The reason people are hospitalized is that their lives hang in the balance. They need oxygen and/or a ventilator to help them breathe. That doesn't mean that is the only place the virus finds success. The respiratory system is delicate and people will not survive if their oxygen is depleted without replenishment in 5 mins. That is why the virus is receiving attention.
August 27, 2020
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (click here) has added several new symptoms to its existing list of symptoms for COVID-19.
The CDC has long said said that fever, cough and shortness of breath are indications that someone might have the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. It has now added six more conditions that may come with the disease: chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell.The expanded symptoms list could prove important because with a limited number of test kits available, typically those seeking a test must first show symptoms.
There is anecdotal evidence for some of those newly listed symptoms. NPR and other news outlets reported last month that loss of smell and taste were reported by some people with COVID-19. Patients with the disease caused by the coronavirus have also reported muscle pain, chills and headache....
Realize today there are patients experiencing far different symptoms than others and if there are deaths they may not be counted. That was the case in the past.
The Washington Post has done some very interesting work. They found average death rates at the beginning of the pandemic were significantly higher than only a year earlier. Should these deaths be considered part of the pandemic statistics? The researchers should ask other foreign scientists if this phenomenon was discovered in their countries as well. The case numbers and numbers dead may change dramatically if that is the case.
April 27, 2020
By Emma Brown, Andrew Ba Tran, Beth Reinhard and Monica Ulmanu
In the early weeks of the coronavirus epidemic, (click here) the United States recorded an estimated 15,400 excess deaths, nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to covid-19 at the time, according to an analysis of federal data conducted for The Washington Post by a research team led by the Yale School of Public Health.
The excess deaths — the number beyond what would normally be expected for that time of year — occurred during March and through April 4, a time when 8,128 coronavirus deaths were reported.
The excess deaths are not necessarily attributable directly to covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They could include people who died because of the epidemic but not from the disease, such as those who were afraid to seek medical treatment for unrelated illnesses, as well as some number of deaths that are part of the ordinary variation in the death rate. The count is also affected by increases or decreases in other categories of deaths, such as suicides, homicides and motor vehicle accidents....
