Covid-19

As explained by the Mayo Clinic:

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause illnesses such as the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). In 2019, a new coronavirus was identified as the cause of a disease outbreak that originated in China. The virus is now known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease it causes is called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19).

– https://www.mayoclinic.org

In many cases the symptoms of Covid-19 are mild. Some people never even develop symptoms. However, in many, many other cases the Corona Virus can put you in the hospital. And unfortunately, there is an extremely high mortality rate; as evidenced by the over 300,000 deaths from Covid-19.

What starts out as mild flu-like symptoms is putting tons of people in the hospital, as well as hundreds of thousands in their graves.

A recent article in the Journal of American Medicine reveals that even people who had the virus, but were asymptomatic, had lung x-rays that showed more damage than those of long-term smokers. The article suggests the probability of long term lung damage from Covid-19 that will become a major problem in later life. If you think about it, long term consequences may include things like COPD, EMPHYSEMA, and LUNG CANCER.

Unfortunately, now that we’re in the winder months in the holiday season, Covid-19 has made a comeback in states that had managed to flatten the curve last spring, and is raging like wildfire in many states across the country.

Going into the start of the 2020 holiday season, the the CDC warned about the enormous potential for the Corona Virus to spread at family gatherings. They suggested that we refrain from having indoor gatherings with people who are not members of our households.

Unfortunately, a significant portion of the population ignored these warnings regarding the potential spread of the Corona Virus. As a result, within a few weeks after Thanksgiving, hospitals across the country are nearing capacity, and in some states the availability of ICU beds is under 10%.

For the Christmas holiday, against CDC Covid-19 recommendations, there were millions of people traveling to gather with friends and family.

Currently, many states are already at a crisis level with Covid-19 hospitalizations. Many hospitals are using refrigerated trucks to store the overflow of Covid-19 fatalities.

The increase in hospitalizations usually follows about 2 to 3 weeks after exposure events to the Corona Virus. This is because, it may take up to two weeks for people to start showing symptoms. This is perhaps the most dangerous period for others, since infected people may be passing the Corona Virus onto others without knowing they’re infected.

As time goes by the severity of the Covid-19 symptoms increases for some, resulting in the need for them to be hospitalized. Once hospitalized, Covid-19 symptoms may become severe enough to require admittance into the ICUs. Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the 2020 Covid-19 toll of 331,000, many of these don’t survive.

Hospital resources across many parts of the country are already strained. It is predicted that hospital networks in many states may be overwhelmed over the next few weeks and thousands of deaths over the next month.

We need to follow the CDC guidelines to avoid making matters even worse.

Fortunately, the CDC as well as other medical regulatory agencies around the world have started approving Covid-19 vaccines for use and distribution. But keep in mind, it will be several months before enough people are vaccinated, for us to achieve what’s referred to as “herd immunity”.

The CDC estimates that we will have to have around 70% to 75% of the population vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccines to achieve effective herd immunity in the United States. They estimate that we will not achieve this until late spring or early summer of 2021 at the earliest.

Until then, we need to continue following CDC Covid-19 guidelines

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