Covid 19: What are the risks? What can we do?

The coronavirus pandemic has had a more profound affect on the world than the Spanish flu of 1918. In the era of international travel, the virus has spread to all 4 corners of the world in a matter of weeks. Technology and our advanced medical knowledge have found the virus, sequenced its genome, and in a matter of 6–9 months, has developed and mass produced several vaccines. As Charles Dicken’s penned his famous line in “A Tale of Two Cities”, it can easily describe the coronavirus pandemic of 2020:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

The question that everyone has in the back of their mind, “who should worry about this virus?”

The simple answer is everyone. It will affect everyone either directly or indirectly. Some of us have risk factors. But many young, healthy people have succumbed to Covid 19. Is there a genetic predisposition to developing severe complications if infected with Covid 19? Maybe, we will not know for sure until years from now. There are some anecdotal accounts that pregnant mothers who get infected with Covid 19 have an increased risk of adverse complications during their pregnancy.

Fortunately, prevention is the key to keeping our numbers low. The greatest fear that health officials have is a great, sudden surge of Covid 19 infections that results in inundating our hospital systems. We cannot have everyone infected all at once and requiring oxygen, ICU, and/or ventilators. We do not have enough ICU beds or staff. Imagine waiting 12–24 hours just to be seen in the ER. It could happen. Only with the large adoption of vaccination by the general population in early 2021, can we hope to return to our normal lives.

Here is a short review on the coronavirus. In brief, these are the signs to look for, what to expect, and which individual are at higher risk.

Signs and Symptoms of Covid 19:

The three most common symptoms are dry (non-productive) cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

The symptoms to be looking for:

a) Dry cough (most common symptom)