3/19/2020 Update
Here is today’s update:
How long are you infectious if you think you have COVID or had a positive test?
We aren’t sure. We do think that folks are more infectious in the ~2-3 days before symptom-onset and when people are symptomatic. Hence, why it is of particular importance to stay home if you do not feel well since you are particularly infectious at that point in time.
The safest recommendation is to remain quarantined for 14 days after developing an illness, however, we don’t know if folks become less infectious before that date in time. Because of the shortage of healthcare workers, the CDC is easing the restrictions around healthcare workers returning to work after testing positive or developing symptoms. The guidance for healthcare workers is below which is less stringent and only mandates 7 days (assuming you’ve been symptom free for 3 days). Granted, you’d wear a mask once returning to the workforce, but the idea remains we don’t exactly know how long you’re infectious afterwards, likely the range of 7-14 days.
Is it safer to have food delivered or shop on my own?
There is no right answer to this. There’s always some chance of contracting COVID in either scenario. Both are very low-risk (as compared to eating in public with shared utensils, etc) but neither is higher or lower risk in my opinion. Being in a public setting like a grocery store where many people touch the same objects like shopping carts, etc, may make that slightly higher risk but not from the actual food, but rather, the other common surfaces you’d interact with as described above.
The hope is that people who have symptoms (and are, therefore, more infectious) are not at work stocking shelves, checking people out, or delivering food, and therefore, the risk of spread from either modality is low.
It is still a good idea to thoroughly wash hands when you return from either activity above and before eating or preparing food.
I heard Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) can help with COVID. Is this true?
Similar to most answers, we don’t know with any degree of certainty. Plaquenil, along with several other potential therapies, are being actively investigated as potential treatments for COVID. At this time, there is no treatment but the hope is that one of these experimental agents proves to lessen severity of symptoms and ultimately treat COVID.
More information on potential treatments can be found here in an interview with Dr. Scott Gottlieb.
What are you most worried about today?
Today, I remain most worried about our lack of widespread testing and impending shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers. If our healthcare workers can’t protect themselves, they’ll get sick. If they get sick, it will be incredibly difficult to provide care for those who need it. We need to rapidly ramp up production of PPE including masks, gowns, and other supplies that are necessary to keep the healthcare workforce out of harms way as they treat patients.
And, we need to understand where the bottleneck is with widespread testing and remove it ASAP. At first it appeared to be lab issues, but now it appears to be a limited supply of swabs and reagents. Regardless, solving these two challenges should be mission-critical for the government and private sector.
What was the most informative read of the day?
This interview with Dr. Scott Gottlieb who I’ve referenced previously and is also posted above regarding potential new therapies. A thorough Q&A with him that you’ll almost certainly find insightful.
Stay safe,
Harry