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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana  |
Despite imbibing as much info as possible from the news and the CDC about Covid, I was amazed at how much I learned during my 11 hours of training as a contact tracer for the county health department. Working from home 3 nights a week, interviewing positive cases and their close contacts, educating them about Covid, issuing isolation and quarantine orders, and reporting details to the CDC, i am also learning a ton. People's stories are very sobering and somewhat scary. I didn't realize it was this bad. Anyone who is traveling or attending gatherings is at high risk. Almost all the cases I talk to were fully vaccinated. One guy my age was rushed to the hospital on life support in an ambulance and was admitted to the covid ward. His doc said the only reason he got out alive was because he was vaccinated. My idea in doing this was to help stop the spread in our community. But now with the holidays here, case numbers have dropped--but not actual cases. That's because people won't get tested--they don't want to be under an isolation order--so they can go to christmas parties. Be careful out there.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
What a great service you're performing for your community; kudos to you. I have a friend who is a retired US Park Service ranger who has been doing similar work up on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. I've been hearing stories like the ones you describe since last year. There's a good bit of vaccine resistance up there, which of course means they're getting sick in droves. My neighbor here in Chicago had 18 people to her house for Thanksgiving. A day or two after the holiday, at least a dozen had gotten sick, but with the flu (confirmed with testing) rather than COVID. Illinois' cases are rising, but our numbers are still looking pretty good compared with a lot of places. I'm doubt our luck will hold through Christmas. Stay safe everyone.
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
This is one of the more alarming things I am learning. People think they have a cold, allergies, sinus infection, what have you. They go to urgent care, get the rapid test, told the test is negative. Then *if* the lab sends the sample on for the much more accurate PCR test, it comes back positive an they alert the health department. Meanwhile people with active cases are walking around thinking their test was negative, and they are infecting others. The rapid test is wrong 40% of the time. I no longer believe someone is negative unless they got a negative PCR test. If they have any symptoms, I won't go near them. What is really a pain is calling someone who was told their test was negative, and I have to tell them that actually they tested positive. You can imagine how well that goes over. Either make the rapid test more accurate or quit offering it. So many needless new cases because people think they don't have Covid.
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| Foregoing Practicing to Post Minor Deity  |
My hat’s off to you for doing this valuable work, Pique.
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
The NYT reported today that upstate NY hospital system is overwhelmed. Three factors: lack of vaccination; health care workers who have quit because they refuse to get vaccinated; and patients who cannot be transferred to nursing homes, because there are no available nursing home beds. At any rate, many hospitals in upstate NY are above 100% capacity. | |||
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
What's the difference between an isolation order and a quarantine order? How does someone know when it is safe to be around someone who is positive? I am having a difficult time understanding the latter. | |||
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| (self-titled) semi-posting lurker Minor Deity  |
What is the tech in a the rapid tests, is it spit-based? What counts as a PCR test? My uni has been doing spit tests for over a year now, but I don’t think it’s the same as the rapid tests. It’s a test some profs that work here designed. But this makes me wonder how accurate our tests are.
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| Does This Avatar Make My Butt Look Big? Minor Deity  |
Interesting. When I had COVID, the heal department called me. It sounded like a scam, so I didn’t engage. I mean you call, claim you’re with the health department and ask for my date of birth? I figured I already had been told to isolate, and I had reached out to my tennis partner, who was the only person I had been around unmasked. | |||
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Beatification Candidate |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that the rapid test will determine if a person is infectious, not whether they are infected. That explained to me why someone often gets a negative result from the quick test, only to test positive later on. So here's the question: Family A is hosting xmas day. Big house. None of them (parents and 5 kids, grade school through high school) are vaccinated, but most of them had Covid after thanksgiving 2020. Reasonably sure all other families attending are vaccinated and boosted if they are due. Is the danger primarily to the hosting unvaccinated family, or is it an increased risk to all attending? Sounds like from your contract tracing that all are at risk because you've been following many vaccinated folks getting sick... There might be a couple of dozen people there.
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
Isolation order are only issued to people who test positive or, based on symptoms, are presumed positive. In our county that means they have to stay in one room and use separate facilities from others in the household for at minimum ten days, at which time they can call the health department and ask for a release order--which the public health nurse will only grant if they are symptom free. They may not leave their home. Quarantine instructions are issued to known, symptom-free close contacts of the positive case. In our county these are no longer enforceable (thanks to new idiot governor). They instruction close contacts who are fully vaccinated to not go out in public without a mask for 14 days after their last contact with a positive case and to get tested within 5-7 days. Those close contacts that are not vaccinated are instructed to stay home for ten days and also to get tested.
If someone has tested positive and has not received an isolation order, have no contact with them for at least ten days after their first symptoms appeared or after their positive test if they have no symptoms. Longer if they still have symptoms--in that case they should be symptom-free for two days before having contact with others. If they have received an isolation order, have no contact with them until after the health department has given them a release order.
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
No. The rapid test is the one that goes up your nose and swabs your brain.
You'll know it is a PCR because it takes a couple of days to get the results--or longer. The rapid test has results in 45 minutes.
We don't have spit tests here. I would be surprised if they are reliable. Why would anyone get their brain swabbed if they could just spit?
I would inquire. And if someone is sick and says they tested negative, i would stay away from them unless they had a PCR test.
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
If someone balked when I asked them to confirm DOB I would just read it to them. It's just like at the dr's office they want to make sure they've got the right Cindy. HIPPA compliance.
You know, that ain't good enough, Cindy. When the health department calls they give you very specific information and instructions. None of the positive cases we call already know what to do and not do. All are surprised by the instructions and information. All of them, after saying they were only in contact with certain people, turns out when we go through it day by day, starting 48 hours before their first symptom, with their memory jogged,there were lots more people, once they understand what is meant by close contact and the necessary time frame. When a positive case doesn't give us the names of those people and their contact info, those are people out walking around in the community spreading covid like typhoid Mary because we didn't have an opportunity to issue a quarantine and provide them with critical information. Plus there is a ton of info we need for the CDC so they can get a better handle on what is happening, where, when, and to whom. Information that is critical to keeping people safe.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
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| czarina Has Achieved Nirvana |
Wtg: source? That's not how we classify them here, probably because of what is available here. We don't call the rapid test a PCR test. And plenty of times PCR tests come back in 2 days, if the lab isn't backed up. So it may be different in different communities. Best source of info for your community is a public health nurse at your local or state health dept.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
There were many sources that were consistent in their explanations of the various tests; I chose two that I thought summarized the information well. Here's a full explanation from UC Davis Health: https://health.ucdavis.edu/hea...ts-explained/2020/11
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