Doctor Mike Hansen - Doctor Mike Hansen - I got covid BA4 BA5 - Covid Update

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Dr. Mike Hansen does not give a treatment recommendation; instead he shares his personal account of catching the BA.4 or BA.5 COVID variant after an Eagles concert, and his recovery including a later bout of food poisoning. He reports his illness was mild but his sore throat was severely painful, and he says it's known that BA.4 and BA.5 are escaping immunity from prior vaccines and infections.

Key Points

• He developed symptoms about two to three days after attending an Eagles concert in late May or early June: feeling run down, fevers, runny nose, nasal congestion, voice changes, sore throat, and later a productive cough.
• The fevers, runny nose, congestion, and sore throat lasted about three to four days, with the sore throat improving by days four and five, while the cough lasted about two weeks.
• He says BA.5 is now the dominant strain, a subvariant of Omicron, and that BA.4 and BA.5 appear similarly contagious but mild in severity so far.
• He states that BA.4 and BA.5 can escape antibodies from prior vaccination and prior infections, including Omicron, though he is unsure how much protection he retained from his October 2021 booster.
• He says many cases are under-reported because people test at home and never report results, which makes the virus harder to understand/track.
• About two weeks after COVID he got food poisoning, presumably from norovirus (though he was unsure if it was norovirus or Vibrio), and was fully recovered by day five.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: The video gives no treatment protocol. Actionable points mentioned are: for sore throat pain, over-the-counter phenol throat sprays gave only about a minute of relief.
• He did not need shortness of breath treatment, Paxlovid, prednisone or other steroids, a hospital visit, or ER care, and he described his COVID illness as mild.
• The sore throat was most painful when swallowing saliva, not when drinking liquids or eating food.
• Food poisoning symptoms lasted about five days, with the first day worst (waves of vomiting, lots of diarrhea, about 18 hours of sleep).
• He cites roughly 5,000 daily US hospital admissions and 300 daily deaths from COVID as current figures.

Bottom Line

His experience suggests that even a mild COVID infection can cause a severe sore throat and a multi-week recovery, and that current variants may evade prior immunity.