Corona Virus & PFS.

[RickTheRuler]

I’m watching Michael Osterhorm on Joe Rogan and it looks like this thing may spread quickly. When they say that people with underlying health issues are at risk for a severe case or death, does PFS fall under that?

I get how someone like my dad whose 59 & has COPD (& still smokes) would be high risk. But what about 5AR disruption & our immune system?

I’m dealing with a strep throat right now, but I know part of PFS is oddly never getting sick, so I’m trying to make Sense of this..

Not fear mongering here, just want different takes from you smart gentlemen.


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[JoeP26]

I’m watching Michael Osterhorm on Joe Rogan and it looks like this thing may spread quickly. When they say that people with underlying health issues are at risk for a severe case or death, does PFS fall under that?

I get how someone like my dad whose 59 & has COPD (& still smokes) would be high risk. But what about 5AR disruption & our immune system?

I’m dealing with a strep throat right now, but I know part of PFS is oddly never getting sick, so I’m trying to make Sense of this..

Not fear mongering here, just want different takes from you smart gentlemen.


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From what I understand, we "can't get sick" because our immune systems are in overdrive, confirmed through labs with high white cell counts. Mine are pretty elevated and have been since this started. But tbh, high white cells doesn't = you being unable to get sick period end of story. I had to deal with reactivated Epstein Barr Virus (mono) while I had the beginning stages of PFS. It's just more difficult for an illness to thrive in a PFS ecosystem. I pretty much already live a life of quarantine, so my contact 95% of each month to the general public is very low, thus my chances of contracting anything is zilch. If you have the same luxury, I'd do it. Or at least take precautions to avoid contracting it, like washing hands regularly/thoroughly, don't be around anyone exhibiting symptoms, avoid foods that have been found to be contaminated with it, avoid touching things other people in public have touched, etc,. Better safe than sorry, in my view. We have enough problems.

[DefRecover]

We are not more at risk than other healthy individuals. Indeed, PFS sufferers seem to be affected by colds and flus less than most healthy people (and almost all are caused by coronaviruses and rhinoviruses).

People at risk are over 80 and have existing respiratory or heart issues. That said, those people are also at risk for the normal seasonal flu. And it suffices to say that about 100,000 people have already died from seasonal flu this year.

The whole coronavirus thing is a massive media hype job...

[JoeP26]

We are not more at risk than other healthy individuals. Indeed, PFS sufferers seem to be affected by colds and flus less than most healthy people (and almost all are caused by coronaviruses and rhinoviruses).

People at risk are over 80 and have existing respiratory or heart issues. That said, those people are also at risk for the normal seasonal flu. And it suffices to say that about 100,000 people have already died from seasonal flu this year.

The whole coronavirus thing is a massive media hype job...

Agreed

[Alchemy]

We are not more at risk than other healthy individuals. Indeed, PFS sufferers seem to be affected by colds and flus less than most healthy people (and almost all are caused by coronaviruses and rhinoviruses).

People at risk are over 80 and have existing respiratory or heart issues. That said, those people are also at risk for the normal seasonal flu. And it suffices to say that about 100,000 people have already died from seasonal flu this year.

The whole coronavirus thing is a massive media hype job...

Don't think it's hype, I use to think that myself, but over here in Europe they are dropping like flies. In Italy, they locked down the entire country of 60 million people due to the death toll getting out of control

In England there are people going into coma's who are in their 50's and 60s and the numbers are rising everyday.

Of course the elderly are at higher risk of mortality but anyone is capable of catching and developing respiratory problems such as pneumonia regardless of age or immunity

I suspect I might now have caught it or some kind of bug, since I have a weird low grade fewer, shooting aches and pains and horrible fatigue, nausea where I've been bed ridden the last few days

[DefRecover]

We can agree to disagree! Even the WHO’s worst case assessment of it isn’t that bad. My respiratory physician friends think it is probably 0.5% mortality - a good 2 to 3 times common flu - but waaaaaaay less contagious. The infection and death rates are plummeting in China, so hopefully that happens in Italy and elsewhere. And I sure as hope to God that you don’t have it, Alchemy!

[Bankai9000]

The reason why it's so scary is that the flu kills tons of ppl. If this spread wide enough it might become just another "seasonal flu" thing. So in the end we would have the flu and corona virus flares every year since it would probably mutate just like influenza does, leading to a steady higher in total death count.
But overall the infection and deathrate slowed down tremendously, I mean there are still way less cases in total than deaths by the regular flu, I'm more freaking out since I work in the tourist business and the media goes nuts for some cases. I can't even imagine if this virus reaches like a fifth of flu cases, they will blow everything up and I can eat ramen noodles and white toast for the next year xd

[LetsGo]

The reason why it's so scary is that the flu kills tons of ppl. If this spread wide enough it might become just another "seasonal flu" thing. So in the end we would have the flu and corona virus flares every year since it would probably mutate just like influenza does, leading to a steady higher in total death count.
But overall the infection and deathrate slowed down tremendously, I mean there are still way less cases in total than deaths by the regular flu, I'm more freaking out since I work in the tourist business and the media goes nuts for some cases. I can't even imagine if this virus reaches like a fifth of flu cases, they will blow everything up and I can eat ramen noodles and white toast for the next year xd

I agree; if it keeps spreading it could infect tens of millions in the US and kill hundreds of thousands. If enough people are sick at once, there will not be enough beds in hospitals - some people need a few days on a ventilator to survive, but there are only so many ventilators in the country, and not enough for everyone who will need one if this really spreads.

It would be very bad if we had the coronavirus hanging around each year, killing 1% - 2% of the people who get it. The vaccine would be essential, but if it’s like the flu vaccine it would not be 100% effective. Hopefully the virus will spread a lot less as the weather warms up.

[DefRecover]

It is actually nowhere near as mutable as the season flu virus (at least that is the current consensus).

Totally agree about the hospital beds. But here in Australia, there is more concern about the panic presentations. They have cancelled elective surgeries because they know there are going to be millions of hyperchondriacs rocking up.

You never know, it could get one of us. But frankly, unless you’re a chain smoker or serious asthmatic, us PFSers are generally young enough not to have to worry too much....

There are already quite a few reports here of people describing it as “a mild cold” and in one case even “jet lag”!

[Alchemy]

We can agree to disagree! Even the WHO’s worst case assessment of it isn’t that bad. My respiratory physician friends think it is probably 0.5% mortality - a good 2 to 3 times common flu - but waaaaaaay less contagious. The infection and death rates are plummeting in China, so hopefully that happens in Italy and elsewhere. And I sure as hope to God that you don’t have it, Alchemy!

The WHO were the one warnings about the potential of a worldwide pandemic last month and barrating government officials for underplaying the potential threat.

China have only managed to get hold of the virus by undertaking extreme quarantine measures and we dont even know if they're numbers are accurate.

Italy delayed taking preventive measures until now and that resulted in them having 10,149 cases within a 2 month period and 631 deaths.

You say it's no worse the flu, and young people have nothing to worry about, even though it's still serious for me even if older people are the ones predominately affected, we all have parents and grandparents, so I am worried for them. Even if I have it I'm not worried at all, just concerned with passing it on.

Young people are not immune from catching it and this sounds worse than any common cold or flu where you don't need to call an ambulance to be taken to hospital. What's bad is that you can have it recover from it and then get it again when you think it's over lol

This is recent case of a british who is 25 years old and tested positive for it who had no underlying health issues

I was feeling achy," says Connor "I just wanted to curl up into a ball and I had ear problems and sinus problems where it felt like there was a balloon being blown up in my face. And that was probably the worst symptom. It really bothered me.

"I also had a raking cough. It was terrible. And it was happening so much, I lost my voice. Sometimes, I couldn't make any sound at all. Sometimes, I sounded like a frog."

For Connor the scariest part was still to come. He actually felt like he was recovering from the flu and was feeling optimistic about going back to work when one morning he woke up struggling to breathe.

"It scared me because breathing is a necessity of life, like if you have the flu, you really feel like you're going to die, but you're really not. But when your lungs get affected, that's where it scared me. And I couldn't take a full breath. And the breaths I did take, it sounded like I was breathing through a bag. It was very crackly, and I could only take half breaths. If I walked to the kitchen, for instance, I'd be breathing really shallow and really fast."

Connor continued drinking hot water to try and clear it up but, a day later when things didn't improve, he went to hospital.

On 5 December he had a day of blood tests, x-rays and breathing tests. The next day, two weeks after he'd first caught the cold, the results came back that he had pneumonia.