My mask at church OP & my Covid update

[Thomas54]

Hello All,

It’s been a few weeks since I asked about how churches were dealing with masks. My OP drew over 200 comments and there was, as expected, quite a wide range of opinions.

The OP closed after 14 days of inactivity, in part because I CONTRACTED COVID. in fact, both my wife and I contracted Covid and we know EXACTLY where we got it.

On October 1st, my wife and I went to a huge Medical Center in one of the largest cities in the country, for an annual check-up. We waited in line for 20 min or so to get Covid screened and then our visit lasted 3 hours. During that time, my wife and I kept our surgical masks completely over our noses and mouths. There were well over 100 people going in and out while we were waiting to get screened. A few had N95 masks, some had surgical masks, some had those stupid bandanas like they were robbing a stagecoach and a few had nothing. Very few had their mask on properly.

Even though my wife and I had our masks properly worn, at no point did my wife and I feel “safe” because as I stated in my OP, I don’t see the science on masks stopping the spread of Covid. In fact, if masks work, why are we having more and more people infected?

So, five days later, I woke up with no fever and a “tickle” in my throat. I did the math and went and got tested. I tested Positive. Over the next few days, my temperature climbed a little, topping out at 100.1, not technically a fever. I thought that I was clear until the second week when my Blood Oxygen dropped into the low 90’s and I felt a tiny bit short of breath.

So I headed to the ER and they gave me a shot of Decadron and monitored me for the night. The next morning, my oxygen was back in the mid 90’s and they sent me home with an 8 day prescription of Decadron.

I got better and better every day and I’m Covid Negative and back to jogging my 1 to 2 miles per day.

My wife is also now Covid Negative and the only symptom that she had was a total loss of taste and smell that lasted for 4 days. She never had a fever or any other Covid symptom.

So, despite taking all the supposed “precautions” I’m certain that we picked up Covid at the hospital because we hadn’t been anywhere prior to or after our hospital visit.

While I was at the ER for observation, the internist had time to have a good discussion with me. He said that the overwhelming number of people that they are seeing respond to the steroid treatment and do just fine. Then there is the subset who wait too long to get help and they have a higher risk. Then there is the subset of older people who are big-time obese and have diabetes and those are the ones that become very sick with Covid. He agreed with me that it’s a virus and that most people are going to get it and that “herd immunity” plays an important role in living with a virus, it always has.

So, my advice, not medical, is to let’s get back to our lives and don’t live in fear as FDR said. Get off the couch, stop eating crap and lose weight and exercise.

Oh yeah, also trust in our Loving God!!!

Thoughts?

Thomas

 

[Beryllos]

It’s unfortunate that the medical center was so poorly prepared. A lot of places now have a system where you wait in your car until it’s your turn to see the doctor, dentist, etc.

Edited to add:

This might work better for small clinics in communities made up mostly of car owners. Other adaptations would be appropriate for different demographic situations.

 

[Cruciferi]

On October 1st, my wife and I went to a huge Medical Center in one of the largest cities in the country, for an annual check-up. We waited in line for 20 min or so to get Covid screened and then our visit lasted 3 hours.

Unfortunately, these large medical facilities are a breeding ground for all sorts of infections. I really wouldn’t advise anyone going unless absolutely necessary.

In fact, if masks work, why are we having more and more people infected?

Theoretically they can work but practically they don’t. As we’ve seen, everyone wears them differently and there are too many styles of masks.

So, despite taking all the supposed “precautions” I’m certain that we picked up Covid at the hospital because we hadn’t been anywhere prior to or after our hospital visit.

Sadly, it looks like that’s what happened. I’m sure others got sick from being there too. 3 hours is a long visit and only increases the chances of exposure.

He said that the overwhelming number of people that they are seeing respond to the steroid treatment and do just fine.

Most people will recover from this virus without any intervention. Most will not have complications or lingering effects. My one friend got it back in March and said that it was, “like a bad flu”. A coworker’s wife and daughter tested positive and they weren’t any sicker than a normal seasonal cold.

He agreed with me that it’s a virus and that most people are going to get it and that “herd immunity” plays an important role in living with a virus, it always has.

My prediction is that by the time an “effective” vaccine is available, nearly everyone susceptible will have had it. For all I know, I’ve already had it.

So, my advice, not medical, is to let’s get back to our lives and don’t live in fear as FDR said. Get off the couch, stop eating crap and lose weight and exercise.

Generally speaking, I agree. My running club has been meeting for months and nobody has gotten sick. None of the local race events have become Covid19 hot spots.

 

[27lw]

My medical center won’t let you in the door unless you have a decent seeming mask. No bandanas, not those ones with a vent in them. Nobody maskless.
Maybe that’s why you caught it, the people with bandanas, or maskless.

 

[Beryllos]

wait in your car

This might work better for small clinics in communities made up mostly of car owners. Other adaptations would be appropriate for different demographic situations.

 

[Inbonum]

There is no mask that protects 100%. Some masks, like N95 or FFP2/FFP3 protect over 90%. But it is said that you can get it by aerosol and if it enters your eyes too.

If you wear a mask you don’t protect only yourself but others too. Mask lowers chance of catching it. Also, if you have covid, mask lowers amount of aerosol and drops that are expelled from mouth by talking, caughing and breathing.

I wear mask eveywhere, sometimes even in house if guests come.

Get off the couch, stop eating crap and lose weight and exercise.

It’s not that simple for everyone. There are also diseases which do not go away no matter how hard we wish. So we have to protect each other.

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

Get off the couch, stop eating crap and lose weight and exercise.

I mean, that’s always good advice, Covid or not.

Also, the theory that you got covid in a setting where large numbers of people were wearing masks and therefore masks are pointless doesn’t really logically follow. Even if you’re correct, all it would demonstrate is that masks don’t offer perfect protection, which no one was arguing in the first place.

 

[Beryllos]

My wife is also now Covid Negative and the only symptom that she had was a total loss of taste and smell that lasted for 4 days. She never had a fever or any other Covid symptom.

She’s fortunate to have recovered her senses of taste and smell so quickly. I’ve read that it usually takes several weeks, and that was my son’s experience.

 

[Thomas54]

It’s not that simple for everyone. There are also diseases which do not go away no matter how hard we wish. So we have to protect each other.

True, but having once been pre-diabetic (6’1" and 230lbs and a glucose level of 130), I started doing the research on diabetes and completely changed my diet and my life. I’ve been 190-195 lbs for 5 years now and my fasting glucose is 90. I used to eat 400g of sugar a day plus tons of carbs and processed food. Not anymore!!!

Maybe it was just easier for me because I’ve always said that I have an “iron will” and if I want to get something done, it’s going to get done. I refuse to let a poor diet dictate my health. I can’t for certain say that my lifestyle change saved me from Covid, but the doctor sure said that it played a part.

I don’t accept it when my grossly obese neighbor tells me that he can’t lose weight. He is totally isolated and living his life in terror over Covid. He eats tons of sugar and carbs and takes insulin shots. It sure seems to me that if he would change his diet and start walking around the neighborhood, that he would be happier both mentally and physically. We all make choices in life and if one chooses to eat . . . garbage . . . , well, we all know the old expression “garbage in, garbage out.”

As far as diseases that won’t go away, I agree. The problem is that poor choices when we are younger can’t be easily fixed 30+ years down the road. My former doctor, that just died of a heart attack at 69, used to tell me “low fat and high carb” was healthy. He didn’t have a problem with my glucose being 130. He said that I should “expect” to be pre-diabetic as I got older. . . . Are you kidding me?

Thomas

 

[Thomas54]

There is no mask that protects 100%. Some masks, like N95 or FFP2/FFP3 protect over 90%. But it is said that you can get it by aerosol and if it enters your eyes too

Agreed!!!

Now that we have 9 months of data on Covid and we know that the survival rate is well over 99%, unless you are over 70 and in poor health, I have to ask why we have destroyed so many lives with lockdowns and fear.

We all know several people or more that have lost their careers over this, our older son being one of them. Suicides, especially veteran’s suicides, are up along with drug overdoses, spousal abuse, child abuse, etc. etc… Where has the objective reporting been on this? And, will it end on Nov 4th?

What’s next, a national mask mandate and the virus still spreads just like every other virus know to man has ever spread?

One more thing!!! My attending NP, that works exclusively in the Covid ward, made a very telling statement while I was in the ER overnight. He said that everyone from a GED holder to an MD to a Phd thinks that they know what they are talking about with Covid and that the bottom line is that they don’t know squat. He said that it is a virus and it will make it’s rounds no matter what we do.

Thomas

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

One more thing!!! My attending NP, that works exclusively in the Covid ward, made a very telling statement while I was in the ER overnight. He said that everyone from a GED holder to an MD to a Phd thinks that they know what they are talking about with Covid and that the bottom line is that they don’t know squat. He said that it is a virus and it will make it’s rounds no matter what we do.

Well, my wife is an internist and thinks that masks are an important part of mitigation and that people who balk at wearing them are being incredibly reckless. We can trade anecdotes all day.

Anyway, we seem to be veering into the conspiracy minefield that CAF has been indulging so much lately, so I’m out.

 

[Beryllos]

He said that everyone from a GED holder to an MD to a Phd thinks that they know what they are talking about with Covid and that the bottom line is that they don’t know squat. He said that it is a virus and it will make it’s rounds no matter what we do.

You say “it is a virus” as if that ends the discussion. That is a non-argument, and I am surprised that you found two medical professionals (the internist you mentioned earlier, and the NP in this post) who agree with you on this.

There are all kinds of viruses. Ebola is a virus that spreads easily and kills about 50% of people who get it. Why do you suppose Ebola didn’t make its rounds? Hint: People took measures to stop it.

 

[Thomas54]

Anyway, we seem to be veering into the conspiracy minefield that CAF has been indulging so much lately, so I’m out.

To each his own as they say!!!

Years from now the “all-cause-mortality” data will tell us a lot more than we know now.

Thomas

 

[Thomas54]

You say “it is a virus” as if that ends the discussion. That is a non-argument, and I am surprised that you found two medical professionals (the internist you mentioned earlier, and the NP in this post) who agree with you on this.

There are all kinds of viruses. Ebola is a virus that spreads easily and kills about 50% of people who get it. Why do you suppose Ebola didn’t make its rounds? Hint: People took measures to stop it.

I think the point is that we as a species have lived with viruses since the dawn of mankind and that we have never cured them. We can provide “supportive care” and we should. They are an essential part of our species. That doesn’t mean that we can’t try though. Maybe there is a silver bullet out there somewhere that would kill all viruses that harm man. Then again, we all know the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Thomas

 

[Beryllos]

Years from now the “all-cause-mortality” data will tell us a lot more than we know now.

In fact, such data has been collected all along. Here is a graph of all deaths in the US per week (blue bars) over the last 4 years or so. Notice seasonal trends and exceptional events. Something is different this year.
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Note: data from the last few weeks are low due to administrative/paperwork delays in recording/reporting deaths.

 

[Thomas54]

In fact, such data has been collected all along. Here is a graph of all deaths in the US per week (blue bars) over the last 4 years or so. Notice seasonal trends and exceptional events. Something is different this year.

I agree!!!

But, should we be destroying lives with shutdowns and business closings and school closings for a 99%+ survival rate? My grandchildren, just like all children, have been scared to death and scarred by all of this.

Also, we are 70,000+ and counting on additional suicides and drug overdoses (I have not verified that figure, I heard an immunologist say that stat on a radio interview). Those numbers should be in the above graph, so they should filter out eventually as not being a Covid infection.

Also, add in a recent report out of Stanford that said that Covid was listed as the sole cause of death on only 6,000+ death certificates. I’m sorry, but my friend that died of long-term terminal lung cancer back in May, did not die of Covid as his DC said that he did.

I’m old enough to remember that the plan of action used to be:

1. Protect the vulnerable (nursing homes and elderly in poor health)
2. Quarantine the sick
3. Stay home if you are sick (which is tough on this one because 60% of people with Covid have no symptoms)

Why has politics replaced what the PHS used to subscribe to?

I want to make one point that I hope doesn’t offend anyone, but it may. I’m a Vietnam Era Veteran, but not a boots-on-the ground combat veteran. I have my own demons, but no matter how hard I try to understand, I don’t know the horrors of war that a combat veteran knows.

I’m a Covid survivor that did “everything” right. Does that mean that Fauci and medical science lied to me? I don’t know. I was told, as we all are, that wearing a mask protects yourself and shows that you care about others. I wore my mask securely that day and I tried to stay at least 6 feet from everyone in the hospital and still my wife and I became infected.

So, it should be easy to see that since there are no RCT’s showing the efficacy of masks stopping the spread of a virus, I didn’t say slow-down, and since I did everything right, with the number of infections appearing to rise exponentially in our country and around the world, that the virus is still spreading even though we are being told to “Mask UP.”

One more thought then I’ll hush for a while. I’ve seen some terrible, terrible things in my life and long time ago I decided to never again be a victim. When this all started, me and my wife both said that we wanted to get Covid and get it over with. We chose not to live our lives in fear as many, many people are doing today (heck, I have a cousin that has only left her house in NYC 3 times since this all started. Is that living?).

God Bless and if you contract Covid, it is NOT a death sentence!!!

Thomas

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

I want to make one point that I hope doesn’t offend anyone, but it may. I’m a Vietnam Era Veteran, but not a boots-on-the ground combat veteran. I have my own demons, but no matter how hard I try to understand, I don’t know the horrors of war that a combat veteran knows.

I’m not sure the relevance of this to your larger point. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just genuinely confused as to why you brought this up.

 

[Irishmom2]

God Bless and if you contract Covid, it is NOT a death sentence!!!

Sorry, but for many people it is.

 

[Thomas54]

I’m not sure the relevance of this to your larger point. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just genuinely confused as to why you brought this up.

Simple, to show that unless you’ve lived through Covid, your perspective can’t be the same as mine.

To listen to month after month of doom-and-gloom and we’re all gonna die scenarios and then find that it’s mostly BS, my perspective is different and unless you walked in my moccasins the night that I was in the hospital wondering if I was going to take a turn for the worse at any moment, your perspective can’t be the same as mine.

Thomas

 

[Fauken]

But, should we be destroying lives with shutdowns and business closings and school closings for a 99%+ survival rate? My grandchildren, just like all children, have been scared to death and scarred by all of this.

1% fatality is still 3,000,000 people in the US alone. And we have no idea about how this virus will affect the lives of those who don’t die. Some are still having trouble breathing even though they’re not sick. Will they ever get better? How long will that affect last?