Why do so many people believe that they could be secret carriers of the coronavirus? Why, when I go on my daily walk, do my neighbors cross the street to avoid me, even though I have no symptoms, and have been virtually quarantined in my home for a month?
Most of them are younger than me and I think they fear that they might infect me, an obvious senior citizen. Even though they have no symptoms, I believe that there is a widespread fear that many people are asymptomatic and infectious without knowing it.
Reading the newspapers or watching TV gives the impression that many people have in their minds the image of Typhoid Mary, the legendary woman who infected people with a dreaded disease even though she herself was not harmed. She was a secret carrier.
However, it does not appear as if the coronavirus or any virus works that way. It is true that once infected, we may not show the familiar symptoms for a day or two, but then the symptoms: cough, fever, and fatigue must appear. Here is a timeline of the infection.
Typical Time Line of Viral Infection
Day 0 - you have been infected with a virus and have no symptoms but you are contagious.
Day 1-4 - typical symptoms appear, fever up to 102 F, coughing, tired due to onset of the Immune response. The Innate Immune system has already been initiated and the Adaptive Immune system is at work performing both the Humoral and Cell Mediated Responses. You are most contagious now as you are coughing and sneezing out virus laden droplets.
Day 5-7 - you are feeling better fever still present but going down. Less contagious but the recommendation is that you wait 24 hours after body temperature is back to normal before interacting with others.
Day 7-10 - the virus has been neutralized but there are still many immune actions being taken by the body. Different classes of antibodies are being produced with a maximum of these present at about 14 days after Day 0. These will persist for months in the blood plasma. The inflammation is being attended to so you may still be coughing up mucus.
Just today I saw a brief video from a Fairfield town health official who confirmed that we can only be asymptomatic for two days. We are not secret carriers of the disease for weeks, or months. When the virus enters our bodies, the immune system must immediately respond and cause symptoms of varying degrees to appear.
The German study that caused Dr. Anthony Fauci back on January 31 to change his mind about the seriousness of the disease cited the case of a young woman from Shanghai, who after a visit from her parents in Wuhan, the apparent place of origination in China, flew to Germany for a conference.
She had no symptoms but now we know that she infected some of the other participants in the conference. But shortly after, on the plane ride back home, she got sick. She was only asymptomatic at the outset. The lady from Shanghai eventually recovered.
This scenario was repeated in a story that recently appeared in my local newspaper that had the following alarming headline:
Yale doc: Asymptomatic Carriers spread half of virus cases.
A careful reading of the story indicated that the infected parties were only asymptomatic for a day or two. A man showed symptoms on Thursday, March 12. On Sunday, March 8 he had attended a large party in the town of Westport. a hot spot for the virus in Connecticut. The next day, March 9, he attended a basketball game in a crowded gym. He worked that week until the day his symptoms appeared on March 12.
It is most likely that he got infected at work especially considering that his nephew, who also worked at the same place, came down with the symptoms shortly after. The nephew worked until March 19 and showed symptoms on March 22. Neither uncle nor nephew were asymptomatic for more than a couple of days. Their symptoms were severe but did not require hospitalization, and they have both recovered.
Speaking of symptoms, so far in the USA more than 3 Million people have been tested for the coronavirus. At a recent news conference Dr. Birx of the CDC asserted that only 20% had tested positive for the coronavirus even though practically all of the tests had been done on people with symptoms. Only 24% of seniors between 65 and 85, the most vulnerable group, tested positive.
The other 80% had some other reason for their symptoms, most likely the flu which so far this year has caused more deaths than the dreaded coronavirus. So far, of the 20% (about 600000) who did test positive only 26064 have died.
About 96% of those who tested positive have not died, and the great majority have not required hospitalization. Most infected people just stay home and take to bed for a couple of days. For most of us the cure for the coronavirus is already in our bodies. Our immune system immediately attacks and destroys microscopic foreign invaders. Once infected a veritable war breaks out in our bodies that actually causes most of the symptoms like fatigue, cough, and fever.
Of course, we know that Senior citizens or those with high risk conditions like diabetes or immune system disorders are particularly vulnerable in the same way that they are to the flu. The immune reaction in their bodies is so strong that it causes inflammation and congestion that can result in deadly pneumonia. These vulnerable people are well advised to stay home.
At the beginning of the year the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to call the corona virus that originated in China in November of 2019 COVID-19. The acronym derived from the first two letters of each word plus the year of origination. Actually, a corona virus is similar to the virus that causes the common cold. Nevertheless, the ominous name made COVID-19 seem like an irresistible, unstoppable alien invader that could destroy the entire planet.
This virus like all others is no alien. It is as much a part of nature as we are. In fact, viruses existed before humans and may always have played a role in the existence of human life as we know it. COVID-19 is no different. When it enters or infects a human body, the immune system of most humans immediately attacks and ultimately destroys it.
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