Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #66

[HongKongPhooey]

Whilst I could probably end up learning to live with it. My 5 yr old son could not. Poor boy has been in Lockdown and out of school since March 1st on the order of Cardiologist' at Alder Hey. He has a Ventricular Septal Defect (hole in heart) and is deemed high risk. He has missed virtually his entire year in Reception and I do not see how he can be kept from infection in class in the future. He is such a bright boy and he really is missing school. His older brother dreads going back, but not him. He cannot wait. It's so sad but I just don't see a way around it. It's 100% life risking for him. For any chance of normality, he absolutely depends on a vaccine being discovered X

I cant imagine how afraid you must be.

How are you feeling about shielding ending on 1st Aug? Will you legally have to return him to school in Sept?

 

[tresir2012]

That reminds me when I was up in Canada visiting a boyfriend I had there (we met skiing in Quebec at Mt. Tremblant) I got really ill...went to the ER up there and was treated and never had to pay a cent or got a bill. I remember thinking that they were so great at that ER too!

There are sometimes (often) reciprocal agreements between countries for these services.

 

[tresir2012]

Covid is not racist. It just does what it does. Our healthcare, housing, health insurance, living conditions and many other negative outcomes for minorities are driven by racism and disparities at systemic levels. These "have nots" are being infected and dying at much higher rates. I'm sure this is born out in many countries outside the US as well. jmo

Our UK figures have not found a great disparity. I posted it earlier in the thread. It was a couple of percent higher than the census figures and the higher proportion who are working in health care (nurses and doctors ) more than accounted for it. Our higher figures were in the elderly care home communities.

 

[musicaljoke]

That reminds me when I was up in Canada visiting a boyfriend I had there (we met skiing in Quebec at Mt. Tremblant) I got really ill...went to the ER up there and was treated and never had to pay a cent or got a bill. I remember thinking that they were so great at that ER too!

Often the doctors and the hospitals treat Americans gratis because it's just so much bother dealing with the insurance companies. So the doctor doesn't get paid, and neither does the hospital, but if it's not a costly matter, they just treat you and send you on your way.

 

[tabitha111]

EPA approves 2 Lysol disinfectants tested to kill novel coronavirus on surfaces | abc7ny.com

The EPA has begun to approve surface disinfectants specifically proven to kill SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus, in laboratory testing.

The agency announced that two products, Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist, were both approved last week.

Lysol said in a news release that Lysol Disinfectant Spray "was found to kill the virus at two minutes of use."

EPA said it expects to approve additional products in the coming weeks.

oh that's just great...now it will be even more impossible to find.

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: 272 (IMO)-273 new confirmed cases and 3 (IMO)-4 more have passed away. As of 11:00 a.m. today, we now have 31,927 total confirmed cases (news says 31,929 @ 10:00 a.m.) of which 25,439 (news says 25,415 @10) have recovered. 725 total have passed away. Iowa COVID-19 Information
July 7: 273 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa, 457 more recoveries, 4 additional deaths
Gov. Reynolds to use $50M in federal COVID-19 money for mental health
'All things are on the table' Reynolds mentions mitigation rollbacks as COVID-19 cases rise

 

[LadyL]

hope this isn't too controversial to post here:

Protesters ride TTC without masks to call for an end to mandatory face coverings in Toronto

 

[CharlestonGal]

10,000+ cases in TX today.

https://twitter.com/bnodesk/status/1280607389163704323?s=21

 

[tresir2012]

Treasury names 650,000 companies that got U.S. small business loans

 

[tresir2012]

There was a Pandemic Protocol prepared ahead of this virus. Most countries have one, since pandemics surprise us with the speed of delivery. There's never time to get a meaningful protocol in place if you wait until a health alert is first announced. The Plan or Protocol gives leaders a structure for dealing with a health emergency.

You might like to take a look at the US' Pandemic Strategy, and see if your leaders are following the best advice they have. Then grade them on how well they are doing and decide for yourself if they need to be held accountable for the tragedy that is playing out in the US.

Who was it that said, "The Buck Stops Here"?

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/pdf/pandemic-influenza-implementation.pdf

That's 14 years old. Is that the most recent pandemic guidance?

 

[tresir2012]

Rt COVID-19

From this it looks like the NE states have done the best. You can select south, west, sheltered, reopened etc but NE states have faired the best by the look of the R0 number.

 

[RANCH]

Why wasn't California more prepared for the coronavirus?
California spending flat over 10 years
California is a state that operates a decentralized structure for funding public health, which means its county public health departments all operate independently. They secure their own funding from state and federal grants, supplemented with local revenue. But funding for the state’s health department, which helps coordinate statewide preparation and planning, has also fallen since the recession.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019-20 budget for the California Department of Public Health budget was about $3.4 billion — lower than it was in 2007, when it was $3.9 billion, and the same as it was in 2009-2010 budget.

In 2008, then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger began cutting the budget only two years after he led an effort to make sure California was prepared for a pandemic. State records show that the state spent $214 million to build “surge capacity,” which included the purchase of 2,400 ventilators, 50 million N95 masks, and an $18 million investment for three 200-bed mobile hospitals, with all the tools needed to operate them at a moment’s notice.

But those emergency supplies required millions to maintain. So, faced with budget shortfalls, Gov. Jerry Brown terminated funding for the program in 2011. The move saved the state $5.8 million a year.

Most of the supplies were donated to local entities, but without the funding needed for upkeep. By the time COVID-19 reached California this year, the state had only 21 million N95 masks left in its stockpile— and all of them were expired.

Why wasn't California more prepared for the coronavirus?

 

[CSIDreamer]

I don't think distance learning was well received and a success here in the US during the Mar-June shutdown.

Well maybe where you are. A lot of people here have said they want to continue. JMO

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Why wasn't California more prepared for the coronavirus?
California spending flat over 10 years
California is a state that operates a decentralized structure for funding public health, which means its county public health departments all operate independently. They secure their own funding from state and federal grants, supplemented with local revenue. But funding for the state’s health department, which helps coordinate statewide preparation and planning, has also fallen since the recession.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019-20 budget for the California Department of Public Health budget was about $3.4 billion — lower than it was in 2007, when it was $3.9 billion, and the same as it was in 2009-2010 budget.

In 2008, then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger began cutting the budget only two years after he led an effort to make sure California was prepared for a pandemic. State records show that the state spent $214 million to build “surge capacity,” which included the purchase of 2,400 ventilators, 50 million N95 masks, and an $18 million investment for three 200-bed mobile hospitals, with all the tools needed to operate them at a moment’s notice.

But those emergency supplies required millions to maintain. So, faced with budget shortfalls, Gov. Jerry Brown terminated funding for the program in 2011. The move saved the state $5.8 million a year.

Most of the supplies were donated to local entities, but without the funding needed for upkeep. By the time COVID-19 reached California this year, the state had only 21 million N95 masks left in its stockpile— and all of them were expired.

Why wasn't California more prepared for the coronavirus?

I would like to know what state or country was prepared for Covid-19. Was anyone fully prepared?

 

[CSIDreamer]

Distance learning also affected the inner city and low-income children who do not have a laptop or computer and/or internet.

That wasn't provided by the school?

 

[Reasonable & Just]

So Covid isn’t racist at all despite the ridiculous headlines.
The “ racist” angle simply means the difference in lifestyle.
Before anyone wastes their time being offended I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon. We scrimped, took busses, or walked. Dad had a car most of the time because he worked shifts at a factory. The car was a luxury rarely used for anything other than to get him back and forth to work.
Hard work CAN change it. It’s not easy but it does happen.

Right. A virus cannot be racist because it is not sentient. Institutions can be, because they are made up of people. The decisions made by these people affect other people. People who may be at more risk to get a virus (because they work on the frontlines while we type away). People who have do not have access to healthcare (because the current administration is working on removing it, with no replacement - right now, during a pandemic - and for a whole bunch of other reasons).

As for Dads - your Dad is to be applauded, as is mine. As you know, many Dads of Baby Boomers came back from the war, and benefitted from the GI Bill. The Dads of black Baby Boomers were not eligible for many of the benefits. They fought the same war, but didn't get the benefits their fellow white soldiers did. Why? Systemic racism. This is a fascinating read, by the way...https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-benefits

What does this have to do with today? Generational poverty is but one aspect. There is a roughly 400-year earning gap between poor white people and poor black people in the US. Then, Jim Crow policies just slowed down the bootstrapping even more, and the GI Bill which could have helped, didn't help as many as it should have.

And it all keeps snowballing, and manifests itself in insidious ways, like who is more vulnerable in a pandemic. We can look at history. Or we can choose to believe that those who don't have silver spoon"lifestyles" are somehow inferior and just bad at life.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Our UK figures have not found a great disparity. I posted it earlier in the thread. It was a couple of percent higher than the census figures and the higher proportion who are working in health care (nurses and doctors ) more than accounted for it. Our higher figures were in the elderly care home communities.

Public Health England report from June:

‘An analysis of survival among confirmed Covid-19 cases and using more detailed ethnic groups, shows that after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, people of Bangladeshi ethnicity had around twice the risk of death than people of White British ethnicity.

‘People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Caribbean and Other Black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to White British.’

This contrasts with previous years where mortality rates were ‘lower in Asian and Black ethnic groups than White ethnic groups’, PHE said.

But it noted its ethnicity analysis did not account for comorbidities, obesity or occupation - which are associated with both the risk of infection and of dying. When separately analysing comorbidities, the review found that people from BAME backgrounds are more likely to have comorbidities that lead to negative outcomes from coronavirus.

It said: ‘The proportion of Covid-19 deaths where diabetes is mentioned ranged from 18% in the White ethnic group, 43% in the Asian group to 45% in the Black group.’

The same ‘disparities’ were found for hypertensive disease, which was present on the death certificate of 20% of those who died with coronavirus. The proportion ranged from 17% in the White ethnic groups to 40% in the Black group and was ‘also high’ in the Asian and Mixed groups, PHE said.

It added that ‘emerging evidence’ has also suggested that a better understanding is needed of the impact of obesity on Covid-19 outcomes ‘particularly’.

Being of Bangladeshi origin doubles Covid-19 death risk, finds PHE review

 

[tresir2012]

hope this isn't too controversial to post here:

Protesters ride TTC without masks to call for an end to mandatory face coverings in Toronto

“It is 40 people and 40 people out of 3 million isn’t a very big number. I am sure there are more who share the point of view but at the end of the day if there were 6,000 people that showed up at Dundas subway station to get on and make a point about masks I would say that is certainly interesting and I should look into that,” he said.

Hmmm. So it needs 6,000 people before he listens.

 

[CSIDreamer]

Thank you. That is really disheartening. I hope the world is able to separate their views of the US government and their views of the US people. I think they are. For now.

While I dont discount the poll, 3000 out of 25 million polled is minuscule. JMO

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Betsy DeVos rejects part-time school reopening plan amid pandemic

Betsy, the lady of many yachts. Another administration official who got PPP $$$ from their own administration. Let's hope she can offer constructive help to schools.