What to know about the new ‘razor blade throat’ strain of COVID-19 amid surge
As officials tell us, new cases of COVID continue to circulate in the United States and a new strain labeled razor blade throat due to the severe pain it can cause, our medical expert Doctor David Winner from Baylor Scott and White joins us to explain, and Doctor Winter, uh, this does not sound fun at all. No, it sounds like a bad strain. First, let me tell you though, COVID has never gone away. It’s still out there. A surge they say now is in 25 states including Texas, but we usually get a call or two every week of people who have a positive COVID test. They test themselves. I asked them how sick they are, not that. 6 so it’s been pretty mild, but COVID has never gone away. It’s been out there for some time. Well, uh, I think the mild cases, if you’re gonna have any, that’s obviously what you wanna hear. But when you talk about something called razor blade throat that does not sound, uh, enjoyable. What are the symptoms of that and you know how much are you seeing this? Yeah, I haven’t seen a case myself, but I’ve read about this. It’s just a really severe pain in the back of the throat. Now, otherwise they get over it in 3 to 4 days. People aren’t getting hospitalized with this, but it’s another example of how this COVID virus keeps changing. I worry that the next change, the next. could be even worse than this, Mark. Well, again, just one of those weird symptoms that we’ve seen whether it’s the loss of uh some senses of, you know, smell or taste or that kind of thing, it seems like we continue to get weird strains of COVID, but let’s talk about protecting yourself right now. Is this again another reminder to get vaccinated? You know it is, and let me give you an example of influenza. So influenza has been around for more than 100 years. It’s gonna be around for another 100 years, and so is COVID. COVID is not going to go away and what we’re finding is people that have been vaccinated do better. It’s not a perfect vaccine. You still can get sick, but the symptoms are much milder than folks who have not been vaccinated. What about time of year because I think you know summer time it doesn’t often occur to you that you might uh be susceptible for some of these illnesses you think that the flu is more of a winter and fall, you know, type of uh illness is that the same thing that you expect to see with COVID this upcoming fall? Yeah, flu usually comes up in the wintertime or the late fall. Actually, COVID now has two different spikes one in the wintertime and one in the summertime. We’re seeing that right now, usually between July and September, so it’s going up right now, and I caution people about this because it can really be bad. We don’t know if it’s gonna be bad with the next change, but I’ll give you an example. I see a lot of COVID cases. I’ve been exposed many, many times. I get vaccines on a regular basis and. Knock on wood, I’ve never had COVID symptoms, so the vaccines for me certainly work. I see it. I diagnose it. I treat it, but I’ve been protected. So I believe in the vaccines. You might want to consider it now because another surge is on the way. I’m gonna knock on wood myself here, Doctor Winter. uh, when should someone decide, hey, you know what, maybe I should take one of those at home tests. Yeah, anytime you have symptoms, we have people that call all the time and they tell me they have these symptoms which could be COVID, could be flu, could be a common cold, could be allergies. We say get the test and do the test and then talk to us. We like to do it at home. We don’t like to continue to come up and expose our staff up here, but anytime you have cold like symptoms, I would get a test and if it’s positive, call your doctor. There’s still good medicine out there for it. All right, great information as always, Doctor David Winter, thanks for hanging out with us today.
Dr. David Winter from Baylor Scott & White explains this new strain of the virus.
