I’ll start by stating that the information I’m going over here, will be dated VERY quickly. The data surrounding SARS CoV 2 is coming in at a rapid rate, and will likely render this obsolete in no time. Understand that it has a shelf life, but it also seems important to get some of this out to anyone that might take the opportunity to read it.
I’ll also state that I am not a doctor, or medical professional. I’m here to relay information from doctors and people who are much MUCH smarter than I am. I’m simply using the medium to make their knowledge available. You certainly have no obligation to believe me. My hope is that you’ll interpret this as relaying a message.
There’s a lot of opinions surrounding the SARS CoV 2 and the disease state that it causes, COVID 19. It’s understandable to a degree. Something new, and scary, naturally leads to speculative opinion making. This first posting is not meant to be completely speculative, though there will be forward looking data. Here’s some information:
- As I’m writing this, there are 169,387 confirmed cases of COVID 19, in the world.
- There have been 6,513 deaths.
- COVID 19 is the name of the disease state caused by SARS CoV 2.
- What has caused much of the extreme reactivity to this Coronavirus ( CoV), is the ease in which it is transmitted.
- Another reason for the extreme reactivity taken, is due to the lethality of the disease. It’s especially lethal for those that are elderly, in poor health, or immunocompromised in some way.
- There are people that can have virtually no symptoms of the disease, but still be transmitting the virus. This makes the “social distancing” edicts so important.
- Symptoms seem to manifest around 5 days after infection.
- The symptoms vary WIDELY among individual cases.
- The fatality rate estimates look to be below 3%.
- Healthcare workers in Wuhan in China had 1,000 among them with COVID 19. 15% of them had severe illness. It seems to hit healthcare workers especially hard. If 15% of the United States healthcare workforce were rendered incapable of working, it would create a problem that would be difficult, if not impossible to overcome in the way of shortages and increased mortality.
- If first responders come in contact with the virus, they are forced to self quarantine for up to 14 days, which keeps first responders from..responding.
- The US has limited ICU beds. If the growth rate continues at 1.3X, and just a 5% hospitalization rate, the US’ 100,000 ICU beds would be filled in just under 19 days.
- What ended up being COVID 19 patients, had presented with gastrointestinal distress in Wuhan. They were then admitted to surgical suites. Because of this, the healthcare workers were then infected, as less personal protective equipment was used.
- There is a strong misconception that this is ONLY a respiratory disease. While that seems to be the primary problem, the virus seems to attack the cardiovascular system as well. We already know that folks that have rid themselves of the disease state, have had damage to their cardiovascular system.
- The virus uses the ACE2 receptor, which is found in the alveolar ( in the lungs), blood vessels, ileum, colon, and the heart ( which seems to explain why it’s been so widely varied in presentation).
- With limited data, it appears that pre-existing complications with the cardiovascular system has led to worse outcomes.
Stopping the spread of this virus is imperative. This can’t be overstated. We have been unable to keep the virus from becoming an epidemic in the United States, however, we certainly have the capability of keeping it from infecting, and potentially, killing, the people around us.. Please remember, the restrictions that continue to come from our local, State, and Federal Governments are extreme. They are meant to save lives. Please treat them seriously as they are in place to keep our healthcare system available for those WITHOUT COVID-19, and maintain capacity for those that are infected.
( Because I absolutely want you to “fact-check” this, I’m going to leave my sources blank. That’s right. I want YOU to look through credible sources such as the CDC, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, WHO, your local healthcare professional websites, and other trustworthy sources. It’s important to stay up on this.)
Andrew L Hamilton 