Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #48

[MimosaMornings]

Stranded abroad by coronavirus, they have to pay their own way home — and at a higher cost — Miami Herald

“Blair purchased a one-way ticket to Guayaquil in October 2019. He could have flown back to the United States on a commercial flight in March, but he thought the coronavirus restrictions would ease off in early April, so he didn’t feel the urgency to go home until last week.”

“Emergency relief for citizens stranded abroad should be covered,” said Blair, who has been traveling and working on a book in South America since the end of October 2019. “I don’t trust Peruvian healthcare in case I get sick. I would feel more comfortable back home in the United States.”

Travel insurance policies with emergency evacuation provisions would have covered the cost. Blair did not buy one prior to his trip. “
———-
Complaining about the cost of the ticket - had opportunity in March but didn’t feel the urgency until LAST WEEK.

He did not have a return ticket and was going to be there indefinitely- in a place he didn’t trust healthcare if he got sick.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Dr's are starting to use nasal cannulas, CPAP and BIPAP machines.

Virus victims develop a mucousy-yellow gunk in their lungs that prevents oxygen from transferring to the blood. Forcing more air into their lungs with a ventilator, doesn’t help that process, it just damages the lungs.

The branches are your bronchi and at the end of each small branch are leaves — clusters of 600 million tiny microscopic sacs, called alveoli. That’s where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

During the immune overreaction, called a “cytokine storm,” the alveoli drown in a gummy yellow fluid.

When those air sacs become clogged, the lungs stiffen up. Oxygen levels in the patient dramatically fall, and the heart struggles to function properly. A ventilator can help, but only so much. Said one doctor who’s treating COVID-19 patients on ventilators:

He says these patients with more normal-looking lungs, but low blood oxygen, may also be especially vulnerable to ventilator-associated lung injury, where pressure from the air that’s being forced into the lungs damages the thin air sacs that exchange oxygen with the blood.

“Because U.S. data on treating Covid-19 patients are nearly nonexistent, health care workers are flying blind when it comes to caring for such confounding patients.

"Doctors are making their decisions based on “blood oxygen levels”, but blood oxygen levels might signal the need for a different treatment for coronavirus patients than they do for pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. In other words, one size does not fit all. The problem is that too many people are ending up on ventilators when ventilators are undermining their chances for survival.

But in a subset of patients, for reasons unknown, things go horribly awry during the second week of illness. Even though levels of virus fall, the immune system goes into dangerous overdrive, flooding the lungs with inflammatory cells. In these people, it’s their body’s response, rather than the virus, that’s lethal.

This is often when people will deteriorate and become much more ill and end up in the ICU,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer, associate professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.
Patients struggle for air. Oxygen levels plummet. Blood pressure drops. Kidneys fail. The heart stops.

But anecdotally, Weingart said,We’ve had a number of people who improved and got off CPAP or high flow [nasal cannulas] who would have been tubed 100 out of 100 times in the past.” What he calls “this knee-jerk response” of putting people on ventilators if their blood oxygen levels remain low with noninvasive devices “is really bad. … I think these patients do much, much worse on the ventilator.”

Even as hospitals and governors raise the alarm about a shortage of ventilators, some critical care physicians are questioning the widespread use of the breathing machines for Covid-19 patients, saying that large numbers of patients could instead be treated with less intensive respiratory support.

Ventilators are overused for Covid-19 patients, doctors say - STAT

Doctors Puzzle Over COVID-19 Lung Problems

Are Ventilators Killing More People Than They're Saving?? - Global Research

Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients on ventilators | Physician's Weekly

Great articles. Thank you. I know what I would tell doctors ahead, if i ended up in the hospital/icu.

I wonder if that means they will remain asymptomatic for the duration of their infection, or if they are simply testing positive ahead of visible symptoms.

This is part of the discussion of "pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic". Researchers are frantically looking at these and how they do play into the overall picture. And who develops antibodies. One of the Dr. John Campbell youtube videos explained this clearly and simply. I love Dr. John Campbell videos (introduced to us by DixieQueen/DixieChick...i am so sorry I forget). But anyway I strongly encourage folks to absorb some of his little videos. Short, sweet, and data packed.

 

[roche.analisa]

Ooh, care to say which one? I try to read one of his each year (usually on Halloween, mwahahaha)

Right now I'm reading The Outsider, but it doesn't hold a candle to Under the Dome or The Stand.

 

[NuttMegg]

Thank you Nuttmegg. I do like the articles from Business Insider. The image brings up a question however? I see many international photographs where they are spraying so much. Are we doing that in the US? Besides closed up factories and plants?

I haven't heard of it in the USA, spraying streets, but I don't know.

 

[roche.analisa]

I love Dr. John Campbell videos (introduced to us by DixieQueen/DixieChick...i am so sorry I forget). But anyway I strongly encourage folks to absorb some of his little videos. Short, sweet, and data packed.

RSBM...I watch him every day, thanks to the recommendation here!

 

[Yesiamapirate]

Good morning all. I've been off the main thread for a while. Stuff in our household to deal with. DH tested positive and we (myself, daughter and SIL) have been all-consumed taking care of him. It was worrisome as he is diabetic and also takes BP medication. But, at day 14, he is doing much much better and we are just very grateful for whatever magic has been going on to lessen the stress during all this. He never had extreme symptoms and only had a fever the first few days...as his doctor originally thought it was the flu. So it goes right?

This is a good article for those who are living together with family. I find it informative for moving forward with DH and the rest of us.

Saving Your Health, One Mask at a Time

Zecats, I am sorry to hear this! I am keeping your family in my positive thoughts.

 

[tresir2012]

Stranded abroad by coronavirus, they have to pay their own way home — and at a higher cost — Miami Herald

“Blair purchased a one-way ticket to Guayaquil in October 2019. He could have flown back to the United States on a commercial flight in March, but he thought the coronavirus restrictions would ease off in early April, so he didn’t feel the urgency to go home until last week.”

“Emergency relief for citizens stranded abroad should be covered,” said Blair, who has been traveling and working on a book in South America since the end of October 2019. “I don’t trust Peruvian healthcare in case I get sick. I would feel more comfortable back home in the United States.”

Travel insurance policies with emergency evacuation provisions would have covered the cost. Blair did not buy one prior to his trip. “
———-
Complaining about the cost of the ticket - had opportunity in March but didn’t feel the urgency until LAST WEEK.

He did not have a return ticket and was going to be there indefinitely- in a place he didn’t trust healthcare if he got sick.

I know people who purchased return flights and still have not got back yet due to flight cancellations. A return ticket is no guarantee you can get back at all.

 

[Inthedetails]

This is part of the discussion of "pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic". Researchers are frantically looking at these and how they do play into the overall picture.

Snipped

I wonder if this virus is like how I remember the chicken pox (for those of us who experienced that). Some kids got a bad case, others a mild case and didn't feel sick. It seemed like kids were generally better off than adults who got the chicken pox.

When it spread in my neighborhood, it didn't seem like I caught it and my mom assumed I just had a mild case as how could I miss it when all my friends had it.

I caught it later, in my teens, from the kids I babysat. I had a HORRIBLE case of it - very sick. I missed a couple of weeks of school.

Viruses are weird.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Dr's are starting to use nasal cannulas, CPAP and BIPAP machines.

Virus victims develop a mucousy-yellow gunk in their lungs that prevents oxygen from transferring to the blood. Forcing more air into their lungs with a ventilator, doesn’t help that process, it just damages the lungs.

The branches are your bronchi and at the end of each small branch are leaves — clusters of 600 million tiny microscopic sacs, called alveoli. That’s where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.

During the immune overreaction, called a “cytokine storm,” the alveoli drown in a gummy yellow fluid.

When those air sacs become clogged, the lungs stiffen up. Oxygen levels in the patient dramatically fall, and the heart struggles to function properly. A ventilator can help, but only so much. Said one doctor who’s treating COVID-19 patients on ventilators:

He says these patients with more normal-looking lungs, but low blood oxygen, may also be especially vulnerable to ventilator-associated lung injury, where pressure from the air that’s being forced into the lungs damages the thin air sacs that exchange oxygen with the blood.

“Because U.S. data on treating Covid-19 patients are nearly nonexistent, health care workers are flying blind when it comes to caring for such confounding patients.

"Doctors are making their decisions based on “blood oxygen levels”, but blood oxygen levels might signal the need for a different treatment for coronavirus patients than they do for pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients. In other words, one size does not fit all. The problem is that too many people are ending up on ventilators when ventilators are undermining their chances for survival.

But in a subset of patients, for reasons unknown, things go horribly awry during the second week of illness. Even though levels of virus fall, the immune system goes into dangerous overdrive, flooding the lungs with inflammatory cells. In these people, it’s their body’s response, rather than the virus, that’s lethal.

This is often when people will deteriorate and become much more ill and end up in the ICU,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Annie Luetkemeyer, associate professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.
Patients struggle for air. Oxygen levels plummet. Blood pressure drops. Kidneys fail. The heart stops.

But anecdotally, Weingart said,We’ve had a number of people who improved and got off CPAP or high flow [nasal cannulas] who would have been tubed 100 out of 100 times in the past.” What he calls “this knee-jerk response” of putting people on ventilators if their blood oxygen levels remain low with noninvasive devices “is really bad. … I think these patients do much, much worse on the ventilator.”

Even as hospitals and governors raise the alarm about a shortage of ventilators, some critical care physicians are questioning the widespread use of the breathing machines for Covid-19 patients, saying that large numbers of patients could instead be treated with less intensive respiratory support.

Ventilators are overused for Covid-19 patients, doctors say - STAT

Doctors Puzzle Over COVID-19 Lung Problems

Are Ventilators Killing More People Than They're Saving?? - Global Research

Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients on ventilators | Physician's Weekly

Great articles. Thank you. I know what I would tell doctors ahead, if i ended up in the hospital/icu.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Snipped

I wonder if this virus is like how I remember the chicken pox (for those of us who experienced that). Some kids got a bad case, others a mild case and didn't feel sick. It seemed like kids were generally better off than adults who got the chicken pox.

When it spread in my neighborhood, it didn't seem like I caught it and my mom assumed I just had a mild case as how could I miss it when all my friends had it.

I caught it later, in my teens, from the kids I babysat. I had a HORRIBLE case of it - very sick. I missed a couple of weeks of school.

Viruses are weird.

I now forget if it was chicken pox or measles my young children got in the late 80s.... but my son got such a mild case, and my daughter such a bad bad case...I wondered if it had something to do with their personal immune systems...since all other factors for them were the same.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Snipped

I wonder if this virus is like how I remember the chicken pox (for those of us who experienced that). Some kids got a bad case, others a mild case and didn't feel sick. It seemed like kids were generally better off than adults who got the chicken pox.

When it spread in my neighborhood, it didn't seem like I caught it and my mom assumed I just had a mild case as how could I miss it when all my friends had it.

I caught it later, in my teens, from the kids I babysat. I had a HORRIBLE case of it - very sick. I missed a couple of weeks of school.

Viruses are weird.

I've never had Chickenpox. I'm in my late 40s now and am always afraid I'll get it. I've heard it's so much worse as an adult.

 

[Yesiamapirate]

An update from Colorado for anyone following these cases here on WS.

High-Profile Trials In Colorado Pushed Back Due To Coronavirus

 

[SeattleStew]

Shortage of CO2 for beer, soda and seltzer
water.

Beer may lose its fizz as CO2 supplies go flat during pandemic

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

 

[badhorsie]

Hello, can I join you? I am in England. The south west. Luckily I still have my job. Essential worker status but WFH.
I was a nurse for 35 years but changed careers.

I was sent home to work because of asthma.

I used to be a regular here but life got in the way

 

[ilovewings]

Good morning all. I've been off the main thread for a while. Stuff in our household to deal with. DH tested positive and we (myself, daughter and SIL) have been all-consumed taking care of him. It was worrisome as he is diabetic and also takes BP medication. But, at day 14, he is doing much much better and we are just very grateful for whatever magic has been going on to lessen the stress during all this. He never had extreme symptoms and only had a fever the first few days...as his doctor originally thought it was the flu. So it goes right?

This is a good article for those who are living together with family. I find it informative for moving forward with DH and the rest of us.

Saving Your Health, One Mask at a Time

Great article-- thanks for sharing!!!!

 

[nhmemorymaker]

So I always have advertisement pop-ups while scrolling Websleuths... and this popped up today and I think it looks like a great kitchen project right now, as well as being medicinally valuable too!!!

Sauerkraut is incredibly nutritious and healthy. It provides probiotics and vitamin K2, which are known for their health benefits, and many other nutrients. Eating sauerkraut may help you strengthen your immune system, improve your digestion, reduce your risk of certain diseases, and even lose weight.Mar 12, 2020
How to Make Soured Cabbage Heads (Croatian Kiseli Kupus)

 

[nanadee]

I've never had Chickenpox. I'm in my late 40s now and am always afraid I'll get it. I've heard it's so much worse as an adult.

I'm 62 and never had chickenpox even though both my siblings had it when we were children. I was concerned when my daughter had it when she was 5, but I did't get it then either.

 

[Inthedetails]

I've never had Chickenpox. I'm in my late 40s now and am always afraid I'll get it. I've heard it's so much worse as an adult.

It's pretty much gone now as there is a vaccine, provided kids get it and also get the booster as IIRC the vaccine requires a booster shot after several years.

My daughter got a mild case of the chicken pox after the initial vaccine but before the booster. Her friends weren't vaccinated and had the pox, and she caught it from them. Oddly, she then spread it to my husband who already had the chicken pox as a boy.

Both of them had very mild symptoms, but they did get it a "second" time. I didn't catch it from her - I wonder if my bad case of the pox as a teen-ager made me "more" immune??

I don't mean to veer off from COVID, just wondering if it behaves at all like the chicken pox, while acknowledging I realize they are not the same virus.

jmo

 

[Yesiamapirate]

Hello, can I join you? I am in England. The south west. Luckily I still have my job. Essential worker status but WFH.
I was a nurse for 35 years but changed careers.

I was sent home to work because of asthma.

I used to be a regular here but life got in the way

Welcome!!!

 

[BUF]

An update from Colorado for anyone following these cases here on WS.

High-Profile Trials In Colorado Pushed Back Due To Coronavirus

Thanks for posting this....and another delay for Dylan Redwine’s murder.

I don’t know how any of these courts all over will ever catch up with this.