https://texags.com/forums/84/topics/3099779

Quote:

---

...aiming to consolidate accurate, helpful information about the coronavirus and the various public health implications now impacting all of our lives.

...

To be clear: This is not a place to post your opinion as fact or to post information not rooted in clear facts. This is not a place to have political arguments or to detail your opinions about how well or poorly the government is handling the issue. This is not a place to rant about media conspiracies. This is not a place to critique other people for their level of concern or efforts to prepare. There are forums for (some of) those conversations, but they don't belong here.

Again, our goal is to highlight some of the helpful information from doctors, public health experts, and others that is already appearing in other forums and to give our community a specific place to ask questions and get helpful, accurate answers.

---

Lester Freamon said:

---

Family vacation in Maui the last week of May. Definitely a bad idea or too far out to say?

---

Too far out to say but hopefully by then we have flattened curve by that time.

PuryearFratDaddy said:

---

Reveille, thanks for starting this and know managing it is like the virus itself...so thanks again for guiding!

One question, my wife's spleen was removed 5yrs ago. Does that put her in higher risk? She is 40.

I have not seen anything on internet except two differing opinions, so seems encouraging. What I have read is spleen focuses on red blood cells whereas covid-19 is focused in white books cells.

---

Your spleen deals with all blood cell lines, white cells, red cells, and even platelets; with it's two primary functions being 1) Clearance of "bad cells" from the blood stream (either old ones or cells that have been targeted by the immune system) and 2) Production/maturation of white blood cells. White cells produced by the spleen are primarily involved with antibody production (e.g. humoral immune system), which play a more central role in the immune response to bacteria (particularly encapsulated bacteria like pneumococcus, heamophilus influenzae, and meningococcus). This is in contrast to lymph nodes, which play a more central role in the immune response to viruses, like COVID-19.

With that being said, having a splenectomy in and of itself does not significantly increase her risk of a viral infection like COVD-19, but it does put her at risk for certain bacterial infections that could develop as a sequelae of any viral respiratory infection, like COVID-19. Because of this and depending on her age, I would consider her at higher risk. Because of this risk, splenectomy patients can sometimes be prescribed a supply of antibiotics to have on-call and are to be initiated at the first sign of infection, so I would speak with her doctor to see if she would be a candidate for some at this time. But aside from that and ensuring that she is up to date on her vaccinations, particularly pneumococcal, I don't think anything beyond social distancing and standard precautions is warranted.

Edit: Looks like mods took out the trash.

aggierogue said:

---

What is the likelihood of contracting the virus twice? If someone gets the virus and recovers, are they in the clear for this cycle/season?

---

Generally yes. I haven't seen anything credible to suggest this one is any different.

Stupe said:

---

Can we please keep this thread on subject as an information and question / answer thread by the OP?

We have an entire forum to post information and theories from other sources and personal anecdotes.

Reveille is taking time out of his very busy schedule to post his first-hand info as well as look for questions. The more posts that he has to scroll through, the more time that it takes for him to find them.

He's doing us a INCREDIBLE service on this thread and we should do our best to make it as easy on him as possible.

---

Agree, it would also help if the doc was temporarily given staff designation so we could use the "staff only" button and quickly go thru his responses.

Mantis, thank you for your response.

And that goes for all other MD's, (beyond Reveille) nurses and others that have posted on this and other threads!! It truly helps!

deddog said:

---

Also,
Doc I have a teen with VTach that is currently being treated well with medication. Otherwise he is extremely fit.
Is he at higher risk? Never understood whether Vtach that's controlled by medication is heart disease or not.

---

No if he is otherwise healthy and the V-Tach is controlled with medications than I would not expect him to be at too much of a higher risk then the general population.

deddog said:

---

Doc Reveille
How much sleep are you getting?

Thanks for all that you are doing.

---

I squeeze some in here and there.

atag said:

---

Do you think this is affecting the elderly moreso because they tend to have more underlying health issues or because of age alone. My mom is in her late 60s but she is super healthy (she competes regularly in the senior games for track). She thinks because of her fitness that she isn't as much at risk.

---

Underlying medical conditions I believe is way more of a risk factor than just age alone. Not all 70 year old's are the same. I have some with very few or no medical issues and other's with multiple medical conditions that I consider very unhealthy. The later patient I would consider to be much higher risk than other patient even though they are the same age.

Rachel 98 said:

---

My mom (70 years old) had heart valve repair two years ago. She was born with a septal defect that was repaired when she was 15, but was gradually starting to have more and more exercise intolerance, shortness of breath, etc. She has done great since the surgery and I think is now mostly asymptomatic on just furosemide. Would this bump her up in risk (above just her age risk)? She also has pretty bad food, inhalant, and chemical allergies and has always had low WBC counts (lifelong). I'm just trying to decide how strict to advise her to be as far as keeping her distance from other folks. She is quite fit and active but I want her to be careful. I don't want to overreact though and tell her to lock herself in solitary confinement though if that would be overkill!

---

First she should be congratulated on overcoming what she has to date. However,because of the risk of cardiomyopathy she should almost certainly be considered high risk. It would not take much for to decompensate and go into congestive heart failure.

She doesn't have to stay completely inside. Jogging or waking would not increase her risk as she is not around others. And this will help keep her heart in shape.

Law361 said:

---

Reveille,

With the prospect of having my 3 young kids at home for the next several weeks, my wife and i are trying to put a schedule together to help them get out of the house. We know that walks are a good idea, but what about public parks? Not talking about playing with other kids, just playing on the equipment. How long can the virus survive on an outdoor surface that doesn't get regularly disinfected? Thanks

---

With respect to the duration a virus remains infectious on playground surfaces, it really depends on the local weather conditions. It also varies widely from virus to virus, but obviously we're talking about coronavirus here.

Based on previous SARS and MERS strains, this virus is stable for a relatively short period of time outside of the body. Weather conditions that lead to quick desiccation (warm / dry / sunny) and surfaces exposed to UV will render any virus present non-infections quickly. Within just a few minutes. Some of these reports about coronavirus being stable for many days on inanimate objects are under ideal conditions without any exposure to UV/water/heat/etc... They also are reporting ANY remaining detectable infectious virus. My point being once the virus is out of its host, the particles begin to degrade quickly. So even though there may be a few infectious particles after an extended time, the vast majority of the initial number are inert.

For public playground equipment, as you said those surfaces don't get "disinfected" regularly (or ever), but, depending on where you live, the normal weather can keep them fairly sterile. Specifically in the case of coronavirus, the more exposed surfaces will be safer. Overall, unless the equipment is currently or recently occupied with many kids, in my opinion it's a very low risk activity.

oh no said:

---

Is someone who was in the UK last week more scary and dangerous in your community right now than someone who flew in from SFO or SeaTac?

Case numbers and community spread seem worse in CA and WA than the UK, but some organizations' ban and self isolation rules seem pretty arbitrary when they make rules against only those who have been outside the continental US.

For example, my daughter's gym won't let her come to training for 14 days since we went to London for spring break, but they are letting someone train who went to CA for spring break. Also, my company's operations in CA, WA, Ny, etc. are operating as normal, and my company is flying a bunch of people from CA to Houston with no restrictions, yet they act like I have the plague because I went to London last week- again- fewer cases and far fewer deaths than the US in CA and WA. I'm ok with my family staying in for a while and I understand everyone is afraid of me and my family right now, but why not the same rules for people coming from CA and WA?

---

Not sure how to answer this one, but personally in would consider anyone traveling from an infected area to be treated about the same. They should be isolated for at minimum a week but preferably 14 days to watch for signs of symptoms

Law361 said:

---

Reveille,

With the prospect of having my 3 young kids at home for the next several weeks, my wife and i are trying to put a schedule together to help them get out of the house. We know that walks are a good idea, but what about public parks? Not talking about playing with other kids, just playing on the equipment. How long can the virus survive on an outdoor surface that doesn't get regularly disinfected? Thanks

---

Walks and parks are likely ok if you are not with a group of people. The virus can live up to 3 days and steel and plastics in laboratory experiments. But outdoor activities as a whole should be relatively ok because you are not in close contact with anyone and the wind blows the virus around.