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Tuesday, June 16, 2020

So you think investing in fever screening can curb the spread of COVID-19? Think again

As lockdowns are lifted, procedures are being put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Along with physical distancing, hand sanitisation and wearing of masks, fever screening is increasingly being set up as a requirement before entry is allowed into hospitals, shops, workplaces and schools. But there are physiological and clinical reasons why fever screening simply won’t work.

Andrea Fuller and Duncan Mitchell explain why fever screening is unlikely to reduce the spread of the virus. Their arguments are based on an understanding of the physiology of fever, body temperature measurement, and fever prevalence in people who transmit COVID-19.
What happens to your body when you have a fever?

Fever is a temporary elevation of body core temperature. It is part of a defensive response to infection by a virus.

When you develop a fever, you feel cold, heat generation in your body increases (achieved by shivering) and heat loss decreases (achieved by seeking warmth, covering up and reducing the flow of warm blood to the skin). When a fever breaks, either naturally or because you have taken an antipyretic like paracetamol, you feel warm. Your reactions include increasing the flow of warm blood to the skin and sweating, which helps to bring the body’s core temperature back to normal.

What are the limitations to infrared thermometers or thermal cameras detecting fevers?

9 comments:

  1. Temperature is just the ability to gauge that one may or may not be sick.

    It can't curb anything - just make people worry.

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  2. It's a simple precaution that can weed someone out who is sick. Stop fear mongering.

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  3. Bo Jiden here, I had a fever once. Uhh hmm yeah, it was uhh hmmm hot. Yep, down in puerto hmmm uhh rico . Yeah man. Not so bad. Took tequila for it. I uhhh don't remember uhh getting better. Yep, ya shoulda seen the errr hmmm worm. The worm smelled good too. Hmm uhhh smelled like little.uhhh girls hair, and uhh ere if you like uhh smelliin uhh hmmm little girls hair, hmm uhh or worms. Vote for uhh errr me

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  4. 2:07 so stopping people who may be sick from entering a nursing home, for example, and passing on a virus that is wiping out the elderly across the country doesn't curb anything? Idiotic

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  5. The point of staying home was to stay away from elderly but Cuomo and Seattle sent covid patients to the nursing home instead of massive tents and ships.

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  6. I spent the better part of march and april and some of may delivering food and supplies all over DE to people home bound with covid. We would talk and the thing is quite a few never had a fever. They were also taking their temps several times a day as per doctors orders. They all were tested and tested positive. The symptoms were so varied that the prudent thing to do is if you feel in any way ill stay home and if worried go and get tested.

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  7. I don't know why people use those no-touch thermometers. They are not accurate. My employer started checking our temperature every morning. The first day, I took my temp at home before I left with an oral thermometer and when I got to work, my temp was much lower with the infrared version.
    That is probably the reason that all those people who were leaving cruise ships back in Feb. and March were showing normal temps, but had COVID and then spread it when they got back home.

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  8. People will just start taking Asprin or Ibuprofen, or what ever other fever meds. Then what?

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