As an observation, there have been inconsistencies in testing which may lead to your observation. Some areas that were doing extensive testing initially, changed their policy to only test those with symptoms, or to only test those who presented at a hospital. One reason this happened was that there were insufficient test kits available in the beginning, and in some cases the test kits were flawed, leading to inaccurate results. Northern Italy for example, did extensive testing at the beginning of their crisis, but then ran out of test kits and changed their policy to only test those with symptoms. Other countries or areas have also changed their testing policies this way - I have seen references to Sweden, China and other countries changing policy part way through the pandemic. Although more people are now being tested due to the spread of the virus, if only those with symptoms, or those who are admitted to hospital are tested, then the death rates may be higher for this reason. Some areas test after death and others do not, and some have recently started testing after death to determine the cause. Some areas did not test at all initially, or tested very little, until the pandemic was obviously a problem in that country. In some areas there is now increased focus on testing of seniors / nursing home residents, which could affect the numbers too. I’m not sure this is an easy thing to chart, as it would involve research into the testing policies in many countries, states or provinces, and the changes within those areas over time.
This article, posted by JLeimer in a side forum, may shed some light on death counts and the factors involved in the past and current numbers.
https://www.ft.com/content/6bd88b7d-3386-4543-b2e9-0d5c6fac846c
Yes the pharmacies have it in stock (the generic version) but you need to have a prescription for it.
I fell over this article which I think is very interesting. Its an opinion pice by an MD working in an ER in NYC who writes about his observations at the ER.
He wonders why most that get infected with COVID19 don’t get very sick but many of those that do get very very sick. Eventually ending up in a respirator. And many die while on the respirator.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-testing-pneumonia.html
“And here is what really surprised us: These patients did not report any sensation of breathing problems, even though their chest X-rays showed diffuse pneumonia and their oxygen was below normal. How could this be?
We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature.
Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs in which the air sacs fill with fluid or pus. Normally, patients develop chest discomfort, pain with breathing and other breathing problems. But when Covid pneumonia first strikes, patients don’t feel short of breath, even as their oxygen levels fall. And by the time they do, they have alarmingly low oxygen levels and moderate-to-severe pneumonia (as seen on chest X-rays). Normal oxygen saturation for most persons at sea level is 94 to 100 percent; Covid pneumonia patients I saw had oxygen saturations as low as 50 percent.
To my amazement, most patients I saw said they had been sick for a week or so with fever, cough, upset stomach and fatigue, but they only became short of breath the day they came to the hospital. Their pneumonia had clearly been going on for days, but by the time they felt they had to go to the hospital, they were often already in critical condition.”
“A vast majority of Covid pneumonia patients I met had remarkably low oxygen saturations at triage — seemingly incompatible with life — but they were using their cellphones as we put them on monitors. Although breathing fast, they had relatively minimal apparent distress, despite dangerously low oxygen levels and terrible pneumonia on chest X-rays.
We are only just beginning to understand why this is so. The coronavirus attacks lung cells that make surfactant. This substance helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open between breaths and is critical to normal lung function. As the inflammation from Covid pneumonia starts, it causes the air sacs to collapse, and oxygen levels fall. Yet the lungs initially remain “compliant,” not yet stiff or heavy with fluid. This means patients can still expel carbon dioxide — and without a buildup of carbon dioxide, patients do not feel short of breath.”
This suggest that many of those that get very sick have had hypoxia for days. Could this hypoxia be part of the reason people get so sick and could it explain some of the lasting damage to the brain, kidneys, lungs and liver that seems to accompany this disease?
A cheap and simple way of detecting this “silent hypoxia” is a portable fingertip pulse-oximeter. I must admit I have purchased a couple for some family members that are at risk of a bad outcome from COVID19 because of commodities. If one could this phenomenon early one could perhaps intervene early with for instance oxygen treatment and maybe save lives and prevent lasting damage.
Could this be a method of taking extra precaution especially if one feels slightly sick and does not want to go to the doctor or the hospital unless its absolutely necessary as in a pandemic?
Most people have a thermometer at home for fevers. Could it be an idea to expand this thermometer into a kind of “StarTrek tricorder” that measures plus, blood pressure, temperature, oxygenation and breath rate which a clear display that can be photographed and send to the doctor so there is no change of misreading it. Could this be a way to make it more safe to ride out infections at home via telemedicine so that we can limit the number of infected people out and about and at the doctor office as much as possible? In this pandemic and potential coming pandemics.
Trump has been upbeat on US testing, even though he’s way out on comparisons with other countries and even though testing in the US appears to have been very restrictive. With about 5.6 million tests, there have been over 1 million cases, which is more than 1 in 6. Here in New Zealand, as an example, the positive rate for testing is well over 1 in 100. The latter suggests aggressive testing though the criteria for testing was only widened a couple of weeks ago to anyone with even slight symptoms which might be consistent with Covid-19 (previously, there were other criteria usually related to overseas travel). So the US appears to be way behind a lot of countries in testing and yet is trying to loosen restrictions.
By the way, why is this blog missing at least a couple of later Chris videos? They’re on YouTube, though, so should we be commenting there instead of here?
Thanks for the interesting post Ford. Our own ER doc. Sandpuppy recommended buying one of these weeks ago and I did - $40 at Walmart. I constantly kid my wife and tell her I will only keep her if she is at least a 98/100… and she always is : )
Seriously… I am glad I have it based on your post.