How can you tell if someone has COVID19.  It's the biggest question of 2020.  What do the symptoms actually look like?  Now researchers think they know what they are.

It's tough to determine because COVID seems to look different for everyone.  Sometimes people have a couple symptoms, but not all of them.  Is that COVID?  Just because you don't have a fever, doesn't mean you don't have it.  Maybe you don't have a cough.  A big problem is that there are actually different types of the virus.  It's been hard to pinpoint it.

Recently a study was done that helped to map out what the symptoms are and they've found that there are actually 6 different clusters of symptoms.

  1. Flu-like with no fever: Headache, loss of smell, muscle pains, cough, sore throat, chest pain, no fever.
  2. Flu-like with fever: Headache, loss of smell, cough, sore throat, hoarseness, fever, loss of appetite.
  3. Gastrointestinal: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, diarrhea, sore throat, chest pain, no cough.
  4. Severe Level 1, fatigue: Headache, loss of smell, cough, fever, hoarseness, chest pain, fatigue.
  5. Severe Level 2, confusion: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain.
  6. Severe Level 3, abdominal and respiratory: Headache, loss of smell, loss of appetite, cough, fever, hoarseness, sore throat, chest pain, fatigue, confusion, muscle pain, shortness of breath, diarrhea, abdominal pain.

So the question is, what cluster of symptoms seems to require the most care?  For example, if you have symptoms in levels 1-3 will you need a ventilator?  According to the study, most likely you won't.  But people with the cluster at #6 seem to require respiratory help 20% of the time.  People who normally present with those types of symptoms are often older or have pre-existing conditions.

If you have any of the clusters listed above, you should call your doctor.  Don't automatically go to the hospital.  They will be able to guide you in the right direction and in the mean time keep from spreading the virus.

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