Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #57

[Recidivist]

To RosalindaA - God bless you.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Nursing and care staff have even moved in with their residents to try and keep the virus out of homes, I am sure this has happened all over the world. But how long can they be expected not to see their families and friends?

It breaks my heart when I hear stories of medics and carers having to wave to their own children through windows because they don't want to be responsible for putting either their families or patients at risk. Heroes, every one of them. The thought of how underpaid and overworked our healthcare workers are, in comparison to 'city' jobs and celebrities, makes me really, really upset.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Asthma Doesn't Appear to Increase Risk from Coronavirus

For those of us with asthma , this is good news: i have read several articles that suggest asthma is not the serious risk factor it was thought to be. I hope they are right.

Hope @gitana1 has seen this.

Look at the church in Butte County, California. They jumped the gun, decided to have a Mother's Day church service, and 180 new cases resulted from just that single 2 hour event.

Just wanted to correct one detail -- the person who was positive and attended that Butte Co church service EXPOSED 180 people. We don't know how many cases will result from that; I imagine the first case(s) are probably starting to feel ill/get tested about now. But Butte County only has 22 confirmed cases so far and I think they've been at that number for a while so I suspect none of those 22 are from the church service. (I wonder if we'll even be told whether any future cases arose from that event.)

 

[MimosaMornings]

‘This feels great’: In Georgia, mask-free shoppers eat, drink, touch and assume they’re safe — The Washington Post

 

[ilovewings]

As coronavirus testing expands, a new problem arises: Not enough people to test — The Washington Post

You can’t just drive up and get tested. You have to telemedicine your primary care doctor and go over your symptoms. If you don’t have almost every symptom - you don’t make the cut to get tested.

Here in Southwest Florida you can drive up and get tested. no doctor RX necessary, no symptoms necessary.

 

[Mo Thuairim]

Thank you nhmemorymaker, I just wanted people to understand how hard it is to protect the population in the care and nursing homes. We had about 34 residents in that home and thinking about it last night I imagined myself as an unaware virus carrier on a single typical shift...by the end of it I would have probably had close contact with at least half the residents, all of the staff on duty (most homes/hospitals have a handover where you are typically stuffed into a tiny office for 15 mins or so). I would have chatted to the secretary, the laundry lady, the kitchen staff, the cleaners and to several visitors. I would have got close to all the residents at meal times and tea trolley times and been handing them dishes and cups, and passing them their walking sticks frames, etc. The chains of contact are infinite, and that's one shift.
I eventually realise I am sick and isolate, by then all the staff and residents I have infected become infectious and become sick. There's not enough staff to cover the home safely so you book agency staff. Hopefully by then you know you have a problem and give the agency staff the choice to come in or not. How these homes are staffing themselves I really cannot imagine.

And thank you SallyE, I had my good days as a carer, I had my not so good days! We're all human, but hopefully it's reassuring to those here who are worrying about family and friends in these facilities, that the vast majority of staff take their duty to their patients/residents very seriously. There is nothing worse than feeling you have let someone down or passed an infection on to someone vulnerable. I knew a young staff nurse, a year ahead of me who, when very stressed, blamed herself for a patient's wound becoming infected. Knowing this particular patient who had a lot of difficulties, it would have been almost impossible to have prevented this and the infection did resolve fine. But this young nurse attempted suicide, was admitted to our local general hospital and managed to find her way to a top storey window and fell to her death. That was another experience that never left me.

There are a lot of nurses who have vulnerabilities to anxiety/dep and OCD. Many of them have made the decision to move out of their homes and live in temp accommodation because they know even with PPE they will probably become infected. Imagine living with the knowledge that you passed an infection that might end up killing your mother or father or child or sister. Extremely stressful on top of an already stressful job with death all around you and very little treatment to offer to people. I remember being granted leave from another home that I worked at years later to move back in with my mother when she was dying of cancer. Just after that the home had an outbreak of something not lethal but extremely unpleasant and hard to get rid of. I remember thanking God that I dodged that bullet and didn't infect my mother in that already very hard situation, I would have just completely lost it, I think.
Nursing and care staff have even moved in with their residents to try and keep the virus out of homes, I am sure this has happened all over the world. But how long can they be expected not to see their families and friends?

Oh my, Rosalinda, that brought a tear to my eye. My 100-year-old granny is in a nursing home 15 minutes' drive away from me and I haven't been able to see her for months. All residents and staff have been tested in the last couple of weeks for Covid and all are negative. It is a nice, well-run place where she has been happy, and it gives me great comfort that although I cannot see her right now, I know she is being cared for by kind, conscientious people like you.

 

[jjenny]

‘This feels great’: In Georgia, mask-free shoppers eat, drink, touch and assume they’re safe — The Washington Post

I am guessing that ending up in a hospital on a ventilator is not going to feel so great.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

This is one of the most interesting articles I've seen. Thanks! Jmo

so sobering. Yet another dynamic trend.... along with the Kawasaki- like symptoms with children, and others...... just so daunting.

 

[RosalindaA]

UK reports its nursing home deaths separately, AFAIK and has not put them into the numbers that are being used for per capita cases. Many US states doing the same.

I asked if we could just agree that UK has a great standard of care. So - you're down to public transportation and population density, right?

I think we do include the nursing home figures in our death toll, but they are announced separately at different times of day then combined. Help me out Tresir, Cagney, Phooey? I go by Coronavirus Update (Live): 4,798,957 Cases and 316,514 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic - Worldometer and BBC UK virus deaths dip to lowest level since March
Sundays and Mondays are always lower, but it is so great to finally see a three figure number starting with a "1". Hopefully our downward trend continues. But a drop in vigilance will see that evaporate very quickly unless this virus does not like summer as some do not which may help us out.
I agree that comparing countries by bare statistics is problematic. The excess death tolls of all countries for this time of year will tell a story. Some of those deaths will be accounted for by other health problems that people were too afraid to seek medical help for but most probably down to undiagnosed Covid-19.

I do think that you have to take into account that densely populated and congested cities, of which England, as opposed to Scotland, Wales and Ireland has far more of, will inevitably promote infections, this is to be expected. How internationally connected places/countries are such as London, New York etc, how much public transport is a big factor too. And the proportion of people from ethnic minorities in these cities who are being hit very very hard by this virus in the UK and in the US definitely, which hasn't received enough attention.

And don't tell anyone, but we Brits are fatter than a lot of our European friends sadly. And that looks to be a high risk factor. Fact remains IMO that we lost a lot of lives here because our government did not take lessons from other countries, chiefly Italy seriously enough and dithered. One day they might admit it, a lot of British people already know it.

 

[tmar]

Coronavirus Australia live news: World leaders weigh up risks of lifting restrictions without COVID-19 vaccine guarantee

Oh gosh you're too kind. I speak for all the blogging team in saying despite the upheaval to all our lives and the pervading sense of "what the heck is actually going on here" in many press conferences, it's been a real pleasure providing what news we can to all of you.

Jame Maasdorp.

 

[MimosaMornings]

I am guessing that ending up in a hospital on a ventilator is not going to feel so great.

“Meanwhile, outside Crate & Barrel, June Sheets, a retiree, was loading her trunk with a box of new acrylic plates and an outdoor planter for a luncheon she was hosting.

“This is glorious — I think the news is blowing it all out of proportion. The wineries are opening this weekend for indoor service and we’re going there tomorrow. I can’t wait!”
———
Sometimes I feel like the crazy one and question if I’m doing the right thing.

 

[tmar]

Aftershock: If coronavirus swells in a second wave later this year, will the nation be ready?

Aftershock: If coronavirus swells in a second wave later this year, will the nation be ready?

Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY
6 hrs ago
...
Paul Romer, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, envisions a day when all Americans are tested regularly for COVID-19, and they present proof when dining out or visiting a dentist.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said if a "big peak" of coronavirus floods hospitals this winter, "We have the potential here to go through days we have not seen since World War II ... As a nation, we will not be ready."

“What we’re experiencing is a massive global destabilization of all our systems,” adds Brian David Johnson, a futurist and director of the Threatcasting Lab at Arizona State University. “We actually don’t know all the damage that has happened. We’re on life-support, globally.”
Many scientists believe the pandemic likely will dissipate over the summer only to return late this year in a second wave that could be worse than the first. While that outlook is no certainty – just one of several plotted by public health experts – disaster planning is all about anticipating worst-case scenarios.

 

[RosalindaA]

Oh my, Rosalinda, that brought a tear to my eye. My 100-year-old granny is in a nursing home 15 minutes' drive away from me and I haven't been able to see her for months. All residents and staff have been tested in the last couple of weeks for Covid and all are negative. It is a nice, well-run place where she has been happy, and it gives me great comfort that although I cannot see her right now, I know she is being cared for by kind, conscientious people like you.

Thanks Mo, I hope you'll be able to see your granny soon, the Irish people, government and her home sound like they are doing a great job at saving lives. And take comfort in her and your great genes, I worked with quite a few clients in their 90s and a few centanarians and they are a special breed. I can truthfully say that none of them ever caught any of the things that floored younger residents and the staff! That's why it doesn't surprise me a bit that we see reports from all over the world of very old survivors of this virus.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

UK reports its nursing home deaths separately, AFAIK and has not put them into the numbers that are being used for per capita cases. Many US states doing the same.

I asked if we could just agree that UK has a great standard of care. So - you're down to public transportation and population density, right?

The UK has included care home deaths since the end of April. The ones that occurred before then were added to the correct dates.

UK coronavirus deaths pass 26,000

I’m sure the US states that are under reporting will confirm numbers at some point soon, so that they too can be factored in for a more accurate picture.

 

[Chelly]

''Minnesota had the second-highest increase in new cases in early May according to the Reuters analysis, as work to expand testing in the state revealed new cases''

So, now they're ready to re-open tomorrow.

See how that works?

Yeah---me either.

Those idiots in charge of us all.....what the heck are they thinking?

 

[Chelly]

If they opened the local casinos and I had someone to watch my grandson, I might be compelled to visit the slots. The online casinos with fake money just doesn't compare to a real casino jackpot. I'm not sure though if I would actually go. The only places I miss are the casinos and Yosemite.

If you decide to leave your grandson with someone to "visit the slots", there is an excellent chance you will return contagious and infect your grandson. Do you want to do that? How important is gambling to you? You would be gambling with your health, and the health of someone you love.

 

[RANCH]

Hope @gitana1 has seen this.



Just wanted to correct one detail -- the person who was positive and attended that Butte Co church service EXPOSED 180 people. We don't know how many cases will result from that; I imagine the first case(s) are probably starting to feel ill/get tested about now. But Butte County only has 22 confirmed cases so far and I think they've been at that number for a while so I suspect none of those 22 are from the church service. (I wonder if we'll even be told whether any future cases arose from that event.)

Person with coronavirus attends Mother’s Day church service, exposes 180 in Butte County

The person received a positive test result the day after the service, which had more than 180 attendees, officials said Friday in a news release.

Person with coronavirus attends Mother's Day church service, exposes 180 in Butte County

 

[tmar]

Coronavirus may ‘burn out naturally’ before any vaccine is developed, former WHO chief claims

Coronavirus may ‘burn out naturally’ before any vaccine is developed, former WHO chief claims

Andy Gregory
2 hrs ago
...
Coronavirus could “burn out naturally before any vaccine is developed”, according to a former World Health Organisation chief.

“We are seeing a roughly similar pattern everywhere – I suspect we have more immunity than estimated,” Professor Karol Sikora, who previously directed the WHO’s cancer programme, said on Saturday.

“We need to keep slowing the virus, but it could be petering out by itself. It is my opinion that this is a feasible scenario.”


His hopeful comments come days after a new study in the International Journal of Clinical Practice, using local authority “R” transmission rate data, estimated some 19 million people are “likely” to have already contracted the virus in the UK.

 

[Chelly]

“Meanwhile, outside Crate & Barrel, June Sheets, a retiree, was loading her trunk with a box of new acrylic plates and an outdoor planter for a luncheon she was hosting.

“This is glorious — I think the news is blowing it all out of proportion. The wineries are opening this weekend for indoor service and we’re going there tomorrow. I can’t wait!”
———
Sometimes I feel like the crazy one and question if I’m doing the right thing.

Count me in as another crazy one. It's a safe club to belong to and I'll be a member in isolation for as long as it takes.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Person with coronavirus attends Mother’s Day church service, exposes 180 in Butte County

The person received a positive test result the day after the service, which had more than 180 attendees, officials said Friday in a news release.

Person with coronavirus attends Mother's Day church service, exposes 180 in Butte County

Received a positive test result the day after he went to church?
Meaning he had the test prior to going and had symptoms.
Sigh