COVID-19

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What is COVID-19 The Symptoms


Diseases are named to enable discussion on disease prevention, spread, transmissibility, severity and treatment. Human disease preparedness and response is WHO’s role, so diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

ICTV announced “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the name of the new virus on 11 February 2020. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003. While related, the two viruses are different.

WHO announced “COVID-19” as the name of this new disease on 11 February 2020, following guidelines previously developed with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Source: World Health Organization Naming the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the virus that causes it


What do you know about COVID-19? I presume you know that it is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus. And you can't avoid knowing that a lot of people have died from it. We've seen that on television. We've been confronted by news stories involving this disease since January 2020, so we all ought to know quite a lot about it by now.

But more than that: do you know what the symptoms are? How does the disease progress from infection through mild illness to serious illness or death? If there are several stages, how many are there and what medical conditions do people have at each stage? Why do some people survive and others don't? Is it a respiratory illness, or a vascular disease, or both? What treatment protocols are available to in-patients at each stage? Can progression from one stage to the next be prevented? We've had 18 months to become informed, educated by government public health authorities, and if we don't know the answers to these questions we should at least know where to get the answers from. What do you really know?

Writing an article What is COVID-19? should be easy. But it isn't. I decided to see what the public health authorities in Australia (where I live) and several other countries have written to inform us about COVID-19 and find authoritative answers to those questions. After all, these public health experts are advising governments and the message to the public is that COVID-19 is contagious and serious and justifies a state of emergency under health or biosecurity legislation. We should know what it is that we need to be afraid of, what it does to us and how, and why we all need to be in lockdown and controlled with other restrictions. And if we all need to be vaccinated, what is IT that we need to be immunised against?

Maybe I am naive (or stupid) because I expected public health agencies to have collated the most recent information and publish it for citizens to access and be better informed. But I was shocked to find that is not the case. So appalled that I spent a couple of hours in the garden to let my head absorb the fact that, other than symptoms, there is no quality information about this disease from national public health agencies[1]. I wondered if I missed something but there is a pattern: Australia, the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., have shifted focus onto vaccination and support services and have virtually nothing about the actual disease; information in the EU is slightly better; and the global authority - the World Health Organization - has not set a high standard either. After 18 months of this pandemic any lack of in-depth information about the disease must be deliberate. And a consistent with-holding of information by so many public health authorities is, at best a pattern, and at worst a conspiracy.

So this article is currently named COVID-19: The Symptoms.

Grant
August 2021


6 August 2021

World Health Organization

What is COVID-19? (According to the World Health Organization)?

The answers are on this page:- What is COVID-19


Australia

The main entry point for the Australian Government website is https://www.australia.gov.au. This portal links to other government websites, but currently features the 'official Australian Government response website to provide support and updates to Australians on the Coronavirus pandemic'. Topics linked from this page include:

  • Check your eligibility and locate your nearest vaccination centre
  • Information for people with disability about COVID-19 vaccines
  • COVID-19 Disaster Payment
  • Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment
  • Other financial assistance is available

Plus 'News and updates' which includes a link to the 'National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response'.

However, there is absolutely no information about COVID-19 on this page.

None of the links suggest navigating to the Department of Health (Australia) https://www.australia.gov.au/health-advice, which is good because there is nothing useful there. Actually, if you search hard you may get to this page:- Australian Government, Department of Health What you need to know about coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/ongoing-support-during-coronavirus-covid-19/what-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-covid-19 and then you will be informed as follows:-

What you need to know about coronavirus (COVID-19)

Learn about COVID-19, how it spreads, who is at risk, what to do if you think you have it, and what resources and support are available to you.

What is COVID-19

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause respiratory infections. These can range from the common cold to more serious diseases.

COVID-19 is a disease caused by a form of coronavirus.

Other coronaviruses include Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).


Symptoms

Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly. People with coronavirus may experience symptoms such as:

  • fever
  • respiratory symptoms
    • coughing
    • sore throat
    • shortness of breath.

Other symptoms can include runny nose, acute blocked nose (congestion), headache, muscle or joint pains, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, loss of sense of smell, altered sense of taste, loss of appetite and fatigue.

To stop the spread of COVID-19 people with even mild symptoms of respiratory infection should get tested.

...1


How it spreads

The virus can spread from person to person through:

  • close contact with an infectious person (including in the 48 hours before they had symptoms)
  • contact with droplets from an infected person’s cough or sneeze
  • touching objects or surfaces (like doorknobs or tables) that have droplets from an infected person, and then touching your mouth or face.

COVID-19 is a new disease, so there is no existing immunity in our community. This means that COVID-19 could spread widely and quickly.

Who is most at risk

In Australia, the people most at risk of catching the virus are:

  • travellers who have recently been overseas
  • those who have been in close contact with someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19
  • people in correctional and detention facilities
  • people in group residential settings.

You are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19 if you:

  • are age 70 years and older
  • have certain conditions which compromise their immune systems.

You are at moderate risk of serious illness from COVID-19 if you:

  • have certain chronic conditions.

If you have any medical conditions it is recommended you discuss your individual risk and what you can do to protect yourself with your treating doctor. See our advice for people at risk.

At this stage the risk to children and babies, and the role children play in the transmission of COVID-19, is not clear. However, there has so far been a low rate of confirmed COVID-19 cases among children, relative to the broader population. For more information about COVID-19 and children please read this fact sheet.

There is limited evidence at this time regarding the risk in pregnant women.

Long-term health effects of COVID-19

The Australian Government is actively monitoring medical research being done around the world on the short- and long-term health effects of COVID-19. COVID-19 can affect a range of body systems including those related to the:

  • lungs
  • heart
  • brain
  • liver
  • kidneys
  • intestines
  • muscles
  • joints and
  • blood vessels.

There is now good evidence that some people experience ongoing symptoms after recovering from the acute illness related to COVID-19. These symptoms can sometimes last weeks to months after recovery from their initial illness.

Ongoing symptoms are more common in people who had more severe illness from COVID-19, for example in those who needed treatment in hospital. Up to 30% of seriously ill patients have reported at least one symptom, most commonly fatigue, persisting after 6 months.

However, some people who initially had mild symptoms have also reported persistent symptoms. This suggests the virus may cause a prolonged impact on a number of body systems that can affect both physical and mental health.

The most commonly reported persistent symptoms are:

  • fatigue
  • shortness of breath
  • loss of, or reduced, sense of smell and/or taste
  • chest pain
  • lack of sleep
  • headaches

Other symptoms that have also been reported include:

  • chills, fever or sweating
  • poor concentration and memory problems
  • cough
  • depression and anxiety
  • hair loss
  • joint and/or muscle pain
  • irregular heart beat
  • low blood pressure on standing associated with a fast heart rate (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) which may explain some of the other symptoms
  • weakness
  • weight loss

Other serious long term complications that may occur with COVID-19, in particular following serious illness, includes:

  • lung damage and scarring
  • scaring of the heart muscle
  • heart failure
  • kidney failure

How long will the symptoms last?

It is currently uncertain how long these symptoms may persist. COVID-19 is a novel virus so most studies have only reported up to 6 months after a diagnosis with COVID-19. However, the number of people experiencing these symptoms is known to decrease over time. In a large survey of people in the United Kingdom who had COVID-19, 22% still reported at least one symptom at 5 weeks following their initial infection. In that survey, nearly 10% of people reported at least one symptom at 12 weeks.


Source: What you need to know about coronavirus (COVID-19) Retrieved 8 August 2021.

Note 1: A section covering Respiratory allergies – allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and allergic asthma has been omitted from this extract.

Note 2: The article continues with advice which, although relevant, is not included here.

Note 3: The source webpage was Last updated: 30 July 2021.

United States

The main portal for information seems to be https://www.coronavirus.gov, a page titled Coronavirus (COVID-19) and logos from both the CDC and FEMA. Two options might be useful:-

  1. A link that might be useful is titled 'Check for Symptoms' but the link is problematic - the URL is https://www.apple.com/covid19 which is not current and not government website - but may redirect to a Coronavirus Self-Checker. Scroll down to the bottom of that page and there is a link to Symptoms of COVID-19 but the list of symptoms is less informative than the Australian website quoted above, so is not replicated here.

  2. At the bottom of the page is a link to 'Find Answers on Coronavirus' which would go to https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus/ but if the link can be followed it would lead to a page for various topics and services.

The CDC portal would be https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html and the most prominent instruction is Get Vaccinated! COVID-19 Vaccines are Widely Available.

Canada

Start at Public Health Agency of Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health.html.
Follow the link Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to the Canadian Government portal for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html
Select the item 'Symptoms and Treatment' and follow the link to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Symptoms and treatment https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/symptoms.html.

The page Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Prevention and risks https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/prevention-risks.html is useful, and some 'Digital Fact Sheets' are linked from the end of that page. However, some of these have not been updated since 2020.

United Kingdom

The UK Government portal Coronavirus (COVID‑19) https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus is focussed on support services and vaccination with nothing useful about the disease.

The NHS page Coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ has a link to Symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/ which has further links to either the main symptoms or the symptoms in children.

As at 5 August 2021 when the information was last reviewed or updated (next review due 19 August 2021) the main symptoms are:-

Main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19)

The main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are:

  • a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
  • a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
  • a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Source: NHS (UK) Main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) Retrieved 9 August 2021

A source for more detail can be found near the end of the page Coronavirus (COVID-19) https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/ where there is a link to Information for health professionals which opens the page Coronavirus guidance for clinicians and NHS managers
Select Primary care and open the page Primary care https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/

Before we continue, there is a prominent note:

NICE is now the single point of advice on caring for people with coronavirus and the management of COVID-19 in different healthcare settings. 24 of the COVID-19 specialty guides have now moved to its website and NICE will begin a process of mapping the recommendations against its suite of COVID-19 rapid guidelines and integrating them where possible.

As at 9 August 2021 the link to the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence returned a 'server error'

Apart from that issue, the page Primary care https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/ has an item labelled About Coronavirus (COVID-19) for 'Symptoms, mode of transmission, case/contact definition and situational reports', which is here: NHS Home > Coronavirus > Primary care > About coronavirus (COVID-19)https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/about-covid-19/.

This page hosts a number of items which are expanded here with some comments added:-

European Union

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control home page at https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en is a portal for information about the COVID-19 pandemic, with quick links to situation updates and data.

On the COVID-19 page https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/covid-19 there is a section labelled Q&A on COVID-19.

The information provided by the ECDC is both superior to and more easily accessible than comparable information published by the national governments of Australia, USA, Canada and UK. The following link is recommended reading. but does not yet provide answers to questions beginning with how, like 'how does the disease progress?'

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control Questions and answers on COVID-19

Final Thoughts

The obvious way to prevent serious illness is to get vaccinated. It's the only solution if all our other strategies fail or become impractical - like masks, self quarantine or community lockdown. And it's the only solution promoted by most governments. But what if there are readily available treatments which could reduce the risk of disease progression? Wouldn't that be preferable?

So here is the reason for my search for better information about COVID-19: - if you (and I) don't know much about the actual disease then we don't know about how it progresses and we won't ask the rational and obvious question - how can disease progression be prevented? Perhaps we'll trust the 'experts'.

In an ideal world confronted by a disease which has killed millions one might expect a peak body such as the World Health Organization to gather a team of experts and publish really useful information, or create a repository of peer-reviewed papers and studies, which would be regularly updated and be the 'go to' site for governments and clinicians around the world, some of which may choose to republish the information on their own websites.[2]

Eighteen months is a long time to wait for something like this so obviously it is not going to happen. The reasons why are covered in other articles, for example: ACE2 and COVID-19.

References

  1. ↑ There is a lot of information about COVID-19 available from State Government websites, Universities, Doctors with their own websites, and mainstream media have assembled FAQs and portals for what you need to know etc. And of course an amazing number of reports and studies have been published by reputable journals. My point is though that Government Departments at Federal or National Level should have collated the latest research and produced articles which would be current, reliable, informative, referenced and accessible. As the pandemic has progressed the disease has changed, the virus has mutated, the symptoms for each variant may be different, and the data on which governments make their decisions should be up-to-date, published and accessible.
  2. ↑ Instead of hosting a medical conference, which would be appropriate for a world Health organization, the WHO hosted a conference on Infodemiology 30 June – 16 July 2020.

World Health Organization

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

CoronaVirus Disease 2019 (caused by SARS-CoV-2)

European Union

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (USA)

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

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