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Old 03-16-2020, 08:09 AM
 
7,987 posts, read 10,329,287 times
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My friend's son has been sick for going on a week. It is possible he was exposed at UT. He's tested negative for flu and strep. Doctors have told him and his parents that they strongly suspect that he has COVID-19, but they won't test him. He's 20 years old with no other health issues. So they told him to quarantine at home and treat symptomatically. They said they are only testing people with high risk of hospitalization or otherwise getting gravely ill. There's still just not enough tests to go around so they have to reserve them for the folks who need them most. I think there are A LOT of people like him. I think the numbers who have it and just haven't been tested are probably off the charts. The lack of testing is shameful. I don't know if it is just the incompetence of the government or if they are deliberately holding back tests to keep the numbers down, so it doesn't look as bad as it is (which would in turn make them look bad). You can't have 100,000 cases if there are only 10,000 people tested. You also can't keep blaming other countries once it's obvious that we have community spread here.
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Old 03-16-2020, 08:14 AM
 
11,668 posts, read 7,814,305 times
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Originally Posted by ashbeeigh View Post
Did you have a fever and was your cough dry? If not it wasn’t the virus. This is what, year two for you here? Welcome to Austin.
I actually did get a fever and for awhile a migraine. I dont remember if I dehydrated. It was a bit more than allergies (I have pretty bad allergies). It felt like getting a flu and experiencing allergies at the same time.

Year 1 through Cedar Season, (I didnt know what it was at the time) I just broke out in hives but didnt really get ill or sneeze much.

Maybe it was Cedar Flu.
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Old 03-16-2020, 08:29 AM
 
Location: South of Cakalaki
5,685 posts, read 4,591,670 times
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Originally Posted by ClaraC View Post
I completely disagree. These are my actual friends, and "friend of friends", who have been sick with a debilitating hacking dry cough for a few weeks, and when they asked to be tested for the Corona virus, they were told they wouldn't be, although they were tested for common viruses and strep and those tests were negative, and they had fevers. One is in her first trimester of pregnancy and is very worried about the outcome.
You are the biggest danger to all of us. Someone who thinks they know something and goes along peddling BS.
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Old 03-16-2020, 08:51 AM
 
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Originally Posted by m1a1mg View Post
You are the biggest danger to all of us. Someone who thinks they know something and goes along peddling BS.
Although I agree with that, you can't deny that people who should be tested are not getting tested. The medical community has been very clear and vocal about that. Last I saw, Italy was testing more people in a day than we had tested in total. I know that has changed, but the gov't has been less than forthcoming in the past few days about how many people have actually been tested.
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Old 03-16-2020, 08:55 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX
15,237 posts, read 35,431,654 times
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Originally Posted by CarnivalGal View Post
Although I agree with that, you can't deny that people who should be tested are not getting tested. The medical community has been very clear and vocal about that. Last I saw, Italy was testing more people in a day than we had tested in total. I know that has changed, but the gov't has been less than forthcoming in the past few days about how many people have actually been tested.
Honestly, the virus itself doesn't scare me near as much as our incredibly incompetent response to it. We have (or had) the resources and systems in place to deal with it so much better, but between changes in focus (from the future to the 'right now') and the unfortunate fact that it is right at the beginning of a major election cycle, the whole process that should have happened was junked .
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:09 AM
 
7,987 posts, read 10,329,287 times
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Originally Posted by Trainwreck20 View Post
Honestly, the virus itself doesn't scare me near as much as our incredibly incompetent response to it. We have (or had) the resources and systems in place to deal with it so much better, but between changes in focus (from the future to the 'right now') and the unfortunate fact that it is right at the beginning of a major election cycle, the whole process that should have happened was junked .
I think it's still being junked. My personal opinion is that the current administration doesn't want everyone getting tested. As I mentioned in my earlier post, if you don't test everyone, it doesn't look as bad. You can't have 100,000 cases if you only test 10,000 people. You also can't keep blaming other governments if you have a substantial number of clear cases of community spread here. So limit the testing to people who have been to other countries, which is largely what has been the protocol. There is absolutely no reason - none - why more testing kits haven't been made available.
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:14 AM
 
7,742 posts, read 15,040,093 times
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Originally Posted by CarnivalGal View Post
Although I agree with that, you can't deny that people who should be tested are not getting tested. The medical community has been very clear and vocal about that. Last I saw, Italy was testing more people in a day than we had tested in total. I know that has changed, but the gov't has been less than forthcoming in the past few days about how many people have actually been tested.
I agree we should have the test, but what difference does it make? What will you do differently with this information? Your friend's son has something, what will he do differently?

People are up in arms about not having tests because the media says we should be. But if you think critically about what actions an result from it, it doesnt matter that much and wont dramatically shift the outcome of the epidemic unless it is also coupled with mandatory quarantines.
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:17 AM
 
11,668 posts, read 7,814,305 times
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Originally Posted by Trainwreck20 View Post
Honestly, the virus itself doesn't scare me near as much as our incredibly incompetent response to it. We have (or had) the resources and systems in place to deal with it so much better, but between changes in focus (from the future to the 'right now') and the unfortunate fact that it is right at the beginning of a major election cycle, the whole process that should have happened was junked .
Admittedly I feel the same way, I cant help but feel there is a underlying political agenda behind all of this.

Anyway, I just got word that Illinois is shutting down bars and restaurants starting tomorrow.
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:23 AM
 
7,742 posts, read 15,040,093 times
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Originally Posted by CarnivalGal View Post
I think it's still being junked. My personal opinion is that the current administration doesn't want everyone getting tested. As I mentioned in my earlier post, if you don't test everyone, it doesn't look as bad. You can't have 100,000 cases if you only test 10,000 people. You also can't keep blaming other governments if you have a substantial number of clear cases of community spread here. So limit the testing to people who have been to other countries, which is largely what has been the protocol. There is absolutely no reason - none - why more testing kits haven't been made available.
this is inane.

Test kits are very straightforward. They consist of PCR primers, reagents, and fluorescent labelled markers. The CDC manufactured kits and sent them out (no one publishes the number) and they were bad. Typical govt incompetence. Single source of failure is always a risk.

The FDA and CDC have long standing rules (laws?) in place that no one is allowed to have a new test for any disease without being approved. So all official testing has to go through the CDC. In normal times you would probably support this. Because this virus is new no one is approved to do testing. Typical power hungry gov bureaucracy creating bottlenecks.

Any molecular bio lab can do presumptive testing and that is what is being done right now. With a standard PCR machine I could run about 5 tests simultaneously. It would take about 2 hours per test, but the PCR machine is the bottle neck and that is just about 1 hour. To avoid cross contamination they might only allow 1 test per run, then you would be limited to 8-10 tests/day.

Our initial response to any crisis (fires, flood, hurricane, disease) is always a disaster. The media coverage highlights it, but it has always been this way and probably always will be.

The ebola response was absolutely terrible.
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Old 03-16-2020, 09:27 AM
 
7,742 posts, read 15,040,093 times
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Originally Posted by Need4Camaro View Post
Admittedly I feel the same way, I cant help but feel there is a underlying political agenda behind all of this.

Anyway, I just got word that Illinois is shutting down bars and restaurants starting tomorrow.
the political agenda is to attack every single action as if it is was the worst action possible.
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