On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 09:44:44AM -0700, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
On 3/23/2020 4:32 PM, Norman Yarvin wrote:
For oxygen saturation, 92% is a pretty low number; the Zhejiang
University Hospital COVID-19 handbook classifies anyone with less than
93% oxygen saturation as a "severe case" (not "mild" or "moderate",
but less than "critical"), who should be in the hospital and on
high-flow oxygen.
I was aware of 92% being quite low. Hence my concern.
I was also aware that the Chinese COVID-19 spO2 screening thresholds are
significantly higher than US standards. One possible factor there might
be the Chinese playing catchup and casting as broad a net as possible
for potential cases, in the aftermath of their initial botch.
Reliably back up in the 93-96 range since I started taking zinc, FWIW.
But the coronavirus doesn't give the usual symptoms of "a mildly
annoying generic respiratory bug": the ACE2 enzyme that it latches
on to is expressed in the lungs and not in the mouth or nose. So it
mostly infects the lungs, sparing the upper respiratory system. Also
one normally gets fever with it.
You know, if you're going to proclaim like this, you should probably add
a "I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on the internet"
disclaimer. An hour's study of the field reports would reveal that
actual COVID-19 cases present a mix of symptoms all over the map,
ranging down through random scattered entries from the overall generic
respiratory-bug symptoms menu, to none at all in something near half of
infections.
So if it seems like a "generic respiratory bug" it probably is.
Thank you, Dr. Yarvin.
My actual words, which you deleted, were "I now have what I'd _normally_
call a mildly annoying generic respiratory bug." (Emphasis added.)
Did it perhaps occur to you that I am neither an idiot nor overly prone
to self-dramatization, thus that I wouldn't have even mentioned it here
among numerous old friends if, in the currently decidedly non-normal
context, I didn't have good specific reasons to suspect it may NOT be
just "a mildly annoying generic respiratory bug"?
(Short version, the specific mix of symptoms feels very unfamiliar, not
a respiratory-bug gestalt I've ever encountered before. And I have,
alas, encountered a lot.)
One more interesting symptom to report, BTW. My sense of taste has been
AWOL since the weekend. Down to perhaps 1/3rd usual sensitivity - I can
tell what I'm eating, barely, but everything tastes massively bland.
(And I did not read that this is now also a known COVID-19 symptom till
well after I'd already decided I might as well drink my cheap backup
coffee because I could no longer taste the difference.)
FWIW, I'm not notably prone to placebo effect. (LOTS of people have
tried to feed me placebos over the years in the space business, heh.)
Again, thanks for the data. Yeah, I tried the candy lozenges for a
while, but they didn't work as well. Metallic taste with the gluconate
pills? I liken it more to sucking on chalk. Either way, it
unmistakably works for colds. And yes, shifting them around your mouth
is good - leave them in one spot overnight and you'll get a mild local
skin reaction. Nothing uncomfortable for me at least, just an increased
surface bumpiness that fades in a couple hours. Better to avoid it though.