Siri has a new capability: She can list the symptoms of coronavirus if you question if you have it.
Dr. Siri
Just ask: “Do I have coronavirus” or “Do I have COVID-19?” and Siri will guide you through a list of symptoms using answers from the U.S. Public Health Service with the CDC.
Symptoms can include shortness of breath, dry cough, or fever. If you have some of the more life-threatening symptoms, Siri will advise you to consider calling 911. If you tell her your symptoms aren’t severe, Siri will tell you to stay at home and avoid contact with other people.
Andrew:
Although this is helpful, users should be aware that the list provided is also limited, both the cdc.gov site in the US and the gov.uk site in the UK. Siri and the indicated websites only focus on the febrile respiratory symptoms of fever, cough, shortness of breath and the like. These remain the most common and can lead to the most life threatening manifestations of the virus.
However, many of us predicted that this virus could have gastrointestinal signs, since certain types of receptors are common on both the respiratory tract and the GI tract (I know…another time perhaps), and many respiratory viruses, including influenza (especially avian) and coronaviridae cause both respiratory and GI symptoms, such as loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, which occurred in China in a plurality of patients confirmed to have Covid-19. It’s not clear if these algorithms and posts will be updated accordingly, but hopefully they will be.
The current guidance provided to physicians remains that they should inform patients, if you are at high risk and symptomatic, then call your physician and have them advise you on next steps. If you are experiencing severe symptoms, like acute difficulty breathing, then go immediately to the Emergency Department of your nearest facility.
Stay well.
Thank you Doctor.
Ot she can really tick me off!