All of us are living this infectious disease in real-time but let's outline the facts...as they are known right now. Because this is a consistently developing virus with mutations and variants there are only some basics we all know for sure.
People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:
▪️Fever or chills
▪️Cough
▪️Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
▪️Fatigue
▪️Muscle or body aches
▪️Headache
▪️New loss of taste or smell
▪️Sore throat
▪️Congestion or runny nose
▪️Nausea or vomiting
▪️Diarrhea
This list does not include all possible symptoms. It gets updated when new symptoms present.
The following are emergency warning signs for COVID-19. If someone is showing any of these signs, seek emergency medical care immediately:
▪️Trouble breathing
▪️Persistent pain or pressure in the chest
▪️New confusion
▪️Inability to wake or stay awake
▪️Pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone
This list is not all possible symptoms. Call your medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning to you.
Treatment for COVID depends on the severity of the illness. Most people have mild illness and are able to recover at home. At-home treatment includes: staying home and quarantining from anyone you live with, get rest, stay hydrated, and take over-the-counter medicines to help you feel better. If you have an emergency warning sign (including trouble breathing), call 911. And be honest - disclose your illness so that others can stay protected.
Prevention includes hand-washing (again, were "we" really not doing this before?!), social distancing, wearing masks in highly populated areas, and get vaccinated.
Although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions. Post-COVID conditions are a wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Even people who did not have COVID-19 symptoms in the days or weeks after they were infected can have post-COVID conditions. These conditions can have different types and combinations of health problems for different lengths of time.
Some people are experiencing a range of new or ongoing symptoms that can last weeks or months after first being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Unlike some of the other types of post-COVID conditions that only tend to occur in people who have had severe illness, these symptoms can happen to anyone who has had COVID-19, even if the illness was mild, or if they had no initial symptoms. People commonly report experiencing different combinations of the following symptoms:
▪️Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
▪️Tiredness or fatigue
▪️Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental activities
▪️Difficulty thinking or concentrating (“brain fog”)
▪️Cough
▪️Chest or stomach pain
▪️Headache
▪️Fast-beating or pounding heart
▪️Joint or muscle pain
▪️Pins-and-needles feeling
▪️Diarrhea
▪️Sleep problems
▪️Fever
▪️Lightheadedness
▪️Rash
▪️Mood changes
▪️Change in smell or taste
▪️Changes in period cycles
Some people who had severe illness with COVID-19 experience multiorgan effects or autoimmune conditions over a longer time with symptoms lasting weeks or months after COVID-19 illness. While it is very rare, some people, mostly children, experience multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) during or immediately after a COVID-19 infection. Effects of hospitalization from COVID can also include post-intensive care syndrome, which refers to health effects that begin when a person is in ICU and can remain after a person returns home. These effects can include severe weakness, problems with thinking and judgment, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
As the virus spreads, it has new opportunities to change and may become more difficult to stop. These changes can be monitored by comparing differences in physical traits (such as resistance to treatment) or changes in genetic code (mutations) from one variant to another.
Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of a virus are expected to occur. Sometimes new variants emerge and disappear. Other times, new variants persist. Scientists monitor all variants but may classify certain ones as variants of interest, concern, or high consequence based on how easily they spread, how severe their symptoms are, and how they are treated.
𝚅𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚄𝚂:
𝙰𝚕𝚙𝚑𝚊 - 𝙱.𝟷.𝟷.𝟽
Spreads much faster than other variants. May potentially cause more people to get sicker and to die. Currently authorized vaccines do work against this variant. Treatments are effective against this variant.
𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚊 - 𝙱.𝟷.𝟹𝟻𝟷
May spread faster than other variants. Current data do not indicate more severe illness or death than other variants. Currently authorized vaccines do work against this variant. Certain monoclonal antibody treatments are less effective against this variant.
𝙶𝚊𝚖𝚖𝚊 - 𝙿.𝟷
Spreads faster than other variants. Current data do not indicate more severe illness or death than other variants. Currently authorized vaccines do work against this variant. Certain monoclonal antibody treatments are less effective against this variant.
𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚝𝚊 - 𝙱.𝟷.𝟼𝟷𝟽.𝟸
Spreads much faster than other variants. May cause more severe cases than the other variants. Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant. Preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant can spread the virus to others. Certain monoclonal antibody treatments are less effective against this variant.
Traditionally it takes 10-15 years to develop, test, and license a vaccine so how was the COVID vaccine created and administered so quickly?
▪️Years of advance research
For 50 years, researchers have been paying attention to related coronaviruses. In this case, SARS-CoV-2 was a new virus, but it belongs to a family of viruses with similar traits. They already knew that the spike protein could be targeted by a vaccine, which gave them a goal to work toward immediately.
▪️A decade of mRNA vaccine research
Researchers have been developing and researching an mRNA vaccine platform for over 10 years. After SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced, it took just a few days to make the mRNA vaccine candidates. More on this platform in a separate post because it is AMAZING!!
▪️Supercharged with funding
The slowest part of vaccine development isn’t finding candidate treatments, but testing them. This often takes years, with companies running efficacy and safety tests on animals and then in humans. Human testing requires three phases that involve increasing numbers of people and proportionately escalating costs. The COVID-19 vaccines went through the same trials, but the billions poured into the process made it possible for companies to take financial risks by running some tests at the same time.
▪️Participants enrolled in the trials quickly
Large scale vaccine clinical trials were organized quickly using networks established in the pursuit of an HIV vaccine. People enrolled quickly due to widespread public interest.
▪️Overlapping phases
Regulators at the FDA and those involved in making these vaccines already had seen scientific results on the mRNA vaccine platform. So researchers could focus their questions on animal models and early human trials so that they were completed more quickly. In some instances, there was an overlap of certain study phases.
▪️Expedited review
As part of its review process, the FDA re-analyzes the data that companies provide. The FDA compressed the review timeline to weeks with people working nights, days, and weekends on parallel teams.
𝙲𝙾𝚅𝙸𝙳 𝙾𝚞𝚝𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚃𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜
Currently there are no approved outpatient treatments. There is currently only one FDA approved drug designated for treatment of COVID and it is administered while the patient is still in the hospital.
The antiviral drug Veklury (Remdesivir) is approved for treatment in adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 88 pounds.
Veklury is an anti-viral therapy to combat the coronavirus. It works to block the virus from reproducing by blocking an enzyme that is needed for viruses to replicate.
It is given via IV over the course of 5-10 days and it is given slowly over 30 to 120 minutes once a day.
Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. In addition, some topical (on the skin) forms of ivermectin are approved to treat external parasites like head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea.
Some forms of ivermectin are used in animals to prevent heartworm disease and certain internal and external parasites. It’s important to note that these products are different from the ones for people, and safe when used as prescribed for animals, only.
The FDA does. not recommend using ivermectin to attempt to treat COVID-19 for the following reasons:
▪️Ivermectin is not an anti-viral drug and COVID is a virus.
▪️Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.
▪️Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans. The FDA has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.
▪️Even the levels of ivermectin for approved uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension, allergic reactions, dizziness, problems with balance, seizures, coma, and even death.
There’s a lot of misinformation around taking large doses of ivermectin. The FDA reviews drugs not just for safety and effectiveness of the active ingredients, but also for the inactive ingredients. Many inactive ingredients found in animal products aren’t evaluated for use in people. Or they are included in much greater quantity than those used in people. In some cases, we don’t know how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body. (Source: fda.gov)
In May 2021 the FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older weighing at least 88 pounds) with positive COVID results.
Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful antigens such as viruses. Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody that is specifically directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and is designed to block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells.
Scientific studies show that high-risk COVID-19 patients treated with monoclonal antibodies were significantly less likely to get very sick and/or need to be hospitalized compared to patients who did not receive the treatments. Studies have also shown that being treated with monoclonal antibodies reduces the risk of getting COVID-19 if you have been exposed to a person testing positive for COVID and you are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.
{You can find all the sources I used by clicking here.}
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