Tag: covid19 panic

CDC: Here Are 6 New Possible Symptoms Of COVID-19 Coronavirus

It was only a matter of time before the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added to this list. For a while, the “Symptoms of Coronavirus” list on their Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) website stayed at three symptoms: fever, cough, and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. Not anymore. The CDC has now added six more to bring the total to nine.

The six new additions are:

  • Chills
  • Repeated shaking with chills
  • Muscle pain
  • Headache
  • Sore throat
  • New loss of taste or smell

So if you have any of the nine listed symptoms, you may have a COVID-19 coronavirus infection. Or you may not. Unless you do. Such symptoms could be due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), except when they aren’t and something else is causing them. Got it?

Is all of this giving you a headache? Or is your headache from COVID-19? Probably not, if it just started from looking at the list. But if it continues, then maybe.

At least, if you have another diagnosis like an influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or some other respiratory virus infection that can cause some of the above symptoms, you can be rest assured that you don’t have a COVID-19 coronavirus infection. Except when you have both types of infections at the same time.

A research letter published in JAMA revealed that 20.7% of specimens that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 also tested positive for one or more other pathogens as well. For the study, David Kim, MD, PhD, James Quinn, MD, MS, Benjamin Pinsky, MD, PhD, Nigam H. Shah, MBBS, PhD, and Ian Brown, MD, MS, from the Stanford University School of Medicine reviewed result from 1217 specimens from 1206 patients who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens with 116 (9.5%) of these turning out to be positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of the 24 specimens that had SARS-CoV2 and at least one other respiratory pathogen, 6.9% tested positive for rhinovirus/enterovirus, 5.2% for respiratory syncytial virus (5.2%), 4.3% for other coronaviruses besides the SARS-CoV-2, and a little over 3% for some type of influenza. So if you have another respiratory virus infection, you could still have COVID-19. In the words of Bill Lumbergh from the movie Office Space, “that’ll be great.”

How’s that for freaking confusing? As more and more reports emerge of people having different groups of symptoms, it has become increasingly clear that fever, cough, and respiratory symptoms are not the only things that you should be looking for if you are worried about COVID-19. It’s also becoming increasingly clear that the course of COVID-19 can be very variable and reminiscent of that Michael Scott quote from the television show The Office: “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way.” Your course of symptoms, of course, may make sense, except when it doesn’t.

The CDC list is far from exhaustive. What symptoms you get can seem like a game of craps, in more ways than one. For example, Robert Glatter has written for Forbes about how stomach ache and diarrhea could be the first signs of COVID-19. I have covered for Forbes some of the eye symptoms that may be present. Then, there’s the letter to the Journal of The European Academy of Dermatology and Venerealogy that reported on two patients with COVID-19 who initially had only fever and urticaria, which is medical-speak for hives.

It would certainly be a lot easier if COVID-19 had a clear classic symptom like the measles (a rash), the chicken pox (vesicles, which are fluid-filled little sacs on your skin), or foreign accent syndrome (take a wild guess). But the lack of such a clear symptom means that making COVID-19 coronavirus testing much more widely available is all the more important. The CDC does provide an online Coronavirus Self-Checker to help you determine whether you should contact your doctor. However, this is not a way to diagnose COVID-19. Neither is an app nor asking other people on Facebook. The only way to really diagnose COVID-19 is to get the cotton swab up the nose and to the back of your throat test to check the gunk for the RNA of the virus.

So far, other things on the CDC Symptoms of Coronavirus website haven’t really changed. It still indicates that you may begin experience symptoms two to 14 days after being exposed to the virus. And the list of emergency warning signs still includes trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or inability to arouse, and bluish lips or face. If you have any of these symptoms, you may have severe COVID-19 that requires immediate medical attention. Unless of course, something else is causing these symptoms and you don’t have COVID-19. Either way get real medical attention as soon as possible.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.
Bruce Y. Lee

Bruce Y. Lee

I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order. Currently, I am a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, Executive Director of PHICOR (@PHICORteam), Professor By Courtesy at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and founder and CEO of Symsilico. My previous positions include serving as Executive Director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at Johns Hopkins University, Associate Professor of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Associate Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Senior Manager at Quintiles Transnational, working in biotechnology equity research at Montgomery Securities, and co-founding a biotechnology/bioinformatics company. My work has included developing computational approaches, models, and tools to help health and healthcare decision makers in all continents (except for Antarctica) and has been supported by a wide variety of sponsors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH, AHRQ, CDC, UNICEF, USAID and the Global Fund. I have authored over 200 scientific publications and three books. Follow me on Twitter (@bruce_y_lee) but don’t ask me if I know martial arts.

Source: CDC: Here Are 6 New Possible Symptoms Of COVID-19 Coronavirus

Please follow my Instagram: http://instagram.com/arminhamidian67

Watch the Osmosis Video here: https://osms.it/covid-19 What is COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 19)? The coronaviruses that circulate among humans are typically benign, and they cause about a quarter of all common cold illnesses. But occasionally, coronaviruses, like COVID-19, circulate in an animal reservoir and mutate just enough to where they’re able to start infecting and causing disease in humans. Find our complete video library only on Osmosis Prime: http://osms.it/more. Hundreds of thousands of current & future clinicians learn by Osmosis. We have unparalleled tools and materials to prepare you to succeed in school, on board exams, and as a future clinician. Sign up for a free trial at http://osms.it/more. Subscribe to our Youtube channel at http://osms.it/subscribe. Get early access to our upcoming video releases, practice questions, giveaways, and more when you follow us on social media: Facebook: http://osms.it/facebook Twitter: http://osms.it/twitter Instagram: http://osms.it/instagram Our Vision: Everyone who cares for someone will learn by Osmosis. Our Mission: To empower the world’s clinicians and caregivers with the best learning experience possible. Learn more here: http://osms.it/mission Medical disclaimer: Knowledge Diffusion Inc (DBA Osmosis) does not provide medical advice. Osmosis and the content available on Osmosis’s properties (Osmosis.org, YouTube, and other channels) do not provide a diagnosis or other recommendation for treatment and are not a substitute for the professional judgment of a healthcare professional in diagnosis and treatment of any person or animal. The determination of the need for medical services and the types of healthcare to be provided to a patient are decisions that should be made only by a physician or other licensed health care provider. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you have regarding a medical condition.

Caption authors (English (United States))

Osmosis中文 Angie Solange Rodríguez Montalván

Caption author (Indonesian)

dian andriani

Category

Education

What to Know About Coronavirus Immunity and Chances of Reinfection

Troubling headlines have been cropping up across Asia: Some patients in China, Japan and South Korea who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and seemingly recovered have been readmitted to the hospital after testing positive for the virus again.

Because SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was only discovered a few months ago, scientists are still trying to answer many big questions related to the virus and the disease it causes. Among them is whether patients can be reinfected by the virus after they seem to recover from the symptoms.

With other coronavirus strains, experts say the antibodies that patients produce during infection give them immunity to the specific virus for months or even years, but researchers are still figuring out if and how that works with COVID-19.

The answer has huge implications for the spread of the disease, since researchers believe it will continue to crash across the world in waves, hitting the same country multiple times.

Can you get re-infected after recovering from COVID-19?

There remains a lot of uncertainty, but experts TIME spoke with say that it’s likely the reports of patients who seemed to have recovered but then tested positive again were not examples of re-infection, but were cases where lingering infection was not detected by tests for a period of time.

Related Stories

Experts say the body’s antibody response, triggered by the onset of a virus, means it is unlikely that patients who have recovered from COVID-19 can get re-infected so soon after contracting the virus. Antibodies are normally produced in a patient’s body around seven to 10 days after the initial onset of a virus, says Vineet Menachery, a virologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Instead, testing positive after recovery could just mean the tests resulted in a false negative and that the patient is still infected. “It may be because of the quality of the specimen that they took and may be because the test was not so sensitive,” explains David Hui, a respiratory medicine expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who also studied the 2002-2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which is caused by a coronavirus in the same family as SARS-CoV-2.

A positive test after recovery could also be detecting the residual viral RNA that has remained in the body, but not in high enough amounts to cause disease, says Menachery. “Viral RNA can last a long time even after the actual virus has been stopped.”

Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

Where have patients tested positive for COVID-19 after seeming to have recovered?

A study on recovered COVID-19 patients in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen found that 38 out of 262, or almost 15% of the patients, tested positive after they were discharged. They were confirmed via PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, currently the gold standard for coronavirus testing. The study has yet to be peer reviewed, but offers some early insight into the potential for re-infection. The 38 patients were mostly young (below the age of 14) and displayed mild symptoms during their period of infection. The patients generally were not symptomatic at the time of their second positive test.

In Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began, researchers looked at a case study of four medical workers who had three consecutive positive PCR tests after having seemingly recovered. Similar to the study in Shenzhen, the patients were asymptomatic and their family members were not infected.

Outside of China, at least two such cases have also been reported in Japan (including one Diamond Princess cruise passenger) and one case was reported in South Korea. All three of them reportedly showed symptoms of infection after an initial recovery, and then re-tested as positive.

Does recovering from COVID-19 make you immune?

There hasn’t been enough time to research COVID-19 in order to determine whether patients who recover from COVID-19 are immune to the disease—and if so, how long the immunity will last. However, preliminary studies provide some clues. For example, one study conducted by Chinese researchers (which has not yet been peer-reviewed) found that antibodies in rhesus monkeys kept primates that had recovered from COVID-19 from becoming infected again upon exposure to the virus.

In the absence of more information, researchers have been looking at what is known about other members of the coronavirus family. “We are only three and a half months into the pandemic,” Hsu Li Yang, an associate professor and infectious disease expert at the National University of Singapore, says. “The comments we’re making are based on previous knowledge of other human coronavirus and SARS. But whether they extrapolate across COVID-19, we’re not so sure at present.”

One study conducted by Taiwanese researchers found that survivors of the SARS outbreak in 2003 had antibodies that lasted for up to three years—suggesting immunity. Hui notes that survivors of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, which is also caused by a virus related to the one that causes COVID-19) were found to last just around a year.

Menachery estimates that COVID-19 antibodies will remain in a patient’s system for “two to three years,” based on what’s known about other coronaviruses, but he says it’s too early to know for certain. The degree of immunity could also differ from person to person depending on the strength of the patient’s antibody response. Younger, healthier people will likely generate a more robust antibody response, giving them more protection against the virus in future.

“We would expect that if you have antibodies that neutralize the virus, you will have immunity,” Menachery says. “How long the antibodies last is still in question.”

By Hillary Leung April 3, 2020

Source: What to Know About Coronavirus Immunity and Chances of Reinfection

Please follow my Instagram: http://instagram.com/arminhamidian67

Psychology Research Explains Panic Over Coronavirus and How You Can Calm Down

By now, we’ve all seen the pictures and read the headlines. Coronavirus is real and its impact is growing.

How concerned should we be about the chance of infection? That’s difficult to say, but one thing is for sure: panic is not the answer.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we tend to do in situations like these. Flawed judgment takes over. We overreact. We suspect that we might already be infected. We prepare for the worst. Irrational impulses drown out level-headed thinking.

In fact, there is a lot of psychological research to explain how and why this happens. Below are three cognitive biases that make us perceive the threat of Coronavirus as worse than it actually is.

#1: Things that are easily imagined are judged as more likely to happen.

Have you ever worried about being attacked by a shark? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Almost everyone who swims in the ocean has, at some point, imagined the threat of a shark attack. Why? Not because the odds are high, but because we’ve seen the movie Jaws, we watch Shark Week every summer, and we hear about the occasional shark attack on the news. The idea of a shark attack is easy to imagine and we therefore think it could happen to us.

The same is true of Coronavirus. With hundreds of stories being published on Coronavirus every day, we are naturally led to believe that the epidemic is bigger, closer, and more dangerous than it actually is.

How can we combat this type of flawed reasoning? One way is to take a more passive interest in the news rather than being glued to the TV or reading every new Coronavirus headline that is published. This will make Coronavirus less top-of-mind, and therefore less threatening. Another is to engage in the following exercise. Ask yourself if you know anyone, personally, who has contracted the illness. If the answer is no (which it likely is), ask yourself if you know anyone who knows anyone who has been infected. If the answer to both of these questions is no, then rest assured that the threat of Coronavirus is less imminent than top-of-mind thinking might lead you to believe.

#2: Intuition is mostly a blessing. In cases like these, it can be a curse.

Our ability to make snap judgments is one of the wonders of the human mind. It allows us to navigate our complicated social environments with relative ease — akin to an airplane flying on autopilot. However, when it comes to math, probabilities, and rational decision making, our intuition can lead us astray. Consider the following brain teaser, popularized by the Nobel Laureate psychologist, Daniel Kahneman:

  • A baseball bat and a ball cost $1.10 together. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

Your answer? If you relied on intuition, you probably guessed 10 cents. Most people do. It takes a bit of deep thinking, however, to arrive at the correct answer, which is 5 cents.

Taking some time to do the math behind the Coronavirus might help to quell any hysteria you might be experiencing. And, it may be best to start with a simple calculation. There are about 7.5 billion people in the world. According to the New York Times, approximately 100,000 people have been infected as of yesterday. That means the current odds of anyone in the world contracting the virus is approximately 1 in 75,000. Combine that with the fact that few people who contract the virus actually become seriously ill and you can see how irrational the hysteria really is.

3#: Existential threats often receive more attention than they deserve.

Millions of years of evolution has endowed us with a cognitive architecture that is especially attuned to environmental threats. It’s how we were able to survive, and multiply, in dangerous environments such as the African Serengeti. While this phenomenon, known as the “negativity bias,” works wonders to keep us safe in threatening or unknown environments, it can also produce unnecessary worry. Be cognizant of the fact that your mind has this built-in survival mechanism. Be thankful for it, but give your rational mind the green light to turn it off when it is safe to do so.

Conclusion: Take a deep breath. Coronavirus is almost certainly not coming for you. And, even if it were, panic is not the answer. Wash your hands, continue enjoying your life, and leave the rest to chance. In this case, it’s on your side.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Mark Travers

Mark Travers

Mark Travers is a contributor for Forbes and Psychology Today, where he writes about psychology, human potential, and the science of success. Mark holds a B.A. in psychology, magna cum laude, from Cornell University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. His academic research has been published in leading psychology journals and has been featured in the New York Times and The New Yorker, among other popular publications. Mark has worked in a variety of industries, including journalism, digital entrepreneurship, international education, and marketing research. Stay current with all of Mark’s articles, interviews, and insights by subscribing to his newsletter, the Weekly Top Three, here: tinyletter.com/markwtravers.

Source: Psychology Research Explains Panic Over Coronavirus – And How You Can Calm Down

Please follow my instagram: http://instagram.com/arminhamidian67

9NEWS Psychologist Max Wachtel is discussing the psychology between fears about the coronavirus. More local videos here: https://bit.ly/2Pa0d1l Subscribe to NEXT: http://bit.ly/2eP1GwI Stay connected: 9NEWS Website: http://www.9news.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilike9news Twitter: https://twitter.com/9NEWS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/9newsdenver/ Google+: https://plus.google.com/+9news/posts Snapchat: Denver9NEWS Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/9news/ 9NEWS (KUSA) is located in Denver, Colorado.
%d bloggers like this: