Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #104

[BetteDavisEyes]

'Not in a good place': Hospitals prepare for omicron surge after holidays (nbcnews.com)

Health care workers, already pushed to their limits, are bracing for an onslaught of Covid patients after the holiday season.

 

[CharlestonGal]

'Not in a good place': Hospitals prepare for omicron surge after holidays (nbcnews.com)

Health care workers, already pushed to their limits, are bracing for an onslaught of Covid patients after the holiday season.

I still do contract work for the VA hospital here and this morning they canceled all time off, unless an emergency, for the next two weeks. It doesn't apply to me under my contract, but it affects all employees. I imagine they may extend it because I don't see anything being better two weeks from now.

It doesn't get much press, but the death rate from covid at VA hospitals is astronomical. They've had a similar number of cases as active duty military, ~400,000, but 17,500 vets have died compared to 632 active military. The whole staff is traumatized. jmo

 

[Sundog]

Here we didn’t have a choice. The mass vaccination sites were giving Pfizer so that’s what you got. Pharmacy had Moderna so that’s what I got.
Walgreens said they only had either or, they never had both vaccines at the same time for patients to have the choice.

Our local Walgreen's pharmacy had the Pfizer vaccine, but Walgreen's had a web page that you could search by zip code and find out which Walgreen's had Pfizer and which had Moderna. There were several Walgreen pharmacies within a 100 mile drive that had Moderna if people specifically wanted that brand, but they would have to make an appointment online and then drive to that Walgreen's pharmacy.

 

[ilovewings]

¡

'Not in a good place': Hospitals prepare for omicron surge after holidays (nbcnews.com)

Health care workers, already pushed to their limits, are bracing for an onslaught of Covid patients after the holiday season.

The oblivious and selfish behavior of a segment of our population
here in the United States is driving this massive surge, and is unforgiveable.
These people simply dont care about anything but their immediate
gratification. They disgust me.

 

[CharlestonGal]

These two headlines right next to each other on CNN.

CNN - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

 

[CSIDreamer]

We are getting there on vaccination rates.

COVID Data Tracker

 

[CharlestonGal]

New Omicron variant fills up children's hospitals - CNN

(CNN)A five-fold increase in pediatric admissions in New York City this month. Close to double the numbers admitted in Washington, DC. And nationwide, on average, pediatric hospitalizations are up 35% in just the past week.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant is teaming up with the busy holiday season to infect more children across the United States than ever before, and children's hospitals are bracing for it to get even worse.

And while the Delta variant infected more children than previous variants, Omicron is looking even worse, Spinner said. "What's concerning on the (pediatric) side is that, unlike the adults -- where they're reporting for the number of adults getting infected relatively low numbers getting hospitalized -- what we're really seeing, we think, is an increasing number of kids being hospitalized," Spinner said.

While Spinner sees little evidence the Omicron variant is causing more severe disease in children than previous variants did, he's also seeing no evidence it's milder.

 

[tabitha111]

ACK....no one wearing masks here just skeeves me out. Our activity director is home sick with a "cold" .. yah sure...they are keeping it all hush-hush because after all this is a "business" no matter how you look at it as a place to live, above all it is a business.

 

[Teche]

Thanks Lilibet! I actually retired fairly recently so I no longer am on the unit. I miss my coworkers, mommy's and especially the babies! Time however marches on, and it was time for me to retire.

Thank you for your years of devotion to moms and babies.

 

[MrX]

This makes more sense.

8 out of 100,000 versus 2. If there was not substantial immunity imparted by repeated exposure I would expect those numbers to be way farther apart. I understand the hesitancy to give credence to natural immunity, because it encourages undesirable choices, but, at some point, it will have to be explored and explained.

 

[Yesiamapirate]

We are getting there on vaccination rates.

COVID Data Tracker

While I understand that the vaccine does not prevent Covid but minimizes severity, I am still sad that with these vaccine numbers, we are still seeing record surges.
I really thought covid would be at a 'simmer' and not a 'surge' by now.
Not disappointed in the vaccine, just disappointed in the whole darn thing.

 

[Teche]

@LaborDayRN I am amazed at the jobs that nurses perform and I cannot imagine the stress of working your job during Covid.

I'm curious about what @Teche said about her daughter's job as well. If either of you can explain to me....

I can understand a vaginal delivery potentially aerosolizing Covid since Covid can affect any cells in the body, but I don't understand how a maskless delivery is not dangerous in and of itself. Deep deep deep breathing, grunting, heaving, vomiting and all we go through during labor; it seems so dangerous for anyone in the room, IMO. Although of course I can't imagine enduring what we endure with a mask on during labor, either.

Also, just again out of curiosity....have any of you in the field noticed any significant change in the birth rate during Covid? Higher, because couples spent so much time at home together? Lower, because people put off having babies during a scary time to be in a hospital or to have a vulnerable newborn? Nothing different?

TIA

ETA: Oops @LaborDayRN , just saw after I posted that you have retired! Congratulations!!!!

I’ll ask my daughter to explain.

 

[LaborDayRN]

Thank you for your years of devotion to moms and babies.

Thanks Teche. I feel blessed to have been able to do it.

 

[LaborDayRN]

Fairly good news in the UK and some from the U.S. so far.

 

[CSIDreamer]

While I understand that the vaccine does not prevent Covid but minimizes severity, I am still sad that with these vaccine numbers, we are still seeing record surges.
I really thought covid would be at a 'simmer' and not a 'surge' by now.
Not disappointed in the vaccine, just disappointed in the whole darn thing.

I'm kind of hoping Omicron is the end of it. I've said a million times, this virus is going to do what it wants. Praying it's getting weaker and burning itself out.

 

[CharlestonGal]

I'm sick and bored and have been looking at random data. So, what the heck is up with Arizona??? They are #3 in deaths per million (3,295), behind only #1 Mississippi (3,494) and #2 Alabama (3,348).

Their four corners neighbors Utah (1,176), New Mexico (2,754), and Colorado (1,817) are all much, much lower in deaths per million than Arizona. As are all 47 other states.

So, what's up with that? Any ideas? I see their vaccination rate is really low (56%) but so is my state (53%) and we're currently #16 in deaths per million, which is not great, but way better than #3 Arizona. jmo

United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer

 

[Teche]

Delta CEO asks CDC to cut quarantine time for breakthrough COVID cases

So did the CDC lower the quarantine days because of Delta Airline’s prompting? Now doesn’t that seem like the CDC has our interests in mind

 

[IceIce9]

I hate to say this but it seems to be against Omicron, the two injections of the vaccine we had earlier this year are useless. If a person does not get the booster, they are very vulnerable to Omicron. In addition to that, what I have read is that the booster's efficacy lasts for about ten weeks, and that is not very long. The way I see it we are going to need a fourth shot pretty soon. I had my Moderna booster on Nov 17---so by February I will need another booster and if the boosters are not ready until March, then many of us will be vulnerable to Omicron. Hopefully Omicron will be gone by then. Of course another variant may develop by then, one that can completely bypass the vaccines we have to date. We have the unvaccinated to thank for this horror.

I had my booster in August. Probably I will be due for another booster

 

[CharlestonGal]

I had my booster in August. Probably I will be due for another booster

Maybe you can argue for another booster now, based on the latest data the boosters wane after 10 weeks?

COVID Booster Protection May Wane in About 10 Weeks, New Data Shows

 

[IceIce9]

From what I can gather some facilities had Pfizer, some had Moderna,
so you got whatever that facility had available. I dont believe most facilities had both and gave you a choice--- the pharmacy I went to had Moderna

When we schedule our vaccinations on the website, there is a list of locations and each location lists whether they have Pfizer or Moderna or both. So you can choose which you want when you schedule your appointment.