Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Many of us are feeling

helpless in the face of the current pandemic, but the good news is there are things we can do right now

to reduce our risk of falling seriously ill and dying from COVID-19 and preventing even greater

infectious disease threats in the future. What does the clinical course of COVID-19 look like?

It tends to start with fever and cough, but before then the average incubation period, the time

between the moment you get sufficiently exposed to the virus and the moment you start showing symptoms,

seems to be about five days. It's almost a week goes by when you're infected and potentially

infectious before you even know it. About 98% of those who are gonna start showing symptoms do so

by day 12, which explains why people are typically asked to self-quarantine for two weeks after

a potential exposure. After infection, apparent viral shedding may continue for more than a month

with an average of 20 days, though it's not clear how contagious survivors are, if at all,

during that extended time period. The most common symptoms are fever and cough, experienced by about

90% and 70% of patients respectively, based on an analysis of more than 50,000 COVID-19 patients.

In terms of less common symptoms, only about four in 10 experienced fatigue, three in 10

cough, up thlem, and two in 10 experienced muscle aches. Only about one in 10 suffer from gastrointestinal

symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, or common cold type symptoms like running or stuffy

nose, headache, or a sore throat. This is consistent with the regional concentration of ACE-2, the

receptors the virus latches onto in the lungs rather than the nose or throat, though in pangolins,

ACE-2 is found on their flicking antider tongues. The only COVID-19 symptom found predictive of a

more severe course was difficulty breathing, which resulted in more than six times the odds of

eventually having to be admitted into the ICU. That's why that's such an important symptom to catch

early and a red flag to immediately seek medical attention. If it's going to strike, shortness of

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