actual serological confirmation.

Likely millions more in the community with simple cold symptoms, never being tested, which makes the death rate very small.

CDC stats for influenza deaths lump influenza and pneumonia into the same category whether seropositive for influenza or not.

 

They don't make good frenzy whipping news

 

I think it is quite a bit higher in china at the moment. I read 7% this morning. What they are expecting is for it to go down once they take out all the people who had no symptoms. For whatever reason Italy has decided not to include those in its statistics so they probably will have a higher rate. However they have not been doing that up to now. Iran one of two things. Either there are loads more people infected which they do not know about or are keeping quiet about or the virus has changed. The other problem which Iran has had is lack of medical supplies due to US sanctions.

The US at zero. Yes you have not been testing people. Easy to keep at zero if you do that....granted none have died who you have given medical help too. From what I hear with first rate medical care it should be possible to get most people through. However when you have a virus that spreads like this one, you are going to be pushed. It was reported that the British Government had spoken about needing to make choices as to whom they would give a chance and that is along with bringing the army medics and others in.

 

There is another darker possibility in both Iran and China what better way to hide the murder if dissidents than to blame it on disease and burn the bodies.

 

How does the Chinese government know who contacted the virus yet had no symptoms?
They're not even testing everyone who shows radiographic evidence of pneumonia, which is their diagnostic criteria

 

First U.S.DEATH from coronavirus just reported in Washington State,the persons name and age was not reported. Also a high school kid in Wash. State also has the virus, they at this time do not know how he was exposed to the disease.

 

thousands died from common colds this week.
Our ICUs are filled with such patients

 

Any comparaison with the spanish flu is nonsense. During the peak of spanish flu, people were dying HOURS after starting to feel sick, not days, HOURS. And those were physically fit peoples, not old or already sick people.