Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #94

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
GRT said:
That's the situation here as well--more vaccine time slots are remaining unfilled because those who urgently wanted the shots have (for the most part) already taken them. Anyone over 16 can get them now, but it appears a good number just aren't interested.

At this point, we could easily start transferring some of our vaccines to other places in the world where they're trying so hard to get some.
Click to expand...
Send them to NYC. We want them.

jmo
 
MsArk said:
Interesting as we have discussed the mental health ramifications of Covid, lockdowns & quarantine.

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic — the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.

Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise. But officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.

US suicides dropped last year, defying pandemic expectations
Click to expand...
This is important, as supposed increased suicides were one of the reasons many gave for resisting lockdowns, school closings and the like. Yet no one could ever show proof. Now we know it was the opposite.

I am curious about why the reduction happened, although I suspect that for some in highly stressful jobs, the stress was actually reduced by working from home and that may have effected these numbers.
 
JaneEyre said:
This is important, as supposed increased suicides were one of the reasons many gave for resisting lockdowns, school closings and the like. Yet no one could ever show proof. Now we know it was the opposite.

I am curious about why the reduction happened, although I suspect that for some in highly stressful jobs, the stress was actually reduced by working from home and that may have effected these numbers.
Click to expand...

We had a reduction in suicides as well. One thing they noted was that calls to suicide prevention helplines increased by 20%.
It seems that maybe people had the time and opportunity to reach out for help. To implement and maintain healthy self care methods.


“Hundreds of thousands of Australians reached out for help to Lifeline and other mental health services and got the help they needed when they needed it and stopped short of suicide,” Brogden said.
“People have asked for help and got it when they needed it."
NSW suicide rate fell by ‘remarkable’ 5% in 2020, Lifeline finds
 
MimosaMornings said:
Cruise Line to Homeport in the Bahamas from July

Tired Of Waiting, U.S. Cruise Lines Are Heading Elsewhere

Looks like they are moving some ships to other places in the Caribbean, probably offer cheap flights if people want to cruise bad enough?
Click to expand...

Oh, I think they will cruise AND get cheap flights to do so.

I was just reading an article about Italians leaving locked-down Italy to party on cruise ships over Easter. Some of them commented that it was good to 'escape' covid for a while.

Avoiding Italy's harsh lockdown, cruisers party at sea
 
MimosaMornings said:
Cruise Line to Homeport in the Bahamas from July

Tired Of Waiting, U.S. Cruise Lines Are Heading Elsewhere

Looks like they are moving some ships to other places in the Caribbean, probably offer cheap flights if people want to cruise bad enough?
Click to expand...
I know there are people who absolutely love cruises, but I when I see the headline that cruise lines are tired of waiting, I think of the passengers and crews stuck onboard ships in quarantine. They were tired of waiting too.

As we've said before, the virus loves when humans travel. The travel gives the virus and all the variants a free ride around the world.

If you do go on a ship, please be careful. The rest of us don't want to pay with our health for your pleasure.

jmo
 
Inthedetails said:
I know there are people who absolutely love cruises, but I when I see the headline that cruise lines are tired of waiting, I think of the passengers and crews stuck onboard ships in quarantine. They were tired of waiting too.

As we've said before, the virus loves when humans travel. The travel gives the virus and all the variants a free ride around the world.

If you do go on a ship, please be careful. The rest of us don't want to pay with our health for your pleasure.

jmo
Click to expand...
Not me. Tales of Noro virus from years back were enough to put me off, let alone Covid.
 
Florida woman who coughed on cancer patient gets 30 days in jail
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida woman whose image went viral when she coughed on a customer at a Pier 1 store last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.

A judge in Jacksonville on Thursday also ordered Debra Hunter to pay a $500 fine, serve six months probation and participate in a mental health evaluation along with anger management, David Chapman, communications director for the state attorney's office in Jacksonville, said in an email. She was also ordered to cover the costs of the victim's Covid-19 test.

Hunter received credit for one day already served in jail. She was arrested last June after she was recorded deliberately coughing on the other customer during an argument with employees inside the store. According to investigators, the victim, Heather Sprague, had begun recording Hunter's heated encounter with the employees. Hunter saw her and made a rude gesture before walking up and saying she would cough on her. And then she coughed on her, an arrest affidavit said.

Sprague, who is being treated for a brain tumor, told the judge she spent days anxiously searching for a place where she and her family could be tested for the coronavirus. The tests ended up being negative, she said.

Florida woman who coughed on cancer patient gets 30 days in jail

Consequences
 
SoCalDavidS said:
Florida woman who coughed on cancer patient gets 30 days in jail
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Florida woman whose image went viral when she coughed on a customer at a Pier 1 store last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.

A judge in Jacksonville on Thursday also ordered Debra Hunter to pay a $500 fine, serve six months probation and participate in a mental health evaluation along with anger management, David Chapman, communications director for the state attorney's office in Jacksonville, said in an email. She was also ordered to cover the costs of the victim's Covid-19 test.

Hunter received credit for one day already served in jail. She was arrested last June after she was recorded deliberately coughing on the other customer during an argument with employees inside the store. According to investigators, the victim, Heather Sprague, had begun recording Hunter's heated encounter with the employees. Hunter saw her and made a rude gesture before walking up and saying she would cough on her. And then she coughed on her, an arrest affidavit said.

Sprague, who is being treated for a brain tumor, told the judge she spent days anxiously searching for a place where she and her family could be tested for the coronavirus. The tests ended up being negative, she said.

Florida woman who coughed on cancer patient gets 30 days in jail

Consequences
Click to expand...


(Monster, throw away the key!!!!!)
 
JaneEyre said:
This is important, as supposed increased suicides were one of the reasons many gave for resisting lockdowns, school closings and the like. Yet no one could ever show proof. Now we know it was the opposite.

I am curious about why the reduction happened, although I suspect that for some in highly stressful jobs, the stress was actually reduced by working from home and that may have effected these numbers.
Click to expand...

What I've noticed, with my family and with my students, is the tremendous amount of support and bonding they're giving to one another. There's been no uptick in suicides in my county, but there is an uptick of speeding related traffic accidents (predominately male, all ages, way more during the day than prior to COVID). I guess empty highways and back roads make for that.

At any rate, among the families that I know personally, there's been an awful lot of family bonding, the kids seem calmer and all have developed new interests and hobbies. We got to have our youngest granddaughter over for the whole day yesterday, and lo and behold, she sits at the piano and improvises (she's six) and has worked out how to stay in the same key and resolve to the major key at the end (all on her own, during quarantine, because her dad has allowed her free access to their keyboard, before this, she had to be asked not to pound on it, ha).

And the older granddaughter has been sewing stuffed animals for kids in the hospital, as well as sewing clothes for her doll (has gotten really good at hand stitching, and working with straight pins). She's 10.

They both seem less timid and have made different friends (among their school mates) and deepened those friendships. It's a joy to hear them laughing and interacting on their screens. Hopefully this will continue when they go back to school. They are both sleeping better, more cooperative with their parents, and just in general the lack of rushing around to get to school and of the way-too-many-hours spent at school are really helping.

We shall see what happens next.
 
margarita25 said:
“Ambulances filled with breathless patients lined up in Brazil as nations around the world set new records Thursday for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections. The disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check.

In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to get vaccine shots.“

Interesting:

“South Korea reported 700 more cases, the highest daily jump since Jan. 5. Health authorities were expected to announce measures to strengthen social distancing following a meeting Friday.“

*SK had been doing so well with their efforts...man.

—

(Note to self, make point about Michigan, NY, Brazil & Cali/ Santa Clara)
Click to expand...

California has had CV-19 for longer than most states (except NY/NJ/Mass, I think). We keep worrying about a surge as we open up, but the tightly phased opening seems to be working. One key thing is that so many people know someone who died or nearly died (and may be awaiting transplants - esophageal and kidney transplants in particular), or who have long Covid...that most of us are simply not flocking back to stores, theaters or restaurants, even if allowed.

For movies, one has to be fully vaccinated or present evidence of a negative COVID test done within 24 hours. That second thing is surely a spontaneity killer.

We have 2 counties with lots of mask-avoiders and vaccine-avoiders (San Diego and Orange) whose rates of diagnosed COVID are as high as Los Angeles County's right now (L.A. is always going to be hard to manage, but boy is it better there right now - only about 600 new cases yesterday). Orange County had about 4x the number of deaths (per capita) that LA County had yesterday. San Diego County had 3X the number of deaths per capita as my own county.

Florida, with about half the population of California, had almost 8000 new cases yesterday (increasing by 10-20% per day for the last few days), that would be like California having 15,000 new cases, so hopefully vaccine acceptance will go up in FL - the deaths are certainly rising again.

@margarita25 , I'd love to hear what you know about Santa Clara County.

New York is having rising rates again and apparently the hot spots are Staten Island, but Manhattan is seeing a surge as businesses reopen (and it doesn't look like everyone is obeying the mandates about numbers inside stores). They've seen quite a few cases in schools in New York state as a whole. More parents of school age children are in the newly diagnosed group and hospitalizations in that group is up as well (but nothing like what happened with older people).

NYC Debuts Sweeping Changes to COVID School Closure Policy as Rise of Variants Stokes Anxiety

Which brings us to the new variant(s). Of the group that are more contagious, it looks as if 1-2 variants may also induce more serious illness and may be responsible for more severe symptoms in the 40+ group. In Israel and France, they found that school age children are a strong vector by which their parents get COVID. Israel of course has pretty much fully vaccinated their entire population, whereas France is really lagging,

France's per capita rate of deaths, for yesterday, was about 60% more than that of the US. and 6X that of UK.

I sure wish someone could figure out what's going on in Michigan/Ottawa and Washington/British Columbia.
 
LadyL said:
Researchers racing to develop one vaccine for all coronaviruses
Click to expand...

“As vaccines roll out across the globe to protect against COVID-19 and its known variants, researchers around the world are in a race to find a universal vaccine that could protect against the current strain of the coronavirus as well as future ones.

The U.S. Army started Phase 1 clinical trials this week of a vaccine called Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFN) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) in Silver Spring, Md.

Doctors at the Emerging Infectious Diseases Branch (EIDB) at WRAIR say the multi-faced sphere design of the vaccine is different from other vaccines already in use but they believe it could help provide broader protection against future strains of coronavirus.

“It’s not just one spike protein that is being presented to your immune system. It’s multiple spike proteins decorated around a symmetric particle,” said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of the EIDB and co-inventor of the vaccine.“
 
CDC / US COVID-19 Cases Caused by Variants
Updated Apr. 8, 2021
COVID-19 and Your Health

*see map, you can change filters, remember we have very low genomic surveillance, last I heard under 10%

—

U.S. cases involving Brazil variant on the rise, according to CDC data

“As new U.S. coronavirus cases trend upward — with nearly 80,000 new infections reported Thursday — health officials are warning about the spread of multiple, more transmissible variants, some of which have seeded outbreaks in states such as Michigan and California.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data on emerging variants, including those first identified in Brazil, Britain and South Africa. The B.1.1.7 variant initially detected in Britain accounts for almost 20,000 cases in all 50 states — and has become the dominant strain, officials say.

For the first time, however, the P.1 variant that originated in Brazil has taken the No. 2 spot. At least 434 people in the United States have been infected with the variant, which has devastated Brazil, with the largest number of cases found in Massachusetts, Illinois and Florida.“
 
Last edited:
Rise in youth hospitalizations, COVID rates ‘very worrisome,’ says Baystate Health chief pediatrician
More at link
SPRINGFIELD — A month ago, there was not a single case of COVID-19 to be found at Baystate Children’s Hospital. So far this month, there have five pediatric admissions with Baystate Health labs reporting an up to 9% positive rate among those under 18 years — triple the state average.


Dr. Charlotte Boney, who chairs Baystate Medical Center’s department of pediatrics and is pediatrician-in-chief, characterized the rise in admissions and the positivity rate on Friday as “very worrisome.”


“Since April 1, we have had five kids admitted with COVID-19, two of them in pediatric intensive care and one of them with post-infectious inflammatory called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C),” Boney said. “It is very worrisome.”



She cited household transmission, as well as sports activities, social gatherings and “not school,” as “where these kids are getting infected.” Studies have generally shown low rates of coronavirus transmission in elementary schools that adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.



“Kids are getting infected at home, not in school,” Boney said. “They are getting it out in the community, sports, recreation, and social events. I think they are getting it from the 20-, 30-, and 40-year-olds who are not vaccinated. They are giving it to their kids who are giving it to other kids. We are very worried.”
 
weepingangel said:
Rise in youth hospitalizations, COVID rates ‘very worrisome,’ says Baystate Health chief pediatrician
More at link
SPRINGFIELD — A month ago, there was not a single case of COVID-19 to be found at Baystate Children’s Hospital. So far this month, there have five pediatric admissions with Baystate Health labs reporting an up to 9% positive rate among those under 18 years — triple the state average.


Dr. Charlotte Boney, who chairs Baystate Medical Center’s department of pediatrics and is pediatrician-in-chief, characterized the rise in admissions and the positivity rate on Friday as “very worrisome.”


“Since April 1, we have had five kids admitted with COVID-19, two of them in pediatric intensive care and one of them with post-infectious inflammatory called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C),” Boney said. “It is very worrisome.”



She cited household transmission, as well as sports activities, social gatherings and “not school,” as “where these kids are getting infected.” Studies have generally shown low rates of coronavirus transmission in elementary schools that adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.



“Kids are getting infected at home, not in school,” Boney said. “They are getting it out in the community, sports, recreation, and social events. I think they are getting it from the 20-, 30-, and 40-year-olds who are not vaccinated. They are giving it to their kids who are giving it to other kids. We are very worried.”
Click to expand...


(Thank you, copying over to MIS-C thread)
 
A weird thought just hit me:

Remember last year there were a few rare instances where people got covid twice? And the second time was more severe? I wonder if that may have been a previously undetected variant, or some sort of mutation.

Idk, just a thought.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 135 more.
Total: 3,091 (members: 136, guests: 2,955)

Online statistics

Members online
136
Guests online
2,955
Total visitors
3,091
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
603,194
Messages
18,153,315
Members
231,669
Latest member
Honestyhastoprevail
Back
Top