The Daily Signal - What Is Having Coronavirus Like? Here's 1 Man's Experience.

Episode Date: April 15, 2020

Kevin Weinrich got COVID-19 several weeks ago, likely after he had been traveling in London. He joins the Daily Signal Podcast to talk about his experience with testing and the disease. We also cover these stories: President Trump isn’t hiding his frustration with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo made remarks about Trump’s ability to tell states when to open again  When can America reopen? Dr. Anthony Fauci is signaling it won’t be right away. Republican senators are looking into the World Health Organization in their efforts to investigate the response to the coronavirus.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, April 15th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. Kevin Wynert got COVID-19 several weeks ago, likely after he had been traveling in London. He joins me on the Daily Signal podcast to talk about his experience with testing and the disease. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and please encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is emerging as a harsh critic in response to a tweet from President Trump Monday. Trump wrote, For the purpose of creating conflict and confusion, some in the fake news media are saying that it is the governor's decision to open up the states, not that of the president of the United States and the federal government.

Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect. It is the decision of the president and for many good reasons. With that being said, the administration and I are working closely with the governors, and this will continue. A decision by me, in conjunction with the governors and input from others, will be made shortly. Cuomo has spoken about this in numerous media appearances. Here's what he had to say at a Tuesday press conference via the Hill. He does not have total authority. I mean, I'm a governor of a state.

the statement that he has total authority over the states and the nation cannot go uncorrected I mean it's just a factual statement that is factually wrong 10th Amendment to the Constitution it's a whole body of case law I mean there are many things you can debate in the Constitution because they're ambiguous this is not one of those things that is ambiguous. So that statement cannot stand. And it's not only violative of the Constitution, it's violent

to the very concept of democracy. I mean, this was the first battle. Do we want a king or do we want a president? And we opted for a president. So that statement cannot stand, period. The more common of attacks, you know, calling him a king, saying

that it's like a comedy sketch saying it's not a, it is, his proclamation is that that he would be king. That's what a king is. A king has total authority. That statement cannot stand. Asked about Trump's comments on CNN,

here's what Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, had to say. Well, it's not my understanding of the Constitution. But look, I think we're, we had a very productive discussion with the nation's governors, with the vice president and some of the top leaders

just a little bit earlier today. We're, we have some real cooperation going forward. Look, We'll be discussing with the team at the federal level some of their thoughts and ideas. There's some awful smart people at the federal level like Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, who I'm sure will be weighing in about whether or not it's time to reopen and how we might go about doing that in a safe way. And we'd love to have the president's cooperation. But governors made decisions to take various actions in their states based on what they thought was right for their state, based on the facts on the ground, talking with doctors and scientists. and I think individual governors who made those decisions will have the ultimate decision about what to do with their states.

President Trump isn't hiding his frustration with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo after Cuomo made remarks about Trump's ability to tell states when to open back up. Trump used Twitter to call Cuomo out, saying, Cuomo's been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state's responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc. I got it all done for him and everyone else, and now he seems to want independence that won't happen. When can America reopen? Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most prominent health officials on President Trump's coronavirus task team, is signaling it won't be right away. Fauci told the Associated Press, we have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on,

and we're not there yet, referring to testing and tracing. COVID-19 infections. Referring to whether the country would be open again on May 1st, Fauci said that date was a bit overly optimistic and noted that different regions of the U.S. would open at different times. Republican senators are looking into the World Health Organization in their efforts to investigate the response to the coronavirus. The senators, which include Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Todd Young of Indiana, Kevin Kramer of North Dakota, Steve Danes of Montana, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Martha McSally of Arizona, sent a letter to Ted Rose DeBreesies, director of the World Health Organization, asking about how the WHO was helping the Chinese

Communist Party cover up information regarding the threat of the coronavirus. Next up, we'll have Rachel's interview with a coronavirus survivor. Conservative women. conservative feminist. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen, and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are particular interests to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Searches,

for problematic women wherever you get your podcast. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Kevin Wynrich, who got COVID-19 several weeks ago, likely after he had been traveling in London. Kevin is the father of Noah Wynrich, who serves as a press secretary for Heritage Action for America. Kevin, it's great to have you on the Daily Signal podcast. Thanks so much, Rachel. It's good to be here. Well, we appreciate you making the time to talk with us.

Can you just start off by telling us about how you knew you had coronavirus? and why you think you caught it during your time in London? Sure. Four of us, old friends, had gone together to London, two couples traveling from different locations. We met in London, stayed in the same apartment, did all the same touristy things, went to plays and restaurants and museums, all that type of thing. We came back on Saturday, March 14th, and one of our group,

then that had come back to a different state, she started having symptoms just about right away. And so she was tested and then eventually her test came through and it was positive. I started having symptoms about a week after we got back. Our friend's husband, who was part of that group of four, he came down with symptoms. He was tested. He became positive. So my wife and I both then were symptomatic. we had our tests, and it took a while for our test results to come back. So we didn't really get our

test results back until we were well by that point. So for someone who hasn't been tested and who's heard so much about it, can you explain to us how the testing process went and then how long it took for you to actually receive those results? Sure. So because we had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive already, we decided that we needed to be tested. I went to, our urgent care place here locally, and they did the swab test where they swab the back of your throat and up in your sinuses to see if you have the, if you have COVID. Now, because they were prioritizing medical professionals, people who were in the hospital, things like that, our test results didn't come back for close to two weeks. We didn't know if the test results were

lost or what. So we eventually went back and they gave us the new test, the 15-minute antibody test. We took that. That came back positive. And then the next day, we got our original test results back and they were positive too. So you ended up in theory, sort of having two tests for coronavirus. That's exactly correct. Wow. So what were your symptoms like? Can you walk us through what you and your wife both experienced and just the symptoms that you underwent during the time that you were sickest. Sure. And it seems like everybody's symptoms are different with this illness. So for me, I started having a fever and just started not feeling good, you know, just generally feeling cruddy and losing some energy. But I was able, I always worked from home. I was still able to

work from home, just not up to a full eight hour day. Had a fever for 12 days straight. which I've never had that before. It never got really bad. It was 101.7 at the worst without taking any Tylenol. And I never had any of the breathing problems. Neither my wife nor I had any breathing problems. Yeah, that was actually my next question, because we've heard how aggressive this is for some people,

some people really, like, struggling to breathe, obviously people having to be intubated. So you didn't experience any sort of like shortness of breath. Were you coughing at all, anything like that? We had a cough kind of towards the end of it, which we're here in Georgia in allergy season. So it's just hard to say what was the cause of that. But it was never the really hard, dry, racking cough that other people had experienced. So we didn't think that it was a major thing.

And it turned out not to be. Like I said, with the breathing, we paid very close attention to that because we knew that those were some of the most troubling. symptoms. And we didn't have that. Our friend who had asthma, she did have more breathing problems, had to be treated some for that. But she didn't wind up having to go to the hospital either. And now she's back working. Yeah, that was going to be a next question too. So mainly none of your friends that you went to England with, like they had the symptoms. Some of them did have trouble breathing, but no one was in such straits that they ended up in the hospital or on a ventilator or anything like that. That's exactly right. And we were all.

all, you know, very careful and paying attention to decide, well, when do we need to go to the hospital if that were to come about? We never, my wife and I never felt that we were very close. So looking at this illness from the flu and maybe other illnesses you've had, how would you compare this, if you can compare it, to other times where you've been very sick? How would you rate it? Like one day or two days of it was probably not really any worse than a flu that I've had before or some high fever. But this just went on and on and on. I've never had a sickness this long. And then, of course, at the end of it, we're, you know, I've lost a little bit of strength, a little bit of weight. So I'm trying to build things back up. But I'm feeling great now.

So I'm very thankful. Well, we're thankful for that, too. Taking an outward look at things, what has been your perspective on how President Trump has responded to coronavirus? Well, and of course, I'm no expert on epidemiology or public health, anything like that. I'm just an interested party in this and one with a little bit of a unique perspective. I'm very thankful that he is pushing on getting more testing out there. I just don't think we can have too much testing at this point because we need to get a better handle on really how many people actually have this. And then when we're supposedly immune afterwards, then, you know, can we help to open the economy, those who have already gone through COVID and

are supposed to be immune, supposed to not be able to carry the illness. Along those similar lines, you mentioned living in Georgia. What is your perspective on how your state and local leaders have also handled this? Do you think the response has been appropriate? It hasn't been too robust. Where do you kind of fall on how people locally have handled it? It's a mixed bag. Everybody's coming at this. You know, it's taken everybody by surprise.

There was some concern about the governor having responded a little bit late in this. But I think he was trying to go off the best expertise that was being relayed to him. And that expertise is changing. The recommendations are changing. Like, you know, now that we're saying, yeah, it's a. okay, it's probably a good idea to wear masks. And earlier on, we were not being told that. So there's a lot of confusion, but everybody's dealing with this on a day-to-day basis and changing as we adapt to it. Kevin, you mentioned the confusion. And I know there are so many people,

even today still, that are very nervous about getting coronavirus. People because of the quarantine are isolated. Some of them, you know, alone, they haven't seen people in weeks and weeks. So what would you say to people as someone who has been through this? Obviously, you know, people's symptoms vary. But as someone who has been through it, what would you say to those people who are afraid? Well, if you are in good health and you've never had breathing problems, things like that, then getting this is, it's hard to say, you have better odds from everything that we're seeing than someone who has a lot of preexisting conditions. or someone who's significantly older, it is clearly very survivable. You definitely need to pay attention to any symptoms that you get and be in touch with your health care providers. As we try and we're looking at coming on on the other end of this, I know the governor of New

York, Governor Cuomo has said today on Monday. He mentioned that the worst is over, but there's still going to be a lot of social distancing measures in place on a lot of states across the country. And I'm curious, what do you think of the social distancing measures, the state-at-home orders, in many states across the U.S.? It seems like those are going to have to be tailored to how much people congregate. Like a place like New York City, of course, just like London, it's a place where it's very easy to pass along this. And places that are more rural, like where we live or many parts of the country, it just doesn't seem like it's going to be. be as risky to be in small groups of people who have already quarantined for some weeks.

But again, I'm no expert. Well, thanks for sharing that. And I did want to leave with one question. If there's one thing that has frustrated you about the situation, what would that be? Oh, that's a good question. I guess I would say that we definitely need more testing so that we can all, understand the bigger picture better. And I'm not faulting anyone for not ramping this up because it just takes a lot of logistical work to ramp all this up, prioritize it, figure it out.

The antibody test we took had been approved only like a day or two before. And if you get a negative test where it says, oh, you don't have this, there's still some risk that you do have it. Now, when we get a positive test, it's very clear that we had it. Well, Kevin, we appreciate you so much for spending some time with us and breaking down what you've experienced when it comes to coronavirus. So thank you for making the time and stay healthy. And thank you for just being on with us. Well, thank you for letting me share my story. I hope it gives some calm to folks.

Well, thank you. We appreciate it. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. We appreciate your patience as we record remotely during these weeks. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify, and please leave us a review or a rating on Apple Podcasts to give us your feedback. Stay healthy, and we will be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Kate Shrinco and Rachel Del Judas. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Fully Aramprasad, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit Daily Signal, com.