Temperature question

Any medical professional who doesn't listen to you isn't worth your time or money.

The average human body temperature has a 95% confidence interval.

So if you did repeated sampling, 5% of the population is gonna fall outside that range, with some being higher and some lower.

If you increase the confidence interval to 98%, the temperature range widens, and of course with a 99% CI, it will be very wide.

Why don't they use a 99% confidence interval? I have no freaking idea. I can only imagine it's not taught or poorly taught in nursing and medical schools.

And temperature is only one part of the equation. It's temperature, plus blood pressure, heart/respiratory rates, mucus membranes and response to stimuli.

Your body chemistry has evolved to fight off most bacteria and virus, but not all of them.

There's a dead skunk been in the road for 3 days in day-time temperatures of 90+°F and your dog can chow down and be all happy, but if you did that, you'd be hugging the Porcelain God all night long.

Why? Because the pH balance in their stomach is different than your. Most bacteria and virus can only tolerate a limited range of pH. Anything outside that range kills them. The same with body temperature. Raise body temperature 1°F and if it doesn't kill them out-right, it impairs their metabolism so they either don't reproduce or reproduce slower, so your immune system has a chance to fight it off.

 

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Yep. The USD spends EVERYWHERE in the world. I was abused by my parents. I don't take it from them (and they gave me life) any longer so I sure as hell am NOT taking it from a doctor with a god complex.

I've even taken my friends to their doctors' appointments and advocated for them. Don't like it? Too bad. You're a doctor. It's YOUR JOB to answer questions, not dictate to people.

Correct. It's like human pregnancy. People think it's 9 months. It's not. That's about the average range but a baby can be born healthy many weeks earlier and many weeks after. I don't understand people that won't educate themselves about their own bodies and what they put in it or have growing in it.

I have some medical experience and I think the reason is that within that "kinda range" most people are okay so they are only concerned when it gets WAY above that range. This kind of slows down the mad rush to the ER for temps that are just a tiny bit over and that makes sense from a logistical standpoint. Every time someone goes to the ER or urgent care for something relatively minor, it takes the doctors, nurses and specialists away from patients who are truly in life-threatening situations.

Here's a funny for you...Several years back, a waiter rolled his eyes at me when I ordered my food because I told him that I have a shellfish allergy and my food could NOT come in contact with any of the shellfish my dinner companion had ordered. As soon as I put that cut piece of chicken on my lips I KNEW he did NOT tell the chef. I started swelling up immediately. It was very cold outside so paramedics were a bit slow so my friend drove me to the hospital a few blocks away.

I go in and tell the volunteer at the desk that I'm having anaphylactic shock and need to see the doctor immediately.
She rolls her eyes, hands me a clipboard and tells me to take a seat.
I told her again that I didn't have time to do any of that and REALLY needed help. She ignored me.
I even said "You are going to have to explain a dead person out here in about 5 minutes." She didn't budge.
Thankfully, a cleaning woman was rolling her cart by just then and I remembered enough Spanish to get her to get me some help.
The lady at the desk was yelling at her not to go back there but the cleaning woman ignored her and understood the urgency.
An RN and doctor rushed out with an Epi-pen and got me just before I collapsed.
I couldn't even speak by that point because of the swelling in my throat.

I felt kind of bad afterward because the kid at the restaurant realized he messed up big time and was crying as we raced out to the hospital. That was a hard way to learn. I wasn't as forgiving toward the woman at the hospital though. I mean, if you're going to hold that post you have make good judgment calls. Plus, she got an earful from the doctor. Another one that had to learn the hard way.

Exactly. It ALL works together.

And, we have to take into account that our parents and grandparents were used to working hard and didn't have a ton of fast food and sugary junk at their disposal constantly. They were much healthier because life expectancy wasn't all that great and medical care wasn't a given.

So many people made fun of us because we made all our babies' foods from organic fruits and vegetables. Both of them have been healthy their whole lives. Never had diaper rash, ear infections or even chicken pox. One of our former neighbors was the worst with the nasty comments about it. They had custody of their grandson and he would only eat Cocoa Puffs cereal and McDonald's. Before the age of 10, he had had 4 MAJOR dental surgeries.

You should have seen their face when they came over for a cookout we had and our kids were eating salad. The wife asked me later "How do you get them to eat that?" I replied "They don't have jobs, money or driver's licenses. They eat what we give them." LOL

I feel nauseated just reading about it. LOL Since dogs are in the wolf family their systems can handle "eating in the wild" like that.

In my very first apartment we had a maintenance guy that carried a rifle on his back. One day I just couldn't keep quiet and asked him about it. He said that he hunts squirrels for his dinner. I don't think I EVER called him for anything EVER again after that. Can you imagine a maintenance guy outside your apartment hunting squirrels like Jed Clampett? I can laugh now but he was kinda scary back then.

Yep. I've been reading and learning more about this because there have been some studies showing that pH imbalance may be one of the main contributors to how cancer develops and metastasized so quickly for certain types of cancer.

Thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful reply. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Stay well!

 

I was the only one who tested but we have had some family members have Covid.

 

Totally WRONG!

 

He’s 100% correct on this point.

 

If you test positive on a PCR test, you've been exposed to Covid, vaccine or not. If you are vaccinated, odds are you may not know it because you have no symptoms.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/wha...-person-test-positive-covid-breakthrough.html

 

Here is the claim you replied to.

Your link does not address his post. A positive result on a PCR can be a false positive. Or it can detect viral RNA that is not part of a complete viable virus. A positive result can also mean there is viable virus present. There is no good way to tell which scenario is actually the case. That’s why PCR tests are lousy at identifying infections and contagious persons.

 

And yet, the PCR test is the standard. There could be a false positive, but they are quite rare. It takes about 90 days for the virus to shed completely of your system, which is why Contact Tracers always include instructions to not retest again for 90 days. I'm basing this on my recent experience as a Contact Tracer. What medical background do you have?

 

I diagnose, treat, and prevent with vaccines respiratory diseases in about a dozen species. I bought a world class education in biology and animal science. I do a lot of research on Covid and other human respiratory diseases and the human immune system. But none of that matters. My posts are based on empirical evidence available to most people.

False positives are indeed rare, but they happen. False negatives are not rare.

The PCR test has been marketed as the gold standard and it was the best we had. But it is a very poor test for basing contact tracing on. Asymptomatic positives could be infected but not contagious. Or infected and contagious. Or they can be convalescent individuals still shedding virus or viral RNA that is not viable. It is good to recommend not being retested as that helps eliminate some of the above problems. But it does nothing to help us determine the state of the individual getting the initial positive result.

If you know about the recommendation to not retest for 90 days you should have recognized the accuracy of the poster you responded to. His post is 100% accurate.

 

This is a very good piece on the math behind the problem of true false positives.
(Math is my weakness).
https://www.icd10monitor.com/false-positives-in-pcr-tests-for-covid-19

 

So what you're saying is that it could be a false positive, but as far as the institutions who are monitoring Covid positive index cases they are always going to err on the side of caution, which means regardless of what you think, you still need to go through a 10 day isolation period. I know that around June, this project I was working on as a Contact Tracer, began addressing these concerns because some folks balked at their positive test results, so the instructions were modified. If they believed the test was a false positive, they had to retest immediately, not to exceed 48 hours from when the positive test result was taken. However, until those results came back, they still had to isolate, and in general, they would be isolated for at least 8 days when you account for the turn around time for the results. So regardless of whether it is a true result or a false positive, they're still gonna have to isolate for some time.

 

Fevers in children can produce side effects that develop later in life, that is why children need to be treated with fever reducing medications. As I understand it, fevers are responsible for heart inflammation which can later in life develop into congestive heart failure.

 

Yes I can see that makes sense from an epidemiological standpoint. We have to work around the limitations of the test. What really stinks is we isolate a bunch of people who don’t need to be—at the same time a lot more people get a false negative but are actually very contagious and are free to roam around infecting people.

 

That's true but only in very high fevers. A few degrees is not an issue and is designed to shut to the body down so all the reserves can attack whatever is invading the system. This isn't true for infants and children with certain health conditions, but for a typical healthy baby or child, a low grade fever is doing what it's supposed to do.

 

I'm in IL. I tested positive in November (required prior to an outpatient surgery). I am absolutely convinced that I had a false positive. I was completely asymptomatic and I had NO risk factors. The person that comes in to cook and clean for me is the ONLY person I saw since our Governor mandated the shelter-in-place (sometime in March 2020, IIRC). We both ALWAYS wore masks and I bought a gallon of hand sanitizer and divided it so there was some in every room. We didn't even touch the same bottles.

The rep. from the Health Department called and said I needed to self-quarantine for 14 days. I contacted my helper immediately so she wouldn't come in. She went to the hospital within two hours to get tested. Her test was negative; however, because she was the *only* possible source for me, they assumed that she was tested too early so she had to quarantine for 5 extra days (a total of 19 days). So, I agree that they are erring on the side of caution and I didn't break that. My helper went to get me food and meds to cover me for the two weeks and I waited it out. Never even had a sniffle.

Some conspiracy theorists are floating the idea that the test, itself, may be contaminated. I went to a hospital that had a drive-up COVID screening so I had NO contact with anyone except the guy that came the van. I'm not trying to virtue signal but share my story so that others know it is possible. To this day, I can't explain what happened. My biggest concern is long COVID. I have some pre-existing health problems and I'm a little concerned that it it was TRULY positive it might have done something. I've been in the ER twice in the past 3 weeks due to severe asthma attacks. That's inexplicable as well. It's NEVER been this bad. I'm using my emergency inhaler and nebulizer about ten times more frequently than I *ever* have in the past. And, they kept me isolated in the ER and my friend could not come back with me until my test came back negative (again, an abundance of caution and we respect that).

 

557, do you happen to know what they are phasing in after we discontinue the PCR test later this year?

IIRC, there was a big hoopla about the Chinese requiring our embassy employees to submit to an anal swab for COVID. Initially, China denied it at first but 'fessed up later saying they would discontinue that test for our people over there. Supposedly, the anal swab is more accurate but I don't recall hearing too much more about it and it seems like that *would* be in the news since they've already publicly stated the PCR test is not sufficiently reliable.

What do you think? Where do you think this is headed as far as replacing the PCR testing?

 

We aren’t stopping RT-PCR testing. We are only giving up the EUA for the early PCR test because we have better ones now. The early tests only detected SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Newer tests (that have been available for months, and in use) detect both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viral RNA.

So in short, nothing really changes. Same technology, just detects both viruses with one test.

All the other tests like antigen tests etc. still have their own set of problems. I don’t think RT-PCR is going away. It will just become more refined.

 

That is great! The last I heard they were pitching all those and starting with something else. Sorry for asking such a basic (and, now I know, silly) question. I've been having a tough go of it lately. I don't know why but my asthma is WAY worse than it's ever been. I don't know what's going on but I'm tired of going to the ER!

That information makes me feel a bit better about the direction we are taking. I am sure I'm not the ONLY one that is burned out on this pandemic. I have online friends all around the world and it's hitting quite a few people really hard.

Thanks for all the expert information you post. I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about cooties. LOL

 

Have you talked with your pcp about your concerns? Having asthma is definitely a comorbidity, but if you were indeed Covid positive but remained asymptomatic, then as I understand it, you would not get long covid. From my experience with positive cases, you have to have multiple symptoms; headache, body & muscle aches, difficulty breath, congestion, vomiting and/or diarrhea, confusion aka brain fog, and the tell tale sign (but not everyone experiences it) is a loss of taste and smell.

It could be that you had a false positive, but let your doctor decide.

 

My doctor is not inside my body. I talk to her and she's very thorough but she respects that I have to live with whatever decisions I make about what she recommends. I don't relinquish my children or my rights to make the choice *I* decide is best for them and myself. Nobody is going to override me. And, laypeople don't usually know this but doctors (medical doctors) don't take a bunch of school hours on pharmacology. Most of them get their information from the pretty little pharma rep that shows up to wine and dine them. No. That doesn't work for me. You want to TELL me what I should take. I am the one taking all the risks. You better believe I have some questions.

And, I learned that the hard way. The reason I have asthma is because of vaccine injury. I couldn't give my university my childhood vaccination records so they withheld my graduation until I could. I went and had them all redone and immediately developed double pneumonia and was sick for many, many months. I have the lung capacity of an 80 year old lifelong smoker and I'm way younger than that and have never smoked. That is why I'm vaccine-hesitant. I'm terrified because I literally almost died the last time I was vaccinated. And it doesn't help that the people who believe all of us should be vaccinated are so mean, condescending and extremely close to hateful. That nonsense didn't work on my in religion and it's not going to work on me in this pandemic. If you can't explain yourself without being a b&tch, back up. I'm not the one.

I'm not angry at you. I'm annoyed at all the people that take medications and don't know what it is, what it's for or why they were given it. People need to start paying attention. Look at your own medical records, research, read, take a class if necessary. Stop walking around thinking somebody else is going to care MORE about your body and your health than you do. Your doctor looks at your chart for about 30 seconds before he or she walks in the room. And, the doctor has to remember ALL their patients. You only have to remember YOUR stuff. Why is everybody NOT taking taking responsibility for their own health?

This is just stupid, Luther. People actually drank disinfectant because Stupid Orange Jesus said it. Why are people listening to a politician about medical stuff? It doesn't make an ounce of sense.

 

I think everybody wants (you know I’ve complained about the limitations of PCR for a loooong time) something better than PCR but we just haven’t come up with it yet. The way I understand it when it was announced the EUA for the old tests was set to be revoked the conspiracy theorists blew it out of proportion and made people (most everyone) believe all PCR tests were going away.

The Chinese anal swab test isn’t a threat here in my opinion. The only advantage to it is it produces less false negatives late in the infection period. I think it was mostly used to determine hospital discharge of convalescents. As a diagnostic for early detection it just doesn’t make sense because infections start in the upper respiratory tract, then move to the lower respiratory tract before moving to the rest of the body in more severe cases. Sampling the upper respiratory tract is the only logical approach if contact tracing and limiting spread is the goal. By the time RNA shows up in the digestive tract a person would have been contagious for days in most cases.

Thanks for the kind words. I know I tick people off because my information often conflicts with the “official narrative”. But my intent is to give people full disclosure of all correct information so they can make good informed decisions about their health and safety. It saddens me so many have died because they did not know all they needed to know to protect themselves. Sorry I don’t have answers on asthma!

Yes, I’ve been affected far less than most by Covid but I’m tired of it. Tired of the dying, sickness, hate, politicization, and dis/misinformation in the name of science. I fear the consequences of Covid on politics and human relationships based on politics may in the long run be more deadly than the disease. I hope I’m wrong on that.

 

That's why Kary Mullis before he died was critical of A. Fauci. That's why he pointed out the test was not meant to be used for diagnostic purposes, and why that warning is included in the package insert for the product.

 

We fell into the habit because it’s the best we have. RT-PCR was used in diagnosis for SARS1, is used for diagnosis of MERS, and has been/is used extensively to diagnose influenza. It’s unfortunately still the least bad option of a bunch of bad options. But as you say, it stinks for determining state of infection.

 

I thought I heard about that on this site. I'm relieved to know we haven't just been spinning our wheels these past 20 months.

IIRC, I think some embassy employees were upset about that and made a fuss. At the time, it was said the Chinese government was doing that to humiliate them but I don't really *get* that. I mean, it's not like they all have to strip and stand in a line bent over. I'm assuming it would be like any other medical procedure done in the doctor's office.

However, it doesn't make sense to do that because the virus has probably already been identified before it makes it through the body.

Nevertheless, I think there are some people that hate everybody that create these kind of things. Who thought up prostate exams, mammograms, etc.. I picture some guy that never got a date and high school is getting his revenge!

I have learned that people don't want to take responsibility so they just do whatever seems easiest. I don't get that but I know many, many people like that. They think I'm the crazy one. I think the pandemic has shown a bright light on this problem.

And, quite frankly, the people that want to know, asks questions and does their own research WILL find a way to get the answers they are seeking. It still boggles my mind that anybody would take medical advice from a politician. That's outrageous.

No apologies necessary. Your posts are always helpful and encouraging. I really like your tone. You never talk down to people or pretend you're god. You don't blow up at people or announce when you put someone on "ignore". I have never understood why people do that. It's very off-putting.

Sadly, I don't believe you are wrong on this. I see it too. It's hard to witness. I never, ever would have believed some of our citizens would be perfectly okay with a president destroying our Constitution and who continues to throw hand grenades in every direction. It's scary why that is OK to ANYBODY. No man should be bigger than the fabric of our country.