We’re all the people actually diagnosed with Covid or they just think they had it? I don’t see how teens with light symptoms or 30-somethings with 48 hours of flu like symptoms would be able to score tests.
D’s 30 year old friends were pretty much on bedrest for like a week or two which was very unusual for them—no testing.
Here is the story of a 61 yr. old woman who was in my high school graduating class. It is from the website for the St. Paul Pioneer Press (newspaper).
I previously mentioned that the first death in Ohio was a neighbor and member of my church.
https://www.twincities.com/2020/04/29/mn-coronavirus-survivor-i-truly-thought-i-was-going-to-die/
@suzyQ7 the folks in Belmar were in no way social distancing. Just like the people crowding the OCNJ boardwalk, for the most part weren’t wearing masks, but were crowding each other in lines for food.
One resident down there was on our local news and said it’s impossible to do the right thing when so many others aren’t.
The beaches, however, looked like people were doing a good job of social distancing.
President of our rural water board got it and spent several weeks on a ventilator before dying. His wife was never able to see him again after she dropped him off at the hospital. (Segue to moan - my husband is now president again as well as treasurer and something else. Seriously the only way to get out of that job is by getting cancer or dying. He was president for years before getting a cancer he seemed unlikely to survive 8 years ago. Maybe we should move).
A former employee of my firm lost both parents to it within 2 weeks. She and her husband both got it and recovered ( I don’t know her but several employees do).
Boss’s husband’s card buddy got it. I believe he recovered.
Several cases in our town were linked to a church choir where one person got it then several others.
I think when you know people or who had it and hear the misery surrounding it (my husband talked to the presidents wife nearly every day to check on her. She was quarantined and on her own - it was so sad) you take it a bit more seriously especially if you have a vulnerable family member. Well, not everyone.
We know that somewhere around half of people who get infected with covid have no symptoms, so I don’t doubt stories of people with light symptoms.
We also know that of all the people who get infected with covid, including the people who have no symptoms, somewhere around 2% end up in the hospital. Less in areas that are overwhelmed, but somewhere around 2% have serious enough symptoms so they really ought to be hospitalized. Might be 3% or 4%; in any case, it’s a big enough number that it makes a difference. Most people who are infected with covid are more or less OK and don’t need to go to the hospital, but some do, of all ages.
So I’m wondering how the folks who get out of the hospital are doing. We can say that most people who die of covid are old, but that’s not true of people who are discharged from the hospital after covid. It makes a big difference what the truth is here. Are most people who get out of the hospital fine after two or three weeks? Or are they still significantly impaired in the tasks of daily life? It’s worth knowing.
In the suburbs of Chicago tests were available in mid to late March through the North Shore Hospital system. I know personally know several teens who were tested with light symptoms.
Personal experiences:
A colleague of my H’s had it. She, her husband, her brother, her parents,and her kids all got it and recovered, I think without hospitalization except maybe her father.
A good friend was hospitalized but didn’t need a vent, thankfully, and is recovering.
A former neighbor and an acquaintance from church have each died of it. Both in their sixties.
Scores of people in my town have died of it, though I have not seen a list of names yet.
At least four of my students reported parents with it, and several lost family members, some more than one.
A friend from HS lost both parents in one weekend.
These are off the top of my head. There’s also the 45 year old officer from a nearby town who just died. A former councilperson from another nearby town, 59. And I’m sure I can recall lots more. Sadly.
So yeah, we are not all having the same Covid experience. And you don’t want your town to have mine.
@socaldad2002 - they are upset that some of the local stores and restaurants have signs up saying, “No mask, no service.” And the inevitable grumbling of socialism, sheep, and brainwashing.
In my day to day life, I don’t know anyone who has been ill and tested positive for COVID but I’m fairly sure that I know people who have had it and did not know it. At the moment, in my county, my zip code has the highest amount of cases yet no one I have talked to knows anyone who is among those cases. That said, I haven’t talked to that many people since I’ve been staying home, so it may be that I’m just unaware.
In my broader world, my first cousin, who I haven’t seen in 30 years, has/had COVID. He’s only 52 but has been in a nursing home for a while due to complications related to being HIV+. I didn’t realize it until my mother told me he was in the hospital with COVID, but he also was diagnosed lymphoma two years ago. He was on a ventilator in the hospital and given his existing complications, my mother and I assumed this was it for him. However, my aunt called to let my mother know he’d been taken off the ventilator. I can’t recall if he’s still in the hospital or moved back to his nursing home. We were both shocked to hear that he somehow survived. Other than my cousin, I don’t know anyone personally who has been hospitalized or who tested positive and battled it at home.
I still don’t know anyone who has tested positive or been sick either. And not just here in California. The tentacles of my friends and relatives extend into many states and the UK.
I have friends whose parents are in nursing homes. My dad has friends in nursing homes. One of my friends is an administrator of a nursing home. No cases.
I wonder if I am the exception or the rule.
I dont know anyone personally, except from what others are telling me Someone today told me she knew several people who have had it, but not hospitalized. My brothers friend in NYC also had it, and it took a long time to get better. Same with a friend in NJ who know people The only death I heard of was an 86 YO uncle who caught it working in NYC back in Feb/Early March.
Observations today in suburbs of GA. I went to the Mall. To walk inside the mall is less crowded than in the parks/trails around here on a nice day. But I also wanted to see what was going on. 3 department stores were open, MAcys, Dillards, and Von Maur. They had people in them, but I would say of the 3 Macys had the most. JC penneys closed. I walked by the mens dept and saw all the dress shirts and ties and I thought, likely in the near future there will not be a market for those. Also, stores are stuck on the merchandise from March. If you need winter stuff, GREAT deals. Cant find shorts yet. Bathing suits though had arrived already.
All over the mall, benches had X’s on every other seat Signs everywhere about SD. Places to stand near the escalator to maintain distance. The few mall stores that were open allowed limited people . Only one store had a “line” (champs). But maybe 1/3 of the stores were open. Mask wearing was happening but not 100%. Most masks by families and mother/daughters/sons. Young people without adults not as much :(.
It will take a long time for retail to bounce back. As people say, who needs clothes, as who is going anywhere? (see comment on ties above). I need casual shorts badly. I could likely get at target, but want to try to help businesses that had to be shut down.
Wore mask the entire time. Never had my 6 feet distancing infringed upon. Drove by park and lot was crowded. So other than being indoors versus outdoors, with it being empty, was a good place to walk.
I don’t know anyone personally who had covid. An elderly relative of a friend died of it here. I have no doubt that if I asked my sis in NJ, she’d reel off ten names off the top of her head.
My nephew who was in college in Boston had COVID toes. No test, they aren’t testing for COVID toes and he had no other symptoms. No one else in his family was sick.
I think that we know so little about this virus (and lack of testing and reliable testing) that it’s likely we know someone who has had the virus. Unless we live in an area where there are very few cases and almost all the people we know are in the same situation.
Riskier and less risky activities, according to an interview with epidemiologist Susan Hassig from Tulane
- High risk: Getting together with groups of friends and non-household family
- High risk: Bars, religious services, movie theaters and sporting events
- Medium to high: gyms
- Medium: hair/nail salons, indoor restaurants, dates, gatherings with a couple of friends
- Low: outdoor restaurants, outdoor exercising, retail shopping, touching mail or groceries
Agree… If you are in the northeast, you know people. Personally, I know 10 people.
-I elderly who died in a nursing home after 2 weeks (picked up from staff),
-a healthcare worker friend and 3 co-workers of hers: none hospitalized and 2 that were quite sick at home. One of the 4 was mild, and one asymptomatic. All recovered with little after affects.
-2 family members of one of the healthcare workers who lost sense of taste and smell, and slight fever…that’s it.
-2 parents of a friend who were sick for an entire month- at home- persistent fevers and extreme fatigue. Upper 60s. They are faring the worse, but no hospitalization.
-1 colleague in Manhattan who is 30 and it really kicked his a** for 2 weeks. Still winded a few weeks later, but better.
-Another friend who had it early on - 50 - also kicked her butt for weeks (exhausted, cough, fever) but feeling well now.
I’m surprised that gyms is not listed in the high risk category but getting together with groups of friends and non-household family is. I personally would swap them (but I’m not a epidemiologist).
I know people in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Virginia, Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, California and Oregon with whom I keep a regular correspondence. True, I don’t know people in the northeast. That could be a big reason I don’t know anyone with the virus.
It was easy to get tested here. One did not need any symptoms to qualify. I realize that was not the case everywhere. I haven’t bothered testing because I don’t see any reason to at this point.
I live in the northeast and know one person who presumably had it, my niece. She was tested because she is a PhD student at UConn and they were testing employees and students. Her test came back negative but her doc was 99% sure it was Covid. She was sick with cold like symptoms for 2-3 weeks, low grade fever and “Covid cough.”
My mother has a friend whose daughter died from it. Not sure if she was tested. She was in her 50s I believe, no idea if there were comorbidities. The same friend’s son had it, and last I heard was doing okay. Not sure if he was tested either or if he had comorbidities.
I live in CT, though nowhere near NY, where the heavy concentration of cases are located.