Manatees Roar into the 20s! CLOSED (Page 80)

I have a crush on her! What style. Hang tough. It os going to be a crazy weekend. Our town has exploded the last 3 weekends, even before Phase 1 opening. Now with phase II, it is going to be pandemonium.

My school district's teachers have been invited to be tested for Covid antibodies as part of a study being done at Augusta Univ Health. So many of us were sick in Jan & Feb, but tested negative for flu.

Picked up my gravel bike & went on a quick 30 min ride. The stock saddle suuuuucks, and the saddle I ordered won't be in until next week, so I likely won't have much gravel fun over the long weekend.

Plus, I have an FTP test on Tues. Oh, joy!

This is not necessarily true. During SARS, I lived in one of the most heavily-hit neighborhoods in the most heavily-hit city in the world (Beijing). My cat and I had to have an antibody test (to get her out of China). We were both negative. I was not truly "quarantined" then (it was more like the "lockdowns" here) and in retrospect took risks I probably shouldn't have at times--taking public transport once it re-started (albeit with limited occupancy and constant disinfecting, even with people on the bus), riding my bike around the city, and going outside in the neighborhood a lot. Perhaps most people, including me, had been exposed to some amount of the SARS virus, but maybe not enough to develop antibodies, so we weren't immune, just lucky.

That being said, a study was conducted widely sampling the population in that district, and something like 50% of people had antibodies to SARS several months later. (Which meant the other half did not.) Only about 1/3 of those recalled being sick at all, and only about half of those had been ill enough to seek medical attention. So there is a big range here from possibly being exposed but not developing antibodies, to exposed but no symptoms and now immune (and, with Covid but maybe not SARS, being a silent carrier for a time), to having had the illness and now immune, at least for now. This seems to be a characteristic of viruses in the coronavirus family--large numbers of people with asymptomatic or very mild infections, which can be both a blessing and a curse (if they can unknowingly transmit the virus to more vulnerable people).

If everyone in the country had been exposed enough to develop antibodies, that would be great news as the epidemic would now be over, with no current need for a vaccine. Sadly, I don't think that's the case.

antibody testing in other countries is showing only 5% of the population exposed

Yeah, I’m not expecting to have the antibody; but it would be nice! Of course, like so much they don’t know about this virus,they don’t know how long that would keep you safe.

I would be interested to find out myself. I was quite ill in mid to late December. It was not quite like any virus I've had before. Like a cold or sinus infection but had never had that level of congestion so far up in my head or so painful. Only intermittent low fever for a few days (at night), but I felt like my head was exploding for almost three weeks. Then it would drain into my throat at night and make me cough and gag till my throat was raw and I started wheezing. Presumably just sinus junk, or the mother of all colds but I have had a lot of those and nothing quite like that.

Seems early but it's possible I had indirect contact with people coming from China, possibly even Wuhan itself (family members of a student and friend of a colleague). All it would have taken is one or two carriers with mild or no symptoms. Around that time, 6 out of 10 of my kiddos were sick enough to miss multiple days of school. Two missed two weeks, two others a week or more. Mix of respiratory and GI symptoms, with and without fever. One bad enough to go to ER and need nebulizer treatment. All those who saw a doctor were negative for flu and strep. Covid or just another kid bug? Who knows?

That virus went around our school in February and March. It was still active when we went to remote learning on March 13. Some of my students who had this virus is February and March are now quarantined with their families because they all have COIVD. A good friend I teach with has been sick with that virus since the beginning of March. They've tested her multiple times for COVID and they've all been negative. Unfortunately, one of my 8th graders missed two weeks of school with that virus. She has COIVD now and her mom passed away on Wednesday from COVID.

Interesting. Really have to wonder if maybe we had a very early outbreak here due to the many direct and indirect local ties with China, including in my workplace. (I teach in a Mandarin immersion program in a university town with lots of Chinese students. A number of parents have business and/or family ties with China and often travel or host guests from there.) It sounds like the earlier form of the virus may have been less virulent with kids and young, healthy people than the later mutation coming from Europe which was the main one circulating in New York and other areas outside the West Coast from February on. Someone at work who was ill around the same time commented in January about completely losing her sense of smell and taste for several weeks during/after. (I did to some degree but chalked it up to congestion). I'd assumed we'd both had sinus infections, but several weeks later learned this is a pretty common Covid symptom.

By the time we closed in March, oddly, our kiddos and staff were pretty healthy with the exception of a few diagnosed cases of strep. They did not test for Covid here until early March. Since then, only 66 confirmed cases despite a lot of testing. Really makes me wonder if our outbreak was, in fact, earlier. When I went in for surgery to have the screws out of my arm in late December (it was rather touch and go whether I'd be well enough to have surgery, but it wasn't in my chest at that point so went ahead with it), my doctor commented that EVERYONE around there had been sick in December and most negative for flu and strep.

Whatever it was, I'm relieved that Mom (81, though in good health and very active) never got more than a slight cold during that time. In fact I got a lot sicker, probably because I had little chance to slow down and rest. I only missed a few days of work as there were so many teachers sick in the district it was difficult to get subs. We were actually asked NOT to call in sick unless we were sure we were too ill to make it through the day. In retrospect--OMG.

I have to admit I do too! But I also have to admit I have a bigger crush on Gretchen. I think that NY and MI should both be proud of their state leadership. My confession, when they were elected I didn't vote for Dana Nessel because I know the person she ran against. I did vote for Gretchen Whitmer also because I know the person who ran against her. I am not disappointed in the results, in both cases!

Edited by JBacarella 2020-05-24 8:26 AM

I would love to get tested for the anti-body myself. I was diagnosed with bronchitis in February. I chalked it up to airport crude, after we flew to Florida at the end of January.

I think it could also be due to overlap of the beginning of Covid transmission with the height of flu season. Both Covid and flu tests have fairly substantial false negative rates. Could be wrong, but as I recall kids are more likely to have a false negative with flu tests since their immune systems aren't as developed. So it's hard to say if what definitely was a wave of "something" in many communities in late 2019/early 2020 was flu, Covid, or some of both.

In any case, from the SARS study I mentioned in China, the actual rate of infection was much higher than the number of diagnosed cases (probably at least 6X higher), even if you assume that all of the people with antibodies who reported seeking medical attention for SARS-like symptoms were actually tested and diagnosed, which I'm not sure they would have been, especially early on when doctors didn't know what they were looking at. Ditto for Covid. That's both good and bad news. The good thing is that the death rate is probably much lower than current stats show. The bad news is there are many, many carriers out there with minimal to no symptoms who are unknowingly transmitting it to vulnerable people and keeping the pandemic ball rolling.

Edited by Hot Runner 2020-05-24 12:37 PM

Heading into Covid I saw 8 patients that needed surgery with that were Flu positive in a single week. I think it was a moderately servere Flu season in our area. Our covid volume has been significantly less then much of the country thankfully! We have been testing asymptomatic patients for surgeries that can't wait. Of those asymptomatic patients less then 1% test positive. So at least around me the threat of asymptomatic carriers are low. Even in symptomatic patients the positive test have been pretty low. I am not sure about the rest of NC as we entered Phase II we continue to have an increase in new cases. I would not want to be a politician ever, and certainly not now!

Many of my partners are thinking about getting the antibody test. Some of the test aren't specific to Covid and just test for generic corona-virus markers. I really don't know what I would do with that information and probably not worth it to me to pay out of pocket. If work wants to pay for me to be tested or if part of a study I would happily participate.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! Checking in on thread!

Sounds Fun!

Not sure an antibody test would work for me either. During MERS (three years ago??) I was on two flights in SE Asia with a lot of people returning from Mecca (where the big outbreak was) to Malaysia and Indonesia, the woman next to me appeared seriously ill with coughing and fever, and I had a prolonged flu-like illness after returning to Vietnam. They did not test me for MERS as I don't think they had the tests locally. Negative for flu and strep. So possibly I have antibodies to a related virus but they might not signal immunity to Covid. (Though I'm not sure how long one retains antibodies for MERS.)

Happy Tuesday!

Manatee Meetup at 11:30 eastern (10:30 central, 9:30 mountain, 8:30 pacific, etc.)

https://bit.ly/RacingManatee

Password manatee (all lowercase)

Edited by jmkizer 2020-05-26 10:01 AM

Me Too, but I was out on the water playing with the Jet-ski's which is a lot more fun than what Chris was doing.