Blood oxygen can certainly vary between people, but I think this gives a misleading picture for many people. Most of my friends have blood oxygenation of >98, and getting to 90 would imply rampant infection and warrant hospitalization if the hospitals aren’t overrun yet. Certainly 90-95% is not “normal”, as the OP now says (the link specifically says it’s not normal).
I think people should be considering hospitalization once they’ve dropped 6% in SpO2 AND they’ve dropped below 92% SpO2. More thoughts are in my longer comment here. This covers people with unnaturally low SpO2 to begin with, while also acknowledging that many people do start from ~100% and should not wait until they have such an infection that their lungs have dropped past chronic smoker levels of impairment.
That all seems solid, but I’d still call ahead before going to the hospital. If they have more critical cases than they can handle, a mild case could wind up waiting indefinitely.
P.S. Medical types use the word “normal” to mean “not meeting the criteria for a diagnosis”.
Blood oxygen can certainly vary between people, but I think this gives a misleading picture for many people. Most of my friends have blood oxygenation of >98, and getting to 90 would imply rampant infection and warrant hospitalization if the hospitals aren’t overrun yet. Certainly 90-95% is not “normal”, as the OP now says (the link specifically says it’s not normal).
I think people should be considering hospitalization once they’ve dropped 6% in SpO2 AND they’ve dropped below 92% SpO2. More thoughts are in my longer comment here. This covers people with unnaturally low SpO2 to begin with, while also acknowledging that many people do start from ~100% and should not wait until they have such an infection that their lungs have dropped past chronic smoker levels of impairment.
That all seems solid, but I’d still call ahead before going to the hospital. If they have more critical cases than they can handle, a mild case could wind up waiting indefinitely.
P.S. Medical types use the word “normal” to mean “not meeting the criteria for a diagnosis”.