r/IAmA • u/APnews • Mar 16 '20
We are the chief medical writer for The Associated Press and a vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ask us anything you want to know about the coronavirus pandemic and how the world is reacting to it. Science
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who asked questions.
Please follow https://APNews.com/VirusOutbreak for up-to-the-minute coverage of the pandemic or subscribe to the AP Morning Wire newsletter: https://bit.ly/2Wn4EwH
Johns Hopkins also has a daily podcast on the coronavirus at http://johnshopkinssph.libsyn.com/ and more general information including a daily situation report is available from Johns Hopkins at http://coronavirus.jhu.edu
The new coronavirus has infected more than 127,000 people around the world and the pandemic has caused a lot of worry and alarm.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
There is concern that if too many patients fall ill with pneumonia from the new coronavirus at once, the result could stress our health care system to the breaking point -- and beyond.
Answering your questions Monday about the virus and the public reaction to it were:
- Marilynn Marchione, chief medical writer for The Associated Press
- Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times
Find more explainers on coronavirus and COVID-19: https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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u/Paksarra Mar 17 '20
I work for a grocery store in an area where the virus is believed to be spreading silently in the wild (there's a handful of confirmed cases in my city, although none that I'm aware of from my particular suburb) and have been on register every shift while we continue to have more customers than any of us have ever seen at once in our careers, in close contact with hundreds if not thousands of people over the past five days. In other words, I'm expecting to and preparing to eventually come down with coronavirus and quarantine myself even if I follow all practical precautions (and will be pleasantly surprised if I don't.)
I also have basically every common environmental allergy, which-- from my research-- match most of the common early symptoms of mild corona. Coughing and a runny nose are fairly normal for me and just means that the allergen level is high enough to overcome my medicine or my daily dose of Zyrtec is starting to wear off.
Aside from checking my temperature once or twice a day, are there any other symptoms I should be on the lookout for that won't be cloaked by allergies? I'd rather not risk spreading it unnecessarily, and in the absence of tests and masks being alert for symptoms and calling out if I suspect I've fallen ill is probably the best I can do.