Why many are convinced that they already have COVID-19

The week before Thanksgiving, Barbara O’Donnell had a tragic cough.

“It was really terrible, and it was constant,” says O’Donnell, 62. She could barely walk the hills outside her home near Philadelphia. She’s a smoker, but she’s healthy and strong- “I’ve never had the flu” -had never experienced anything like this.

“I felt my lungs were full and I didn’t mean to make it,” she says.

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After two weeks of rest at home, the illness quickly disappeared. Two months later, California reported the first case of covid-19 in a country that was not acquired through travel or direct contact with someone abroad. Three weeks later, Philadelphia closed a non-essential business and issued a home order. O’Donnell’s work as a private aide for older patients in a nursing home was put on hold-the nursing home allowed only his staff on the premises.

While sitting in her apartment, she wondered, “What if I were here before they thought they were?” She thought. Is that cough covid?

We now know that the virus was here before everyone thought it was. Health officials in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, have recently tested positive for at least two people who died in early February and mid-February. However, it does not answer the widespread question and plagues those who have experienced, or even recently, insightful symptoms.

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“We have received emails from hundreds and sometimes thousands,” said Eran Bendavid, an associate professor of infectious diseases who is studying covid-19 at Stanford University.

“I’m 99%,” said 58-year-old Janet Torchard, who was “sick like a dog” because of a fever, dry cough, migraine, and chest pain at home in Las Vegas on January 15th. I was confident. ” She prescribed different courses of antibiotics and visited several doctors who had diagnosed sinusitis and then allergies. The cough lasted until March 25th, when a chest radiograph was revealed.

Thinkihadititis is a condition that plagues people who have had a covid-like illness that suffered them long before the coronavirus spread. It happens when a small part of the news and scientific discoveries stay in the hopeful part of the brain. -And anxiety-Okay, maybe I gave it to a lot of people.

Like covid-19, Thinha hadititis affects some high profile patients. “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli told page 6 that he was “certain” that he caught the virus in early February. Stars in the reality series “Love Island” believe she had “Rona” while the show was filmed in South Africa in January. The main character of the Bravo show “ Millionaire Matchmaker ”, Pattis Tanger, after a January vacation in Miami, had shallow breathing, fever and fatigue after flying with a face mask on Nail Technique advice. , I was attacked by nausea. She had to skip Grammy and had a panic attack when the fever soared to 102.

“I didn’t get up for three weeks,” she says. “I didn’t eat anything. I had bone soup and crackers.”

“I thought I could be one of those people,” she said, when news was later reported that the coronavirus had never arrived in the United States.

“I started listening to all these friends saying,” I think I have it, I think I have it. ” “

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Nobody wants covid-19, but everybody wants it.

And recent research suggests that many people already have it unknowingly. Epidemiologists say that the number of infections significantly exceeds the official case size, and in some cases more than 10 times, because people are asymptomatic carriers of the disease and not all victims have been tested. States.

The World Health Organization has warned against the assumption that those already ill will never be able to get it. Researchers are still learning about the protective effects that diseased antibodies may have on survivors.

But after two months of bad news about the painful effects and unpredictable deadlines of covid-19-sudden crashes, mysterious strokes, widespread attacks on the body-whether they are, Optimistically, you may be accused of wondering Have you already joined the healer?

Joanna Fisher is convinced she had a covid-19. She lost her sense of smell, had a cough and chest pain for three months, and needed supplemental oxygen. Her husband came down with respiratory illness, and so did her cat.

One problem: Fisher lived in northeastern Pennsylvania and fell ill in September. This is much faster than epidemiologists believe the disease may have spread to the United States.

“Before November 2019, there is a 0.0% chance that # SARSCoV2 was circulating in the United States due to a community infection,” said the Computational Organism at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which is spreading the virus’ genetic code. Scholar Trevor Bedford tweeted.

Fisher has no intention of abandoning her theory. “When we were thinking about how this would spread rapidly, it wouldn’t have been able to get here in December,” says the 63-year-old.

Professor Stanford professor Ben David said one person who wrote to him believed he had been infected with the virus in 2018.

Thinking lumbaritis usually involves some degree of imagination. After all, covid-19 shares some symptoms with seasonal flu and common allergies. According to data reported in the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, currently only less than 20% of covid-19 tests have returned to positive, thought to have it even during a pandemic The majority of people are not really there.

Thinkkihadititis can be a form of positive thought, rather than wondering if you’ve already beat covid-19 and you’re one of the people in the hospital. Humans are hard-wired to predict positive outcomes, says Tali Charlotte, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University College London who studies optimism and expectations.

“When we have something to believe in, we are very good at interpreting evidence in a way that supports that belief,” Sharot says.

The reverse is also true. “If I had it before, I say the doctor said it was more likely to come back and more dangerous,” says the professor. In that case, people will “perhaps look back on their illness and interpret certain symptoms as definitely not covid-19.”

Whether it is comfort or the cause of anxiety, Thinkihadititis describes the condition of limbo.

Good news? There is a cure.

kind of.

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“The only way to know is to have an antibody test,” says Rachael Ayscue. “And I don’t know to give it around here.”

Ayscue, 47, lives in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina. On January 6th, she felt sick, eventually had a bad cough and had difficulty breathing. Then her daughter got sick. Raleigh didn’t see the first confirmed covid case until March 3, but Ayscue wondered if the technicians at the Research Triangle traveled to Asia on vacation and brought back the virus. It was (Epidemiologists believe that the earliest cases in America occurred in Europe, not Asia.)

Antibody testing may provide relief from suspicious fever. Also called a serologic test, it determines whether a patient’s blood contains antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that help prevent infection. The presence of antibodies means that the patient’s immune system is already exposed to the virus.

These tests are now available nationwide, but experts warn that their accuracy may change.

Since initiating antibody testing appointments, telemedicine provider PlushCare has seen “a (overwhelming) response from interested people,” especially in more devastating areas such as New York. Founder.

PlushCare’s doctors remind patients that immunity is not a given and that social distance and other protective measures need to be continued. And if the test returns to negative, some patients-confident in their self-diagnosis and paying attention to possible test inaccuracies-may not believe them.

“Some patients are certainly disappointed,” said Wan Tuck. “Everyone wants to put this in their rearview mirrors, or feel some relief.”

Fisher, who fell ill last September, says he wasn’t sure. “If I was tested, and I don’t have the antibody, I think I’ll ask for another test.”

Ayscue plans to have an antibody test if possible, but it does not need to have an antibody test to return to a comfortable life as usual. She sometimes doesn’t hesitate to go to the grocery store without a mask. She says she is helping a protester in North Carolina against a strict blockade rule.

“I chose not to be afraid,” she says.