Healthcare

6/24/20 – The 7 day average was pretty flat this week, rather than trending down as it had been.  Also, today the case count was higher than would have been expected, which is a worrisome sign. I created the above graph because Illinois cases are tracked weirdly, with low cases recorded on the weekends and those extra cases reported during the week.  In order to get a better sense of… Read More »Illinois COVID-19 Trend Tracking – are case counts going up or down?

Every time I venture out where I encounter other people, I ask myself if it was worth it.  I don’t do it often, but I decided to do it to get a blood test for antibodies to COVID-19. Why did I bother?  I’m hoping and wonder like everyone else if that cold that I had in the last few months could have been a mild case of coronavirus.  And if… Read More »COVID-19 Antibody Testing Experience with Quest

Updated 4/26/20 at 17:15.  I hadn’t updated for a while as other websites are getting better at also tracking this data.  Overall, tracking numbers of cases is only slightly useful, as there are clearly many more cases that are not being identified.  Tracking deaths is much more accurate as we are probably tracking most deaths related to COVID accurately.  Tracking the ratio of positive tests to total number of tests… Read More »Illinois COVID-19 Tracking with Graphs

One of the big unanswered questions is whether someone is immune to reinfection with COVID-19 after they’ve recovered from a positive case.  The current thought is that people are most likely immune.  But what is the evidence?  Unfortunately, it is still not a confirmed finding. There was a recent report giving some information about four cases in Wuhan China where the individuals initially tested positive for COVID-19 and then recovered. … Read More »Coronavirus COVID-19 – Can you get re-infected after recovery?

Update March 28, 2020 – On March 24, 2020, the FDA released a more detailed statement about novel coronavirus COVID-19 testing which includes the following statement: The FDA has also seen unauthorized fraudulent test kits for COVID-19 being sold online. Currently, the only way to be tested for COVID-19 is to talk to your health care provider. The FDA has not authorized any test that is available to purchase for… Read More »COVID-19 Home Test Kits – Reviewed

Update March 28, 2020 – the FDA posted more detailed information on March 24, 2020, clarifying that they will not be authorizing any home testing under the emergency use authorization, but they are still exploring home testing once it has been fully reviewed as accurate. ——————————————— The FDA issued a warning letter about fraudulent COVID-19 test kits on March 20, 2020.  I read the letter and unfortunately it is not… Read More »Fraudulent Covid-19 Test Kits – FDA warning misleading?