After I tested positive for CV...

[legion]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

To be on the right side of caution when we visit my mother next Sunday, I took a Covid test this past Sunday and got the results back today, showing positive for Covid.

Two weeks ago, I had symptoms of a headache, runny nose, coughing up phlegm, etc. I chalked it up to the usual cold. It wasn’t debilitating and having asthma, my breathing was a little tight. No drama.

That said, I think after what I had, a lot of people have or had Covid and don’t realize it.

I’m sitting in my truck at work and got the results. Haven’t left the truck yet and deciding if I am symptom-free, if I’m OK to work outside, as I am in homebuilding.

I’m going to take another test today and see what happens.

Thoughts?

Sounds like you're already past it. You're already past 10 days with no symptoms. I'd go about my life as normal.

[legion]

Originally Posted by jyl

Based on your expertise no doubt

So clearly you have indisputable credentials, if you're going to pull that card.

[speeder]

Sorry to hear your family story, Les Paul. It is tragic and can be multiplied by about 240k in the USA alone and climbing..:every death a personal tragedy for someone. Or some family and friends, I should say.

Some here like to minimize the death of older people but when you get old and have a family, remaining time gets precious. My oldest friend called the other day to tell me that his dad passed away, I’ve known him for 55 years. They went and fished him out of his assisted living facility in Florida back in spring when the pandemic started and brought him to Minnesota to stay with his kids in their houses and family cabin. They tried to be as careful as possible, had him up at the cabin most of summer. This is a WW2 Navy guy who wanted to go skydiving for his 90th birthday, they obliged him.

Anyhow, he managed to contract Covid at daughter’s house and died. Now the grown kids are mad at each other, blaming the sister, etc. What’s done is done but it’s sad, they liked having him around and he liked being alive. I wanted to visit him this summer but it was too risky, I got a negative test the other day but do I know 100% that I’m virus-free? No. Same last summer.

Hope you and yours have a good recovery and find peace, Les Paul.

[Flat Six]

Originally Posted by jyl

There are different strains of SARS-COV2 but the differences are minor and I've read nothing that suggests some are more/less dangerous than others.

Disease severity seems to be some combination of how much initial virus dose you get, your age and underlying condition, whether you have any pre-existing immune protection which may be from prior exposure to other coronaviruses, and a bunch of genetic and other factors that are just starting to be understood.

Most of this is not well understood yet. So as a practical matter, let's call it dose, age, health, and randomness.

^^This

Originally Posted by jyl

With the crappiest unlicensed serology tests that initially came in from China, almost anything was possible.

With the tests used now in the US, basically "no". Nothing is utterly impossible, but for all practical purposes, the tests respond to SARS-COV2 not other viruses.

However, diagnostic tests are not instant and perfect. It is kind of like the old "fast, cheap, accurate, pick any two" thing, but worse.

Different kinds of tests have different levels of sensitivity (how few "false negatives") or specificity (how few "false positives"). In general, false positives are much less common than false negatives. In general, the "fast tests" have more false negatives. In general, tests done very early in the disease course are more likely to return false negatives. In general, a result from a deep nasal swab that goes through a PCR process in a lab is very likely to be correct, while a Covid-positive result from a throat or shallow nasal swab that gets stuck in a machine with results in minutes is less reliable, and in a perfect world would simply be used for screening then be confirmed by a PCR test.

See https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/which-test-is-best-for-covid-19-2020081020734 for some background. It is from August, and this is all so fast-moving that I think test accuracy has improved since then.

^^And this

Originally Posted by legion

So clearly you have indisputable credentials, if you're going to pull that card.

Don't know either one of you guys but what I've read from CDC & Harvard Med aligns w/JYL's comments.

[A930Rocket]

Took another deep nasal swab test at noon. We’ll see what happens in 48 hours....

In the meantime, I’m doing what I can at work outside, staying away from everyone and working by phone.

My wife just got her results and it’s negative. 🙌🏽

[legion]

If the tests only work for CV-19, why do they consistently detect past Dengue infections?

The fact is, there has been no study done on what other viruses might trigger false positives on the various kinds of tests. They are just assumed to detect only one thing, and even that has been shown to be false.

[vash]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

My wife just got her results and it’s negative. 🙌🏽

oh good!! i hope you come back suffering only from the inconvenience of it all.

[expatriot98]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

To be on the right side of caution when we visit my mother next Sunday, I took a Covid test this past Sunday and got the results back today, showing positive for Covid.

Two weeks ago, I had symptoms of a headache, runny nose, coughing up phlegm, etc. I chalked it up to the usual cold. It wasn’t debilitating and having asthma, my breathing was a little tight. No drama.

That said, I think after what I had, a lot of people have or had Covid and don’t realize it.

I’m sitting in my truck at work and got the results. Haven’t left the truck yet and deciding if I am symptom-free, if I’m OK to work outside, as I am in homebuilding.

I’m going to take another test today and see what happens.

Thoughts?

I'm day 9 since a positive test. See thread I started on living with it day to day. My symptoms never got bad and I was pretty much over it by yesterday but holding to the 10 day quarantine. It's up to you, but as a courtesy to others, you might consider isolating for a couple days just to be sure,

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by gregpark

Keep your distance and go to work. The first wave was undetected I believe. I've talked to dozens of people who swear they had it last December or January. Fever, dry cough, felt crappy for a couple weeks, etc. If I know of so many in my small circle I'm thinking there must have been hundreds of thousands infected and recovered before March. But so few had to be hospitalized it wasn't recognized as a pandemic. I blame the media for causing hysteria. The media itself is a pandemic disease. On a global scale.

I know several people including my brother and my best friend who had these symptoms in January and December. I was around both of them and never got it. My brother even spent a couple nights in the hospital With pneumonia right before Christmas.

Given that what they had wasn’t crazy contagious like Covid 19 seems to be, I’d say that was not Covid 19. That’s just my engineer brain working on this. My brother was even with my dad after he got out of the hospital. He was not 100% better.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

I know several people including my brother and my best friend who had these symptoms in January and December. I was around both of them and never got it. My brother even spent a couple nights in the hospital With pneumonia right before Christmas.

Given that what they had wasn’t crazy contagious like Covid 19 seems to be, I’d say that was not Covid 19. That’s just my engineer brain working on this. My brother was even with my dad after he got out of the hospital. He was not 100% better.

I’m also a person who got extremely sick last fall, (one year ago), wondered if I had Covid, etc. I wound up in the ER from coughing and thought I was getting pneumonia, which is probably fatal for me due to underlying condition.

The truth of the matter is that there was also a particularly nasty flu going around last winter that had some, (but not all), of the same symptoms as Covid.

[pavulon]

Given the rate of transmission, morbidity and mortality it's implausible that a first wave was undetected as there were zero measures in place to limit spread.

The hospital where I work is a regional COVID center. Admin is mandating people to work on COVID floors as the staff there need relief or fall ill with COVID themselves. It's no joke. The ICUs are all full, floors filling and people are dying without ever getting to the unit. Staff are quitting rather than being made to go (or go back) to these areas.

Soon care will need to be further rationed as the state sets more records for positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths. Currently, the number of positive tests represent roughly 10% of the state's population. Assuming (for illustrative purposes) that many again have had the virus and were never tested, ~80% of the population remain completely vulnerable to infection not counting potential re-infections. One need not be a mathlete to see how this will continue to balloon. It is a complete mess and getting worse every day. The system is simply not able to absorb it all.

Keep your distance, wash your hands and swallow your pride (mask and stay home) if you have to.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I’m sitting in my truck at work and got the results. Haven’t left the truck yet and deciding if I am symptom-free, if I’m OK to work outside, as I am in homebuilding.

I’m going to take another test today and see what happens.

Thoughts?

You're not OK to just go about your business. You should let everyone you work with know you have tested positive. Whether they don't care or if they want to keep their distance, that's their decision. You really need to give them the information they need to make their decision.

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

You're not OK to just go about your business. You should let everyone you work with know you have tested positive. Whether they don't care or if they want to keep their distance, that's their decision. You really need to give them the information they need to make their decision.

I understand. I called my manager right after I got my results and have told everyone I’m positive. I didn’t get near anyone and stayed to myself (doing what I can from my truck). I told my coworker, who I share a construction office with (which I’m staying out of) he should get tested and he did.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by legion

If the tests only work for CV-19, why do they consistently detect past Dengue infections?

The fact is, there has been no study done on what other viruses might trigger false positives on the various kinds of tests. They are just assumed to detect only one thing, and even that has been shown to be false.

b/c they have shared clinical and laboratory features, and only serological tests do this

nor is it consistent


Please stop spreading dangerous mis-information.

Just go back to whining about your rights, and you won't get others infected.

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Given the rate of transmission, morbidity and mortality it's implausible that a first wave was undetected as there were zero measures in place to limit spread.

The hospital where I work is a regional COVID center. Admin is mandating people to work on COVID floors as the staff there need relief or fall ill with COVID themselves. It's no joke. The ICUs are all full, floors filling and people are dying without ever getting to the unit. Staff are quitting rather than being made to go (or go back) to these areas.

Soon care will need to be further rationed as the state sets more records for positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths. Currently, the number of positive tests represent roughly 10% of the state's population. Assuming (for illustrative purposes) that many again have had the virus and were never tested, ~80% of the population remain completely vulnerable to infection not counting potential re-infections. One need not be a mathlete to see how this will continue to balloon. It is a complete mess and getting worse every day. The system is simply not able to absorb it all.

Keep your distance, wash your hands and swallow your pride (mask and stay home) if you have to.

Voice of reason. ^^^

[mattdavis11]

I was tested today. There is no way I'm not positive. I don't want to start a new thread. After coming home yesterday feeling tired, I opened a beer, which I could not taste upon sipping. Felt tired, and chills, although it was 80F in the house (hot), went to bed early, 8pm.

I woke up this morning, felt fine, then felt sluggish an hour later. I went straight to a testing facility. Along the way, I pass by 2 places that throw me signs that I have covid-19, but no taste preceded both. First was a feed lot, didn't smell it, second was Luling, Texas. If you can't smell that town, something is wrong with your whiffer. I drove into to Lockhart, no barbecue smell. Action taken. Tested and waiting results. Going back home on the same path, I could not smell a damn thing. Feeling about 80%. Quarantine.

Edit: Forgot about the Tyson chicken hualer, we have a plant here, and they were live, not a scent could I gather. Those are dodgers, meaning get past them.

[gtc]

Originally Posted by gregpark

... The first wave was undetected I believe. I've talked to dozens of people who swear they had it last December or January. ...

A bunch of the people in my office were claiming the same thing this spring, but those who have taken an antibody test were all negative.

[vonsmog]

Originally Posted by gtc

A bunch of the people in my office were claiming the same thing this spring, but those who have taken an antibody test were all negative.

I was one of the ones that might have had it early, had every symptom for covid. Felt like my chest was in a vise or the fat lady was sitting on me. Went to get tested for antibodies and was told they don't show up after 2 months and it had been four. So didn't waste my time or theirs. My Daughter the DR. said that a T-cell test for them would show if I had it, but not worth the cost of it, which I would have to pay for.

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by vonsmog

I was one of the ones that might have had it early, had every symptom for covid. Felt like my chest was in a vise or the fat lady was sitting on me. Went to get tested for antibodies and was told they don't show up after 2 months and it had been four. So didn't waste my time or theirs. My Daughter the DR. said that a T-cell test for them would show if I had it, but not worth the cost of it, which I would have to pay for.

Does the current test check for antibodies or just the virus itself?

[RWebb]

there are different tests - some check for antibodies to the virus (your body's response)

others check for DNA segments

a T-cell test would be one of the former