The scenario, 200 people waiting to be tested for COVID, not one of these people has any symptoms.
Some are awaiting tests since they are required for work, some for travel, others for medical procedures, and contract tracing after being exposed to humans who tested positive for COVID.
Statistically, 2% to 15% of these people will test positive, with 85% or more testing negative while having little or no symptoms. Those who test positive will be told to quarantine for two weeks.
This brings to question: How many have never been tested that had the virus and after 14 days develop their immunity? Most likely they number in thousands if not millions. On the contrary, how many people felt sick and were never tested?
How many people reading this have never been tested, but very well at some point could’ve had COVID? Grocery-store and other front-line workers who are exposed to the public on a daily basis and not tested on a regular basis most likely at some point may have had COVID and had never known. The young and middle-aged healthy people when testing positive for COVID experience mild or no symptoms.
We see healthy athletes, celebrities and government officials testing positive and after two weeks of rest and required quarantine are fine. They were never hospitalized, felt sick, or needed ventilators, or on their death beds.
The vast majority of people dying are seniors with underlying conditions. If someone with stage 4 cancer gets COVID and dies in our country, the death certificate will read “COVID.” In other countries, the death certificate might read “cancer.”
This is the dilemma — terminally ill people with threatened immune systems who get COVID would most likely die from any other sickness including but not limited to the flu or pneumonia. Therefore, the number of deaths is believed by many to be highly inflated. The media tells us 250,000 deaths from the virus in the U.S. thus far, however, only 20,000 have died from COVID without any other underlying conditions.
The survival rate for children who test positive is 99.9%, yet our schools and local sports remain closed and ironically tourism opened to outsiders.
99.5% of teachers and people under 70 recover from COVID. Many believe the high rate of increased cases of COVID is the highly increased rate of testing.
There is some doubt from some medical professionals on whether or not one becomes immune to COVID after testing positive and recovering and testing negative.
There are a few cases where some victims of the virus have caught the virus for a second time. It is also believed by many doctors that after contracting COVID, recovering and testing negative that one is now immune from the disease and reaches herd immunity.
For the purpose of this writing and with what I’ve herd (sic) through the grapevine and other reliable sources, let’s assume that one is immune from the virus after testing positive and then recovering.
Herd immunity is usually achieved through vaccination, but it can also occur through natural infection.
You can develop resistance naturally. When your body is exposed to a virus or bacteria, it makes antibodies to fight off the infection. When you recover, your body keeps these antibodies. Your body will defend against another infection. Vaccines can also build resistance. They make your body think a virus or bacteria has infected it. You don’t get sick, but your immune system still makes protective antibodies. This is what stopped polio in the United States.
The bottom line, most people who test positive are asymptomatic and quarantine for 14 days. It is not a bad thing when the population at large is testing positive and the vast majority are asymptomatic and not being hospitalized. This is a great step in building herd immunity along with the upcoming vaccine.
There’s a good chance many of you reading this already had the virus and never knew it because you never got tested. Therefore, many of us could possibly be immune without knowing.
Please continue to wear a mask when and where required by law.
God-willing, this should all be over soon.
A special mahalo nui to grocery-store and all front-line workers, for serving and putting up with ‘we the people.’
Happy Thanksgiving!
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James “Kimo” Rosen lives in
Kapa‘a with his dog, and blogs as a hobby at dakinetalk.blogspot.com.