Today Show Medical Expert Joseph Fair

[Pink Partridge]

He was on a news article saying he caught coronavirus traveling on a packed airplane and he was infected from his eyes. He is an infectious disease specialist who traveled with a mask and gloves but no eye protection. He also had negatives tests but he has the virus?

Also, why would an infectious disease specialist even get on a packed plane? I am not an expert, but would know enough to walk right off. Unless he was flying to see a dying parent or child. What else could make an expert on coronavirus fly in a packed plane during a pandemic?

 

[bcla]

Also curious how these tests are handling mutations?

My reading of the situations is that mutations are relatively small and don't really affect the way the virus can be tested. They can do more specific testing to identify specific strains. I know that researchers have been able to identify specific strains that likely came through Europe vs directly from Asia.

 

[mjkacmom]

Also, why would an infectious disease specialist even get on a packed plane? I am not an expert, but would know enough to walk right off. Unless he was flying to see a dying parent or child. What else could make an expert on coronavirus fly in a packed plane during a pandemic?

So are you saying it wasn’t a packed plane? With so many cancelled flights, I’ve read full flights are a problem. Sometimes you just want to go home.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/business/packed-united-flight-crowded-airlines.html

 

[cabanafrau]

This is probably the reason for the negative tests. The shedding occurs early with this virus. If he wasn't admitted and tested until after he was no longer contagious and has a low viral load, it wouldn't show up as positive, right? But the complications can last much longer. I didn't watch the interview, but did he have an antibodies test? X-rays of his lungs?

This is exactly what my questions above were about. I have no idea. Other posters above state that people are testing positive for weeks after diagnosis, another for 35 days. That does not seem surprising to me in the least. I am wondering if that is a constant that should always be expected with the virus, or does it vary for unknown reasons? There must be some variance if people are testing positive, quarantining for 14 days and then testing negative and being cleared, which I have also heard reported.

 

[hopemax]

This is exactly what my questions above were about. I have no idea. Other posters above state that people are testing positive for weeks after diagnosis, another for 35 days. That does not seem surprising to me in the least. I am wondering if that is a constant that should always be expected with the virus, or does it vary for unknown reasons? There must be some variance if people are testing positive, quarantining for 14 days and then testing negative and being cleared, which I have also heard reported.

Yeah, I saw the other replies after I posted. I will also chalk this up to the "there is a lot we still don't know." I am sure there are on-going studies out there with the long term hospitalized, and someone knows how long they were continuing to test positive, and if there are variances. But not all of that ends up in the mainstream media sources.

 

[bcla]

This is exactly what my questions above were about. I have no idea. Other posters above state that people are testing positive for weeks after diagnosis, another for 35 days. That does not seem surprising to me in the least. I am wondering if that is a constant that should always be expected with the virus, or does it vary for unknown reasons? There must be some variance if people are testing positive, quarantining for 14 days and then testing negative and being cleared, which I have also heard reported.

It seems that most of the tests are matching sections of the virus DNA or RNA. So there could be inactivated virus fragments floating around, but they still show up on tests.

 

[cabanafrau]

Yeah, I saw the other replies after I posted. I will also chalk this up to the "there is a lot we still don't know." I am sure there are on-going studies out there with the long term hospitalized, and someone knows how long they were continuing to test positive, and if there are variances. But not all of that ends up in the mainstream media sources.

It's happening in real time so we don't know what we don't know. Yet we're all frustrated and would really like to be able to treat it like lots of other diseases, flip open the best medical books or journals and read all about the scope, the parameters, the constants, what to expect, the indicators, etc. I'm curious to see once the dust settles whether it will in fact have the wide variations of outcomes and indicators as it currently seems, or will the ability to look back enable us (medical science) to say this assumption was wrong, this idea was nearly correct but flawed here, the ideal medical response for treatment is X and Y, never Q or P?

 

[Pink Partridge]

So are you saying it wasn’t a packed plane?

Absolutely not. I am saying it was a packed plane. And wondering why someone that has been educating others about how contagious this virus was didn’t walk off.

Sometimes you just want to go home.

But an expert. During a pandemic? Preaching to people every day about the importance of social distancing? I guess it just wasn’t that important to him.

He actually said “They had us packed in like sardines and definitely not ideal, you know, when you’re trying to combat a pandemic and trying to slow it down.”

So he knew. And he chose to fly anyway.

Do as I say. Not as I do. Experts are so funny.

 

[MillauFr]

Fake news. NBC is almost the leader in fake news.

Unfortunately the TV executives have figured out that people want to be entertained. They don't want hard news. They want the fake stuff. And they want something that reinforces their world views. They don't want to be challenged or forced to think.

 

[mjkacmom]

Absolutely not. I am saying it was a packed plane. And wondering why someone that has been educating others about how contagious this virus was didn’t walk off.




But an expert. During a pandemic? Preaching to people every day about the importance of social distancing? I guess it just wasn’t that important to him.

He actually said “They had us packed in like sardines and definitely not ideal, you know, when you’re trying to combat a pandemic and trying to slow it down.”

So he knew. And he chose to fly anyway.

Do as I say. Not as I do. Experts are so funny.

He tweeted he should’ve trusted his instincts and gotten off the plane, and that hindsight is 20/20.

 

[Ngwira]

He also admitted he went to the grocery store after he came home to New Orleans so he isn’t sure if it was from that or the packed flight. It’s unclear and speculative.

 

[Colleen27]

The whole thing is just bananas. I can't stand the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality of the media. 330 million people in this country, and they can't find positive stories?

I read the headlines every day "Coronavirus cases continue to grow, etc etc" What could their objective be, other than to scare people into reading?
How about: Good news! Increased testing shows that while widespread, the death rate from Covid-19 continues to decrease."

I agree. I don't even think it is about finding positives - digging up good news about a pandemic would feel forced and dismissive of the seriousness of the situation. But they don't need to frame everything as dire. Case counts are constantly being described as "skyrocketing", "spiking", etc., even if the underlying numbers are low (an example from my area referenced a 250% increase in a rural county and you had to read to the second-to-last paragraph of the article, after all the analysis of how the protests certainly caused the "spike" and how limited area hospital capacity is, to learn that the increase was from 4 cases to 10). Clearly unrelated things are connected in headlines, with the explanation that they aren't linked buried in the article ("GA sees highest one-day case count day after the state reopens"). If one-day case reports are declining rapidly, as in my state, the coverage shifts either to totals ("Cases poised to reach 50,000") or to deaths, which lag new cases by weeks and therefore stay shockingly bad much longer. And metrics that experts acknowledge as important, like effective R0 and positive test percentage, aren't reported at all because they're more complicated and not as alarming.

I'm usually a media apologist. But I've been really dismayed by much of the coverage of the pandemic, especially in the fact that some of the clickbait-y tactics have spread to news outlets I read and respect.

 

[3threebabies]

Fair was hospitalized at Tulane, so there should not be any concern about testing quality or irregularities. The bacterial infection for which he was admitted has been successfully treated with Zithromax. He also was treated for PE with heparin, but neither his Twitter nor print article mention a scan. Air travel, whether the plane is crowded or not, is a known factor for clotting even in healthy individuals. His symptoms would have pointed to the exact same treatment in a hospital setting 2019. Whether he had Covid-19 or not, there has been a disservice to journalism.

I had all the symptoms he mentioned in the week before my PE diagnosis in 2018. My respiratory infections often become bacterial lung infections (severe indoor/outdoor allergies), but luckily the nurse practitioner at urgent care considered a possible PE (and saved my life) when the nurse requested the EKG machine. CT scan in ER left no doubt it was PE. To disclose he was treated with heparin and his D-Dimer blood results, the omission of a CT scan is very telling in the reporting.

My lungs are definitely different since my PE. My allergies now affect me more in my chest than my sinuses. Any illness that severely impacts the lungs is scary, and Covid-19 is definitely no exception.

 

[Pink Partridge]

He also admitted he went to the grocery store after he came home to New Orleans so he isn’t sure if it was from that or the packed flight. It’s unclear and speculative.

My goodness. Why didn't he self quarantine after being packed like sardines with strangers?

My family and I have been taking quarantine and self isolating very seriously.


This expert is on packed flight and then goes grocery shopping?

I'm starting to feel like I am being played with a bit. None of it makes sense.

 

[Ngwira]

My goodness. Why didn't he self quarantine after being packed like sardines with strangers?

My family and I have been taking quarantine and self isolating very seriously.


This expert is on packed flight and then goes grocery shopping?

I'm starting to feel like I am being played with a bit. None of it makes sense.

if you look at his Twitter now, he is denying he caught it from grocery shopping. Claims he had his groceries delivered But who would admit that you went out after being on a packed plane?

 

[Pink Partridge]

if you look at his Twitter now, he is denying he caught it from grocery shopping. Claims he had his groceries delivered But who would admit that you went out after being on a packed plane?

He seems like someone I would never trust.

Here is an article from NBC Today that reports he did indeed leave his home and go to the grocery store.

"Once Fair arrived, he left his home once to go to the grocery store, where he practiced "max precautions," he said. "

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...onavirus-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/ar-BB142AXy

 

[Ngwira]

He seems like someone I would never trust.

Here is an article from NBC Today that reports he did indeed leave his home and go to the grocery store.

"Once Fair arrived, he left his home once to go to the grocery store, where he practiced "max precautions," he said. "

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...onavirus-not-out-of-the-woods-yet/ar-BB142AXy

Exactly.. and now when confronted he’s claiming it was “grocery delivery”. Busted!

 

[fly girl]

UGH! I am at my wits end with all of this. I limit my news intake nowadays, but I can still get fired up with limited viewing.

To PP's who were asking why do they never show positive news? Two reasons. One (the biggie), sadly no ratings in good news. And two, some for political reasons which we cannot discuss.

Is Fair now supposed to be the the new face of Covid-19 replacing Chris Cuomo?

Let me say, I do feel awful for anyone who contracts this and suffers. But I also don't like to be swindled and have people exacerbating their situation for ratings.

I am in the anger phase of this pandemic so excuse my attitude. I just deleted half of my ranting post because I am so angry with all of it at this point. The whole thing is one big bleeping mess.

 

[Searc]

GO MOM! Moms just know sometimes and I am glad she insisted on another test.

This all reminded me of Nick Cordero. He had two negative tests and tested positive on the third. But he was hospitalized for a while at that point and I wondered if he eventually contracted coronavirus in the hospital?

They originally said he had pneumonia, which his wife posted on Instagram that she had pneumonia in January. So it wasn't far fetched to believe Nick just had a case of pneumonia. This man is very, very ill. But the story is somewhat clouded. It's difficult to follow the wife's updates because she is really concerned with posting her bare belly and multiple angles of her in a bikini, while talking of the devastation Covid-19 had caused the family. The poor man lost his leg! And the wife is really looking to focus attention on her rockin' bod. It's like some people really can't help themselves when it comes to seeking attention from the misfortune of others.

I pray for this guy (Nick) every day. I hope he comes out of it.

If you were truly concerned, instead of being focused on criticizing his wife, you'd know he woke up a few days ago.

 

[Pink Partridge]

If you were truly concerned, instead of being focused on criticizing his wife, you'd know he woke up a few days ago.

From what I have read, "woke up" is still quite debatable. But I will celebrate his baby steps!

It's amazing that you are now dictating how people should show their concern.

I will always criticize a person that uses a tragedy to promote themselves. His wife has been doing a fantastic job at doing that.