Maybe I should have wobbled around ‘more informative- or useful- or handy- in a shorter timeframe.’
The multi system inflammatory issue that has been seen in children is now found to happen in adults as well.
https://www.livescience.com/multisystem-inflammatory-syndrome-adults-covid-19.html
"…On Friday (Oct. 2), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report describing a “multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults” or (MIS-A). Like the syndrome in children, MIS-A is a severe illness that targets multiple organs and causes increased inflammation in the body, the report said. And with both syndromes, many patients either test positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, or have antibodies against it, indicating a recent infection.
Currently, MIS-A appears rare, like its counterpart in children. The new CDC report identifies around two dozen cases of MIS-A.
Still, the new report, published in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, urges doctors to consider a diagnosis of MIS-A in adults with compatible signs and symptoms. “Ultimately, the recognition of MIS-A reinforces the need for prevention efforts to limit spread of SARS-CoV-2,” the authors concluded. …"
So I went for a covid test today. No symptoms, but given I may be on a flight to Australia next week, I feel I owe it to both them and myself to do the best I can to not inadvertently pass on this insidious virus. Hopefully I’m clear, but just in case I want to know.
This is an op-ed, but it is written by a medical expert (Dr. Celine Gounder,Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at NYU Langone and Bellevue Hospital Center) – and I think it gives a good run-through of all of the details we don’t know, as well as an explanation of the various meds, and also some basic info about the course of the disease.
So worth the read.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/04/opinions/trump-health-concerning-covid-gounder/index.html
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Bumping so everyone sees that the thread is reopened.
Thanks for letting the thread continue @skieurope. Given recent developments it may have gotten off track, despite our efforts to remain non-partisan and “subtle” in our posts. I think we all understand the limits now.
Interesting article in WIRED Magazine today, talking about patients with no history of either flavor of diabetes who go on to develop the disease after becoming infected with COVID-19.
https://www.wired.com/story/a-global-data-effort-probes-whether-covid-causes-diabetes/
“Doctors around the world had described to him strange situations in which Covid-19 patients were showing symptoms of diabetes that didn’t fit the typical two-flavor manifestation of the disease. In most people with type 1 diabetes, their immune cells suddenly turn traitorous, destroying the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin—the hormone that allows glucose to exit the bloodstream and enter cells. People with type 2 diabetes have a different problem; their body slowly becomes resistant to the insulin it does produce. Rubino and his colleagues were seeing blended features of both types showing up spontaneously in people who’d recently been diagnosed with Covid-19. “That was the first clinical puzzle,” he says.”
From further into the article…
“In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that the gut is not the passive digestive organ once thought. It actually is a major endocrine player—responsible for producing hormone signals that talk to the pancreas, telling it to make more insulin, and to the brain, ordering it to make its owner stop eating. If the coronavirus is messing with these signals, that could provide a biological basis for why Covid-19 would be associated with different forms of diabetes, including hybrid and previously unknown manifestations of the disease. Rubino is one of a growing number of researchers who think that the relationship between the coronavirus and diabetes is actually a two-way street. Having diabetes doesn’t just tip the odds toward contracting a worse case of Covid-19. In some people, the virus might actually trigger the onset of diabetes, and the potential for a lifetime of having to manage it.”
My daughter got type 1 at age 4 after the coxsackie virus. Since type 1 is an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks its own pancreas, it can take awhile to develop but viruses have long been thought to trigger that process. The virus stokes the immune system and therefore the autoimmune attack. Furthermore, dexamethasone and other steroids literally triple blood sugar for people whose pancreases are not functioning, so the course of steroids may also bring out either a latent case of diabetes (at least of type 1) or perhaps hasten the onset of a case of diabetes that was in the process of developing. I would add that viruses also may at least triple blood sugars so the combo may even look like diabetes when it isn’t. My mother has high blood sugars when on steroids for illness but not when they stop. This stuff is complicated.
The immune system has to be confused by the similarity of a part of the virus to the part of the body that gets attacked, so not every virus does this of course. I believe chicken pox was also looked at for this.
Main message: it has long been known that CERTAIN viruses can stoke autoimmune reactions including the development of type 1 diabetes.
A study published earlier this week in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology finds that a large portion (82.3%) of Covid-19 patients experience neurological manifestations of the disease. Neurological issues range from mild (headaches, muscle pain, loss of smell or taste, dizziness) to severe (encephalopathy).
Nearly 1/3 (31.8%) of all hospitalized Covid-19 patients have or develop encephalopathy during the course of the disease.
Great- another thing to worry about. 
Just one more thing: type 1 and type 2 are actually very different diseases. The type 1 community has, for years, toyed with changing the name. Only 5% of people with diabetes are type 1’s. It is genetic, autoimmune, and not a risk for most people. (Both my daughters have the gene, but one has another gene that blocks it. If you are worried, it is easy enough to have your HLA factors tested.)
The mechanism for the two diseases is entirely different. It is hard to understand how COVID could cause both.
Viruses- and steroids- can certainly raise blood sugars which then might go back down with resolution. As I wrote before, certain viruses (not coronaviruses that I know of, at least not in the past) can trigger an autoimmune attack on the pancreas, causing type 1.
If COVID is causing the insulin resistance typical of type 2, over a long period of time (which probably has not yet been determined) that is an entirely new development. Short term, yes. I think it is going to take time to ascertain what is going on here.
Hm, curious to see what other autoimmune conditions are “triggered”. I have celiac which is an autoimmune disease that can be triggered - so many people report being diagnosed after a bout of giardia, etc. I guess anything that stresses the body can cause the immune system to get out of whack. Agree that gut health has been underestimated in the past in its importance.
AAMC (American Association of Medical Colleges) web page on COVID-19 testing:
https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/your-covid-19-testing-questions-answered
The section headlines:
- There are two main categories of tests for the novel coronavirus. Which one you get largely depends on where you are and why you’re being tested.
- If a close friend or family member has tested positive, you should get tested, even if you’re asymptomatic.
- But don’t get tested right away.
- If you want to visit a vulnerable individual — say, your grandmother who lives in a nursing home — it’s best to get tested, but also remain vigilant.
- Tests using saliva are just as accurate as tests that swab the nose or the nasopharyngeal passage.
- Rapid at-home tests are in development, but they’re likely many months (if not years) in the future.
- Yes, we will still be testing for this virus in a year — and maybe longer.
- If you do test positive for the coronavirus, you’re infectious through day 10 of your illness; after that, not so much.
I thought I read that saliva did not have as much virus in it and that saliva tests weren’t as reliable as a result. Sorry can’t cite.
This might shed some light (?)
Comparisons of COVID-19 saliva, swab tests paint mixed picture
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/comparisons-of-covid-19-saliva-swab-tests-paint-mixed-picture/584401/
(Article published 8/31/20)
What do you guys think of this? Change plans and just protect the most vulnerable?
“an “age stratified” approach could allow resources to be focused on older and high risk patients, while allowing younger and healthier people to attend school and keep businesses open.”
My initial reaction may not be popular. Wouldn’t this be directing resources to those already living compromised lives and telling the healthier to take their chances?
Here’s the Declaration link. https://gbdeclaration.org/
I think you’ll see some difference between that and the bmj summary.
I guess. But healthier people can still make their own decisions. They could wear a mask if they want, not dine out, keep a small bubble of friends, etc.
But those “healthier people” are most likely going to be around those who aren’t healthy, right? A large percentage of the US population has some type of condition that puts them at higher risk. I do not understand the reasoning.