“Deaf in Scrubs” answer questions about COVID-19
THE DAILY MOTH:
There several new things and concepts about COVID-19 such as developing a vaccine, new symptoms, antibodies, testing and contact tracing, and discussions on how we can reopen.
I reached out to deaf doctor Dr. Zach Featherstone and deaf medical student Ian DeAndrea-Lazarus of “Deaf in Scrubs” to share what they know.
The first topic is on vaccines. It seems like a vaccine must be developed and distributed before things can be back to “normal.” There are several studies in place around the world. I asked them to describe and predict the timeline.
IAN DEANDREA-LAZARUS, MPH:
There are more than 90 vaccines for this virus currently being tested and developed around the world. All of them are testing different approaches to stimulate the immune system to protect against the coronavirus. We’ve never seen a race for a vaccine of this scale and speed, to try and identify a vaccine that will help the coronavirus to go away. It’s the biggest and fastest competition I’ve ever seen in history. It will be interesting to see how quickly we can develop a working vaccine – assuming we will be able to develop one. Dr. Fauci said that it would take 12-18 months to develop one. In recent news, the University of Oxford said that their vaccine would be ready in September, in the fall. This would be a world record. We’ll see how it goes. The quickest we’ve ever made a vaccine was 4 years – this was for the mumps vaccine in 1967. It took four years. On average it takes 10-20 years, because it takes time to study a virus to understand how it works and to identify the best way to defeat it. You will then have to test it on people and sometimes animals before you test it on people. You have to make sure it is safe. You will then have to mass-produce it so there is enough available for the world. That takes a long time.
ZACH FEATHERSTONE, DO
I would also like to add from what Ian said. It’s interesting to note that there’s been a big cry for vaccinations. Yes, of course! Today we are seeing firsthand what happens if you don’t have vaccines. It means that all the babies and kids that we have — my job is a pediatrician — I always make sure they get vaccinations. If we didn’t vaccine on a schedule with children, we would see pandemics happen frequently. I want to encourage all of you who were skeptical about vaccines to reconsider why we have vaccines.
THE DAILY MOTH:
The next topic is CDC’s announcement of new symptoms of COVID-19.
(CDC: New symptoms other than cough and shortness of breath: Fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, new loss of taste or smell)
I asked them to describe what they mean and why it is important.
ZACH:
The CDC has announced new symptoms other than the three previously presented. This is a good thing. First, I want to explain the new symptoms. One of them are chills. Why do they happen? It is because as your body temperature rises, it will trick your body into thinking the environment is colder than you, so it makes your body contract muscles as a way to produce more heat for your body. That’s why chills occur. Headaches, sore throats, muscle pain, result from the body’s response to the virus. When you become sick, your immune system is revving up to battle the virus. The symptoms are an inflammatory response. It causes your body to become tired with pains. Loss of taste and smell is an interesting symptom and it happens due to mucus build-up in the nose and/or mouth. It could also happen because associated nerves are affected, which distorts smell/taste.
The expanded symptom list is a good thing because we used to just have three symptoms. If you exhibited other symptoms, it was a gray area. But if you have the other symptoms, we can say you are “likely” to have COVID-19. There are two main ways to confirm a COVID-19 diagnosis. The first is by nasal swab or a blood test to see if you’re positive. The second way is by looking at symptoms without testing. Now the CDC and WHO can track those who have it and track others who might have the COVID-19. There is a criteria for COVID-19, but you must have two or more symptoms or be confirmed through a test. So if you have at least two symptoms and no alternative diagnosis, it helps us to diagnose that you are likely to have it.
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THE DAILY MOTH:
The third topic is on antibodies. New York state recently said after testing thousands of people, they believe about 15% of the population have antibodies. I asked them what that means and whether it was good or bad news, and what we should understand about antibody tests.
IAN:
Yes, it is an interesting study in New York. What they did was antibody testing with a small group of people in New York state. They checked their blood to see if they developed antibodies against the COVID-19. If they have the antibodies, it means they were infected with coronavirus at some point during the last few months. 15% is much higher than we expected. It means many of them were asymptomatic — meaning they did not show symptoms of a cough or a fever, yet they had the virus. They might not even realize it. That’s why New York state had a very high spread rate. This information is good news for two reasons. The current death rate for New York is about 7.7%. But if the number of people who were infected at some point and they turn okay and have recovered, it means the death rate is actually much lower. By my calculations, if 15% of New York state has already been infected then that means the fatality rate is really around 0.8%. Does it mean the virus is not that deadly? No. It’s still very dangerous. Think about it, the death rate for the common flu is about 0.1%. It means COVID-19 is about 8 times deadlier than the flu. And that’s with most people staying home! So imagine if we went back to normal as if nothing happened, the death rate is sure to skyrocket. That’s why we have to be careful. Another thing that we don’t know is the antibody tests, on how good or accurate they are. There are two things that we usually look at. The first is the false positive rate and the second is the false negative rate. A false positive is when you test positive for antibodies, which means you have developed an immunity, but actually you have not. That is very concerning because imagine if you tested positive for antibodies, you’ll be like “I became infected at some point in the past so it means I can go out and work and I won’t get infected again.” But what if you’re wrong? It means when you go out, you’re risking getting a “real” infection. This is a serious risk. So that’s why we have to be careful and study and learn more about the tests to make sure they are accurate.
THE DAILY MOTH:
Here’s an update — today Gov. Cuomo announced that a study of 15,000 people showed that 12.3 percent of the population has COVID-19 antibodies. The tests were conducted in all areas of New York state.
The fourth topic is on testing and contact tracing. When local, state, and federal leaders talk about reopening, they often mention the importance of contact tracing. What does it look like and why is it important?
IAN:
In order to safely reopen states, it is very important to be able to test as many people as possible and identify people who have antibodies against the virus and those who don’t. If we can prove that the antibodies we develop against this virus will protect us from getting it again, then people who are found to have antibodies would be able to go back to work and to school immediately. We would have to be careful because we don’t know for sure how long these antibodies will last. For those who have not developed antibodies yet, they will have to stay at home and be protected. But we have to be careful because for those who have developed antibodies and go back to work, we don’t know how long the antibodies will last. What if in two or three months’ time, the antibodies start to degrade, leading one to become reinfected? We have to make sure that doesn’t happen. We need more research.
There are two ways we can defeat this virus without a vaccine: The first is to slowly allow the population to achieve herd immunity. This is very dangerous. It’s the fastest and easiest, but the most dangerous. It’s because if we allow everyone to go back and let them become sick, the infections would be dangerous because if too many become too sick, the hospitals would become full and overwhelmed. It means that late arrivals to hospitals would be turned away. So there will be many people dying because they can’t get the treatment they need. So that’s dangerous. But that’s the fastest way to make the virus go away because if people become immune, you can’t become reinfected and the virus would not be able to spread. It’ll be eradicated. The second way is very thorough and strict contact tracing. It is very difficult to do because the virus is already widespread in the world. You have to trace where the virus spread. Those who tested positive would have to tell who they were with the past two weeks. We have to find them, contact them, and test them. If they turn out positive, we have to ask them who they were with the past two weeks, and then do the whole thing again. You have to trace where the virus spread, then isolate people to prevent them from spreading to more people. Testing is critical so we can identify those who are asymptomatic, which is those who are infected but exhibit no symptoms such as coughing or fever. Those individuals can easily spread it, so we have to test everyone and identify those who have the virus and isolate them.
THE DAILY MOTH:
Thank you, Zach and Ian for the valuable information! You can follow them on “Deaf in Scrubs” on Facebook and on their website to get their latest updates and check out their other videos. Ian has one last thing he wants to share.
IAN:
Stay with the light, at home!