Corona Cases

[OrlyJ]

Originally Posted by ranchonodinero

With testing now available I thought I would share my experience. I suspected I had the virus only AFTER I became aware of unusual symptoms. My symptoms were thankfully mild too. It started out like any regular cold. However, my nose wasn't particularly runny or anything. I had a dry cough and slight headache. I also had a low fever for a few days and some mild GI issues. I was incredibly fatigued. It occurred to me that perhaps I had a mild case of the flu as I chose not to get the vaccine this year. I noticed that I had a complete loss of taste and smell-this lasted for about 3 weeks. The extreme fatigue about 10 days. I did not meet the criteria for testing as I did not have a fever. My symptoms were in March. A few days ago, I decided I would pay to determine if I had the antibodies. The test involves a small amount of blood and results are visible in less than a minute. I have covid antibodies-the test also checks for a type of antibody that is present if you have an active case and I was negative. I cannot determine how I was exposed to the virus as I was engaged in distancing and hand washing. I was lucky and am thankful that I had an incredibly mild case. I post this so that you are not afraid. As far as I know, I do not have underlying health issues and I exercise regularly.

I had flu like symptom early February while I was in the Caribbean and I haven't been sick in years. I too am curious as to whether it was Covid. Where did you find to take the antibody test?

Talking about antibody test, a recent Stanford study has revealed that folks are testing positive for antibodies, far, far more than anyone expected. We're talking 20x - 50x more. Those are huge numbers. It looks like a vast majority of Covid infections are asymptomatic. If those numbers hold true, the death rate will drop dramatically, coming close to influenza's. The main difference though is that Covid-19 is crazy contagious.

[ranchonodinero]

I had my test at a pharmacy up here in the DFW metroplex. You know they are doing pretty well with the test when the pharmacist is drawing blood. The cost was $60 and is the Abbott test which claims 99.5% accuracy. The test is pending FDA approval. Out where I live, the population density is very very low. Our county has had NO Covid deaths and in our community, there were no positives, but plenty of negative test results. For an interesting read, check out the statistics for the 2017 influenza season and death rate. As far as how contagious the virus is, we know for certain that we unknowingly infected some individuals. However, there were some people we were in contact with who SHOULD have been infected but were not. It is interesting too, that there is a certain stigma with people who have had the virus and are antibody positive-kinda crazy and when I tell them that if and when a vaccine is developed, they too should test antibody positive via blood. I would say that unless you had the total loss of taste and smell, that you were most likely not infected. Best of luck.

[MikeM8560]

How long sid your lack of tayste and smell last ?

[ranchonodinero]

Originally Posted by MikeM8560

How long sid your lack of tayste and smell last ?

It was about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before it came back. I was OK after 3 weeks, but really about a month to being myself. Neither one of us had the respiratory problems other people had. One thing that probably complicates symptoms is that up here in Texas in the Spring, everything is blooming. So much that you can see pollen on car finishes. Pecan trees are doing their thing right now too. In tracing our timelines, there were some people who were around us that didn't get sick and probably should have given their proximity and duration of contact.