Toilet Paper, Heart disease and COVID-19
So Doc, have you heard about COVID-19?
Yes. Whoever said one person can’t change the world, never ate a bat.
Is it dangerous?
According to the CDC website, the coronavirus is a grey ball with red triangular spikes on the outside of it. If you see this ball, don’t make any sudden movements, back slowly away, and DON’T touch it!
Are there any heart medications that make it easier for me to get the virus?
No. Some have thought that medicines like lisinopril (ACE-Inhibitors) or losartan (Angiotensin receptor blockers) make one more susceptible to the virus. These medicines affect a certain receptor in the body that the virus uses as well. However, there is no evidence that people taking these medications do worse if infected.
What are the chances that I’m going to die from the virus?
Let’s look at Idaho for a minute. If you look at known cases (2,230) versus deaths (67) in Idaho on May 10, 2020, the mortality rate is 3%, or 1 death for every 33 people infected! Keep in mind that the death rate of the flu is 0.1% or 1 in every 1000 people.
However, there’s a big BUT here (and it doesn’t need extra toilet paper). The real death rate of COVID-19 is MUCH LOWER than 3% because far more people have the disease than have been tested and found positive. Check out these comforting conclusions in studies that looked at the true prevalence of the virus in different parts of the country:
Other similar statistics are shown in Iceland and New York City.
How does the virus affect young people?
If you’re under the age of 65, one country has shown that your risk of dying from COVID-19 is the same as getting in your car and driving 9 miles everyday (1.7 per 1 million people). In another European country, of the 1,671 deaths, only 5 were in people under 65 years old with no underlying health conditions.
The flu is more dangerous for kids than COVID-19. In fact you could probably say driving your child to school everyday is more dangerous for them than contracting COVID-19.
How does COVID-19 affect those over 65 years old?
What does the flu do to those over 65 years old?
The majority, or 83% of deaths from the flu, occur in people over 65. The worst flu season was the 8 months between August 2017 to March 2018 when there were about 80,000 deaths. After about two and a half months of COVID-19 in the United States, we have 80,697 deaths.
Does having heart disease make COVID-19 more dangerous?
In people who’ve died from the virus, they were 5 times more likely to have had prior bypass surgery, heart stents, or heart failure, and 3 times more likely to have had high blood pressure. This being said, it’s tough to link heart problems to worse outcomes. The reason why is that older people are more likely to die from COVID-19 AND older people are also more likely to have heart disease.
How do we prevent COVID-19 if we have a heart condition?
Face Masks: Don’t panic if you see someone walking into the bank with a mask on. You don’t want to have a heart attack at the bank and they’re likely not robbing it. A mask MAY prevent you from giving COVID-19 to someone else. It likely will not protect you from getting the virus.
Control your fear: Even if you get it and are over 65, the chances are significantly in your favor that you’ll not die or be hospitalized from it. Please observe that essential businesses have been open and our infection rates are going down. There’s no reason to think that opening non-essential businesses will lead to different outcomes.
Hygiene: The virus gets into your body in the same way other viruses do – your eyes, nose, and mouth. Hence the recommendation to wash your hands and don’t touch your face. A mask may help you to avoid touching your face.
Go outside: Why? Because the virus has been shown to be killed within a few minutes of being in the sun whether it’s in the air or on a surface. This means your chance of getting the virus outside is extremely low.
Summarize it for me, Doc!
I feel that COVID-19 will be about twice as deadly as the flu in those over 65 years of age. Remember though that the death rate is much less than advertised.
Keep taking your heart medications.
Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, go out in the sun. Social distance.
Keep getting medical care in person or via telemedicine. You will need a smart phone for telemedicine appointments – if you don’t have one, ask a teenager. 
You are highly unlikely to get the coronavirus in the ER or the doctor’s office.
Also, if you thought you needed hundreds of toilet paper rolls for a two week quarantine, maybe you should see your gastroenterologist.
