Nurse practitioner James Simmons chatted with Mikalah and AJ about the growing health scare and how we can best prepare for what's to come with COVID-19.
James said why it seemed as though the world exploded yesterday with information surrounding the coronavirus is because we're getting a lot of information out of Italy. According to James, the U.S. is where Italy was 2 weeks ago and right now the hospitals in Italy are overwhelmed because the virus spread earlier and faster than they thought.
Although it is not something to panick over, and not something you shouldbe scared of if you're under 65 and healthy, you should still be cautious. 86 percent of people bounce back and 20 percent need some hospital stay and ICU care. Italy does not have enough ICU beds to handle the surge of patients so that is why they are on lockdown. Simmons suggests that we shut everything down so that we can be prepared and that this doesn't turn into a crisis.
The U.S. does not have the have the system in place to test for coronavirus, people are starting to show up at hospitals unwarranted which is what you should not do if you can manage your fever or symptoms with tylenol or advil, he says.
There is such little data about people with HIV and coronavirus, but according to James, as long as T cells are up then people with HIV tend to do well.T cells are first line warriors, so if you do not have many T cells then they can't fight off anything including the coronavirus. He recommends to get on medication if you aren't already; there are many organizations that will help you get on meds for free or reduced cost.
Simmons also reccommends going to the hospital when you cannot control your fever and to stock up on medicine such as Tylenol, Advil, Mucinex, NyQuil.