Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #103

[MimosaMornings]

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.

Will be thinking of little Ollie and your family.

 

[acutename]

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.

Fauci and Campbell say "you will be exposed."

See Dr. Fauci's prediction about where pandemic is headed with Omicron - CNN Video

https://www.youtube.com › watch
2 days ago — Thanks to Eddie and DW news. Omicron is coming so we need to get our immune system into the best possible condition. ... Dr. John Campbell.

 

[margarita25]

Dr. Mike & Dr. Maria, Q&A from last week, December 15, 2021

*highly recommended, especially some of Dr. Mike’s comments. There are no words to express how brilliant, special and kind he is. Thank you to both Dr. Mike and Dr. Maria for all you do. I don’t want to paraphrase the content because it just wouldn’t be the same.

—

A really good question was asked about half way through, if it’s possible Delta and Omicron could merge.

They both end on a very hopeful note, they say “we will get through this”.

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[MimosaMornings]

So those of us who don’t work from home, take public transport to work, around people that are unmasked although we mask - we should be prepared to get it?
Happy holidays indeed.....

 

[SouthAussie]

Has anyone seen what the viral load is with Omicron yet?

I have been looking for it, but I am yet to find any real figures.


Scientists need to measure the viral loads inside people's respiratory tracts, adds Garcia-Beltran. With delta, people have, on average, 1,000 times more virus particles in their respiratory tracts than with the original variants.

"I want to see what the viral loads look like for omicron," he says. "Samples from people who are actually infected — that's the gold standard. That's where the action is."
A tantalizing clue to why omicron is spreading so quickly

 

[Lilibet]

snipped for emphasis

“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.​

Sorry @Betty P, but I’m afraid they are right. My husband and I did everything right and didn’t expect to get covid last January, given how extremely careful we were. When we got it, our friends couldn’t believe it. We were the epitome of careful. But it found us, two weeks before we were eligible for our first vax. I had not been out of our apartment for months. All we know is that I came down with it a few days after my husband picked up prescriptions at our pharmacy…double masked. He showed symptoms a few days later. Our doctor thinks he actually was asymptomatic after walking through aerosol at the drugstore, gave it to me, and became symptomatic after I was. Who knows? My hospital respiratory therapist told me that 95% of her patients did not know how or where they got covid. Continue to be careful, but considering how contagious Omicron is, I think these doctors are giving us accurate information.​

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Covid: Firms urge PM for clarity on restrictions over Christmas

The latest here this morning.

 

[Betty P]

Sorry @Betty P, but I’m afraid they are right. My husband and I did everything right and didn’t expect to get covid last January, given how extremely careful we were. When we got it, our friends couldn’t believe it. We were the epitome of careful. But it found us, two weeks before we were eligible for our first vax. I had not been out of our apartment for months. All we know is that I came down with it a few days after my husband picked up prescriptions at our pharmacy…double masked. He showed symptoms a few days later. Our doctor thinks he actually was asymptomatic after walking through aerosol at the drugstore, gave it to me, and became symptomatic after I was. Who knows? My hospital respiratory therapist told me that 95% of her patients did not know how or where they got covid. Continue to be careful, but considering how contagious Omicron is, I think these doctors are giving us accurate information.​

So faar, they're the only doctors who have made that statement, so I'm taking it as just their opinion..

Of all my extended family, friends, neighbors and co workers, no one has gotten Covid 19 yet. Only 2 people in our neighborhood of 300 homes has gotten it.

I'm so sorry you and your husband did, though. I hope you're feeling better and didn't experience ant long term effects.

 

[Betty P]

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.

Thanks, good catch. Becoming endemic is a different matter. That occurs over a longer period of time as the virus becomes less harmful. It sounds like a miscommunication.

 

[GRT]

I recall, years ago, a conversation with a friend about how we envisaged the extinction of humans. His guess was nuclear war and cold winter. My guess was a virus. jmo

That's my guess now, too. Before covid, I thought it would be more along the lines of nuclear, or an asteroid hitting the earth, or tectonic plate shift.

 

[Lilibet]

So faar, they're the only doctors who have made that statement, so I'm taking it as just their opinion..

Of all my extended family, friends, neighbors and co workers, no one has gotten Covid 19 yet. Only 2 people in our neighborhood of 300 homes has gotten it.

I'm so sorry you and your husband did, though. I hope you're feeling better and didn't experience ant long term effects.

Despite my 6 day stay in the hospital, we came through it fine with no long term effects except that I could use fuzzy “covid brain fog” as an excuse for memory lapses for awhile. Only one of our friends (fully vaxxed) has gotten it and she works in a restaurant. My very careful BIL and SIL who live 900 miles away also got covid when we did before they could be vaxxed. So like you, we know very few who have been found by the virus, even though not all our friends are as careful as we are. My main point of agreement with those doctors’ opinions is that we still need to get vaxxed and boosted and take all other precautions, but expecting that we have built a shield of protection and won’t get omicron or another variant is not a realistic expectation. It’s a very sneaky virus. I certainly hope you can avoid it though or have a mild case.

 

[CharlestonGal]

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.

This is actually pretty accurate. No, everyone will not get it during the actual pandemic, but unless you are a hermit with no contact with the outside world, you are going to come into contact with this virus at some point. It is not going to go away. It's already in too many animal reservoirs to be eradicated even if we tried.

It will become endemic. There will be pockets of breakouts here and there. There will be good seasons and bad seasons (like the flu) and it's a rare person - if any - who never gets the flu or a cold in their entire lifetime.

The doctor is correct, unfortunately.

 

[jjenny]

So faar, they're the only doctors who have made that statement, so I'm taking it as just their opinion..

Of all my extended family, friends, neighbors and co workers, no one has gotten Covid 19 yet. Only 2 people in our neighborhood of 300 homes has gotten it.

I'm so sorry you and your husband did, though. I hope you're feeling better and didn't experience ant long term effects.

A whole bunch of my relatives had covid already (none were vaxxed at the time). One relative ended up in the hospital. The rest had mild or relatively mild symptoms.

 

[CharlestonGal]

Has anyone seen what the viral load is with Omicron yet?

I have been looking for it, but I am yet to find any real figures.


Scientists need to measure the viral loads inside people's respiratory tracts, adds Garcia-Beltran. With delta, people have, on average, 1,000 times more virus particles in their respiratory tracts than with the original variants.

"I want to see what the viral loads look like for omicron," he says. "Samples from people who are actually infected — that's the gold standard. That's where the action is."
A tantalizing clue to why omicron is spreading so quickly

I haven't see the viral load figures in sheer number. What I have seen is that Omicron replicates much, much more quickly in the upper respiratory tract making infected people infectious themselves much more quickly - and dramatically reducing the incubation period. They get sick in 2-3 days rather than 5-7. This is going to put a lot of pressure on the testing system because you no longer have the luxury of 5 days to track down contacts. By then, they already will have been spreading for 2-3 days before you even find them and test them.

But the positive note is that Omicron seems less efficient at infecting actual lung tissue. It does very well in the bronchus (67x better than Delta is what I read), but starts to struggle when it reaches lung tissue.

I don't know that it achieves a higher viral load overall, just that it reaches that load much faster. jmo

 

[CharlestonGal]

German COVID experts push for immediate contact limits

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases recommended on Tuesday imposing "maximum contact restrictions" at once, to fight a looming tide of infections caused by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The body also recommended restricting travel only to what was absolutely necessary, accelerating the vaccination campaign and ensuring that enough free coronavirus tests were available.

 

[CharlestonGal]

1st known US death related to omicron variant confirmed in Texas

HOUSTON (AP) - An unvaccinated man with health issues has become the first person in the United States whose death has been linked to COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the death of the man in his 50s in the Houston area during a news conference Monday. It is the first known death in the U.S. related to omicron.

One Houston hospital system has reported the omicron variant is accounting for 82% of new COVID-19 cases it is treating.

The medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital said in a tweet Sunday that the omicron variant became the “cause of the supermajority” of new Houston Methodist cases in less than three weeks. In comparison, the delta variant took three months during the summer before it was the cause of more than 80% of cases.

 

[CSIDreamer]

We are on total diversion, and the only time vaccination status would come under consideration is the tiebreaker I mentioned previously. If only one ICU bed or vent was available it would go to the vaccinated patient rather than the unvaccinated patient.

Two hospitals here don’t accept COVID patients at all once 50% of the ICU is full of COVID patients. Non-COVID patients still need to have beds available.

Failing to get vaccinated isn’t the only personal choice that can affect your healthcare options. For example, organ transplant programs don’t accept smokers, drug users, or patients who have problems with alcohol.

Maybe I've misunderstood Indiana's CSC. Is that a standard for all hospitals? Because the most recent tiebreaker standard I'm finding is first come, first served. If hospitals are allowed to implement and write their own CSC then I guess it makes sense.

 

[CharlestonGal]

Maybe I've misunderstood Indiana's CSC. Is that a standard for all hospitals? Because the most recent tiebreaker standard I'm finding is first come, first served. If hospitals are allowed to implement and write their own CSC then I guess it makes sense.

I'm not saying there are not hospitals out there doing this; maybe they are. But it certainly is an unconventional approach to medical triage and likely would not survive a meeting of the ethics committee. jmo

 

[WildOrchid]

I could have written this myself. I agree with all of this and have prepared in the same way. Virtual hugs to you. At this point, “this too shall pass” is too trite to say. Maybe “keep on keepin on” is better. We are all here to have each other’s backs, at least. I know I find comfort here every day when it seems the world has gone mad.

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.

 

[WildOrchid]

I will say this: I was unknowingly exposed at work 3 weeks ago. The patient and I were both masked, both triple vaxxed. I was within a foot of her face at times over the course of an hour in a closed room. She mentioned feeling “sniffly” a couple of days back and that 3 family members she visited had gotten ill from a bug. Guess what? All of them ended up testing positive including the patient. Thank God, I did not catch it and her symptoms remained like a bad cold when it finally reared its head after I saw her. I am no longer hopeful that I won’t catch it. But I am hopeful that with the shots, masks, not doing unnecessary and unmasked social activities, maybe it’ll be mild. I have to work and school is still in session for my little one. All we can do is our very best and try to stay healthy and sane (and not flick dumb people in the head).
PS my Christmas plans just changed. My adult stepchild had a huge outbreak at her job and is testing negative but has Delta-like symptoms so she is staying away.