Trump Has COVID megathread (update 10/24: 2 Pence staffers test positive)

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I do wish President Trump and Melania well -- included both of them in my daily puja. 

Look, I don't necessarily feel a great deal of sympathy for either one of them, but I wouldn't want anybody to experience what I did (or worse).  And discussions about "he looks great for a guy in his seventies!" aside, it's downright dangerous for someone in his age bracket to contract it. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/jesserodriguez/status/1312024463848935426?s=21
Having symptoms already puts him in 20% worst cases range.

Just a general reminder that you never experience severe symptoms right away with COVID.

You have around a week of mild symptoms, then either get better, or a lot worse (pneumonia etc).

This ain't good news for the President.

Mine started as mild symptoms (that I attributed to a summer cold), but they ramped up when I awoke with a fever.  

Then it just progressed to an even higher fever, painful respiration (felt like I'd swallowed shards of glass), and some of the worst muscle cramping I've ever experienced.  Oddly, I lost my sense of smell and taste pretty late into the illness. 

And even now, I definitely find myself getting winded faster than I used to during cardio. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/jesserodriguez/status/1312024463848935426?s=21
Having symptoms already puts him in 20% worst cases range.

Just a general reminder that you never experience severe symptoms right away with COVID.

You have around a week of mild symptoms, then either get better, or a lot worse (pneumonia etc).

This ain't good news for the President.

Mine started as mild symptoms (that I attributed to a summer cold), but they ramped up when I awoke with a fever.  

I should definitely defer to you here, as both a medical specialist, and one with first hand experience. I'm more of a lab and theory guy (if they ever let us back into the lab...)

Oh no no, Torrain -- I wasn't overruling you.  Just adding my own experience. (And I'm not a medical anything yet!)

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Weirdest f-ing year I’ve lived. I was born in 1987 and turn 33 in 2 weeks.

I thought at the time that 9/11 would be the worst even of my life. 2020 has proved that wrong.

My aunt on my dad's side said that this year beats 1968 as the worst year of her life (she was twelve at the time).  And that was the year of Kent State, Robert Kennedy and MLK being assassinated, the violence outside of the DNC in Chicago, etc. etc.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

This is one of those times where life kinda feels like a TV show. Trump could have caught it at any point from April to now but specifically getting in October just feels like a late season plot development. I know I sound silly.

No, the writers really have gotten lazy this season.

I love that meme so much, particularly when it applies to something totally niche (like two pollsters arguing about methodology). 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

This is one of those times where life kinda feels like a TV show. Trump could have caught it at any point from April to now but specifically getting in October just feels like a late season plot development. I know I sound silly.

No, the writers really have gotten lazy this season.

SNIPPY-SNIP

I love that meme so much, particularly when it applies to something totally niche (like two pollsters arguing about methodology).  

What is the origin of that meme? Haven't seen it before.

It's from an American TV show called American Chopper, which followed a custom bike shop in Cali.  One of the biggest draws was the angry exchanges between Paul Teutel Sr. and his son, Paul Teutel Jr.  It aired on the Discovery Channel during that late 2000's shift where the channel stopped being about science and started including more reality TV elements. 

In this particular instance, Teutel Sr. is sick of Teutel Jr. showing up late for work and ends up firing him.  Yelling, chairs being thrown, yadda yadda.  

While reality TV is always played up, apparently the firing was the real deal (or at least as real as reality TV goes) and Teutel Jr. started his own rival company to his father's.  

https://youtu.be/3y0bQYDA9Vw

(Not to detail the thread, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.)

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

ACB doesn't have it:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/trump-coronavirus-positive-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-nominee-b747152.html

On a similar note, the tracing process is pretty fascinating.  

My roommate was contacted by a tracer after unknowingly travelling through PA, OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, ND, and part of MT while infected.  They basically reviewed all of the stops she made along the way (convenience stores/gas stations, supermarkets, the hotel she stayed at, etc.) and got in touch with employees who may have been exposed.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

ACB doesn't have it:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/trump-coronavirus-positive-amy-coney-barrett-supreme-court-nominee-b747152.html

On a similar note, the tracing process is pretty fascinating.  

My roommate was contacted by a tracer after unknowingly travelling through PA, OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, ND, and part of MT while infected.  They basically reviewed all of the stops she made along the way (convenience stores/gas stations, supermarkets, the hotel she stayed at, etc.) and got in touch with employees who may have been exposed.  

How'd they do that, cell tower data?

*Correction: they did look into where she stopped through her phone and GPS data (not sure how that works on a technological basis).  

But much of it came down to: "alright, where do you remember stopping on your way from Pennsylvania to Montana?  Do you have any receipts?" So on and so forth.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/KellyO/status/1312063381902446593

Good!

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

No matter what you think of them, I hope for a speedy recovery. No one should be going though this. Meanwhile, my predictions have changed because of this.

Explain, Turbo!

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

He wants to keep Bideo off-balance.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Who’s Trumo?

I think he plays for the Orioles. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

ACB is negative, for all you wishing it on her

I'm going to ask this as a sincere question because I do have some respect and fondness for you: Did you see people actually wishing that somewhere, or does it just seem like the sort of thing especially negative-minded Democratic partisans "would" wish?

I just came over from reading Reddit (inc. a post on /r/news wishing ACB was one of the few susceptible to re-infection), so perhaps that colored some of my interpretations of comments on the page previous my own (e.g. those by CellarDoor and DrScholl). Atlas is full of much better people than Reddit, so I may have been rather uncharitable in my reaction.

Yeah...definitely don't read Reddit or Youtube comments during particularly heated or controversial events. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/Tom_Winter/status/1312124138190905345

Basically blocks what's called the "spike protein" -- the major point at which the virus binds to receptors.  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

Then people will realize that the virus is not really that different from the flu...

Wasn't like any flu that I've ever had. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I'll need the help of PQG and other members with medical training on this.
If Trump suffers lung damage, what are the consequences?

Depends on the severity and extent of the damage (if it gets to that point, of course).  

A potential form of lung damage post-COVID is pulmonary fibrosis.  Basically, when the tissue of the lungs is damaged, it is replaced by scar tissue.  This stiff scar tissue can negatively affect the gas exchange that occurs in the alveoli, causing shortness of breath and otherwise reduced respiratory function.  It's one of the things that has me concerned about getting winded during/after exercise faster than I did pre-COVID.  

You see something similar in the heart after an infarction (scar tissue replacing damaged cardiac tissue, leading to reduced function.  It's part of the reason why multiple heart attacks can be quite detrimental, even if the individual survives the events).  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

I'll need the help of PQG and other members with medical training on this.
If Trump suffers lung damage, what are the consequences?

Depends on the severity and extent of the damage (if it gets to that point, of course).  

A potential form of lung damage post-COVID is pulmonary fibrosis.  Basically, when the tissue of the lungs is damaged, it is replaced by scar tissue.  This stiff scar tissue can negatively affect the gas exchange that occurs in the alveoli, causing shortness of breath and otherwise reduced respiratory function.  It's one of the things that has me concerned about getting winded during/after exercise faster than I did pre-COVID.  

You see something similar in the heart after an infarction (scar tissue replacing damaged cardiac tissue, leading to reduced function.  It's part of the reason why multiple heart attacks can be quite detrimental, even if the individual survives the events).  

But Del Taco said this was no big deal!

I've handled the bisected lung of someone who died from respiratory failure.  

Without getting too graphic, it basically looks like a sponge (little pits and holes all over).  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1312551511201845249

This is a good observation.  Maybe being the "party of individual liberty" makes you opposed to collective solutions.  And if a problem is too big to be solved without collective actions, it therefore should be ignored?

By the same reasoning, Ronald Reagan would have never received any sympathy after his shooting, as he supported the 2nd Amendment. Yet his approval rating shot up, including among liberals. Nobody said, “It’s Reagan’s own fault for not taking away all the guns!! .. He brought that on himself!!!”

I mean, Trump is no Ronald Reagan...

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/corinne_perkins/status/1312793102474784770

This gives me the impression he knows something major that the media isn't being told and is close to a breaking point having to keep it in.

This kind of speculation is so ridiculous. He could literally just be tired.

Dude puts his hand on his head for about one second, and someone takes a picture  --- "OMG! HE MUST KNOW SOMETHING THAT WE DON'T!"

It's like taking a picture of someone yawning and saying the person is chronically fatigued just for that picture alone.

I'm inclined to agree, Redban.  I never put much stock in these "look at such-and-such's expression during Trump's speech"-type snapshot thingies. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1313118558495408130

Press conference incoming?

Seriously though, I also noticed Twitter rumblings about the White House pool around WRH. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1313118558495408130
Press conference incoming?

https://frinkiac.com/img/S06E01/165682.jpg

Seriously though, I also noticed Twitter rumblings about the White House pool around WRH. 

Ha, that's pretty good.

Also what's WRH short for?

Sorry: Walter Reed. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1312936904061579264

Yeah, it's something that's anecdotally referred to as "steroid euphoria".  It's a phenomenon that's pretty well documented in the anabolic steroids, but not well understood in the corticosteroids.  I'm not sure about dexamethosone, but I know of a study indicated that around one percent of patients on prednisone (a sister corticosteroid) experience some sort of adverse psychological effects as a result of the drug's interactions with the CNS.  

Source:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853679/

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1312936904061579264

Yeah, it's something that's anecdotally referred to as "steroid euphoria".  It's a phenomenon that's pretty well documented in the anabolic steroids, but not well understood in the corticosteroids.  I'm not sure about dexamethosone, but I know of a study indicated that around one percent of patients on prednisone (a sister corticosteroid) experience some sort of adverse psychological effects as a result of the drug's interactions with the CNS.  

Source:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853679/

My anecdotal observations lead me to believe it's much higher than 1% for prednisone.

According to this, it's dose dependent and I think it's a safe bet that Trump is on a heavy dose of steroids.

Ah! Thank you for the clarification -- one percent with a baseline dosage of 40mg, but the risk increases as the dosage increases.  

Also, I forgot to mention that the term "steroid psychosis" is used with anabolic steroids.  They can be pretty frightening events -- as in not being just limited to feelings of euphoria or simple mood swings.  At its worst, steroid psychosis can present as full-blown paranoid delusions.  

(And, of course, I'm not saying that any of this is what's happening with Trump.  In fact, I'd err on the side of skepticism, though it'd really depend on the dosage that they're giving him).  

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1313138387994509313

*EYE ROLL*

Another name to add to my daily prayers list, I suppose. 

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1313138387994509313

*EYE ROLL*

Another name to add to my daily prayers list, I suppose. 

Tots and pears.

I wasn't being facetious.  It's just that my daily prayer list is getting long, chock-full of of people who likely didn't take proper precautions.