Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #48

[rogue ant]

We had two cats, littermates, that died a few years ago about a year apart. It was hard to let them go, but we did not adopt another cat (or two) because we were getting older and I was worried about being able to take care of them. Schlepping heavy boxes of cat litter and keeping food stocked up was getting harder. But if I were alone, I would definitely be fostering an older cat or two right now. The love and companionship would mean a lot!

RSBM
Same. We're not getting any younger and after our last one goes (still have two) we will not be getting any more, due to age.

 

[Trino]

I've never had Chickenpox. I'm in my late 40s now and am always afraid I'll get it. I've heard it's so much worse as an adult.

I did not think I had ever had it either, but discussing shingles shots with my doctor, he said nearly everyone in older generations had had it - maybe thought it was measles.

 

[Sundog]

Again, i would suggest viewing the youtube videos with Dr. John
Campbell. He often shows the statistical differences by gender. His statistical graphs often show the much higher number of male cases in all groups but the oldest people. Saying that since women live longer than men anyway, the number of cases in women in the oldest age bracket show more women, because there simply ARE more women in that group. The cases in Canada may be including much more of these older women.

There was an article posted earlier by @instilla.grandma that included information about women being many of the essential workers on the front line to fight the pandemic, including:

"Women make up nearly nine out of 10 nurses and nursing assistants, most respiratory therapists, the majority of pharmacists and the overwhelming majority of pharmacy aides and technicians. More than two-thirds of the workers at grocery store checkouts and fast food counters are women."

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Yes, some doctors say this develops during the second to third week of being infected. It comes out of no where, people can't breathe. But other's infected never go through this. Then everything doctors are learning about ventilator usage too. Sadly, it took time to figure this all out, standard protocol didn't fit

They now know, after a few months of treating covid patients, they can't operate the ventilator the same way they would a patient( not infected) in respiratory failure. In these patients their muscles are too tired to breathe for them, so the ventilator does all the breathing

Covid patients do not have the same problem with their muscles being too tired to breathe. They can breathe on their own. But if the ventilator pressures is too high, the forced oxygen causes trauma to air sacs damaging the lungs, so the ventilator pressure needs to be set, or operated differently, at a lower pressure. Treatment is different for each patient. Although they have low oxygen levels in their blood, they don't necessarily have to be intubated.

I first heard about the damage/deaths from the usage of ventilators a few weeks ago from a NY, ER doctor, Dr. Cameron Kyle Sydell. He wrote a letter and did a YouTube video to spread the word to other doctors across the country about what he has figured out in nine days, treating covid patients

April 6th

Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell is an ED-ICU Doc at Maimonides in New York, currently under the COVID fire. He clearly challenged the widespread, even if only recent belief, that one should intubate the COVID patients quite early, usually much earlier than one would in typical respiratory failure.

"This is Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sydell, E.R a critical care doctor from New York City. Nine days ago I opened an intensive care unit to care for the sickest COVID positive patients in the city, and in these nine days I’ve seen things I’ve never seen before.

In treating these patients, I have witnessed medical phenomena that just don’t make sense in the context of treating a disease that is supposed to be a viral pneumonia. Nine days ago I presume that opening an intensive care unit to treat patients with a virus causing a pneumonia that was ravaging lungs across the world starting out as something mild: cough and a sore throat, and progressively increasing in severity until ultimately ending in something called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome or ARDS.

This is the paradigm that every hospital in the country is working under. This is the disease, ARDS, that every hospital is preparing to treat. And this is the disease, ARDS, for which in the next 2 to 6 weeks 100,000 Americans might be put on a ventilator, and yet, everything I’ve seen in the last nine days – all the things that just don’t make sense: the patients I’m seeing in front of me, the lungs I’m trying to improve have led me to believe that COVID-19 is not this disease, and that we are operating under a medical paradigm that is untrue. In short, I believe we are treating the wrong disease, and I fear this misguided treatment will lead to a tremendous amount of harm to a great number of people in a very short time. As New York City appears to be about 10 days ahead of the country I feel compelled to get this information out. COVID-19 lung disease, as far as I can see, is not a pneumonia and should not be treated as one.

Rather, it appears as some kind of viral induced disease, most resembling high altitude sickness. It is as if tens of thousands of my fellow New Yorkers are on a plane at 30,000 feet in the cabin pressure is slowly being let out. These patients are slowly being starved of oxygen. I’ve seen patients depending on oxygen take off their oxygen and quickly progressed to a state of anxiety and emotional distress and eventually get blue in the face. And while they look like patients absolutely on the brink of death, they do not look like patients dying of pneumonia.

I’ve never been a mountain climber, and I do not know the conditions at base camp below the highest peaks in the world, but I suspect that the patients I’m seeing in front of me look most like as if a person was dropped off on the top of Mount Everest without time to acclimate."
(Letter continues )

Kyle-Sidell, MD: It's not pneumonia but high altitude pulmonary edema | American Press Association

A Doctor from ICU in New York, Speaks about what Is really happening with COVID19 patients
No matter what your thoughts are on Covid19, This NEEDS to be listened to...

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France

"A global debate has emerged among doctors treating COVID-19: When should patients who need help breathing be placed on ventilators -- and could intubation do some people more harm than good?

It's one of the biggest medical questions of the day, along with how effective the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine really is, a US doctor told AFP.

The statistics are also bad in the United Kingdom and in New York, where 80 percent of intubated patients die, according to the state's governor, often after spending a week or two in intensive care in which they are placed in an artificial coma and their muscles atrophy."

Doctors think ventilators might harm some COVID-19 patients - France 24

This really is so important. Hard to know in the very beginning...but glad it is finally becoming the protocol to not assume the protocol.

 

[musicaljoke]

Stranded abroad by coronavirus, they have to pay their own way home — and at a higher cost — Miami Herald

“Blair purchased a one-way ticket to Guayaquil in October 2019. He could have flown back to the United States on a commercial flight in March, but he thought the coronavirus restrictions would ease off in early April, so he didn’t feel the urgency to go home until last week.”

“Emergency relief for citizens stranded abroad should be covered,” said Blair, who has been traveling and working on a book in South America since the end of October 2019. “I don’t trust Peruvian healthcare in case I get sick. I would feel more comfortable back home in the United States.”

Travel insurance policies with emergency evacuation provisions would have covered the cost. Blair did not buy one prior to his trip. “
———-
Complaining about the cost of the ticket - had opportunity in March but didn’t feel the urgency until LAST WEEK.

He did not have a return ticket and was going to be there indefinitely- in a place he didn’t trust healthcare if he got sick.

It's rather difficult not to say out loud, "You made your bed ..."

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I guess if you can find lysol wipes and use those and kind of squat would be okay.

In reading of the very successful contact tracing in South Korea and Singapore, I did read of a case where an individual who had gone into a church to pray got covid... With the use of video monitors, and expert contact tracing they tracked down a couple who had been in the church earlier than this woman and were able to determine that they were, in fact, asymptomatic carriers.

 

[MaryG12]

I see the latest supermarket item to be hoarded is toilet bowl cleaner. WTH?

Oh and the TP shelves are bare once again at Publix.

But they still had Easter cookie plates (the fancy kind of cookies) marked down so I picked up one for hubby and myself.

Weird.......

 

[Trino]

Check out the US stats and stats for each state. How can we think of reopening? IMO too soon. Stats are going to again rise.
United States Coronavirus: 715,105 Cases and 37,889 Deaths - Worldometer

 

[Sundog]

Not about the markets specifically, but an interesting article about the Amish helping with the manufacturing of masks:

In Ohio, the Amish Take On the Coronavirus

Great article, incredible about the masks they are making for Cleveland Clinic, and other medical protective gear for New Jersey and others. Interesting that the people who make garden furniture from recycled plastic milk jugs, are now making face shields for hospital use instead. About 100,000 a day!

Also interesting that they are using tarp material to make fluid-resistant gowns and also waterproof Tyvek house wrap.

And the challenges they have with social distancing given their communal way of life.

Thanks for posting.

 

[Teche]

Smirk. Smirk. https://nypost.com/2020/04/17/lawye...efiantly-held-church-service-has-coronavirus/

Thank you!

That is interesting would the character Monk be loving the social distancing or be even more scared knowing of the virus?

After reading this thread for quite sometime, I can see where it’s fairly easy to cross that threshold. Who would have thought that we’d be obsessing about washing groceries and best methods to wipe down surfaces. I usually have the softest hands but now they feel like poorly tanned hide.

 

[Trino]

I'm 62 and never had chickenpox even though both my siblings had it when we were children. I was concerned when my daughter had it when she was 5, but I did't get it then either.

Told that to my doctor when my sons had it (discussed shingles shot). He laughed. Said somewhere along the line I had had it. There was no way I would not have gotten it when my sons had it. Yes. I got the shingles shot.

 

[Inthedetails]

I see the latest supermarket item to be hoarded is toilet bowl cleaner. WTH?

Oh and the TP shelves are bare once again at Publix.

But they still had Easter cookie plates (the fancy kind of cookies) marked down so I picked up one for hubby and myself.

Weird.......

I was able to get TP....until yesterday.

I don't really care - I can easily deal with other solutions, but disappointed in the selfish hoarders. If people didn't hoard, the supply would have remained normal.

The hoarders created the shortage problem. So I guess congrats to them on their success - problem was indeed created for others. Nice work.

jmo

 

[Lilibet]

Snipped
I wonder if this virus is like how I remember the chicken pox (for those of us who experienced that). Some kids got a bad case, others a mild case and didn't feel sick. It seemed like kids were generally better off than adults who got the chicken pox.

When it spread in my neighborhood, it didn't seem like I caught it and my mom assumed I just had a mild case as how could I miss it when all my friends had it.

I caught it later, in my teens, from the kids I babysat. I had a HORRIBLE case of it - very sick. I missed a couple of weeks of school.

Viruses are weird.

BBM

This is exactly what happened to my husband. His Mom said he had chickenpox when he was very young. I don’t know what he had then, but he caught a horrible case in his mid-30’s when it roared through his fifth grade classroom. He was so sick. He missed the last two weeks of school and only made it back the last day to say goodbye to his kids. Viruses are weird, indeed.

 

[Sundog]

RSBM
Same. We're not getting any younger and after our last one goes (still have two) we will not be getting any more, due to age.

After our dear cat, Jake, passed away, we decided to stay pet-free, for the same reasons you describe. But be careful, they find you. Now we have two.

 

[musicaljoke]

I learned a new word, fomite, as in "The authors concluded aerosol and fomite transmission of SARS-C0V-2 was "plausible" and may help inform COVID-19 mitigation efforts." (1)

I am learning so much from everyone here and all the useful links they provide. In Geography, I'm learning the demographics of countries that I haven't studied since grade 5. In History, I'm learning about the pandemic of 1919 and am still wondering why this was skipped entirely in school. And Epidemiology has something new to teach me every day. Then there's also Psychology, Sociology, Anatomy, Medicine, Mental Health, Statistics, Science, Politics, Disease Modelling ...

(1)https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/85466

 

[NuttMegg]

Florida blocks COVID-19 information from public as Gov. Ron DeSantis touts transparency

"When the Miami Herald sought information from the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office last month about COVID-19 deaths in the epicenter of Florida’s coronavirus outbreak, attorneys for the state health department moved to block the records from becoming public.

"Emails and phone conference appointments obtained through a public records request show that, while medical examiners across Florida had already released details about deaths in their counties, attorneys for the state spent more than a week trying to convince their counterparts in Miami-Dade County not to provide that information to the Herald."
------------------------------------------------------
"But since the state’s first confirmed coronavirus case, officials have kept some basic information confidential. Most notable: DeSantis has chosen not to reveal the names of nursing homes experiencing outbreaks — cases that, according to Florida Department of Health data, have resulted in at least 126 deaths."
---------------------------------------------------
"Families, Florida lawmakers and first responders have also urged the state to release the names of the nursing homes with confirmed cases. “Given what we’re facing, I just think we have to get past the old ways of doing things and open the flow of information,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who has called for the state to make the information public, wrote Tuesday on Facebook."

 

[MaryG12]

BBM

This is exactly what happened to my husband. His Mom said he had chickenpox when he was very young. I don’t know what he had then, but he caught a horrible case in his mid-30’s when it roared through his fifth grade classroom. He was so sick. He missed the last two weeks of school and only made it back the last day to say goodbye to his kids. Viruses are weird, indeed.

I had chickenpox during my sophomore year in high school (long before the vaccine for it existed) and the weird thing is this: no one else in my class had it, nor anyone else in the grades before or behind me (yeah I had friends from other grades). I wasn't around anyone else outside of high school who had it, either. I was out of school for about a month, too.

I have heard chickenpox is much worse for adults.

Yep, viruses are weird.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases
The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.

Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested this morning and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement. Lieber will appear this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts.

Very very interesting. It does point out this overall, and often underground issue, of international criminal activities when it comes to "sharing secrets" . We can see this in international "thriller' films... but it is much more real . What amazes me, so often is why and how the principal organization (Harvard) knows nothing. Or do they? Money talks, secrets walk.

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: April 18: 181 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa, 10 additional deaths 181 new positive tests and 10 more have passed. We now have 2,513 confirmed cases and 74 passed. And sadly the deaths are getting younger, too (under 60). A couple recently have been 18-40 (IMO).
UPDATE: Tyson Foods responds to Black Hawk County letter calling for temporary shutdown This has been updated from yesterday with Tyson's response.
Tyson confirms COVID-19 cases at Perry plant, doesn't disclose how many And now IMO-this is the 3rd Tyson plant in Iowa with confirmed cases.
Linn Co Medical Examiner: refrigerated trucks at ready for make-shift morgue
Mental health agencies expect increased pressure for services with extension of school closures

 

[tresir2012]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...7d3824-7139-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html

Contamination at CDC lab delayed rollout of coronavirus tests
"The failure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to quickly produce a test kit for detecting the novel coronavirus was triggered by a glaring scientific breakdown at the CDC’s central laboratory complex in Atlanta, according to scientists with knowledge of the matter and a determination by federal regulators.

The CDC facilities that assembled the kits violated sound manufacturing practices, resulting in contamination of one of the three test components used in the highly sensitive detection process, the scientists said.

The cross contamination most likely occurred because chemical mixtures were assembled into the kits within a lab space that was also handling synthetic coronavirus material. The scientists also said the proximity deviated from accepted procedures and jeopardized testing for the virus."
------------------------------------------
"The CDC’s delay in changing course after the test problems has hindered efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, which emerged in China in late 2019. It grew to a regional outbreak and, ultimately, a pandemic that has wrought widespread death and an unprecedented shuttering of the U.S. economy. As of April 17, the virus has infected at least 695,369 Americans and killed at least 32,454.

The failure with testing kept the public health labs from performing disease surveillance intended to predict and minimize harm before the virus became widely established in the United States. The impact has been magnified by the nation’s inability to rapidly expand the availability of testing.

There remains no proven cure or vaccine to prevent the onset of the virus, which scientists suspect jumped from an animal species to humans in Wuhan, China. Until effective medical countermeasures emerge, diagnostic testing is crucial to assessing the spread of the virus and containing it."

Seems a bit worrying to me, "most likely" ?

"The cross contamination most likely occurred because chemical mixtures were assembled into the kits within a lab space that was also handling synthetic coronavirus material. The scientists also said the proximity deviated from accepted procedures and jeopardized testing for the virus."

Where was this lab and what is synthetic coronavirus material? Did this happen at the labs in Atlanta?

"......glaring scientific breakdown at the CDC’s central laboratory complex in Atlanta, according to scientists with knowledge of the matter and a determination by federal regulators."