Thursday, May 07, 2020

Belgian Virologist Peter Piot, Shares His Experience For Testing Positive For Coronavirus



Belgian virologist, Peter Piot


Peter Piot is a Belgian virologist who is currently the head of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In one of Belgium's leading magazines, 'Knack,' he shares his story about how he contracted the COVID-19 infection.


I have a deep respect for Peter Piot since the media worldwide always gives him credit that he helped discover the Ebola virus in Congo in 1976. 

The word 'discovery' means to find out something new but as a scientist, Piot should have known that the disease he 'discovered' as Ebola in 1976, exists as a Crimean virus since 1943. 


There is no scientist who can lack that knowledge, this is enough for every intelligent person to know that the source of Ebola has nothing to do with bats, bushmeat, monkeys, etc, but simply a man-made.



Belgium scientists Peter Piot and Guido Van Der Groen were in Congo in the early seventies before Ebola occurred in 1976 


However, this is not a time for witch-hunting, I am more interested in his recovery from this deadly virus which has decimated the world, ruined economies, and rendered thousands of people unemployed around the globe. 


According to Peter Piot, on March 19, he suddenly had a high fever and a stabbing headache,”  “It was bizarre that my skull and hair felt very painful. I did not have to cough at the time, but my first reflex was still: I have it. I kept working, I’m a workaholic but from home.”

Since at that time it was still not possible to be tested on the National Health Service (NHS), he turned to a private hospital, that revealed to him that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. At home, he was quarantined.

"However, the fever didn’t go away. I had never been seriously ill and have not had a day of sick leave in the past ten years. I live quite a healthy life and run regularly. The only risk factor for corona is my age, I am 71,” says Piot.

A friend who is a doctor, advised further testing, and a chest X-ray revealed a serious lung infection causing a severe shortage of breath and exhaustion. His fear was that he would be placed on a ventilator, which appears to increase the likelihood of succumbing to the disease.

“I was scared, but luckily I first got an oxygen mask and that turned out to work. I ended up in an isolation room at the entrance to intensive care. You feel tired, so you rest."

You completely surrender to nursing. You live in a routine from the syringe to infusion and hope you make it. I am usually quite proactive in my behavior, but here I was 100% patient.”

Peter Piot is a virologist that has worked hard about diseases and, therefore, knows everything about viruses, yet he finds himself isolated because of coronavirus. 

“You sometimes lose scientific level-headedness and surrender to emotional reflections. They got me, I thought sometimes. I have devoted my life to fighting viruses and finally, they get their revenge. 

For a week, I wavered between heaven and earth, on the edge of what could have been the end.”

Now recovering from a second lung infection which can be treated as an out-patient, his first plan is to go back to work as an advisor to European Union Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

“The Commission is strongly committed to developing a vaccine. Let us be clear: without a corona vaccine we will never be able to live a normal life again. The only real exit strategy from this crisis is a vaccine that can subdue this virus worldwide." 

"Despite all our efforts, it is still not certain that it will be possible to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. In the worst case, we will be able to do nothing but try to limit the damage,” concludes Peter Piot.

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