and sent home, because there is no treatment unless they need to be admitted to the hospital with hypoxia. There’s probably so many at this point, that there’s no point in counting, and it’s a waste of resources to test symptomatic people and risk further exposure, when the docs are spending their time treating folks who can’t breathe.

People who have symptoms but are breathing OK just need to stop coming to the ER and self-quarantine for a few weeks, returning to the ER if they are failing.

Consider... once the virus has definitely arrived, what’s the point in testing? It’s like influenza... we don’t need to test for it to know it when we see it. We prescribe tamiflu if it’s within 48-72 hours and tell people to g9 home and take care of themselves and don’t infect others.

Ibuprofen makes it worse fir some reason.

We don't KNOW that for certain, yet, but definitely, I would take that as good advice.

didn't have that info. I cant take Tylenol.

If I hear that 250 people have tested positive in my city I'm not going to risk leaving home. If People don't know that they may think there is no risk to going out.

If they aren't tested, they aren't part of the official count (which I'm sure Trump would love). But not having a good count is part of the problem. We don't know if there are 4000 infected people or 40,000 or 400,000.

The numbers are needed to reinforce the isolation. They don't understand math and science well enough to realize that they have to assume those large numbers are out there whether they are tested or not.

Because people are vain and think it won't happen to them.

The original commenter is correct that is has limited benefit to the scientists at this point. But it can be used to beat the idea into some overly dense brains.

Although, they will be diagnosed clinically and numbers will be collected in the end.

I think in some places it’s probably just getting so crazy that some ED’s are in survival mode, just trying to take care of the sick ones and get the worried well back to their homes.

They gave me tamiflu in the ER while I was waiting for an ICU bed, I also had pneumonia with several preexisting pulmonary illnesses. The tamiflu made a remarkable difference in how I felt, minimizing my symptoms and giving me a fast recovery. I don't know if it's effective for reducing the symptoms of Corid 19, if not I hope some lab is working of a similar medication to help those who get it.

who will be in a lot of misery without it. My heart goes out to them.

Those millions of test kits Trump talks about? They don’t exist.

and the US, for some inexplicable reason, refused them.

Thanks, IQ45.

After all for most people it mimics having a cold with the severity different for everyone so it would be easy for it to sneak by as they almost never test for a cold itself and instead they simply treat the symptoms.

And consider the nature of social media.

There is no advantage in saying, "We were busy today, but otherwise everything was okay."

Social media is for venting. And most people vent over (1) routine stuff, (2) non-routine but not horrible stuff, (3) horrible stuff that they heard happened but have no actual direct knowledge of, (4) horrible stuff that they've personally witnessed and assume they understand, and (5) horrible stuff that they actually do know the entire context for.

Sadly, most people are actually unable to distinguish any of those conditions from any other, so social media is good for outrage and not always so good for understanding. In this, it's like Yelp! 99/100 customers are satisfied, 99/100 Yelpistas say that the product is the worst ever and was, in fact, responsible for the die off of the dodo and for widespread glaciation in the last ice age.

Shit!

I'm heading into week three of self-isolation because I am sick.

Per my doctor, symptoms not severe enough for a test. Can't prove I was near anyone who has traveled recently, (the most stupid qualifier of all.) I was in Costco four weeks ago. What are the odds someone in there just got back from vacation in a foreign country? Maybe 100%?

When my temperature hit 100.3, the magic number they are looking for to start thinking you might need a test, I sat down with my calendar to see how many people I have been in contact with, and every place I have gone since mid-February. Symptoms showed up approximately March 1st. That's a guesstimate.

Nothing stands out. I've had a fever going on two weeks. I have never had a fever last that long. I rarely have a fever. That alone tells me something is off.

I'm absolutely convinced there are tens of thousands of people walking around with this thing, who have no clue that they have it. My symptoms are mild in comparison to the people who have ended up in the hospital. But I wouldn't wish what I have gone through on anyone but Trump and the GOP. (As long as they don't spread it to anyone else.)

So for everyone who can't get a test, which is probably 99% of us, stay home, Tylenol, Gatorade, fluids, fluids, fluids, eat what you can, sleep when you can, and hope you get over it that way.

Yes. We (living in Colorado) had a visitor in mid January who almost certainly had covid-19. She is a sturdy female about 40, a long distance hiker from Maine. She was very tired/weak, had a horrible dry chest-based cough, no runny nose, said she felt/heard crackling in her chest when she took a breath. She had had a fever for a couple of days, had been at a conference where there were people from all over the world, had been in airplanes and airports.

I thought she almost certainly had pneumonia, but when she got home her doctor said no. She had a high end smart watch giving her lots of info about her body. It computed something I think was called life energy. The maximum value computed would be 100. While she was here, it hit a low of 8. Within about 36 hours it bounced back to 85, and she was clearly feeling better. My wife and I (in our 70s) limited the illness in ourselves a few days later using supplements, herbs, probiotics, and homeopathic medicines. Neither of us seemed to have a serious issue with it.

Again, this was mid January.