I respectfully disagree. I was given clearance. It’s been a little over three weeks since I first had symptoms.
I feel soooo much better. Working out again. Haven’t napped in over 1.5 weeks!
Yet, my lung capacity is still not 100% normal and neither is my sense of smell.
That’s going to take time to heal.
People can still be recovering from the illness, but not be infectious with active disease.
My PSA of the day! 
Yes to more PPE, yes to more testing, but personally I skeptical that contact tracing will have as great as impact as many folks believe bcos it won’t/can’t be done right.
Colleges can require students to add a tracing app to their phones as a condition to return to campus, but cities cannot require one for folks to walk out their front door.
And, as I noted upthread, Singapore only had 12% adopt the contact tracing app when it was voluntary.
@sdl0625 End goal seems pretty clear to me. Follow the national guidelines so that when we reopen we don’t have to close down again right away. Get all the things up and running in the national guidelines (rapid, massive testing, contact tracing, and quarantine) in place also so we don’t have to shut down again right away. If we open and this goes out of control, people are going to stay home so no matter what, opening and controlling the virus go hand in hand.
Also, find ways to treat the virus to improve survival rates through both medication and methods of treatment.
Find ways to smartly implement social distancing while still opening up things as safely as possible. For example, CT plans to open colleges this fall and will have testing on site and have quarantine ready to go for those who are positive. Smart plans could enable a lot of things to happen that might at first not seem possible.
Look at what worked in other countries, both in those who responded well in from early on and those who didn’t respond well and got clobbered the way Italy did. What have they done that we can also do?
I think we should also on improving mask wearing and also get masks that actually are effective protection to Americans.
Up plasma donations of those who had it to be used to treat those sick.
Way down the road, get the vaccine going.
End goals - save lives and protect the economy. I think both are essential and support each other.
@Midwest67, will you wear a mask when you are out?
There is no medical reason for it, no one seems to think you can get this again and become contagious again.
But the cashier at Costco doesn’t know that, other shoppers don’t know that, Karen down the street doesn’t know that.
So is it easier to wear a mask and avoid the questions and suspicion?
Oh, for sure I wear a mask! Absolutely!
Not when I walk the dog though. Plenty of wide open space. I have a neck chute I can pull up over my mouth & nose should I have a close encounter on a dog walk.
H, also recovered, wears a mask as well.
I do think society and the medical world have learned a few things from this virus. We’ve learned that buses and subways need to be cleaned more often, that cramming 2x as many people into the cars/trains during cold and flu season isn’t a great idea, that many workers should be wearing masks all the time. The medical workers have learned which treatments work the best for serious lung cases of Covid19. We’ve learned that large groups of people at sporting events or concerts makes the virus spread.
What we really don’t know is if using cash or a credit card spreads the virus, if it lives on clothing or surfaces, if the mailman is delivering it every day on our packages, if there is a way to re-start schools without infecting everyone.
I’m interested in learning the numbers for colds and flu this year. All the things we’ve done to prevent Covid19 spreading should also have helped other contagious illnesses. Washing hands, wearing masks, not shaking hands, not attending school, work, big events should all cut down on flu cases and deaths.
I think contract tracing can work, we just need a lot of people to fill those jobs.
I had experience with a contact tracer (not sure that’s her whole job!) from Cook County (Chicagoland) Public Health Department in Feb when S21 had whooping cough (he has all his vaccinations, that’s why the doc said he had a mild case).
The contact tracer first worked with the school nurse to determine all S21’s classes, teachers, coaches, etc. Email letters went out to all classmates that a student had whooping cough, watch for X symptoms. Nurse communicated directly with staff members.
Then contact tracer called me who asked me many questions about S21s daily schedule and interactions, starting with household members and going from there. Paid special attention to any potential contacts with elderly, immuno-compromised peeps, and infants. There weren’t any close contacts like that, so the contact tracer did not feel they had to notify anyone else outside of school. It seemed pretty thorough.
I feel pretty good about the plan NYS has put forth and the requirements each region must reach to allow Phase 1 to even begin. And if hot spots appear the region will be immediately shut down again. The plan is quite detailed and strictly data oriented.
I’m at the point, however, where I don’t really care what other states do. If they don’t care about their citizens why should I.
My 90 year old mom in SE Florida isn’t going to go out for a long while - regardless of what her state does.
Pandora’s box has been opened, the genie is out of the bottle, whatever metaphor you want to use. There are millions of people in the US, and more millions all over the world, with this disease. We need testing and treatment, and will continue to get better at it, but containment is no longer a realistic hope.
If I get symptoms and test positive, I will self-quarantine. Same with DH. But we may get it and never know. If someone tells me I’ve had contact with an active case I’ll get tested if that is an option.
I’ll wear masks, and support continued prohibitions of large gatherings - festivals, concerts, sporting events for some time, I’m not sure how long. And as soon as my hair stylist opens I’ll be in for an appointment.
That was also my husband’s experience – it took a while for the smell/taste to come back, and he thinks his lungs still aren’t back to pre-covid. He gets winded much quicker now during our daily walks.
I think this has been decided (or had) in the form of national guidelines that have since been not followed properly by a number of states. It isn’t something that each of us as individuals would ideally be deciding but instead that all would strongly support because it will give us the best chance to open safely. Jumping over steps and then claiming, ‘well, we can’t wait forever!’ doesn’t make any sense to me. We have national guidelines for a reason. We should follow them. If we hit all the benchmarks to open to phase 1, we should. If not, we should take more time. Our state is following the guidelines and using data driven decision making. I wish all places were doing the same and I don’t understand why so many people question why we haven’t opened yet when the guidelines, while having some grey areas, are pretty clear on when states should start to open and many haven’t met those things yet.
Well, I am glad our state is following the actual guidelines which are written.
Risks at the moment can’t be properly assessed by anyone. There’re simply too many unknowns. Even when risks become more assessible later, a significant portion of the population still likely won’t be able to properly assess them. If a significant portion of the population fail to properly assess the risks, the consequences aren’t limited to themselves with such a highly infectious disease.
There are other possible (obviously not guaranteed) medical advances that could happen much sooner than a vaccine that could reduce the risk and/or better define the risk.
In other words, you are basically saying that there is no way other than a vaccine to save lives, and the economy will stay down because many people will be too afraid to return to normal economic activity until the vaccine becomes available.
Yes, people may go back to work (if work is still there) to avoid running out of money, but do you think that those afraid of the virus will eat at restaurants, travel, go to theaters, go to festivals, shop at crowded malls, play contact sports, watch sports at the event, etc.?
While that worst-of-both-worlds outcome may be the most likely outcome, it is not like medical researchers are not trying to find ways to reduce the virus risk that may be available more quickly than a vaccine, which would make the outcome less bad (both in number of deaths and disabilities and in economics) if such things were found.
IIRC, in some other countries, two negative tests were required for a previously positive person to be given the OK.
Is that the case here? Or are we just letting folks decide they feel better and can again go out in public?
What is the testing follow up in this country for those who have previously tested positive.
Our 23 yo D in WashDC reports the same about her lungs. She feels recovered except for lung capacity.
She noticed it when she exercised again & was so out of breath.
She reported that a coworker who got sick about 2 weeks before her was shocked by poor lung capacity when he tried to go for a run.
Everyone I know who has this complaint, including me, sees small improvement with each passing week.
So, I have hope the damage is not permanent — and I’m not naturally the optimistic type.
Wishing your H continued healing!
And my observations today. I went on some errands. Every single person I saw at every single place was wearing a mask. Patrons as well as employees. This is the first time I’ve seen 100% mask wearing. And no one had it pulled up or down…nose and mouth covered.
Mid afternoon…not very many people in the stores, but it seemed like there were more cars on the road than in my previous outings.
I think that there are many other countries showing us what does work and that contact tracing certainly works. I don’t see why what is done elsewhere can’t be done here. I don’t see why we don’t follow what experts have for decades recommended and what is in our own current national guidelines, as if they are things on which we should vote rather than things experts recommend because they are based on things shown to work.
The acellular pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine immunity supposedly fades quickly.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/04/how-long-do-vaccines-last-surprising-answers-may-help-protect-people-longer