With DD’s ongoing great assistance, since we are having a bump, probably publish this active case update once a week for a while. So far, it is a bump, but not huge yet. Other posts will have some info on the trends by age group.
April 10 Active Cases Update
About this Blog
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at [email protected].
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I’ve seen a bunch of firsthand accounts of Covid where people say, “I was sick for a few days but it never entered my mind that it might be Covid until about the 5th day.” Seriously? Never entered your mind? That is so incredibly farfetched that I don’t believe anything else they say.
I very rarely get sick but I came down with something last night (swollen neck gland, sore throat, etc.) and the very first thing I thought of was Covid, even though I had my 2nd vaccine dose 15 days ago. I’ll let you know if I drop dead.
seriously … Active Cases ? which is just positive tests ? those aren’t cases …
We have been seeing an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in the children in my clinic in the past 3 to 4 weeks. Let me just preface this by saying that this is NOTHING like a bad influenza season. The sick children range in age from toddlers to teenagers, with the children under the age of 12 mostly just having a bad cold, or being nearly asymptomatic. Those over 12 are definitely sicker (typically starts with a sore throat, bad headache, body aches and in some a bad cough). Rarely have I had a child of any age be sick for more than 5 to 7 days, usually it’s more like 3 days. We’ve had to do lots of unnecessary testing because the schools are demanding that anyone with a sniffle have a Covid test, and certainly anyone who has been out of town on a vacation (Shame on you!!!!) must test negative before being allowed back into the hallowed halls of learning. Mask fatigue is off the charts and I’d say that in 80 to 90% of my clinic visits I’m able to go maskless in an exam room if the parents are okay with knowing that I’ve been vaccinated. The parents whip them off and say, “thank God!” I think we’re also seeing false positives with our rapid Covid tests as some parents don’t believe their kid is positive and demand a PCR. My bet is that the BD test we use is picking up other Coronavirus infections and may not be “specific” enough as opposed to “sensitive” enough. So I’d like to see charts showing positive tests by age!
Thanks, as always to you, Kevin and your pal, DD, for your truly excellent work on this never ending insanity. I expect that you have read the WSJ article published on Saturday about the horrific effects on our children of our politicians and public health mavens. This is the reality that pediatricians are dealing with every single day. I’m praying for warmer weather and the return of outdoor baseball, soccer, golf, and biking! I keep telling people to open their windows, air out the house and get OUTSIDE even if it’s raining. This is cabin fever to the nth degree.
Dr. Gobel, Mendakota Pediatrics
Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your hard work with children and not going along with the medical establishment. Your patients are fortunate to have you. We have a lot of lasting damage to children
Jennifer, wow, that is brave of you to post that in the current enviroment where some people would happily destroy your career over it. I’m glad there are people braver than I am.
Update: I’m not dead yet but if this is a cold it’s the absolute worst I’ve ever had. Ugh.
Dear Rob: Very glad to hear you’re not dead yet! Hopefully you’re getting better, ala Monty Python. And yes, I’m brave enough to speak my mind. I don’t care a flying fig for anyone who wants to shut me down. I opened my own clinic back in 2004 when I was told I was insane to do so. I’m happy to report I’ve proved the nay-saying ninnies wrong! And thanks, Kevin for your kind remarks. Jennifer