We read epidemiology reports so you don’t have to…
There’s a lot of information on Covid-19 that doesn’t seem to get much play in the news so, in case you are not yet corona-ed out, a few notes on what the experts are talking about between themselves.
- Stock up on Tylenol (acetominophen, aka paracetamol in Europe). It’s the best thing to reduce fever, which might last for two weeks. Evidence indicates that anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen, aspirin and steroid-based medications have an adverse effect on your immune system.
- Men get it worse – they seem to be more susceptible to infection and the effects are more severe (statistics from China suggest male mortality might be as much as 2x that for women);
- We have been told that the virus is more dangerous for older people, but by how much? Data is still being gathered but the best analysis so far is from a report published by Imperial College in London earlier this week. See the table below. Read the full report here.
- The most common symptoms are fever (88%) and dry cough (68%). Exhaustion (38%), expectoration of mucus when coughing (33%), shortness of breath (18%), sore throat (14%), headaches (14%), muscle aches (14%), chills (11%) are also common. Running nose is not a symptom of Covid and most people don’t suffer stuffy nose either.
Stay safe out there, folks.