Please do not think this will be over soon. Local hospitals are planning for at least 2-3 more months of continued intensive care needs at the current levels.
Wearing a mask in public will now become a recommendation. However you cannot wear surgical, medical, or N95 masks. It is still unproven whether this will help, but the recommendation falls in the we’ll-throw-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to try and reduce the impact of this infection.
Also remember that the majority of hospitalizations and deaths are occurring in individuals who became ill 1-3 weeks ago. We are hopeful that stay in place policy will blunt the number of people getting ill at any one time.
IF you have had the coronavirus infection, you must stay quarantined at least 2 weeks after your symptoms resolve as there is good evidence that 50% of patients may continue to shed the virus for up to 8-10 days after your symptoms resolve. The one symptom that does not count in this determination is fatigue, as this is a common symptom associated with you body healing and not ongoing infection or viral shedding.
The Dutch have found coronavirus in some of their waste water plants. This is frankly not surprising, since many sources have now shown that the virus can be found in the stool 7-10 days after it is absent from the nasal passage and throat.
We also know from studies in Singapore that the virus can be transmitted from people who carry the virus in their nose and throat BUT do not have any symptoms. This finding continues to underscore the need for isolation from even healthy people and friends for now.
Johnson & Johnson has announced a lead candidate vaccine for study. The earliest this vaccine may be proven and available is early 2021. And even then it is anticipated to be available on an emergent basis only. Thankfully there are other vaccines being studied, but their results are pending.
There is a remarkable amount of creative research that will hopefully expand out knowledge of treatments for the coronavirus. I have not in my 35 years of practice seen so much dedicated research to a specific illness. That is perhaps due to the fact that there has never been so much medical technology available to direct against a public health threat as this infection. It also thankfully speaks for a hugely diversified development environment for new treatments to a myriad of old and new diseases.
New evidence suggest that some with COVID-19 may only have GI symptoms of loss of appetite, nausea, and diarrhea without respiratory symptoms. This further complicates the decision whether to test or not. A lot of people have similar GI symptoms and don’t have COVID-19. But it still needs to be considered if you have the onset of these symptoms within the last 4-6 weeks. Testing of the nose and throat is apparently negative, and these people appear to recover and do well without serious complications. I don’t at present know any commercial labs accepting stool specimens for COVID-19 analysis.
Losing the ability to smell and taste is also a symptom of this condition as much as 2/3 of infections and 1/3 of people may present with only loss of taste and smell. Again, this is a very common symptom of a variety of viral infections, but in these time we must be diligent about these symptoms.
Dr. Gipson
Thanks to you and your staff doc. We really appreciate the unbiased/nonpartisan info.
Thank you and I hope y’all stay well with the only illness you contract is becoming stir-crazy!
This is great stuff Terry, thank you! What is the deal with ibuprofen/NSAID’s, avoid or jury is still out?
There is really no evidence that ibuprofen and other NSAIDs place people at higher risk for the severe lung problems with COVID-19.
We do know that if people are taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs AND become dehydrated with ANY illness, kidney injury can be greatly intensified. As to NSAIDs causing or placing one at risk for increased lung injury, there is no evidence for that in this viral illness or others observed in the past. Time will have to tell us whether the NSAIDs affect people differently with this virus compared to others.
Dr. Gipson,
What is required to make the actual SARS/COVID-19 test? Is there a special serum or actual virus samples needed? More lab space or techs to run the test? I’m just wondering why there aren’t enough tests? Why were some of the tests we received from other countries deemed unreliable? Will we all eventually receive a tiger test to see if we have already had the virus and were asymptomatic?
Thanks for this site, I know I can trust the information you share.
Laurie
The main reason the US is so far behind in testing is that the US federal government thought they could make a better test than the WHO had available in January. Due to the arrogance of the CDC and Presidency as well as the horrible inefficiency of the FDA and other governmental bureaucracy, we are two months behind in having tests available.
South Korea is an example of a country that made decisions in January, used what they had, and prevented the problems we are seeing now.
In terms of testing, it is easy to make a test in the lab for one person to preform one at a time. It is another magnitude to be able to run 10’s of thousands of tests daily accurately. Tests from other countries were deemed unreliable because the US government (which includes the CDC) thought they could make a better mouse trap. Instead of getting tests from other countries months ago, we now have multiple US companies making tests of unknown reliability.
It is a point of great sadness that political view points prevailed when good science should have been making the decisions, not scientists or medical doctors turned administrators.
Sorry for the rant, but it the unfortunate truth of what happened.
Thank you for your comments. It is very refreshing to hear someone speak the truth about our current situation. As both of us are scientists, we have a soft spot in our hearts for anyone willing to defend science. Thanks for your excellent thoughts.
Thank you for your supportive word! I always hope my efforts are helpful.
they most certainly are helpful..keep them up…..
Thanks for your updates Terry. Stay well
Frank Eich
Thank you and y’all too!
We purchased a package of dust masks at Home Depot 6 years ago for a home improvement project. 3 unused masks from the package have been sitting in our basement since then. We found the unused masks a few days and discovered they are labeled as N95 masks. Will we be prevented from wearing these masks in public?
1. I would use them.
2. I do not anticipate there being an enforcement department going around looking at the masks we are wearing. If an appropriate law enforcement officer makes an issue, just tell them that your doctor refused to take them because of their age.
Do not know how how SARS-Co2 differs from other viruses in this respect: If detected in nasal swab in asymptomatic person, does the antibody show up in their blood tests? Do we know how long the virus will persist in the nasal passage such that the person can potentially infect others – or themselves absent antibody in their blood? Are there estimates of % of asymptomatic poulation who carry the virus yet?
1. Antibodies do not develop if the virus does not invade the body enough to elicit an immune response. So just having it in your nasal passage does not elicit an immune response that would develop antibodies that could at a later date be tested.
2. Some studies from the Chinese outbreak show that IF you have the virus in your nose or throat, you have a 70% chance of getting sick during next two weeks. The other 30%, who are not ill or even symptomatic, are still sources of contagion. We don’t know how long the virus stays on the nasal and throat lining in those who do not become ill.
3. In studies following ill individuals, often the nasal passage will clear of the virus while stool and sputum (from the lungs) still have detected virus RNA for up to 9 days after the nasal passage has cleared.
4. Because of the US’s ineptitude making testing widely available, we do not know the rate of asymptomatic carriers in the US. An interesting finding comes from one of the cruise ships quarantined off Yokohama. In that study everyone was tested. It was found that of all the 3500 people on board, about 1/3 tested positive and about 70% of those got sick.
5. Lastly there have been several individuals in Japan who have had positive nasal tests 4-8 weeks after resolution of their symptoms. They did not get sick again. Unfortunately the testing looks for viral RNA. It doesn’t tell us whether the virus is viable or dead and munched up. It just says the RNA was on the swab.
I hope that addresses your questions.
Thank you. I was just wondering about current statistsic since the earliest testing in Colorado was being (I am assuming) limited to those with symptoms and a Dr’s. note while current testing doesn’t seem to be so constrained.
We have less than a dozen test kits as of today and are doing testing on those with symptoms or those that have had a direct exposure and are at high risk.
There are unfortunately not enough for testing of asymptomatic individuals.
Thanks as always for keeping us updated and feeling safer. I’m trying to limit my exposure to the constant news about co-vid 19…. This is the one place I know I can get accurate updated information that I can trust.
Would it be a good idea to use homemade fine weave cotton masks for use in grocery stores?
Yes cotton gloves are recommended over latex or rubber gloves as the cotton absorbs and disperses the droplets better.
We just purchased a package of masks on Amazon that are shown as “disposable face mask surgical medical dental mask industry loop dust mask” (a little of everything). I assume these are going to be all right to use? They are not in the category of N95.
Thanks
Yes that would be fine to use.