Friend tested positive for Covid-19

Just got the news a friend of mine tested positive for Covid-19, but I have yet to get the test.
For the past several weeks my friend has been staying out here living beside me, in my old place. I live in a new home next door. Harold is only visiting me and staying out here temporarily because he lives in Las Vegas Nevada. He has been working in this area on drilling rig and was forced to live in the same small trailer with four other workers that where all strangers to him. Harold was on that job for two weeks and came home sick this past Saturday. At first he showed very little symptoms, but for the past couple of days he felt worse and worse. So today he went to get tested for the virus.

He and I have been hanging out together, so not looking good for me. I am 67 years old and live by myself, but I am in great health, just little high blood pressure which I take blood pressure meds for and it is under control.

Harold is now on his way back from Houston after getting the test where I live out here in a rural area. We will both have to quarantine, so that's that. Now I am going to get tested today.

 

I'm so sorry to hear the news about your friend and wish you the best of luck. Tell us how the test goes and hang in there. What's going on is crazy, but the best we can do is stay indoors and try our best to wear a mask. I was feeling sick a few months ago but luckily was tested negative. I know it's kind of freaky going to get tested and not knowing how things will turn out.

 

I'm so sorry to hear the news about your friend and wish you the best of luck. Tell us how the test goes and hang in there. What's going on is crazy, but the best we can do is stay indoors and try our best to wear a mask. I was feeling sick a few months ago but luckily was tested negative. I know it's kind of freaky going to get tested and not knowing how things will turn out.

Thank you so much for your support. Right now I am very apprehensive with a nervous feeling not knowing what to expect. This is the first time anyone I know that has the virus, and he just happens to be my best friend staying next door to me.

 

I tested negative for the virus, so that is a sigh of relief. But I was told that it may be to soon and to come back early next week for a second test.

 

Best of luck to you! I just found out that we have 3 family members in Texas who tested positive. We lost a family member to complications of Covid 5 months ago. Good thing that you are heathy, keep us posted on how you are doing!

 

Can you isolate from one another in your home? Can he basically live in the basement and, I know it sucks, but you should both mask up to minimize any airborne particles making its way through your ventilation. If you can have windows open, the fresh air will help.

It's horrible of your friend's employer to put that many workers in a small trailer during a pandemic that absolutely loves that setup. I hope it remains mild for him and you luck out with either not catching it or at least don't get symptoms.

Best of luck to you! I just found out that we have 3 family members in Texas who tested positive. We lost a family member to complications of Covid 5 months ago. Good thing that you are heathy, keep us posted on how you are doing!

I'm sorry for your loss. One of my staff lost her father to it in August.

 

I'm sorry for your loss. One of my staff lost her father to it in August.

Thank you. This has been so hard for so many people, so much loss. I am grateful for my friends here though, helps me to get away from the real world for awhile.

 

Best of luck to you! I just found out that we have 3 family members in Texas who tested positive. We lost a family member to complications of Covid 5 months ago. Good thing that you are heathy, keep us posted on how you are doing!

My condolences to you and your family.

I'm sorry for your loss. One of my staff lost her father to it in August.

That is very sad, we are living in a time of history in the making and it is not happy history.

Can you isolate from one another in your home? Can he basically live in the basement and, I know it sucks, but you should both mask up to minimize any airborne particles making its way through your ventilation. If you can have windows open, the fresh air will help.

It's horrible of your friend's employer to put that many workers in a small trailer during a pandemic that absolutely loves that setup. I hope it remains mild for him and you luck out with either not catching it or at least don't get symptoms.

We live in seperate houses, but I own both. So Harold is by himself next door to me. So far he is not getting any worse so we will just hope for the best. He called his employer and now the guy will have to call everyone that worked with Harold on the last job where he got sick. Somebody there had to have the virus, because Harold was not sick before he went to work there.

 

I had it back in March. It's different for every single person but it wasn't so bad in my case. The exhaustion and lack of energy was the hardest part. Best of luck

 

I Hope you do not get ill and that your friend has a full recovery.

 

Best of luck to you and your friend.

This virus is terrible. Please everyone mask up when going outside to stores, parks or anywhere where there are people other then who you live with.

I live in New York and the numbers are going back up everyday here.

People just gave up wearing mask and keeping a safe distance.

 

Thanks everyone, yeah Harold is experiencing the muscle weakness. His taste is really off so is his smell. So we can only hope it is a mild case and everything will be good a in a couple of weeks from now.

I had it back in March. It's different for every single person but it wasn't so bad in my case. The exhaustion and lack of energy was the hardest part. Best of luck

I clicked on the links for you aquariums on youtube and could not watch them because it says Video not available, private. Just wanted to let you know...

 

I clicked on the links for you aquariums on youtube and could not watch them because it says Video not available, private. Just wanted to let you know...

I actually tried that too! Haha toeknee try fixing it

 

Oh, good. Separate houses will be lonesome but better for your health. Definitely Zoom and check in with one another. Make sure he doesn't try to 'tough it out' if symptoms worsen or breathing gets difficult.

 

Oh, good. Separate houses will be lonesome but better for your health. Definitely Zoom and check in with one another. Make sure he doesn't try to 'tough it out' if symptoms worsen or breathing gets difficult.

Thank You for the support.

We have talked about that if he gets worse then getting Harold to the hospital. But for know he has been told to quarantine at home, which for now is my old place next door.

Harold and I have been hanging out together for the past four days before he showed any symptoms, we even cooked together over here at my house. So I have sprayed everything down with Lysol and doing my best to disinfect my house, door knobs and everything.

Today I tested negative, but told it could be to early. So I am not totally out of the woods on this yet. Next week I am going to go for another test or if I start feeling symptoms.

 

Harold is feeling better today. His taste has returned and muscle soreness has lessened. He found out that indeed he picked up the virus while crowded together among four other men in the small trailer house on the job sight. One of the other men working there had the virus but supposedly he got over it and was not showing any symptoms before he went back to work. Living in that small space on the job site put the five men in close contact with each other. Four of them slept in the same room with two sets of bunk beds, sharing one bathroom. They cooked and ate in the same small kitchen.

Personally I feel this should have never been allowed with this easily transmitted virus. Harold is a better man than I because I would sue the entire operation for forcing me to live with four strangers in such a close living space with today's pandemic.

Now when I say forced you have to understand the these jobs are now really hard to come by, when a person is losing everything they own due to the down turn in the industry. A person has to do what they must to make a living.

 

Glad to hear hes is getting better and fingers crossed you missed it.

 

Glad to hear hes is getting better and fingers crossed you missed it.

Thanks for your support. Yes I dodged it this time, just hope my luck holds up.

 

You are right, the employer should've protected their workers and made safer arrangements. I'm glad Harold is improving and hope you stay healthy

 

Ok now this is kinda strange. Harold had two different Covid-19 tests. One came back positive and the one came back negative.

Time Line:
Saturday: Harold came back form the job.
Monday: He was feeling really bad, temperature showed 99.3 low grade fever.
Tuesday: He traveled to Cleveland Texas to get a virus test. But it was going to take three days before he got the results.
Wednesday: He traveled to Houston to get a virus test and in thirty minutes had the results showing positive.
Friday: He gets the results from Cleveland test he took on Tuesday showing negative.

This makes it all very confusing. Could the virus take longer to show up on a test, even after the person is showing symptoms?

 

So, there are different type of tests out there, not just rapid and 'slow', and they can target different 'signatures' for the virus as well as have different sensitivities. You're more likely to get a false negative than a false positive (kind of like pregnancy tests). Plus, there is a 24 hr difference in between the Cleveland and Houston tests. It's possible he didn't have enough viral load on Tuesday (though usually by the time you're getting a fever, you have enough load). Also, the Tuesday swab simply might not have had enough specimen on it.

Since he knows he's been exposed, he had a positive test, and he is very symptomatic, I would disregard the negative test.

 

So, there are different type of tests out there, not just rapid and 'slow', and they can target different 'signatures' for the virus as well as have different sensitivities. You're more likely to get a false negative than a false positive (kind of like pregnancy tests). Plus, there is a 24 hr difference in between the Cleveland and Houston tests. It's possible he didn't have enough viral load on Tuesday (though usually by the time you're getting a fever, you have enough load). Also, the Tuesday swab simply might not have had enough specimen on it.

Since he knows he's been exposed, he had a positive test, and he is very symptomatic, I would disregard the negative test.

Thanks for the information and I agree. Harold told me that last night was a really ruff night and his fever went up to a 102.7. That really worried me so I told him he might need to go to the hospital. But today his fever was back down to 99.7. He has been taking Tylenol to reduce his fever.

Harold yesterday was feeling better, but today he is again feeling worse.

 

Myself and my coworkers got it back in January/february timeframe. We all thought we just had colds or bronchitis til we tested for anti-bodies.

 

Myself and my coworkers got it back in January/february timeframe. We all thought we just had colds or bronchitis til we tested for anti-bodies.

Really that's crazy. Makes a person wonder how many of us have had this and never new it. Myself I got really sick twice, late last year and earlier this year. I went through two rounds of antibiotics before it cleared up and I started feeling like my old self again.

Now I don't know for sure, but my Uncle, who is now in his late seventies, told me today that people with O positive blood do not catch this virus. My Uncle has O positive blood and so do I. First time I have ever heard of this.

 

Really that's crazy. Makes a person wonder how many of us have had this and never new it. Myself I got really sick twice, late last year and earlier this year. I went through two rounds of antibiotics before it cleared up and I started feeling like my old self again.

Now I don't know for sure, but my Uncle, who is now in his late seventies, told me today that people with O positive blood do not catch this virus. My Uncle has O positive blood and so do I. First time I have ever heard of this.

I dont think it is definite, but i just read an article on this last night, that they have found that in the cases of infection where they checked bloodtypes, type O has the lowest frequency of infections. Which as a type O negative, would be cool. I do have a rather strong immune system just because i have been vaccinated at some point for every disease they have vaccinations for, including small pox and anthrax.

 

I dont think it is definite, but i just read an article on this last night, that they have found that in the cases of infection where they checked bloodtypes, type O has the lowest frequency of infections. Which as a type O negative, would be cool. I do have a rather strong immune system just because i have been vaccinated at some point for every disease they have vaccinations for, including small pox and anthrax.

I feel there is another fall out due to do the world's reaction to the virus, that we don't trust personal contact with each other any longer. I know we remember when people would greet each other with a hug or shake hands. We would also greet strangers for the first time and shake hands. My female cousin who is now in her late 70's will not allow her own Grandchildren into her home. The kids had to stand outside and wave at their Grandmother.

 

Until recently I worked for our University Hospital and kept track of the research there. They found no hints on the blood type affecting the chance of an infection or developing with less severe symptoms.
Another thing that is a. strange and b. worrying, is that antibodies disappear after some time. We already had cases of people infected a second time.

Keeping distance, wearing masks and generally keeping good hygiene is all we can do right now.
Something you might not see in the US is how much effect public transport has here in Europe. The majority of people uses bus or tram on a daily basis. I could scream at everyone who doesn't wear a mask (correctly) on the bus, especially when using the lines to the hospital.
I just decided to cancel my birthday next week. I'll only meet with two neighbours as we are basically living in the same household anyways, sharing the hallway/staircase and laundry rooms in the basement.

 

Until recently I worked for our University Hospital and kept track of the research there. They found no hints on the blood type affecting the chance of an infection or developing with less severe symptoms.
Another thing that is a. strange and b. worrying, is that antibodies disappear after some time. We already had cases of people infected a second time.

Keeping distance, wearing masks and generally keeping good hygiene is all we can do right now.
Something you might not see in the US is how much effect public transport has here in Europe. The majority of people uses bus or tram on a daily basis. I could scream at everyone who doesn't wear a mask (correctly) on the bus, especially when using the lines to the hospital.
I just decided to cancel my birthday next week. I'll only meet with two neighbours as we are basically living in the same household anyways, sharing the hallway/staircase and laundry rooms in the basement.

I sometimes wonder about effectiveness of masks. I do think they may help at least some. But like in my area, results make me question. The numbers in my area didn't start to climb til after they started a mask mandate. Directly, its because more people than even before were out and about. Indirectly, i think it is because of the mask mandate. Gave people maybe a false sense of security.

As for me, i still pretty much go out and about only when a paycheck is involved. But, my view on people in general is what has caused that for years.

 

They are effective, only thing is: People have to use them and use them correctly.

They are not for personal protection and work cummulative. So the individual is best protected if all wear them.
If three people in a room wear them they are protected very effectively (numbers say up to 90% depending on the model). As soon as one of them takes the mask off, the effectivity goes down by 30% of the maximum effectivity for all of them and down by 100% for the one who took it off. If only one of the three wears it the effectivity is down to 1/3 for the one who still wears it, while zero for the other two.

The mask loses effectivity almost completely when the nose is not covered, as - unless we speak - most people breath through their noses and that's where the highest virus concentrations are in case of an infection.

 

Betta'sAnonymous Masks are effective if everyone wears them (correctly), though you still need to follow distancing and hygiene guidelines. Czech Republic did a mask mandate in the early spring and was the "envy" of Europe by having very few cases and 0 deaths by June. Then the mandate went away, everyone relaxed, and now they're out of control.

In my area, our numbers started to go down once the city council put in a mask mandate. Of course, then colleges and schools came back into sessions, students were gathering without masks in parties and dorms, and our numbers have shot right back up. Governor continued rolling back restrictions on large gatherings, you can be unmasked in bars and restaurants, just don't "wander", and we have now passed our May peak.

I work for a health system and want to scream at the employees I see pulling their masks down to talk to you or sitting together in booths over lunch, not masked because eating and chatting. We're at max capacity in the hospitals.

 

Yesterday was the first day that Harold started feeling like his old self again. His taste and smell are getting back to normal and he is feeling much better. So it took him a week to start getting better again. So far I am doing great and really surprised I didn't get the virus from him because we hung out together without masks. But we didn't know at the time he had the virus.

 

Betta'sAnonymous Masks are effective if everyone wears them (correctly), though you still need to follow distancing and hygiene guidelines. Czech Republic did a mask mandate in the early spring and was the "envy" of Europe by having very few cases and 0 deaths by June. Then the mandate went away, everyone relaxed, and now they're out of control.

In my area, our numbers started to go down once the city council put in a mask mandate. Of course, then colleges and schools came back into sessions, students were gathering without masks in parties and dorms, and our numbers have shot right back up. Governor continued rolling back restrictions on large gatherings, you can be unmasked in bars and restaurants, just don't "wander", and we have now passed our May peak.

I work for a health system and want to scream at the employees I see pulling their masks down to talk to you or sitting together in booths over lunch, not masked because eating and chatting. We're at max capacity in the hospitals.

Yep, same here, we're at mask mandate in city centres now because people started to let their guard (and masks) down, right now the Second Wave is hitting really hard.

 

OK I am going to say this. If we don't have a vaccine by the end of the first quarter of 2021 then I am calling foul play on our governments. Because this should be the number one priority on the powers that be's part to get a vaccine out for the Covid-19. A year of suffering with this virus is long enough, time for us to get back to work and living instead of hiding from each other as many or doing right now.

 

Government officials can't make scientists work faster. It takes the time it takes. At best big pharma may have a certain interest to slow processes down to pocket more government money, but that's a weak argument.

But what you can say is, when a government doesn't take the virus serious it is playing with lives.
(Read next sentence with sarcasm, please.) I couldn't think of any governments anywhere in the world that might do this, though...

And now let's bury this thought again, because this is getting political and you know the forum rules.

 

Government officials can't make scientists work faster. It takes the time it takes. At best big pharma may have a certain interest to slow processes down to pocket more government money, but that's a weak argument.

But what you can say is, when a government doesn't take the virus serious it is playing with lives.
(Read next sentence with sarcasm, please.) I couldn't think of any governments anywhere in the world that might do this, though...

And now let's bury this thought again, because this is getting political and you know the forum rules.

Your right we don't need political discourse here but I was not speaking toward any one government or political party, I was speaking of all the powers that be. So lets drop it and I apologize for bringing that up. I just hate to see what this is doing to the world, and the longer it lasts the harder the world's economies will have to recover.

 

Utar - Trust me, every vaccine company wants in on this, but vaccines usually take YEARS. Yes, there are red tape and funding issues (that has pretty much been cleared away right now, for better or worse), but there are many phases for safety and efficacy that you can't speed up. Worst thing would be to rush out an ineffective or unsafe vaccine, because you'll have the double whammy of it not curbing the virus (and injuring people) but also creating even more distrust in vaccines in general (I can hear small pox cackling already).

 

Utar - Trust me, every vaccine company wants in on this, but vaccines usually take YEARS. Yes, there are red tape and funding issues (that has pretty much been cleared away right now, for better or worse), but there are many phases for safety and efficacy that you can't speed up. Worst thing would be to rush out an ineffective or unsafe vaccine, because you'll have the double whammy of it not curbing the virus (and injuring people) but also creating even more distrust in vaccines in general (I can hear small pox cackling already).

I have my feelings on all this but fishlore is not the place for that.

 

Man, that sucks. But look on the bright side! Even though COVID-19 is a man-made virus and had killed many during the first few months or so, I believe we're starting to become immune. Why? Because COVID levels are coming way down, and nobody is dying from it anymore. It has a 99.7% survival rate, and is only meant to kill the old and sick. And although you're 67 and somewhat at a risk, I believe you and your friend will be just fine. So don't freak out just yet. Until someone dies of the virus again, we should just stay calm and keep on keeping on!

 

Man, that freaking sucks. But look on the bright side! Even though COVID-19 is a man-made virus and had killed many during the first few months or so, I believe we're starting to become immune. Why? Because COVID levels are coming way down, and nobody is dying from it anymore. It has a 99.7% survival rate, and is only meant to kill the old and sick. And although you're 67 and somewhat at a risk, I believe you and your friend will be just fine. So don't freak out just yet. Until someone dies of the virus again, we should just stay calm and keep on keeping on!

Yep natural immunity, without that the human race would have died out long ago.

 

Yep natural immunity, without that the human race would have died out long ago.

Agreed! But, boy, am I lucky to never have caught it! You see, I've had Type 1 Diabetes since I was 2.5 years old. Having this autoimmune disease apparently makes you much more susceptible to viruses. But strangely enough, although I had a "weird cold" the very first time COVID-19 was announced, I don't think I've ever had the virus. Thank goodness!