I just found this on Facebook: STAY AT HOME!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Heather Rene is with Timothy Whitworth.

I debated w/ myself about going to the Emergency Room. I really did.

This shortness of breath is no joke, y’all. I can kinda breathe alright so long as I’m just...being.

Deep breaths hurt, though...it’s an ache, a burning sensation, & I cough if I try to breathe too deeply. I can’t get up or move around too much because it’s hard to breathe & I feel lightheaded. I can’t even really talk much because talking also makes it hard to breathe.

I have a headache, my throat hurts, my chest hurts, I feel feverish...I have all kinds of symptoms, some of which are common for this virus, others not so much but have still been reported w/ positive COVID-19 patients.

My symptoms are considered “mild” based on the Dr’s assessment last night. Mild. If this is mild, I’d hate to feel what the 21 hospitalized patients in MN or the 5 we have/had in ICU felt.

If you’re wondering why they’re shutting everything down for COVID-19 when they don’t shut down for the flu?

Vaccine for Flu? ✅
Vaccine for COVID-19? 🚫

While some of you don’t get the flu shot, quite a few people do. That means fewer people get the flu which, in turn, means fewer people spread the flu which means hospitals don’t get so overwhelmed all at once.

COVID-19 is spreading like WILDFIRE. Yesterday, MN had 169 cases & this morning we had 235. Hennepin County is experiencing the fastest spread w/ 89 cases. Don’t forget, that’s ONLY MINNESOTA’s numbers & ONLY CONFIRMED cases.

There are hundreds, thousands more not even being tested, like myself.

Sitting here in the ER right now, I’m thinking of how they say you can be exposed & be asymptomatic for up to 14 days, spreading it (potentially) to hundreds of people without even knowing you have it.

I started having symptoms March 19th which means I could have been exposed as far back as March 5th.

Even though I pretty much already “shelter in place” (all I do is go to work, go home, & go to the store for groceries); wanna know where all I went in that 14 day time frame when I wasn’t even feeling sick & had zero symptoms?

I went to Walmart.
I went to Target.
I went to Aldi.
(Seriously, y’all panic buyers need to stop because I had to hit up 3 different stores to get what I needed.)
I went to the gas station.
I went to work.
I rode public transportation.
I picked my son up & dropped him back off at Job Corps (which means my son could have been exposed & carried it to JC w/ him).
I went to Church.
I had my oil changed.
I drove a loaner car.
The girls went to their father’s (possibly carrying it to his house where he lives w/ his very pregnant girlfriend & her two kids).

Now I’m wondering how many people I could have spread it to? The sweet cashier I always chat w/ at Target that has lung cancer? The single mom I met at the store one night? The tech at the dealership? The person who used the keypad at the gas station or the store after me? Did I spread it to any of my coworkers?

Imagine if my Jason Aldean/Morgan Wallen concert hadn’t been cancelled? Or if I’d gone to get a mani/pedi during that time frame?

You wanna know WHY states are ordering people to STAY AT HOME, to SHELTER IN PLACE?

THIS. IS. WHY.

Because it’s new, we don’t know much about it nor how to really treat it, we’ve never been exposed to it, & there isn’t a vaccine.

Because it’s spreading like WILDFIRE.

Because, while most people (80% or so) have mild symptoms, not everyone is so lucky. Some people’s lungs fill up, they get pneumonia, they can’t breathe & therefore suffocate or their oxygen levels get too low & they go into respiratory/organ failure...

Because people are coming into the ER & STEALING the masks the Dr’s & nurses use to protect themselves & the wipes they use to disinfect the beds, machines & other equipment.

Because my nurse said that they are, indeed, running low on supplies, on masks, on PPE, on other necessary gear & that they improvise where need be & are making do w/ what they have...

But they don’t have enough.

There’s just not enough...
There’s not enough test kits to test all that have symptoms.
There’s not enough supplies for our hospitals, Dr’s, & nurses to protect themselves & those that come through their doors.
There’s not enough equipment to handle the potentially massive influx of people w/ mild or, worse, severe symptoms.

There’s not enough.

[FM123]

1. This is a must read!

[MLAA]

2. Wow, heartachingly, brutally honest.

Glad you shared it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. A big, fat K&R!

This needs to be seen everywhere, by everybody.

So brutally graphic and necessary.

Thank you for posting it, my dear The Velveteen Ocelot!

[Mike 03]

4. These posts are immensely helpful

I hope she's okay. I'm so grateful for posts like this explaining what "mild" disease is because I think difficulty breathing naturally freaks a lot of us out and we might panic and call 911. But her story is in line with a lot of others I've read.

Here's a link to what I thought was an enormously helpful discussion, "How to nurse yourself through pneumonia at home"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213134865

[SuprstitionAintthWay]

22. "Mild" doesn't seem the term they should be using. "Moderate"? "Major but not yet critical"?

Somebody seems to have applied a very broad definition for "mild symtoms" for covid-19, one that's killing a lot of people who have been sent home, sometimes repeatedly, without being tested, to wait and see how much worse their difficulty breathing gets. When many have already told us it can get much worse fast. That's why some people have checked on self-quarantining friends or loved ones and found them dead. Suffocation only takes minutes.

So much of this flows from the disasterously restricted number of tests doctors have been allowed to perform.

Nobody has a clue how many infections there are for every one confirmed with a test. 10? 20? 50? We can't even make educated guesses. We're punching at this explosively contagious thing blind.

[In_The_Wind]

5. Thank you for bringing this to DU.

[flibbitygiblets]

6. K&R to the goalpost. STAY HOME.

Unless your job is critical, stay home. (And huge virtual hugs to the doctors, nurses, food and grocery workers out there).

[ancianita]

7. Shortage by design. In a pandemic, austerity policy leads to human death by design.

They believe us to be as expendable as the Amazon, oceans, animals, so let the microbes carry on in climate crisis mode.

"We who fly our ventilators and bought medical teams will survive" they think, as they carry the virus down to the greater and lesser Antilles to ride it out.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Number of cases will explode the next days and weeks

That's what I'm reading on Twitter. Some are even saying Dr. Fauci won't need any further evidence to convince Trump that something serious is up.

I just don't know what to say or do. Atlantic article says to expect 18 months or more of this.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. I think His Lardship's Easter "resurrection" of the economy

isn't going to happen - and he'll claim he never said he'd do it.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Some article said several Billionaires were supporting Trump on this

Note how I capitalize "Billionaires" ... you know, they're important, like Business Gods

People should boycott their companies.

[keithbvadu2]

10. How fast can a virus / illness spread?

How fast can a virus / illness spread?



--------------------------------

Exponential at what rate?

https://i.imgur.com/6ri2fz3.mp4

[AllyCat]

12. I had a DUer tell me I was being sensational for calling it wildfire

I’m with you. This was wildfire before, but now is astronomical.

Hope you feel better soon and thanks for your post!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. It's not my post; I found it on Facebook.

It's from my city, though, which is scary enough.

[DENVERPOPS]

25. In the fire service

the most accurate description would not be "wildfire", but the term "conflagration"......

[AllyCat]

26. Excellent and thank you for the information

I believe the one who said it is a medical person

[Thunderbeast]

14. I know that people find Google Maps Timeline intrusive

Many of you know that Google Maps has "Timeline" feature that keeps a diary of where you have been on any given day. While many folks turn this feature off for privacy reasons, I have kept mine on to help me remember things.

If I ever suspect a diagnosis or exposure to COVID 19, it will be a very useful diary that can re-trace my steps over previous weeks.

Just a thought about a potentially useful tool during this epidemic.

[calimary]

23. WHOA! Thunderbeast! What an idea!

That will be VERY useful to see where you went, who you may have encountered, what's the area, what's the neighborhood, where exposure to the virus could be predicted with educated guesses, and testing can go there. Very helpful in refining searches, which we fucking have to fucking do because we fucking still don't have enough fucking tests.

We still need testing.

Full disclosure, there's a bit of me that quickly started grimacing and gritting my teeth, worrying about privacy and individual freedom and the ability to track where people are and have been if/when that ability gets into the wrong hands. Sigh. And that's the chance you alway take. That's the other side of the coin. The up and the down. High and low. Gains and losses. Benefits and drawbacks. "...giveth... and taketh away." One of the two faces of Janus, each looking the opposite direction from the other. Chocolate: tastes terrific/begets blubber. The electricity that lights your way and powers your life can deliver a shock that can kill.

And that has to be understood, going in. Are we willing to accept the risk? Do we even care about the risk in light of the biggest calamities and greatest needs all deluging us at once? At a time of desperation where desperate measures are needed to start solving gravest of problems? Which fork-in-the-road do we take?

There's a risk.

There's ALWAYS a risk.

Dammit.

[7wo7rees]

32. Churchill said,

There is no security in nature; only opportunity.

Same for data it seems. It is a good idea for gathering our own data for our personal diary but we surrender it at the same time.

I feel it's a bad trade, while still an original use for it.

Good luck this week.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. 'I pretty much shelter in place' *laundry list of mostly elective places they went*

The story isn't bad, as far as the conclusion and message, but holy crap, that's not 'shelter in place' at all.

[Shrike47]

16. I think that was the point.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. It will be now, we have a stay at home order.

I think she meant she wasn't socializing, going to restaurants, bars, movies, that kind of thing. I would call shelter in place not going out at all except in emergencies and having things delivered, which is what I've been doing for a couple of weeks and will continue to do for months, if necessary.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. That makes sense.

I didn't read into it that way.

Yeah, I have gone one place in the last two weeks, Lowes, because my roof had a small leak and I needed materials. That's it. Pretty much camped in, here.

[leighbythesea2]

19. Glad for her honesty

But that was the lamest shelter in place. That was like i complied with the schools closed & person to person contact services closed, (salon) and large gatherings are a no.

Great post for giving a clear picture of why its critical to stay at home!

[leighbythesea2]

18. Regarding supplies

My best friend whos a paramedic now working at an urgent care was assigned to inventory.

As of Friday, the table-top dispensers of sanitizer,
they had a total of 3.


Michigan--And her assessment is they are in the lull before the storm. People are symptomatic & coming in, but not bad enough to refer to the hospital, mostly. They are being sent home. Give it ten days.

[calimary]

24. Welcome to DU, leighbythesea2.

Here's a virtual hug.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

20. And if you have to go to a hospital, you will contact 20 or more health care workers.

Save health care workers, who save lives: Stay home as much as possible!

[Joinfortmill]

27. Hope you recover fully soon.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. It's not me - I found it on Facebook.

I’m fine, hope the writer is OK by now too.

[warmfeet]

29. Good luck to all having symptoms.

Good luck to all not yet having symptoms.

Good luck everyone.

Good luck.

[sheshe2]

30. K&R

[pecosbob]

31. I work retail...I only go to work and then straight home..only go for groceries every two weeks

Today in an eight hour shift I probably was face to face with five hundred people...mostly just there to buy cigarettes or beer or snacks (none of which I would call essential). Groups of five or six that insist on each being rung up separately with a bag of gummies and some chips. People are not getting the message.

[CozyMystery]

33. And the message is:

People on the front lines include people who work for essential businesses. It is selfish to risk giving C19 to them. They aren't fully protected any more than the medical people are.

Some of us have C19, don't know it and spread it around. Strictly followed shelter in place isn't about the rugged individual protecting him/herself from disease and death. It is about protecting our greater community of over 300 million people, and in so doing, our individual selves will also be protected.

Not doing so is selfish, but many will grab at any straw to benefit themselves by rationalizing away the scientific facts. Lots of straws available especially from the advice given by stupid, evil people at high levels of state and federal governments, religious organizations, the media, and of course, the rich who want their canon fodder to get back to work.

It freaking amazes me that we are in the midst of a global emergency, and still people use the power of the governments, the power of the pulpit, the power of the media, the power of money, to spread a message that contradicts facts and has already led to disease and deaths.

Our federal government's response to this crisis leaves me without many words, except get me out of here! This country has hit a new low, IMO.