What are the risk factors associated with getting sick with Covid-19?
Not everyone who gets the coronavirus gets sick with its common symptoms, and the severity of how Covid-19 presents in people varies widely. The risk of a severe case of Covid-19 increases with age, as well as if a person has other medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes or obesity, studies show.
The highest risk is for people 85 and older. President Trump is 74 years old and barely meets the criteria for being obese. An estimated 42.4% of American adults rated as obese, according to the most recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most people who become infected do not develop a serious illness, although doctors are studying the emerging evidence about the possible long-term health effects of Covid-19. The treatment of Covid-19 has improved as doctors and hospitals gain experience and the drugs show that they work.
An estimated 5.4% of people over the age of 70 who are infected die as a result of Covid-19, according to the CDC, compared to 0.5% of people aged 50 to 69 and 0, 02% of people between 20 and 49 years old. Data also suggest that men are at higher risk of dying from Covid-19 than women.
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What are the symptoms of Covid-19?
The most common symptoms include fever, dry cough, and fatigue. White House officials said Trump is showing mild symptoms, including fatigue, but is still at work.
Some people experience aches and pains, a sore throat, diarrhea, pink eye, headache, loss of taste or smell, a rash, or discoloration of the fingers or toes. Others do not experience any symptoms.
More serious symptoms include shortness of breath or shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, and loss of speech or movement, according to the World Health Organization. Recent evidence suggests that some Covid-19 patients show signs of heart damage, kidney damage, or neurological problems, although not all show symptoms related to those problems.
What treatments are available for Covid-19? When might hospital care be necessary?
Most people who develop mild to moderate symptoms and who are not hospitalized recover on their own, and doctors recommend fever-reducing medications, rest, and fluids. Many doctors advise patients to regularly monitor their temperature and oxygen levels.
Health experts say that treatment recommendations depend on the severity of a person’s infection. Most of the therapies authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to treat Covid-19 are for hospitalized patients. People who have access to superior healthcare and are diagnosed early, like President Trump, tend to have a better prognosis.
The president’s physician, Dr. Conley, said the White House medical team will “maintain a vigilant watch,” and on Friday said Trump received an 8-gram dose of an experimental treatment developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Monoclonal Antibodies, which mimic the natural antibodies produced by the immune system to fight viruses, showed promising initial results in a clinical trial They were found to reduce virus levels and improve symptoms in people in the early stage of the disease with Covid-19. The treatment has not yet been approved by regulators.
Trump also took zinc, vitamin D, famotidine, an antacid, melatonin and a daily aspirin, the White House said. Doctors say vitamins and minerals are relatively safe, and some might boost the immune system, but there is no definitive evidence that they provide benefits for preventing or treating Covid-19. Blood thinners, such as aspirin, may help reduce the risk of blood clots in Covid-19 patients.
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How is coronavirus spread and what can be done to prevent transmission?
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the virus is believed to spread between people who are in close contact, or within 6 feet of each other, via respiratory droplets. Many scientists also say that the virus can be transmitted through smaller respiratory particles, called aerosols, which can be inhaled while remaining in the air and traveling greater distances. The CDC said last month that it is working to publish new recommendations regarding the transmission of aerosols. Transmission is possible through surfaces, but this is not believed to be the main way the virus spreads.
Wearing a well-fitting, multi-layered mask when in public and around non-household members is still the best way to prevent infection, infectious disease experts say. They also warn that the virus can be transmitted by asymptomatic people. Social distancing and avoiding crowds, especially indoors, are key.
Sean Murray, chair of the Covid-19 workplace testing program at laboratory services company Eurofins, said testing alone is not enough and other measures, including wearing masks, are essential: “ It’s so easy to think you deflected the bullet when there’s another Buck shot coming right for you. “
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How do you test for Covid-19?
The gold standard diagnostic test for coronavirus, commonly called a PCR test, is processed in a laboratory. That is also currently the most widely available test in the US, although the types and supplies vary from state to state (see this WSJ guide on testing for Covid-19).
Rapid tests performed outside of a laboratory, such as antigen tests, are often less sensitive and result in more false negatives than PCR tests performed in the laboratory, but they are also cheaper and offer faster results. The White House uses one of the rapid tests available on the market. Administration officials did not immediately respond to questions about which test was used to diagnose Mr. and Mrs. Trump, then said in a statement that Trump tested positive for a confirmatory PCR test. Health authorities sometimes recommend a follow-up test after a person’s initial results, depending on the circumstances.
The administration has previously said that people who come into contact with Trump are tested every day.
A person who tests negative one day may test positive the next, as it can take a while for the virus to incubate and become detectable. Whether a test detects Covid-19 may depend on whether the virus was present at the site from which a sample was taken, as well as the quality of the sample collected.
“If you think of testing as a safety net, the safety net will have holes in it,” said William Morice, president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. “A rigid testing regimen doesn’t make someone completely sure. What it does is help detect an outbreak early.”
Is it possible to determine when or where someone may have contracted the virus?
It can be difficult to trace where someone may have contracted the coronavirus, especially if it is circulating widely in the community. The White House has not released details on where or how Trump contracted the virus.
People generally do not test positive for several days after their initial exposure.
The president may have been infected for five to six days before testing positive and could have been infectious for some of those days, Dr. Morice said. But it is not clear when he became infected. “We don’t know when the clock started,” he said.
The president may have contracted the virus or passed it on to people with whom he was in close contact recently in the White House or during the election campaign. Infectious disease researchers and the CDC have said that presymptomatic people and people without symptoms can transmit the virus.
Transmission is a greater risk in indoor environments where people do not wear masks or stand 6 feet away. People with mild or moderate cases of Covid-19 are typically infectious for 10 days or less, according to the CDC, while those with more severe cases could transmit the virus for longer.
Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, among others, tested negative for the virus on Friday. Because the incubation period for the virus ranges from two days to two weeks, infectious disease experts recommend that anyone who has been exposed to a positive case, even those with a negative test result, be quarantined for 14 days. It often takes several days after an exposure for an infected person to test positive.
—Caitlin McCabe contributed to this article.
Write Brianna Abbott at [email protected] and Sarah Krouse at [email protected]
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