Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #105

[LadyL]

I feel like as a mother of a large family I've had to practically take on an extra part time job the past 2 years of predicting and planning ahead for needs for my family due to shortages. But I keep at it and have never regretted it. I'd have so much anxiety if I was constantly waiting last minute to see if the store had what we needed. No panic buying here.

Our local Walmart is constantly out of things. I never know what I will get in my order. I basically always buy a little extra of something though. An extra bottle of Dawn, another bag of cat food etc. I also tend to order two varieties of an item from them since if I order just one they rarely replace it with another variety when they inevitably cancel it on me.

I knew when we would be traveling and bought covid tests ahead of time. I pick up extra things I know we'll need for holiday meals ahead of time. My husband wanted pineapple upside down cake for his birthday. So I bought 2 jars of maraschino cherries instead of just the one I needed. I am buying clothes and shoes ahead for the next season. I was done Christmas shopping and had almost all presents wrapped by Thanksgiving. I buy my garden seeds months ahead of time and almost always in bulk now. I get a better price on it all that way. And if the seed companies start limiting sales this spring like they did the last two springs I'll be fine. No worries. No delays in starting my plants on time.

This summer I almost wondered if I was being foolish to even buy any more masks. Would we even be wearing masks now that we were all vaccinated? That seems so silly now. This week the company I've been buying from canceled our next shipment. And I noticed on the website they had suspended all orders temporarily due to being so overwhelmed. (most all of the masks are out of stock) But phew. I still have masks in stock and bought them before the prices were all jacked up online.

We had gotten into the bad habit of waiting till the last minute for everything and always only buying what we needed at the time. But we all spent years assuming whatever we were going to need would be on the shelves at a local store or 2 days shipping from Amazon. That is not the case now and it's not predicted to return to normal any time soon even.

So instead of just keeping money in the bank I now keep planning ahead of time. If I know I or my children or my parents are going to need it in the near future I don't consider it hoarding. I'm hedging my bets against inflation this way as well. We are almost guaranteed everything is going to continue to go up in price. I buy it early and at a cheaper price. And I'm really really thankful we can afford to do this at this time in our lives. My elderly parents can not. So I buy things for them too I know they will need. My mother was asking me about masks yesterday and I felt really good knowing I'd bought her masks she could use that were in the style comfortable to her. (Ear loops if you were wondering. lol She won't wear the N95 because she doesn't like the straps going around her head.)

I do the same thing and always have an extra bottle of whatever in the pantry just in case. But then I cleaned it out to make up a donation box so now I am rebuilding it again.

 

[LadyL]

Yes hospitalizations are going up with people sick from Covid.

Americans are being hospitalized with COVID-19 at record rates now. People who get very sick and are hospitalized with severe coronavirus symptoms largely have one thing in common: They are not vaccinated.

But there are people in the hospitals not sick with Covid who are counted as if they are sick with Covid.

Say you have 50 people so sick with Covid they have to be admitted to the hospital.

Then you have 50 people not sick with Covid admitted to the hospital for other things and they test positive.

The 50 not admitted for Covid get counted as Covid hospitalizations and this is what is misleading.

I don't think it's misleading. They have Covid and other medical conditions.

 

[Arkay]

Sorry to hear this.

Yes everything should be counted that your in the hospital for.

If your sick with Covid and sick with cancer you should be counted as being in the hospital for both.

If your positive with Covid but not sick with Covid and go to the hospital for a broken leg then you should be counted as being in the hospital for a broken leg only.

You don't count everything a person has when their in the hospital if they are not sick with it.

You could be hospitalized for appendicitis but also have diabetes and high blood pressure but your just counted as being in the hospital for your appendicitis.

You don't say 500 people are admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure when that is not why they are there. Hospitals take blood pressure, find it high, but don't say that is why your in the hospital. Ridiculous.

Misleading. Scares people.

I'm sorry, but again I have to totally disagree.

My point was the contagion factor of Covid, which requires a complete upheaval in a hospital due to transmissibility. Isolation is required which takes up a lot of space. Doctors, nurses, custodians etc. can and do get sick from their patients and cannot work.

The entire world needs the same supplies simultaneously, which leads to shortages of vital equipment.

@Cool Cats--- if high blood pressure and diabetes were contagious and deadly to those who came to the hospital for something else, your analogy would be valid. But it is not. Your doctor is not going to "catch" high blood pressure from you. Or diabetes. Or a broken leg.

Etcetera.


In a global epidemic which is spread by breathing, every case must be documented.

IMO and the opinion of doctors and scientists worldwide.

 

[nightowl1975]

If your positive with Covid but not sick with Covid and go to the hospital for a broken leg then you should be counted as being in the hospital for a broken leg only.

You don't count everything a person has when their in the hospital if they are not sick with it.

You could be hospitalized for appendicitis but also have diabetes and high blood pressure but your just counted as being in the hospital for your appendicitis.

You don't say 500 people are admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure when that is not why they are there. Hospitals take blood pressure, find it high, but don't say that is why your in the hospital. Ridiculous.

Misleading. Scares people.

The problem with this line of thinking is that a person with Covid doesn’t have to be sick from it to spread it. So, unlike the hypertension or diabetes example, the ortho patient with a broken bone AND Covid positive is going to have to be handled very differently than the ortho patient with a broken bone and hypertension or diabetes. Nobody is going to catch hypertension or diabetes.

So, yes, it matters that 500 people were admitted *with* Covid, regardless of whatever else is going on with them because Covid iso beds, supplies, and staff are very different than for those without Covid. To pretend it’s not an infectious disease that impacts many different variables in the hospital is foolish IMO.

 

[LadyL]

Sorry to hear this.

Yes everything should be counted that your in the hospital for.

If your sick with Covid and sick with cancer you should be counted as being in the hospital for both.

If your positive with Covid but not sick with Covid and go to the hospital for a broken leg then you should be counted as being in the hospital for a broken leg only.

You don't count everything a person has when their in the hospital if they are not sick with it.

You could be hospitalized for appendicitis but also have diabetes and high blood pressure but your just counted as being in the hospital for your appendicitis.

You don't say 500 people are admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure when that is not why they are there. Hospitals take blood pressure, find it high, but don't say that is why your in the hospital. Ridiculous.

Misleading. Scares people.

if they didn't inform us, some people would say that is misleading
it's highly contagious
I wanna know.

 

[LadyL]

sadly, the "upside" of omicron is that I can still use my mask supply... I remember people happily discarding masks after a vax, but I never felt comfortable enough to do that

oh no!
I didn't discard any of those supplies and have a crapload of hand sanitizer to show for it lol

 

[LadyL]

I'm sorry, but again I have to totally disagree.

My point was the contagion factor of Covid, which requires a complete upheaval in a hospital due to transmissibility. Isolation is required which takes up a lot of space. Doctors, nurses, custodians etc. can and do get sick from their patients and cannot work.

The entire world needs the same supplies simultaneously, which leads to shortages of vital equipment.

@Cool Cats--- if high blood pressure and diabetes were contagious and deadly to those who came to the hospital for something else, your analogy would be valid. But it is not. Your doctor is not going to "catch" high blood pressure from you. Or diabetes. Or a broken leg.

Etcetera.


In a global epidemic which is spread by breathing, every case must be documented.

IMO and the opinion of doctors and scientists worldwide.

yes! exactly!

 

[SouthAussie]

Sorry to hear this.

Yes everything should be counted that your in the hospital for.

If your sick with Covid and sick with cancer you should be counted as being in the hospital for both.

If your positive with Covid but not sick with Covid and go to the hospital for a broken leg then you should be counted as being in the hospital for a broken leg only.

You don't count everything a person has when their in the hospital if they are not sick with it.

You could be hospitalized for appendicitis but also have diabetes and high blood pressure but your just counted as being in the hospital for your appendicitis.

You don't say 500 people are admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure when that is not why they are there. Hospitals take blood pressure, find it high, but don't say that is why your in the hospital. Ridiculous.

Misleading. Scares people.

I understand what you are saying about the statistic being confusing, I guess this is why they are making the effort to clarify.

However, I think it is only misleading if we look at it through the narrow lens of "how many people are admitted to hospital because of covid".

(Others have addressed the strain on the hospital resources created by 'additional' asymptomatic cases of covid.)

If we look at it through the wider lens of how many people in the hospital have covid (turning it into a shakily controlled petri dish of virus, that is likely to spill due to the sheer number of covid-infected patients), we can see how dangerous this can be.

Go into hospital because you have severe injuries from a car accident. While you are there with your punctured lung and broken ribs, maybe catch covid. Double bonus that will likely affect your recovery from the car accident, while you are at your most vulnerable point.

Go into hospital for your cancer/kidney/other necessary treatments, perhaps catch covid while you are there. Now fight your debillitating condition and the virus.

Yes, that is scary.

imo

 

[Cool Cats]

I understand what you are saying about the statistic being confusing, I guess this is why they are making the effort to clarify.

However, I think it is only misleading if we look at it through the narrow lens of "how many people are admitted to hospital because of covid".

(Others have addressed the strain on the hospital resources created by 'additional' asymptomatic cases of covid.)

If we look at it through the wider lens of how many people in the hospital have covid (turning it into a shakily controlled petri dish of virus, that is likely to spill due to the sheer number of covid-infected patients), we can see how dangerous this can be.

Go into hospital because you have severe injuries from a car accident. While you are there with your punctured lung and broken ribs, maybe catch covid. Double bonus that will likely affect your recovery from the car accident, while you are at your most vulnerable point.

Go into hospital for your cancer/kidney/other necessary treatments, perhaps catch covid while you are there. Now fight your debillitating condition and the virus.

Yes, that is scary.

imo

Thanks, you put it really well, I appreciate it.

 

[SouthAussie]

I placed my 'weekly' online order for groceries last night. The soonest I can have delivery is three days after I placed my order. (Usually it is within 24 hours.) It is not a problem, starvation won't happen in this house anytime soon.

Our supply chain difficulties are going to be eased by shortening our close contact isolation time. (So many essential workers are isolating because they are a close contact.) Which is not the best move, virus-wise.

But I cannot imagine the juggling that the health and govt authorities are going through. Trying to slow the spread of the virus - so that the hospitals can manage - while simultaneously trying to keep the essential supply chains open.

imo

 

[Lilibet]

Here is a detailed article from WaPo explaining the meaning of the hospitalization stats being discussed on this thread regarding those who are hospitalized because of covid or with covid (and another ailment). Lots of graphs and math. But the bottom line is that covid is not being over-hyped, as those who feel the hospitalization stats are misleading and produce panic are saying. Hope this helps.

https://wapo.st/3to4je0

 

[pocketaccent]

Great debates, all!
Overly simplified but we can all conclude that although omicron may be less virulent, it is so extremely transmissible that our hospitals can get burdened very quickly to a dangerous level. We've been warned of this from doctors and health officials from the beginning.

 

[happyday]

Great. My daughter has dropped out of college. Since Spring Semester 2020, it has just been one drama after another on campus. They can't even commit to in person classes for next semester, which is supposed to start next week. Looks like she is not the only one...

College enrollment plummeted during the pandemic. This fall, it's even worse

I hear ya! I have two college kids—1 is graduating early this spring and 1 is a freshman. College has been awful for these kids. My senior had 1 regular semester before Covid and then a year and a half online, 1 back to class semester and now back to online for now. Kids are dropping out left and right at her school, and I don’t blame them. We’re paying $55,000 a year for online, isolation and loneliness. She stuck it out though, and now she’s almost done. We thought about taking a quarter off at the beginning of the pandemic, but she just decided to plug forward. Both options weren’t great. I wish academia would realize these kids are our future doctors, politicians, city planners….Do we really want them to have a sub-par online education? For the ones who don’t decide to leave school altogether. They really need to be in class since they are 100% vaccinated and masked w/no exceptions. Good luck to your daughter. I get it.

 

[cujenn81]

I work for a public school district in South Carolina, and I’m super confused about the latest quarantine guidelines. They follow whatever guidelines the state health department recommends, but this latest update just seems absurd to me.

Staff members can return to work five days after testing positive for COVID — if they no longer have symptoms — but they can’t return for TEN days if they have close contact with a family member that tests positive (even if they test negative five days after their contact tested positive and haven’t shown symptoms).

For example —
A co-worker of mine took a PCR test last Thursday because his wife tested positive (he hasn’t experienced any symptoms). He’s STILL waiting on the results of his test, but he could return to work tomorrow if they came back positive. On the other hand, if the results come back negative… he can’t return to work until Monday because his wife tested positive. Essentially, he’ll be better off if his tests results are positive.

Does this reasoning make any kind of sense to any of you? Because I’m completely at a loss.

 

[Cool Cats]

UPDATE 1-U.S. COVID deaths rising but likely due to Delta, not Omicron, says CDC chief

Hospitalizations have been on the rise since late December as Omicron surpassed the Delta variant as the dominant version of the coronavirus in the United States, although experts say Omicron will likely prove less deadly than prior iterations.

The recent increase in COVID deaths is likely a lagging effect of the Delta variant, which was surging before Omicron took hold in the United States in December, Walensky said.

With Delta and other prior variants, deaths have lagged infection rates by a few weeks.

"We may see deaths from Omicron but I suspect that the deaths that we're seeing now are still from Delta," Walensky said, adding that it will take time to understand how Omicron l impacts coronavirus death totals.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ Is Wishful Thinking

“For weeks, the watchword on Omicron in much of America has been some form of phew. A flurry of reports has encouraged a relatively rosy view of the variant, compared with some of its predecessors. Omicron appears to somewhat spare the lungs. Infected laboratory mice and hamsters seem to handily fight it off. Proportionally, fewer of the people who catch it wind up hospitalized or dead. All of this has allowed a deceptively reassuring narrative to take root and grow: Omicron is mild. The variant is docile, harmless, the cause of an #Omicold that’s no worse than a fleeting flu. It is so trivial, some have argued, that the world should simply “allow this mild infection to circulate,” and avoid slowing the spread. Omicron, as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky would have you believe, is “basically nature’s vaccine.”

These dismissals of the variant as trifling—desirable, even—represent “a very dangerous attitude,” Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale, told me. At the core of the problem sits the word mild itself, a slippery and pernicious term that “doesn’t mean what people think it means,” Neil Lewis, a behavioral scientist at Cornell, told me. Less severe forms of COVID-19 can certainly be experienced by individual people, especially if they’re vaccinated. And there are true reasons to think that Omicron, particle for particle, might be less toothsome than Delta. But Omicron’s unfettered spread has sowed a situation that is not mild at all. And right now, the notion of mildness is making the pandemic worse for everyone.”

A bit long but worth the read. JMO

 

[tarabull]

EU warns repeat boosters could weaken immune system - BNN Bloomberg

 

[CharlestonGal]

815,000 new US cases today. Another 2,200 dead. That's the equivalent of 10 fatal plane crashes per day. In the US alone. Unreal.



United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer

 

[CharlestonGal]

COVID-19 tests are free starting Saturday; how to get one; how to get it delivered

Here is what the plan includes:

· Insurance companies must pay for eight over the counter at-home COVID-19 tests per person, per month.

· Any of the 11 home test kits authorized or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (see the list below) are eligible for reimbursement.

· Most consumers will be able to get the tests covered up front at their insurer’s “preferred” pharmacies. Tests cost between $15 and $35 for a pack of two.

The FDA has authorized these 11 tests for home delivery or pharmacy reimbursement:

· CareStart COVID-19 Antigen Home Test;

· iHealth COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test;

· BD Veritor At-Home COVID-19 Test;

· SCoV-2 Ag Detect Rapid Self-Test;

· BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test;

· InteliSwab COVID-19 Rapid Test;

· Celltrion DiaTrust COVID-19 Ag Home Test;

· QuickVue At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test;

· Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Test;

· BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card 2 Home Test;

· Ellume COVID-19 Home Test.

 

[acutename]

I work for a public school district in South Carolina, and I’m super confused about the latest quarantine guidelines. They follow whatever guidelines the state health department recommends, but this latest update just seems absurd to me.

Staff members can return to work five days after testing positive for COVID — if they no longer have symptoms — but they can’t return for TEN days if they have close contact with a family member that tests positive (even if they test negative five days after their contact tested positive and haven’t shown symptoms).

For example —
A co-worker of mine took a PCR test last Thursday because his wife tested positive (he hasn’t experienced any symptoms). He’s STILL waiting on the results of his test, but he could return to work tomorrow if they came back positive. On the other hand, if the results come back negative… he can’t return to work until Monday because his wife tested positive. Essentially, he’ll be better off if his tests results are positive.

Does this reasoning make any kind of sense to any of you? Because I’m completely at a loss.

It makes no real sense (!) but this is what I imagine that their reasoning is: If he has COVID and no symptoms after 5 days, his body has cleared the infection and it is unlikely that he will get more/worse symptoms. If he does not have COVID but is exposed, he could possibly contract it near the end of his wife's "5 days" ... not have symptoms for about 3 days and then get a symptomatic case. IMO.