Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #51

[gngr~snap]

Duh, you're a nurse, I'm just the patient. Thanks tho'. That article is like another language for me. I have enough trouble remembering all the precautions. I just don't take anything remotely close to antacids when I take my other meds, and thankfully I hardly ever need an antacid.

That is definitely not recommended! Antacids do interfere with absorption for many meds.
My point was only that it's a H2 agonist. IIRC we have heard about ACE 2 and blood pressure meds, so there's something there that they are aiming for.
What?
Don't ask me! I was a baby/child nurse.
I'm in the dark right there with you!
Moo

 

[gngr~snap]

Can you imagine people just showing up at your house wanting to draw blood? That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard of!

I had a man show up in 1993 for our life insurance policy. He drew blood because we had to prove we were not HIV+ to have the policy go into effect. Definitely not weird at the time!
Moo

 

[The Night Watchman]

I was under the impression that a vaccine for coronavirus was certain, just that the timing was uncertain. Despite years of effort, no vaccine has ever been developed for a coronavirus. This is disturbing news.

Scientists fear the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine will fail and we will all have to live with the 'constant threat' of COVID-19

Scientists fear that it may prove impossible to produce a working coronavirus vaccine and believe the world may have to simply learn to adapt to the permanent threat of COVID-19.

The UK's Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Whitty, told a Parliamentary committee on Friday that there was "concerning" evidence suggesting that it may not be possible to stimulate immunity to the virus.

"The first question we do not know is 'do you get natural immunity to this disease if you have had it, for a prolonged period of time?'" Whitty said.

"Now if we don't then it doesn't make a vaccine impossible but it makes it much less likely and we simply don't know yet.

Doubts about the possibility of a viable vaccine are based largely on the fact that no vaccine has ever been approved for use in the US or UK against other forms of coronavirus.

In an interview with The Observer David Nabarro, professor of global health at Imperial College, London said the world had to realise that a vaccine may not be possible.

"You don't necessarily develop a vaccine that is safe and effective against every virus," he told the paper.

"Some viruses are very, very difficult when it comes to vaccine development - so for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to find ways to go about our lives with this virus as a constant threat."

Even if a fully effective vaccine proves impossible, Whitty believes that a partially effective vaccine would still be worth pursuing.

"You can have vaccines that are not capable of providing [high levels of] immunity, but they provide enough protection that people don't get severe disease.

 

[Curious Me]

Right, but my daughter picked up my meds last month and I gave her my medicare card and she just signed for the meds herself. But maybe different pharmacies have different rules. This was at Walgreens

I bet you can call and ask though, if your son could pick it up, and you could pay over the phone?

If only... it's really hard to get anyone on the phone, even before this Pandemic the pharmacy system was frustrating at times. The mail order dept. is in another state and they have mix ups sometimes that the pick up pharmacy can't fix. I really am at their mercy, end up talking to myself. Sorry, I don't want to be OT. I'm going to try either messaging or calling Member Service.

 

[Amonet]

Georgia Department of Public Health Partners with CDC on COVID-19 Antibody Testing Survey

It's true..... They are gonna go door-to-door wanting blood volunteers......You know they also would have your DNA on record this way.........moo

I don't see why they can't call ahead and ask people if they can come?

And if dna testing isn't on the permission form, then it would be illegal to do anything with the blood sample that isn't in the contract.

I imagine it would be interesting to look at a sampling of cases and the reactions to being infected to see if there are any dna markers in the body that connect to severity of disease in people. But it doesn't sound like this study is about anything other than the antibodies and the symptoms (if any) that a person noticed.

 

[Amonet]

If it's truly random, I'll be very interested to see what percentage comply.

They ought to be able to make a random sample in the same way that market research companies do when they do telephone surveys....and people have the right to say 'no, I'm not interested in that' while still maintaining a random sample.

 

[The Night Watchman]

MGH’s simulator predicts 1.1 million deaths (in the US)— and an overwhelming peak of 7.9 million hospitalizations in August — due to COVID-19 if the current restrictions were lifted across the board by May 25.

For many reasons, I don't believe any of this.

As other states across the country began easing restrictions meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 over the weekend, researchers at the Boston hospital released the new interactive online tool predicting a second wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths this summer if shutdown orders are lifted this spring — both across the country and in Massachusetts.

According to the MGH simulator, the state’s business closure order and stay-at-home advisory should remain in place for another 12 weeks — or until roughly July 20 — to ensure against a late-summer surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations and to keep the number of statewide deaths due the disease just under 5,000 through the end of August. As of Monday, the COVID-19 death toll in Massachusetts stood at just over 3,000.

But if the state’s current restrictions were allowed to expire in four weeks and replaced by “minimal restrictions,” on May 25, the simulator predicts catastrophe.

The outbreak would accelerate again in July, killing more than 27,000 people in Massachusetts and infecting more than 2.8 million people — or roughly 40 percent of the state’s population — by the end of August. And if restrictions were lifted in just two weeks, the model predicts 42,700 deaths — and nearly 3.4 million cumulative COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts alone. In both scenarios, the state’s health care system would be completely overwhelmed by a second surge of patients dwarfing the number available hospital beds, according to the model.

MGH’s simulator also modeled the disease’s trajectory for the entire country and for each of the other 49 states, plus Puerto Rico. It portends more dire outcomes in states like Georgia that are more aggressively loosening their orders; even lifting restrictions gradually over the next month could result in over 23,000 deaths in the Peach State, according to MGH officials.

MGH’s simulator predicts 1.1 million deaths — and an overwhelming peak of 7.9 million hospitalizations in August — due to COVID-19 if the current restrictions were lifted across the board by May 25. But if current interventions remain in place until June 22, the model predicts 86,000 deaths due to the disease — and declining hospitalizations since the peak of 63,800 on April 21.

Mass. General released a coronavirus simulator. Here’s what it shows. | Boston.com

 

[margarita25]

Someone posted this link earlier. Dr. Breen sounds so lively and fun. She was a joy to those who knew her. This is just heartbreaking. My prayers go out to all her Family and loved ones.

Top E.R. Doctor Who Treated Virus Patients Dies by Suicide

"Dr. Breen, 49, did not have a history of mental illness, her father said. But he said that when he last spoke with her, she seemed detached, and he could tell something was wrong. She had described to him an onslaught of patients who were dying before they could even be taken out of ambulances."

and this

"Once a year, she threw a large party on the roof deck of her Manhattan home."

"She was very close with her sisters and mother, who lived in Virginia...."

RIP Dr. Breen

I’m catching up on April 17 WHO Conference and wanted to note that Lady Gaga’s mother is leading an initiative on mental health, specifically re: the mental health of Health Workers, which is also a focus and concern of WHO:

Doc T / April 17:

“I would also like to use this opportunity to thank Lady Gaga’s mother Cynthia Germanotta, who is our Goodwill Ambassador, and is doing a great job advocating for mental health around the world – thank you so much Lady Gaga and Cynthia for your continued support and help. This is a family project and we appreciate your leadership and contribution.”

In Lady Gaga’s commentary, she addresses this focus further:

Press briefings
Apr 17

—-

Marking to pull link for her mother’s efforts.

 

[BeckyF]

Death row inmates tested positive positive for coronavirus. I don't understand how this can happen. I thought death row inmates were confined to a cell 23 hours a day.

Lawyer: 4 Arizona death row inmates test positive for virus - Court TV

 

[Curious Me]

WHO chief berates the world for 'not listening carefully' to the agency's warnings about coronavirus on January 30 when there were only 82 Covid-19 cases outside China

Faith Ridler
3 hrs ago
...
The World Health Organisation's chief has berated the world for 'not listening carefully' the agency's warnings about coronavirus as early as January 30.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency had sounded the highest level of alarm over Covid-19 early on but lamented that not all countries heeded its advice.

He added that coronavirus had constituted a 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern' on January 30, when there were only 82 cases registered outside China.

'The world should have listened to WHO then carefully,' he said.
...

I'm not taking sides or making any kind of political statement.
Personally, I think Covid-19 was already around in the U.S. in
January 2020 of even earlier.

Coronavirus US: First death was California woman in FEBRUARY | Daily Mail Online

"Patricia Dowd, 57, died on February 6 at home days after complaining of flu like symptoms..."

Amid Signs Coronavirus Came Earlier, Americans Ask: Did I Already Have It?

"In January, a mystery illness swept through a call center in a skyscraper on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Close to 30 people in one department alone had symptoms — dry, deep coughs and fevers they could not shake."

 

[SouthAussie]

dbm

 

[Deleted member 158085]

In Massachusetts, many grocery stores have gone to reduced hours, assuming that is because of the danger of spreading coronavirus. So pretty much more people get packed into less hours, with less distancing, and more risk. Grocery stores near me have been pretty crowded, with lines whenever you check out.

I get that is all new to us, but how about common sense. How about 24 hour grocery stores so that you can go when it is much less crowded, particularly if you are at risk? If there is a curfew, then shouldn't hours extend outside the curfew hours?

Most of the stores I’ve read about that have reduced hours have done so in order to do more regular disinfecting and to restock.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I understand if you Scroll and Roll, I just want to explain how outrageous it is that my provider is doing this. It seems illegal to make me go pick up my medication. I hope my children will sue if I get Covid-19 and end up dying from being exposed. It'd be too hard to prove tho'. I used to order refills online and they'd mail me my Rx. MOO, it's not right, it really seems illegal. Here I sit at home isolating for 40+ days, but the health care machine drags me out in the middle of a Pandemic. I'm just disappointed in my provider making such a mandate.

Seinfeld rerun has the "toilet paper episode"...can't spare a square.

Have you called them yet?

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Well, it's my opinion that down town Chicago is a mess. Murders and mayhem.
But Illinois, is not only about it's downtown, just like California is not only about the mean streets in downtown Los Angeles or San Francisco.
Regardless of what you see in t.v. Shows or, God forbid, our inept, trying to make themselves rich and famous news media.
All of us need to stop buying into the panic.
He carefull, practice what you know works to kill this virus.
It is not the end of the world.
Leaders who are trying to impose ridiculous new rules and laws against us, need to quote their science. We are not stupid.
Just last month, my Governor Newsome was telling every news media that 26 Million people in California were going to die.
As of today. We have had 1,077 people die.
that's a big difference from 26 million.
in my opinion. Leaders are human, many humans are stupid.
That's all.

As an Illinois resident, I want to point out that most of the people I know are supportive of the stay-at-home order. And most of the Iowans I know wish their Governor was doing things more like Pritzker. IMO, this ruling will be overturned and is much ado about nothing.

I don’t know what the Chicago comments have to do with the current situation.

 

[firebird]

They ought to be able to make a random sample in the same way that market research companies do when they do telephone surveys....and people have the right to say 'no, I'm not interested in that' while still maintaining a random sample.

Of course. It's completely voluntary. So, you're probably right and we'll never know how many refused.

 

[otto]

Does herd immunity mean low viral load, possibly dormant virus?
Consider a repeat of 1918 in 2020, with a worse - second time round wave.

What if low viral load immunity means dormant virus until the Fall.

 

[mickey2942]

Does herd immunity mean low viral load, possibly dormant virus?
Consider a repeat of 1918 in 2020, with a worse - second time round wave.

What if low viral load immunity means dormant virus until the Fall.

That is exactly what I think will happen. And places that were barely even affected, we are like naked lambs. Just waiting for the COVID19 wolf.

 

[Snoods]

If viruses like this comes from bats, what would happen if we cut down the bat population? I am sure they prey upon insects or something, that makes them necessary, but at what cost? Is there a point where it is worth it to declare war on bats to prevent a million+ people from dying?

I am sure a scientist is ready to pounce on me for this question!

Just refrain from eating them, delicious as they may seem.

 

[TravelingBug]

I don't think so. My son offered. If I order a refill online and they mail it, it's easy. If I order online but pick it up, I have to show them my special Kaiser provider card. Thanks for asking.

Get one of your kids to go w/ you and you stay in the car and send them in w/ your card.

I never had an issue having someone else get my medicines at Kaiser (SD) when I lived there.

If you're in the car then if it's really an issue you can go in and you're already there...but I think you'll be ok. And/or have your son/daughter explain why and even offer to have a staff person come outside to verify it's you if they really had an issue as you could wait in a mask outside the building even.

 

[Curious Me]

Thanks Everyone for your suggestions about getting my Rx refill. I appreciate such a great bunch of concerned people. I'll be fine and figure it out.

Taking a break to watch Songland. Forgetting my petty little worries. Don't worry, Be Happy for now.