No Need to Panic: Wait Patiently, the Body Can Recover on Its Own

Doctor zhou December 22, 2022

Now that I have finally witnessed with my own eyes the whole course of large numbers of COVID-19 patients, from infection and onset to recovery, I have a more complete picture of Omicron.

Overall, Chinese COVID-19 patients are not—as earlier official statistics suggested—over 90% asymptomatic. On the contrary, in cities like Beijing, over 90% of patients are symptomatic.

But among the acquaintances around me and the patients who consult me over the internet, very few have progressed to critical illness and death; the case fatality of this disease is indeed very low.

In this first wave of the epidemic, many people panicked, for a number of reasons.

First, many people, perhaps like me, had originally hoped that they and their families would be among the lucky asymptomatic carriers. But real-world data tell us that not only are we not such lucky ones, there are very few such lucky people around us either.

This came as a great shock, and in turn cast deep doubt on the mortality figures previously announced by the authorities; fearing that one self or family might die of the disease is only human. Had the figures published earlier been closer to reality, people would have been mentally prepared long ago and found ways to lay in some medicine.

Of course, there is also an information-asymmetry problem here. Just as, in the recent Tangshan thug assault case, the victim was assessed as having suffered only minor injuries to everyone astonishment, the medical profession understanding of "mild" and "asymptomatic" differs from that of the general public.

Ordinary people may feel that fever, body ache, cough and sore throat are severe symptoms, but doctors, accustomed to life and death, do not define these as severe—otherwise how would they define the truly life-threatening severe cases (such as those catastrophically injured in car crashes)?

So from a medical standpoint these symptoms are indeed mild. The general consensus among doctors is that COVID-19 nowadays is a bit worse than a common cold but a bit milder than tonsillitis. It is simply not, as some experts soothingly claimed while pushing for reopening, milder than influenza.

I have never had a cold this severe, and there are still many unknowns about this illness. For example, I thought I had recovered, but after going out and catching a bit of chill, my sore throat immediately returned. Yesterday, for no reason, the spot on my arm where I was vaccinated became allergic again. These recurring little incidents are genuinely unsettling. I do not know how others feel, but I for one never want to taste this again in my lifetime.

So past publicity gave us unrealistically high expectations; when what actually happens in the real world exceeds those expectations, panic born of distrust inevitably arises.

But in fact, objectively speaking, the overwhelming majority of people truly have no need to panic. I have seen at least ten thousand patients in recent days, and only a single-digit number have been reported to me as dead—and all of them were end-stage cancer patients who would not have lived long even without COVID-19. Among people I know, only the grandfather of one of my son classmates passed away last weekend. We have seen a few deaths in the media, but diluted against the total population, the proportion is small.

By my earlier estimate, the daily number of deaths attributable to COVID-19—except near the epidemic plateau, when it approached the pre-pandemic daily cancer death toll—is on other days certainly far lower than the daily cancer deaths before the pandemic, and no higher than the daily sudden cardiac deaths before the pandemic.

Moreover, among those who died after contracting COVID-19, most already suffered from various serious underlying diseases. Birth, aging, illness and death are the laws of nature; under normal circumstances, around ten million people die in China every year. It is indeed sad that some die of COVID-19, but this is a hurdle we must cross with gravity.

So dispelling panic matters greatly; we have no need to fear it. At the same time, we should understand that our symptoms, which feel severe to us, are from a medical standpoint outright mild symptoms. Symptoms that the overwhelming majority of people shake off on their own within one to two weeks—can those really be called severe?

Another cause of panic is the shortage of drugs. But as more medicines are distributed, as infection peaks pass across regions, and as people themselves learn drug-free coping methods from various channels, this panic will ease somewhat. Many people now queue in hospitals merely to buy medicine. If pharmacies were well stocked, most patients would not crowd into hospitals.

Yet in our country of 1.4 billion people, so many are hoarding frantically that no amount of drugs distributed will ever feel like enough. So it is right to promote drug-free alternative therapies in moderation. Everyone wants to live a few more years; when there is neither doctor nor medicine, the only thing that can settle people minds in the end is their own ability to help themselves.

Actually, what I have seen and lived through these days has taught me firsthand that, after contracting the virus and falling ill, complete recovery takes a process. For the great majority, once the fever has broken and strength returns, there is no longer any risk to life. The remaining symptoms—cough, sore throat, headache, nasal congestion, runny nose, sweating, rash—basically all resolve on their own within about a week, whether or not medicine is taken.

In my view, once the fever is gone and strength has returned, one is effectively recovered, because the accompanying symptoms are all temporary and transient and resolve within days without treatment. Still, there are always patients who panic over these little symptoms and take up the time of already-exhausted doctors.

Many people urgently want doctors to make all their symptoms disappear at once; this is unrealistic. At present there are not enough medical resources to solve these problems, and these problems do not need solving. The patients I have seen—including elderly emphysema and coronary heart disease patients like my father—once the fever was gone, all the minor symptoms basically resolved on their own within three to five days.

The key to survival is breaking the fever, and breaking the fever is not a complicated matter. Over consecutive days I have written many articles introducing drug-free fever-reduction methods; vast numbers of people are using them, and the great majority report excellent results.

By the way, some say fever is a good thing and not having a fever is a bad thing. Do not believe such fallacy. Fever is a dangerous thing and must not be treated as a blessing.

After the fever breaks, everyone should rest more and take some symptomatic measures on their own. For example, when we ourselves have a sore throat, we relieve it by drinking hot drinks. It does not solve it immediately, but it brings good relief. Once the pain is eased, wait a few more days, and the sore throat resolves on its own without treatment.

Cough is the same. I advise patients to simmer some pear or apple soup to drink, or take some honey water to ease the cough. These do relieve it a little, but more importantly they act as a placebo. Whether or not you drink them, the cough of most people disappears within three to five days; drinking them just makes one feel better.

So far I have not seen many people who cannot fully recover within a week or two; most are simply overly eager for a doctor to cure them with a single pill and solve their problem at once. In such times, what an extravagant hope that is! One cannot be this delicate living in the present age. We are not princes and princesses of old; some hardships must simply be borne.

Ever since I began promoting a whole set of drug-free fever-reduction methods (details can be found in the various articles on my official account over the past few days), my daily consultation load has dropped by over 90%, which has freed me up.

The great majority are considerate and no longer bother me, instead trying the fever methods I described on their own. A few, however, lack the empathy to put themselves in my shoes; ignoring that I am myself ill and need rest, they pester me with questions whose answers they could find in my articles. I generally do not reply, or delete them after replying. Otherwise I would truly burn myself out and become the next doctor worked to death. I can work while ill, but I cannot risk my life working while ill.

So I hope everyone will stop panicking, be patient, wait a few days; the symptoms you are worrying about will resolve on their own, with no need for medicine at all. Leave the drugs for those who truly need them. Right now so many people scrambling for drugs has sent prices soaring, and those who genuinely need medicine to survive can no longer afford it.

I have done everything in my power to find solutions for the great majority of my readers and have shared them openly with the public without reservation. Please stop squeezing out the last bit of my energy and putting my health and life at risk. For days now, a tsunami of consultations has pushed my workload to an unbearable level. I am exhausted; what I need most is rest.

From today, comments on my official-account articles will be closed, and I will not be writing further COVID-related articles for the time being; instead I will return to the long-standing research directions I have focused on and continue my research. I believe I have basically said what I need to say on COVID-19. Research on long-COVID sequelae must wait a few more months, until a large body of data emerges; it cannot be done now.

Regarding COVID-19, we must observe it, study it, solve it, adapt to it, and let it go. In the end we must return to our daily lives; do not let it ruin an entire beautiful life.

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