Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #103

[IceIce9]

AHLA - Vaccination Status as a Triage Factor: Can Hospitals Allocate Critical Care Based on COVID-19 Vaccination Status?

“While the decisions to restrict or deny care were already difficult before the advent of COVID-19 vaccines, the situation has been further complicated by the fact that a patient’s COVID-19 vaccination status correlates directly with how likely they are to become severely ill.[1] Because unvaccinated individuals appear to be more susceptible to severe illness, and therefore less likely to survive or benefit from care, hospitals may decide to prioritize care for the vaccinated over the unvaccinated.”

This makes perfect sense to me. It is simple triage.

 

[Deleted member 39678]

I thought that the vaccines largely prevent severe illness. There should be very few vaccinated people in ICU's. JMO.

 

[Sundog]

AHLA - Vaccination Status as a Triage Factor: Can Hospitals Allocate Critical Care Based on COVID-19 Vaccination Status?

“While the decisions to restrict or deny care were already difficult before the advent of COVID-19 vaccines, the situation has been further complicated by the fact that a patient’s COVID-19 vaccination status correlates directly with how likely they are to become severely ill.[1] Because unvaccinated individuals appear to be more susceptible to severe illness, and therefore less likely to survive or benefit from care, hospitals may decide to prioritize care for the vaccinated over the unvaccinated.”

It's interesting that at the time this article was published (November 5, 2021), the authors state that no state currently has a Crisis Standard of Care (CSC) that uses vaccination status as a triage factor.

 

[beatrixpotter]

Michigan doctors, nurses getting hit, spit on in COVID-19 surge

Sad.

This is behind a paywall for me. Can anyone share some of it

 

[cujenn81]

NHL COVID news, updates: Canadiens to play without fans in arena.

NHL teams won't be doing any cross border travel for a couple weeks. There is still quite a bit of variation on what's happening in the stands, from no fans in Montreal, to business as usual in some states.

NHL to pause season from Wednesday through Christmas Day - Sportsnet.ca

It looks like the league has officially paused the season for all teams until Christmas Day. I’m not sure the current situation will look any different five days from now… but what do I know? Admittedly, not a whole lot.

 

[beatrixpotter]

I hope you're all well and ready to face another surge of our nemises COVID.
I'll be honest and admit to this safe spot on the internet that I am emotionally drained by the ups and downs of the past two years.
I started hearing the alarms once again around Thanksgiving and knew it would be prudent to stock up on groceries/essentials yet again but, felt myself resisting - I think because it would be an aknowledgement that we are in fact facing yet another surge with so many unknowns. So today I broke down and bought tons and tons of supplies. Ugh. This may sound strange, but at the beginning of the pandemic I spent hours ordering every single thing I could think of that might be needed. It felt like a treasure hunt and the novelty of multiple boxes arriving every day was a bit of a rush. I'm sick and tired of anticipating every "what if" and ordering like my life might depend on it. The alure of it all has turned to dread.

I'm beyond exhausted of worrying about members of my family that are determined that COVID isn't going to stop them from living.

I dread the news covering the deaths of so many people that were loved by someone.

I feel so sad for healthcare employees that are being pushed to exhaustion and seeing things that break their hearts.

Etc, etc. etc.

Thanks for letting me vent, it's good to be able verbalize and time for me to dig deep to find hope and joy that I know is still there.

So much of this sounds familiar. I also spent so much time buying ahead and planning and preparing. I'm still doing it. But it's anxiety inducing. I managed to snag some online BinaxNow covid tests before the major crisis hit this week and tests disappeared. I need to make sure we have some on hand to be able to safe and test and quarantine if we need to. I also bought a couple of boxes literally minutes before Walmart sold out because I remembered to buy some for my parents since I know they would not have prepared ahead.

Two days ago after listening to a live broadcast of AgendaFree TV and realizing the covid tests were selling out everywhere and that it REALLY was going to get bad quickly I went ahead and started stocking up on other things as well. Certain things were already sold out on Amazon.

I really hate the constant need to stay on top of this. But my pantry and freezer are stocked. And now I'm back to buying my garden supplies ahead of normal to be prepared. My garden is what I'm looking forward to most to cheer me up and distract me from the insanity. Loads of beautiful cut flowers and vegetables.

But I feel sick watching this play out again. That sick feeling in my stomach waiting for what comes next. I could barely sleep last night tossing and turning and thinking about how all this is affecting my children.

Edit: Ugh, excuse my run on sentences. I got like 3 hours of sleep last night and am brain dead. I'm too tired to make what I say make more sense. Tomorrow we decorate gingerbread cookies and bake sugar cookies and I'm going to focus on reading aloud to my kids while they make ornaments etc and try and NOT get distracted by the enormous influx of news to doomscroll. It's hard to balance being aware to stay safe, prepare and know what's going on. And "staying sane" because you know what's going on....

 

[MimosaMornings]

NHL to pause season from Wednesday through Christmas Day - Sportsnet.ca

It looks like the league has officially paused the season for all teams until Christmas Day. I’m not sure the current situation will look any different five days from now… but what do I know? Admittedly, not a whole lot.

“Generally, it seems like the hope is that fans can return to Canadiens home games in January. The team noted that in this portion of their statement:

We have obtained assurances that beginning with our games in January, we will return to a partial capacity scenario and be able to host fans once more. More details will follow in the days to come and as the portrait of this ever-evolving pandemic becomes clearer.”

Who the heck is shaking the magic 8 ball for answers?

It’s magically going to be better on January 1st? Huh?

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Yeah I don’t understand why COVID vaccination wouldn’t be documented in the patient’s chart. It is pertinent to their medical treatment. We always update and document all vaccinations, including tetanus, hepatitis, etc.

As part of your health record, I would be astounded if it wasn't included at any hospital or clinic.

 

[ilovewings]

NHL to pause season from Wednesday through Christmas Day - Sportsnet.ca

It looks like the league has officially paused the season for all teams until Christmas Day. I’m not sure the current situation will look any different five days from now… but what do I know? Admittedly, not a whole lot.[/QUOTE

I am thinkimg Omicron could cause longer pauses in professional
sports including tht NFL, NBA and NHL--

 

[Deleted member 158085]

<snipped for focus>



It would be interesting to read the report on the ethical reasoning regarding how the medical ethics committee came up with this determination.

Isn't this what triage is? When overwhelmed, the effort is put into those who have a better chance of making it?

Unfortunately, we may be in medical situations now that resemble episodes of M.A.S.H. in this regard.

 

[IceIce9]

As part of your health record, I would be astounded if it wasn't included at any hospital or clinic.

It definitely is documented in the medical records of each patient in the hospitals and clinics where I have worked.

 

[Betty P]

Saw this alarming article in our news. Anyone else see doctors making this kind of statement?

'You likely will be infected at some point' – Northeast Ohio doctors warn likelihood of getting COVID increasing as omicron spreads

“To be clear - you will get COVID. If you can hear my voice right now, you will get COVID.” It’s a stark warning from Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease doctor at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

As the highly contagious omicron variant overlaps with the delta variant, COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio have been on the rise. Once more of an anomaly, breakthrough cases are increasing as well.

“Understand that even if you’ve done everything right throughout the pandemic, and as frustrating as this may seem, you likely will be infected at some point and that’s just something we all have to come to terms with,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
​

I hope they're wrong. I don't want to get it, nor do I expect to. That's why I'm being so careful.

 

[beatrixpotter]

Life in South Africa Amid the Omicron Surge Is a Glimpse of America’s Future

"According to Shabir Mahdi, the University of the Witwatersrand’s dean of public health and a former member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19, the president’s Cabinet will likely consider additional preventive restrictions only if a health system collapse seems imminent. That is, the government’s priority this time around is to try to avoid economic losses—or, as President Cyril Ramaphosa put it in a recent address to the nation, “to manage this pandemic, to resume many of our daily activities, and to rebuild our economy.” Officials see vulnerability to hunger and unemployment as greater threats than Covid, given that an estimated 60 to 70 percent of South Africans have prior immunity, either from vaccination or prior infection.

The government also learned from earlier Covid waves, says Mahdi, that even the harshest lockdowns didn’t achieve the desired impact in a country where so many people live in crowded apartment buildings, houses, or shantytowns. And then there’s the specter of last July’s uprising, in which thousands of desperate people looted malls and supermarkets, a warning signal to the authorities about the dangers of severe public health restrictions.


Perhaps lockdowns are futile with a variant so infectious—around three times more so than delta, early estimates suggest—that you can acquire it during a five-minute grocery shopping trip. Maybe mass infection really is the lesser evil facing the country. But, like the Swedish government’s “herd immunity” policy at the beginning of the pandemic, the South African government’s current omicron strategy is a potentially fatal gamble."

 

[MimosaMornings]

Saw this alarming article in our news. Anyone else see doctors making this kind of statement?

'You likely will be infected at some point' – Northeast Ohio doctors warn likelihood of getting COVID increasing as omicron spreads

“To be clear - you will get COVID. If you can hear my voice right now, you will get COVID.” It’s a stark warning from Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease doctor at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

As the highly contagious omicron variant overlaps with the delta variant, COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio have been on the rise. Once more of an anomaly, breakthrough cases are increasing as well.

“Understand that even if you’ve done everything right throughout the pandemic, and as frustrating as this may seem, you likely will be infected at some point and that’s just something we all have to come to terms with,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
​

I hope they're wrong. I don't want to get it, nor do I expect to. That's why I'm being so careful.

I believe it’s inevitable unless you’re a complete hermit. I have to work so I do my best and try not to worry.

 

[beatrixpotter]

How Long Does Omicron Take to Make You Sick?

"It certainly might not seem like it given the pandemic mayhem we’ve had, but the original form of SARS-CoV-2 was a bit of a slowpoke. After infiltrating our bodies, the virus would typically brew for about five or six days before symptoms kicked in. In the many months since that now-defunct version of the virus emerged, new variants have arrived to speed the timeline up. Estimates for this exposure-to-symptom gap, called the incubation period, clocked in at about five days for Alpha and four days for Delta. Now word has it that the newest kid on the pandemic block, Omicron, may have ratcheted it down to as little as three.

If that number holds, it’s probably bad news. These trimmed-down cook times are thought to play a major part in helping coronavirus variants spread: In all likelihood, the shorter the incubation period, the faster someone becomes contagious—and the quicker an outbreak spreads. A truncated incubation “makes a virus much, much, much harder to control,” Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told me."

 

[ilovewings]

Saw this alarming article in our news. Anyone else see doctors making this kind of statement?

'You likely will be infected at some point' – Northeast Ohio doctors warn likelihood of getting COVID increasing as omicron spreads

“To be clear - you will get COVID. If you can hear my voice right now, you will get COVID.” It’s a stark warning from Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease doctor at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

As the highly contagious omicron variant overlaps with the delta variant, COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio have been on the rise. Once more of an anomaly, breakthrough cases are increasing as well.

“Understand that even if you’ve done everything right throughout the pandemic, and as frustrating as this may seem, you likely will be infected at some point and that’s just something we all have to come to terms with,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
​

I hope they're wrong. I don't want to get it, nor do I expect to. That's why I'm being so careful.

So there are 300 million people in our country and she is basically
saying each and everyone of us will get Covid no.matter how we
try and protect ourselves-- that is a terribly depressing thought

 

[Cool Cats]

Paramedics allegedly refused to enter care facility to help man who wasn't breathing

California man dies after paramedics refused to enter care facility, citing COVID restrictions

RIALTO, Calif - The city of Rialto is investigating paramedics who allegedly refused to enter a care facility to help a man who wasn't breathing, citing a COVID-19 guideline that doesn't seem to be in effect.

The 911 call came from the Rialto Post Acute Care Center at about 7:50 p.m. on Nov. 11. Video obtained by FOX 11 from a Rialto police officer's body camera shows two Rialto Fire responders at the open door of the center, wearing masks, but not entering.

The officer walks in and his exchange with center personnel is clear. As he walked down the hallway, he tried to explain to them that the paramedics were not coming in because of some "state COVID" guideline. Inside the patient’s room, a registered nurse was on top of him, administering CPR, with the help of other certified nursing assistants at her side.

It seemed they couldn't move the man’s bed, because it had no wheels.

That’s when the officer got behind the bed and began to push. With the help of the personnel, the nurse still on top of the man, they steered the bed down the hallways. At one point, you hear him telling the clearly exhausted nurse that she is doing a great job and not to stop.

They made it through the front door, to the waiting paramedics, who eventually took over the CPR. There was clearly some frustration in the exchange between the staff and the paramedic in charge, as they talked about the patient, who has been identified as 56-year-old Joseph Angulo. He was transported to a local hospital but did not survive.

 

[Betty P]

So there are 300 million people in our country and she is basically
saying each and everyone of us will get Covid no.matter how we
try and protect ourselves-- that is a terribly depressing thought

That seems to be what she's saying. I'm not sure I agree, I really hope that's not the case. But they're saying, regardless of vaccinations, we will still get it, everyone will. University Hospitals is a prestigious research hospital, affiliated with Case Western Reserve University. But this claim sounds "off the wall".

 

[Rose in SC]

I believe it’s inevitable unless you’re a complete hermit. I have to work so I do my best and try not to worry.

Since I lost my job in July, I have become almost a hermit. I saw a question on Twitter the other day, "so all you people who haven't gotten Covid yet, what's your secret?" and someone answered, "I'm a vaccinated introvert." That would be me. Despite that though, DH and I were planning to go to our daughter's house on Thursday for a long Christmas weekend. Unfortunately, our son-in-law tested positive for Covid today. It's been going around his workplace. He's had two Pfizer shots but not the booster. DD is triple vaxxed. They have a medically fragile 2 1/2 year old son who already struggles with his oxygen levels due to a rare genetic disease. SIL is in good health and very fit so I'm confident that he will be okay. But my sweet baby Ollie - I can't help being worried about him.

 

[Satchie]

Saw this alarming article in our news. Anyone else see doctors making this kind of statement?

'You likely will be infected at some point' – Northeast Ohio doctors warn likelihood of getting COVID increasing as omicron spreads

“To be clear - you will get COVID. If you can hear my voice right now, you will get COVID.” It’s a stark warning from Dr. Amy Edwards, pediatric infectious disease doctor at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.

As the highly contagious omicron variant overlaps with the delta variant, COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio have been on the rise. Once more of an anomaly, breakthrough cases are increasing as well.

“Understand that even if you’ve done everything right throughout the pandemic, and as frustrating as this may seem, you likely will be infected at some point and that’s just something we all have to come to terms with,” said Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center.
​

I hope they're wrong. I don't want to get it, nor do I expect to. That's why I'm being so careful.

I noticed this statement in the article:

“Because omicron is so contagious and I imagine we have more contagious variants in our future,..." (italics mine).

So, they are talking about it becoming endemic. It will be like getting a cold or the flu.

Reading the whole article, IMO they were addressing primarily people who have not been vaccinated, saying, you can't dodge it, and the effect could be very serious if you are unvaxxed. It's the same message that is being given by all the US officials from Biden on down, to try to increase vaccination rates.

However, there are predictions that a significant portion of the population will catch it: "we could be having a million cases a day if we're not really attentive to all of those mitigation strategies," the outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Frances Collins told NPR
Omicron is now the dominant COVID strain in the U.S., making up 73% of new infections

A wave of 3-4 months, peaking at 1 million cases per day, that could be 50 million cases (assuming far fewer people will get tested if their symptoms are mild). The current total cases in the US is 52 million.