Seattle Woman Claiming to Be Coronavirus Patient Talks About Her Symptoms, Immune System and Experience After Contracting COVID-19, Facebook Post Goes Viral

Seattle, March 11: A woman from Seattle, who was infected with coronavirus during the last week of February this year, shared a post talking about about her experience, symptoms, immune system, precautions and misconceptions regarding COVID-19. In her Facebook post, the woman named Elizabeth Schneider shared her entire experience-- from the time she had contracted the deadly disease till the time she was recovered. The post, that went viral on social media, talks about the precautions, misconceptions and methods of recovery that she underwent during her isolation period. Schneider said she made the post public out of several requests from her friends who asked her to share her experience, adding that the details would be of help to people in times of an outbreak of the virus. Track the Live Status of Coronavirus Across the World.

The woman, who is in her mid-30s, said she was tested by the University of Washington’s ‘Seattle Flu Study’ which has been testing people for COVID-19. In her post, Schneider said she may have caught the virus when attending a small house party at which no one was coughing, sneezing or otherwise displaying any symptoms of illness. "It appears that 40% of the attendees of this party ended up sick. The media tells you to wash your hands and avoid anyone with symptoms. I did. There is no way to avoid catching this except avoiding all other humans. 40% of folks were all sick within 3 days of attending the party all with the same/similar symptoms including fever", she said in her post.

See Elizabeth Schneide's Facebook Post:

Schneider added saying that the symptoms appear to be different depending on the age of the person. She said most of her friends who got it were in their late 40s to early 50s, while she is in her mid 30s. "For us it was headache, fever (for first 3 days consistently and then on and off after 3 days), severe body aches and joint pain, and severe fatigue. I had a fever that spiked the first night to 103 degrees and eventually came down to 100 and then low grade 99.5. Some folks had diarrhea. I felt nauseous one day. Once the fever is gone some were left with nasal congestion, sore throat. Only a very few of us had a mild itchy cough. Very few had chest tightness or other respiratory symptoms. Total duration of illness was 10-16 days", she mentioned in the post.

Talking about the recovery, she said as of Monday March 9, it has been 13 days since her symptoms started and more than 72 hours since my fever subsided. In her post she said after being isolated for 7 days after the start of symptoms or 72 hours after your fever subsides, she is no longer isolating herself. "I am avoiding strenuous activity and large crowds and I obviously will not come near you if I see you in public. I was not hospitalized. Not every country is hospitalizing everyone with a COVID-19 infection and in my case, and in many other cases, I didn’t even go to the doctor because I was recovering on my own and felt it was just a nasty flu strain different from the ones I have been protected from with this season’s flu vaccine", she said.

At the end of her post, the Seattle-based woman urged people to get themselves tested if they feel any symptoms of COVID-19. "The lack of testing is leading to folks believing that they just have a cold or something else going out into public and spreading it. And worse folks with no symptoms are also spreading it as in the case of a person attending a party or social gathering who has no symptoms", she said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 11, 2020 03:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).