Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #58

[CharlestonGal]

They had masks on so its OK.

Just posting this DM link. UK is going to be over CV19 by September and the US by November. New info from Singapore.

Coronavirus could be completely wiped out in Britain by September 30 | Daily Mail Online

Maybe the DM should tell that to all the countries spending billions of dollars researching a vaccine that is not necessary after all. I'm sure they will be greatly relieved.

 

[MsArk]

Thank you for volunteering to be a guinea pig. Someone has to test the waters in order for the rest of us to make properly informed decisions. I know that sounds ruthless, but it is what it is.

You aren’t the one who is being ruthless.

 

[Simply Southern]

It's not that hard to connect the dots between cause and effect. All front line health workers should have been required to self-isolate from the beginning including those who worked at the Kirkland Life Care Center. The news media carried multiple stories about NYC hospital doctors and nurses not interacting their families when they got home from work or sending their children to isolate with other family members. One story was about a National Guard nurse who was sent to NYC's field hospital. After it was determined it was no longer needed, her entire unit was sent somewhere to self-isolate for two weeks before returning to their homes/families.

Yet no such requirement has been made of health staff at private nursing homes, at least not in my state. The state health departments have failed miserably in their duty to protect our most vulnerable. The Nebraska nursing home had been locked down for more than a month when their first case was diagnosed. The only way the virus could have been transmitted was via a staff member. Nobody else had been allowed inside the facility.

JMO

I agree, it would have made a big difference in death rate, if LTC and ALF employees isolated. I think its an economic issue, most of the support staff at LTC and ALF are very low wage positions, shift work. Most are women and mothers, and some work two jobs, they don't have the financial means or family support to self isolate.

All facilities have patients leaving the faculty, even during Convid. Trips to dialysis, treatment and some ER visits. Most all have an isolate wing, and require 14 days. Moo, exposures is happening on the out of facility trips, these folks are immune compromised, at high risk, I think that's the enter point.

 

[CharlestonGal]

How so when the Flu is more deadly to 2/3 of the US Population than Covid19? Are Covid 19 deaths the only meaningful deaths now? What about the 4,600 people that died due to Cuomo putting Covid patients in Nursing homes?

What about Cancer patients that died because they couldn’t have chemo?

The solution that’s going to happen is this: if you want to shelter in place until a vaccine is created then you can but the majority of people won’t do that because we don’t need too. I’m not going to come anywhere near you unless you leave your house so we won’t bother each other. I don’t understand why that’s so hard?

Classes will be in person and sports will be played this fall with fans. That’s what’s going to happen. Continue to shelter if you’re at risk and problem solved.

"The CDC, they note "like many similar disease control agencies around the world, presents seasonal influenza morbidity and mortality not as raw counts but as calculated estimates based on submitted International Classification of Diseases codes."

Thus, between 2013 and 2019, the yearly seasonal influenza deaths ranged from 23,000 to 61,000. However, the actual number of counted influenza deaths over that timespan ranged between 3,448 and 15,620 deaths each year. On average, the researchers said, CDC influenza death estimates are about six times greater than the number of counted deaths.

Conversely, COVID-19 deaths are not estimated, but counted and reported directly. The researchers suggested that a more valid measure would be to compare weekly counts of COVID-19 deaths to weekly counts of seasonal influenza deaths.

So, they did.

During two weeks in mid-April, 29,933 COVID-19 deaths were counted in the United States. In contrast, according to CDC, counted deaths during the peak week of the influenza seasons from 2013-2020 ranged from 351 (2016) to 1626 (2018).

The mean number of counted deaths during the peak week of influenza seasons from 2013-2020 was 752.4."

Study Shows COVID-19 Body Count 20 Times Higher Than Seasonal Flu Deaths

 

[tresir2012]

This is the scene out of my window at the beach. Nonstop people walking by....no masks. I live close to the beach so they all pass by.

I’m staying in. Thankfully I have a very large yard/garden for a shore house.

I passed only one person on my walk today. On a footpath with a wider bit at the end a woman and her three dogs came around the corner walking towards me with no intention of distancing or stepping to one side to wait while I passed at the wider secton. So I stopped with my dogs and called out "could you just wait in that area while I pass" and she stopped and went back to wait in the wider area for me to pass. The dogs got close to each other. I thanked her and said, "it's ok for the dogs to get close" and she smiled. But if I had not said anything she would not have done that. I don't know why some people don't care, but that is how it is. Mind you, I often pick up others dog poo and litter with my pooper scooper too that people don't clear up. People in general are selfish and that is how they are.

 

[jjenny]

Maybe the DM should tell that to all the countries spending billions of dollars researching a vaccine that is not necessary after all. I'm sure they will be greatly relieved.

Yea, it will miraculously disappear. Now, where did I hear that before?

 

[CharlestonGal]

You aren’t the one who is being ruthless.

Thank you. I've always been one to sit back and learn from other people's mistakes rather than learning the hard way by making those mistakes myself.

 

[ilovewings]

There is much truth in your statement. I don't like the new future, I'm gonna miss out on so much.

I worked years to retire, travel, have fun, now I'm at home, underlying, health condition, watching the world go by.

Yes, us old folks want everyone to wear a mask so we can come out and work or play.

Yes, the world will go on for most, they will adapt, thrive and experience some set back, but the world will go on.

With respect to flu deaths v. Covid deaths. It must be that flu patients die quietly- don't know how else to phrase it. I know there are thousands of flu deaths every year --- so what is different about Covid deaths? it seems to me the difference is that the Covid patients really taxed the medical system due to the respiratory aspect of the disease. So many patients were unable to breathe: they required intense respiratory care including oxygen and ventilators: additionally, it appears that Covid was more contagious as many front line workers wound up getting Covid. Hospitals were apparently not ready for the influx of so many patients that required such intense respiratory assistance-- Covid deaths are apparently agonizing and ugly. All death is ugly of course but Covid
is a particularly horrible way to die because patients can't breathe. I don't know how else to compare the flu with Covid

 

[MyBelle]

I may have misinterpreted what you said, or maybe it was a typo with your 800,000 number. The flu and our yearly response (or non-response to it) is directly relevant to the discussion, and I have used the comparison often. I posted last week on the absurd media over-response to a dozen or so children dying of COVID-19, when hundreds of children die of the flu every year and nobody blinks an eye. Healthy children and adults up to age 50/60 have no more to fear from CV-19 than the flu, and probably less.

This far, COVID-19 has been 2-3x more deadly per infection than the flu , but the CV-19 death rate will decrease going forward with better medical care and the vulnerable being better protected.

There won't be a vaccine for another year if ever. We will be living with the virus pretty much until it flames out, although it may come back seasonally like the flu. The best solution may be to let it rip through the healthy population this summer, since vulnerable people will be sheltering no matter what course is taken. Still thinking that approach through though.

This new syndrome has symptoms such as foot blisters, skin rashes that a parent may not recognize as tied to Covid-19. A child with the flu has obvious symptoms. sThere is also flu vaccine and medications such as Theraflu. I don't believe it is "absurd" for the media to alert the public about these cases. They aren't inventing facts.

Healthy people under the age of 50 are also getting Covid-19 and getting very sick and close to death.

He ran marathons and was fit. So why did Covid-19 almost kill him? - STAT

 

[CharlestonGal]

My plan is stay living in a rural coastal area off the beaten track and never go in an old persons home.

I'm leaning towards leaving the US altogether until it gets its act together.

Iceland, New Zealand and Australia all seem like reasonable bets and I like all three of them pretty much equally. I don't know if any of them are issuing visas to Americans at the moment though. I probably wouldn't if I were them, but one can hope.

 

[tresir2012]

Maybe the DM should tell that to all the countries spending billions of dollars researching a vaccine that is not necessary after all. I'm sure they will be greatly relieved.

I thought posters would be interested in some good news. If there is no second wave, that's great news isn't it?

 

[firebird]

dbm

 

[tresir2012]

Estimated Influenza Illnesses, Medical visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths in the United States — 2018–2019 influenza season | CDC

Here's some info on the 'flu. Looks pretty bad to me but they only seem to be estimating.

 

[tresir2012]

I'm leaning towards leaving the US altogether until it gets its act together.

Iceland, New Zealand and Australia all seem like reasonable bets and I like all three of them pretty much equally. I don't know if any of them are issuing visas to Americans at the moment though. I probably wouldn't if I were them, but one can hope.

I wouldn't want to live in Iceland. It's dark for half the year. Oz and NZ are great.

 

[ilovewings]

There is much truth in your statement. I don't like the new future, I'm gonna miss out on so much.

I worked years to retire, travel, have fun, now I'm at home, underlying, health condition, watching the world go by.

Yes, us old folks want everyone to wear a mask so we can come out and work or play.

Yes, the world will go on for most, they will adapt, thrive and experience some set back, but the world will go on.

With respect to flu deaths v. Covid deaths. It must be that flu patients die quietly- don't know how else to phrase it. I know there are thousands of flu deaths every year --- so what is different about Covid deaths? it seems to me the difference is that the Covid patients really taxed the medical system due to the respiratory aspect of the disease. So many patients were unable to breathe: they required intense respiratory care including oxygen and ventilators: additionally, it appears that Covid was more contagious as many front line workers wound up getting Covid. Hospitals were apparently not ready for the influx of so many patients that required such intense respiratory assistance-- Covid deaths are apparently agonizing and ugly. All death is ugly of course but Covid
is a particularly horrible way to die because patients can't breathe. I don't know how else to compare the flu with Covid

 

[Lavender Moon]

Every time I hear the argument about people who would probably die anyway, or should just take their chances with the virus reminds me of Shirley Jackson's short story, The Lottery.

That's a " must-read".

It's a film too, if you can find it. I watched in school, a long time ago.

It's a film too, if you can find it. I watched in school, a long time ago.

Yes, it's also a play. I performed in it in high school. It really made an impression on me and I often think about it. It's as relevant to our present time as it was to the time in which it was first written.

 

[Tillicum]

I thought posters would be interested in some good news. If there is no second wave, that's great news isn't it?

We have an excellent example of glass half full verses glass half empty on the thread.

 

[Lavender Moon]

That is a must read !!!

Lol...I think you and I must be on the same wavelength.

 

[musicaljoke]

Estimated Influenza Illnesses, Medical visits, Hospitalizations, and Deaths in the United States — 2018–2019 influenza season | CDC

Here's some info on the 'flu. Looks pretty bad to me but they only seem to be estimating.

Yes, it does look bad. CDC estimates that the 2018–2019 season included an estimated 34,200 deaths from influenza. That's with a vaccine which is probably taken by a large part of the vulnerable population.

CoVid-19 is much worse. In the past two months there have been 98,652 deaths, and that's even though the country has taken extreme measures to try to prevent the spread. The annual tally is not in yet.

 

[MyBelle]

I agree, it would have made a big difference in death rate, if LTC and ALF employees isolated. I think its an economic issue, most of the support staff at LTC and ALF are very low wage positions, shift work. Most are women and mothers, and some work two jobs, they don't have the financial means or family support to self isolate.

All facilities have patients leaving the faculty, even during Convid. Trips to dialysis, treatment and some ER visits. Most all have an isolate wing, and require 14 days. Moo, exposures is happening on the out of facility trips, these folks are immune compromised, at high risk, I think that's the enter point.

Even if residents are transported to other health facilities, those facilities and their workers also have a duty to implement safe guards such as PPE and self-isolating at home. It doesn't require any additional money to self-isolate in one's own home. Their employer has a duty to protect the patients as well as other staff. There really is no excuse.

Fearing COVID-19 spread to families, health care workers self-isolate at home
"The least you could do is stay home so that we, too, can go home to our loved ones one day,” Dr. Tim Cheng posted on social media.

Forrest Preston
In 2016, the company agreed to pay $145 million to settle a government lawsuit alleging that the firm had over-billed federal healthcare programs.