karenkay

no tests unless you're running a fever here in western North Carolina, either.

same happening in my small town. I have symptoms (headache for about a week now--I never get headaches--chills, fatigue, occasional dry cough and chest pressure/discomfort) but no fever, and there will be no test for me. called my doc, not possible to get a test there, they don't have any tests, although the nurse agreed it'd be a good idea if I could get one. frankly, blessedly, my symptoms are minor, and if this were a different time, I'd suck it up and go on about my business, with some minor modifications. but it would be nice to know if this is just a coincidentally timed weird cold, or the novel coronavirus...but THERE ARE NO TESTS.

the local health department is no longer doing drive through testing AT ALL, (that lasted for two days, I think) and hospital not doing tests unless you have a fever. they're saving tests AND protective equipment for the hospital staff, which makes sense in this environment where THERE AREN'T ENOUGH TESTS.

local doctor's offices don't have tests, I'm not famous and without a fever I'll just never know.

I have aging parents I can't visit, and I'm responsible enough that I was staying home well *before* everyone else was, but it would be good to know...if for no other reason than if I *am* positive, even with this mild version, I can presume some level of immunity after I'm done with this, and could then potentially help someone else--but I won't know, so I will be less likely to venture out for the foreseeable future, (not just while I'm feeling under the weather and for seven days afterwards). since I can't be tested, I can't know for certain, and I'll default to self-protection...which means any help I could provide to others by running errands or whatever, I won't.

USA! USA!

being told, repeatedly, by those in charge that tests are available for those who exhibit symptoms is (a lie) beyond infuriating, factually incorrect, and some people refuse to believe it. let's talk again in six weeks, when this will all have died down (not).
/rant

Loren Pechtel

Does anyone have some good information on the safety of package delivery?

Dublin_rfk

I suggest you need a new source. Swabs pick up the virus. It doesn't matter if you show symptoms, don't show symptoms, had the virus and for several days after you are no longer showing symptoms if you have the virus the swab will show that (with a small number of false positives and negatives) .
A negative test is just that negative.
There are numerous reasons to test people who do not show symptoms, I was tested (negative) because of my travel patterns and I was in a cardiac test lab when their entry screening policies changed. Their reasoning was to conserve masks and PPE, not for my treatment.

rustykettel

There is a Strategic National Stockpile, and they do stock face masks among other resource, however it was drawn down for the H1N1 outbreak and not replenished. Until recently when it was moved under DHS, the stockpile was ran by the CDC.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inves...cd9_story.html

Dublin_rfk

None that I have seen. My office has and will until there is a problem made no changes in our intake or outtake of packages or mail. International or domestic.

dunno282

more like any people who think the coronavirus is no big deal are in the camp of those that speed, don't wear a seat belt, AND slams their car into a minivan full of people.

GUWonder

My understanding was that the swabs pick up the virus when the virus-hit person has enough of a viral build for the exposure to register with the swab tests. [I will try to confirm this with relevant medical experts tomorrow or maybe later today.]

There is a reason why some people are suggesting that Trump gets retested after his contacts have been noted as positive for this virus. And it’s not just because contact and Trump may not have been exposed to the virus at the time of Trump’s testing.

A person can definitely be viewed as asymptomatic and yet be a true positive when swab-tested for this virus.

yosithezet

Coronavirus / COVID-19 : general fact-based reporting

WIRunner

Quite the decision to make. I'm currently in Seattle and am wanting to get home sooner than later. I've got a few options to get home, right now I can book a SEA-EWR-BGR flight for Tuesday on United and be home by lunch Wednesday. Wait two weeks and see how things evolve but would be on American SEA-PHL-BGR, if it is still running. Or the worse case scenario is drive, which is 50 hours of drive time (it is in at least a diesel, so it would be cheap I guess, but 6 days in a car...)

Thoughts on the least foolish route? I'm concerned that waiting could be a mistake, and I really don't want to be stranded somewhere unknown if there's a total lockdown.

rustykettel

Thats not correct. See issues with sample collection on page 3

https://sph.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/up...ics-13-Mar.pdf

Nothing specific to username's question but severity, duration of infection, and sample location along with test accuracy/sensitivity all affect the ability to accurately detect infection using diagnostic tests.

trueblu

Symptoms are irrelevant _in and of themselves_ with regards to whether a test will be positive. Assuming correct sampling and extraction of RNA and the test false positive and false negative rates (which are very low), the only thing that determines whether a test is positive or negative is the amount of virus being shed from the sampled site. Plenty of evidence that mildly symptomatic people shed lots of virus: in fact, viral shedding is maximal early.

BUT since we don't know what we don't know, it's hard to know what the amount of viral shedding from completely asymptomatic people is since most of those people will have never been tested. The Diamond Princess would have been best scenario to test this, since everyone on board had at least one test, but I haven't seen relevant data -- although I haven't read the most recent paper published on it in full.

Re: safety of packages: the virus _does_ persist on cardboard for a while, but the decay half-life is about 3hrs at room temperature and 40% humidity. Although there were no documented cases of transmission in China via this route, one has to remember that even in Wuhan, the vast majority of people were not infected: this will increasingly NOT be true in most other countries. Whilst I suggest dialing down the paranoia to preserve one's sanity, there's no harm in washing hands after receiving a package, and if it's not perishable, leaving it at RT for a few hours or even a bit longer before opening...

tb

GUWonder

I am not sure how accurate the number is but I was told that medical centers have 70k-160k functioning respirators in the whole country, and they really aren’t evenly distributed. That may sound like way more than enough when you have a population of 10-30 million people, but for a population of our size at this time? Sounds risky. Especially if it’s on the low side of that range.

username

No need to be snippy. There are plenty of false negative tests out there. I am obviously having doubts on what I am hearing and want to get some thoughts.

There is a serious debate going on in Taiwan whether they will allow people to pay for tests (Taiwan has national health care so the health care covers it if you meet the criteria) or take the Korea-style approach.

The government fears that false negatives can make things worse. They ended up loosing the rules for the free testing.

https://udn.com/news/story/120940/4433113 is the article in Chinese.

Lefly

Would there be something wrong in handling the package with gloves, open it and dispose of the box/wrap immediately?

Loren Pechtel

I definitely agree on this. If we know we've been though it we no longer need to take precautions and can help others who are at risk or get on with the economy. (Personally I work from home anyway, but a lot of people can't.)