West Virginia's governor says he feels 'extremely unwell'

[left-of-center2012]

Source: ABC News

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Tuesday evening that he tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing moderate symptoms.

Justice, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and has received a booster shot, said he has started a course of monoclonal antibody treatment, as recommended by his physicians. Everyone who has been in close contact with the governor over the past few days is being notified. His wife, Cathy Justice, tested negative for the virus on Tuesday evening, according to a press release from the governor's office.

The governor was scheduled to deliver his State of the State address that night but was forced to do so via a written statement to the West Virginia Legislature instead. "I feel extremely unwell at this point, and I have no choice but to postpone my State of the State address to the Legislature," Justice said in a statement Tuesday evening. "I woke up this morning with congestion and a cough. A little while later, I developed a headache and fever, so I decided to get tested right away."

"The rapid test that I took came back negative, but by the late afternoon, my symptoms were still getting much worse," he continued. "My blood pressure and heart rate were extremely elevated, and I had a high fever.
Finally, my PCR test results this evening confirmed I was positive. Because of all this, I began receiving my antibody treatment and I hope this will lessen these symptoms."

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/live-updates/coronavirus/?id=82174180#82217492

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[pfitz59]

1. Not that I'd wish anyone ill

but I'll make an exception with this weasel

[Vinca]

2. This illustrates my gripe about the current insistence on testing. People might line up 2

days ahead of an event to be tested and be negative, but by the time the event happens they're positive. There are not enough tests in the world for every person in the country to be tested every day and even if there were, they could be negative in the morning and positive in the evening. I think the emphasis still should be on vaccines and precautions. It's as if testing is the latest fad.

[LisaL]

3. Rapid tests are much less sensitive than PCR.

A lot of people appear to be getting false negatives with those. Of course PCR could take a long time to get results because of backlog.

[modrepub]

5. All True

But without massive testing we'd have no idea what percent of the population is infected. That's an important piece of information for health care professionals and planners to have. Testing is more like taking a population sample. In all likelihood, COVID positives are probably under reporting actual infection rates. Similarly, COVID deaths are probably under-reported.

Our piecemeal health-care system is under a lot of strain from a disease that by and large doesn't have a high mortality rate. One can only imagine how quickly our society would collapse if this disease had a significantly higher death rate. Kind of makes me wonder how the Ancient and Medical societies managed as deadly plagues swept through them.

[riversedge]

4. Obesity dramatically decreases the immune response. I wish gov Justice well.

[lark]

6. Wonder which drug he's getting?

the RW darling drug, Remdisivir, isn't very good against Omnicron and Sotovirib (think that's right, but could have the spelling wrong?) is the only one that works well and reportedly it's in very short supply.

[Mysterian]

7. Jim Justice has been very good with the pandemic

He is not one of the covid-deniers and has pushed very strongly for people in WV to get vaccinated.

Other than that, he's just as corrupt and stupid as your average republican politician.

[OnlinePoker]

14. Unfortunately, only 58% of whites and 66% of blacks in WV have been vaccinated.

Though, the numbers for blacks is better than the national average, which is only 51% (see figure 2 of link).

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

[Mysterian]

15. Lots of dumbasses in WV

I know I live here.

[LizBeth]

8. The weight is going to get him.

[Probatim]

10. I was going to say - he probably hasn't felt "well" in a while.

I was once moderately overweight and decided to get rid of it - 40 pounds later, I was shocked at how different I felt. And I was no where near his size.

Weight gain is like age, it doesn't happen overnight and you don't realize the incremental strain added by the next few pounds.

[LizBeth]

11. I was 15, 20 over normal weight being sedentary thru covid isolation.

Lots of fun eating and no restrictive clothing, lol. Best time of care free. I got a job that keeps me real active so not a lot of work losing it. Came off easily. Feels so good. And that was not a lot of weight.

I hear you

[mackdaddy]

9. So "Mild" symptoms means you only feel like you were run over by a truck..if it stops there..

Medium is being rushed to the hospital and having to have an IV, O2
And Serious is in an Intensive care unit,
And really serious is on a ventilator.
...Maybe dead is really serious too.

Or vaccinated people likely to have the sniffles or no symptoms at all.

Which level of disease is right for me??

[left-of-center2012]

12. "vaccinated people likely to have the sniffles or no symptoms at all"

I have 5 family members, all vaccinated and boosted, who got this new COVID variant.
All had severe flu like symptoms.

[Maggiemayhem]

13. He is a senior.

Thousands of seniors have died in our state. I live in a the DC exurb of the Eastern Panhandle WV and very few people mask up. They won’t do it without a mandate nor is there one bit of distancing or cleaning. We are a low vaccination state. Citizens cannot get the antibody treatment as the antivaxxers have used them as a way to avoid the vaccine and there is a low supply. Justice made the news at the beginning of the pandemic for a high vax rate, but that was just available to seniors who would knock you out to get in line and that did not last into the younger groups.