Continuing coronavirus happenings (Part 2)

14 Likes

I realize that much/most of the damage done is by incorrect immune response, to put it mildly yet crudely.

But what I still can’t wrap my head around is that someone could become infected, a few days later begin three weeks of coughing and wheezing and all that horror, yet be considered non-infectious halfway through those three weeks of hell. Is the viral load really presumed to drop to a non-infectious threshold based more on calendar time than on its ‘success’ within the patient’s body?

7 Likes

In other viral illnesses (influenza is the most thoroughly studied) the viral load drops dramatically after the first couple days of symptoms, even as symptoms continue to drag on. Again, largely because the hacking, coughing and misery is in large part due to the inflammatory response in the lungs. Cannot overemphasize the brief experience with this bug, WDKS and all, but yes, it is pretty reasonable to expect the viral load to drop dramatically long before symptoms resolve, and likely peaks at or prior to onset of symptoms, since the goal of the immune response is to eliminate the virus entirely.

20 Likes

But to be fair - who’s more dangerous than us anyway?

People coming here lowers our overall risk - and raises their country when they go home.

11 Likes
9 Likes

Is the UK going to ban flights from the UK?

Now that Brexit is “over”, Johnson will have to come up with a new excuse for his failures, and that excuse will be brown people and (non-plutocrat) foreigners.

10 Likes

Earlier guidance said 10 days after cessation of fever with no anti-febrile medications. So someone could have a fever for 12 days, and you wouldn’t start the 10 day count until they had returned to normal temperature without anti-inflammatories. This appears to be a refinement of that guideline.

13 Likes

I prefer the previous guidance; the new one’s just plain counterintuitive. And really, who needs any more of that these days?

3 Likes

Also, the virus moves down the airway. It’s most infectious when it’s in the throat, midway into the lungs… when the lungs are not yet fully encumbered, and any coughs, sneezes, talking, singing, heavy breathing, etc., will easily spread it.

Coronavirus: What Happens To People's Body If They Get Infected.

11 Likes

That’s me, for example.
Luckily I had a mild case, but it’s been 2 months, and I still have problems with inflammation related pain (without anti-inflammatory drugs I still wouldn’t be able to do anything at all) and slight trouble breathing. I’m happy that at least the “brain fog” is gone.
The interesting thing is that breathing problems started 3 weeks after other symptoms.
I’m thinking of visiting a doctor if problems won’t go away in a month or two. I wonder if they may have any solutions to this.

17 Likes

Be careful, 1000IU is 500% of the RDA (at least here in Europe), you are taking that under doctor’s orders?

2 Likes

From a quick check on wikipedia, the maximum recommended amount is 4000IU for adults. I think there are ongoing studies into whether the RDA for vitamin D is too low, as previous studies were based on white people creating vitamin D in their skin from sunlight.

12 Likes

So, like not even relevent to Britain or Ireland.

19 Likes

Or introverts.

14 Likes

I think they should.

7 Likes

I think one of the reasons a problem was noticed was because of an increase in vitamin D deficiency in British BAME communities.

9 Likes

Thanks so much for your kind concern! Yes, my doctor suggested it years ago when my D levels were low, mostly at that time because I get no sunshine working nights, and because of health problems I don’t eat nearly enough dairy. I researched and added another 1000IU when the covid data came to light.

I watch for symptoms of getting too much, but I think it is pretty safe. The studies I have read put my dosage about in the middle of the range of possibilities. I am gonna see if my doctor wants to check my D levels next visit, but with the whole covid thing, my visits are pretty far apart.

9 Likes

That’s what the HSE (NHS, but with caveats) advice sheet on vitamins says here. It recommends higher doses for people with African descent. AFAIK they upped the recommended amounts anyway recently. My partner needs to take quite a lot of vitamin D.

6 Likes

1000IU is only mid-range OTC level here. Therapeutic Vit D can go up to 50k IU. No real data that anything over 400-800 IU is actually beneficial, but I have never heard of vit D overdose. That’s not a challenge, it’s a fat soluble vitamin and I am sure someone has done it, but I don’t worry about it.

15 Likes
12 Likes