Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #68

[CharlestonGal]

Quite different from what a patient pays for a visit to the ER here in Sweden, it's about $40 including all needed tests, and a patient with suspected Covid-19 doesn't pay anything.
I hope that the cost for your friend's hospital visit will get solved for the better, as having that to worry about won't make his recovery easier.

I was hospitalized a few years ago for 5 days. The bill was nearly $60,000 and I wasn't even in the ICU. I have no idea how our millions without insurance manage.

 

[ArianeEmory]

‘Highly irate:’ Tampa Bay mask rules spur hundreds of police calls

 

[Tate123]

Tell us more, Tate. What words of wisdom do you have after coming through those nightmare weeks?

We had excellent leadership that believed in science, had empathy, and gave us hope through the entire situation. We needed that. It was terrifying at times and a lot of sacrifices had to be made. (I'm in healthcare and to avoid contaminating others, I have not seen my 5 daughters, my granddaughters, my sisters or my fiance since March 4th). It can be done...I'm proud of NY.

 

[beatrixpotter]

I can see that your drill is different than ours.

Test results came back in less than 2 days. Everyone is greeted at the doctor's office or hospital door with a nurse in full ppe, who checks them for symptoms, then gives the patient a mask to put on. The doctor's office and hospitals don't have more than one person in the waiting rooms. You can't come into the hspt unless you have the next appointment. After your appointment you are escorted to an exit. (Ontario).

Ah, i see the difference now. I live in a plague state and you live in a first world country.

 

[SouthAussie]

We had excellent leadership that believed in science, had empathy, and gave us hope through the entire situation. We needed that. It was terrifying at times and a lot of sacrifices had to be made. (I'm in healthcare and to avoid contaminating others, I have not seen my 5 daughters, my granddaughters, my sisters or my fiance since March 4th). It can be done...I'm proud of NY.

Yes, you have a good and strong empathetic leader. That counts for a lot.

Your sacrifices have been many, but you were given hope. NY tough, with kindness deep in your hearts. Yes.

 

[ArianeEmory]

Florida Records Nation’s One-Day Peak for New Virus Cases

(This has been covered a lot today but I think this NYT write up is new.)

 

[Spider92]

We had excellent leadership that believed in science, had empathy, and gave us hope through the entire situation. We needed that. It was terrifying at times and a lot of sacrifices had to be made. (I'm in healthcare and to avoid contaminating others, I have not seen my 5 daughters, my granddaughters, my sisters or my fiance since March 4th). It can be done...I'm proud of NY.

Kudos to you....I'm giving you a big virtual pat on the back!!!! (I'm not much of a hugger)
...playing "NY Groove" by Ace Frehley.

 

[tmar]

YIPPEE.
In Melbourne's lockdown, 177 new Covid 19 cases.
First time in 3 days, numbers less than 200, BUT...... (you never know).
Hope this is working well, but peak may still come, as Medicos are still not comfortable.
Small optimism with these numbers.

 

[musicaljoke]

We had excellent leadership that believed in science, had empathy, and gave us hope through the entire situation. We needed that. It was terrifying at times and a lot of sacrifices had to be made. (I'm in healthcare and to avoid contaminating others, I have not seen my 5 daughters, my granddaughters, my sisters or my fiance since March 4th). It can be done...I'm proud of NY.

I'm proud of NY too, and I'm thankful for you and your colleagues who sacrificed to keep people safe,

 

[ArianeEmory]

COVID-19 in Mississippi: 19 new deaths, 868 cases reported July 12

 

[musicaljoke]

Ah, i see the difference now. I live in a plague state and you live in a first world country.

Ugh. Surely it's not so. But I have seen through messages posted here on WS, that our social distancing behaviours are much more structured than what I've noticed in some US places.

 

[ArianeEmory]

'I am now paying the price': Grayson County sheriff, family test positive for coronavirus

'I am now paying the price': Grayson County sheriff, family test positive for coronavirus

 

[10ofRods]

BBM:

“More than a dozen members of the Australian Defence Force are believed to be lockdown this morning after visiting a Sydney pub at the centre of a new coronavirus outbreak.”

So much for providing “defense”.

SMH.

OTOH, it's not surprising that CoVid-19 is more associated with men/androgens/testosterone/adrenalin and...cultural notions of manliness. One would expect male-dominated professions to exhibit greater transmissibility (for whatever reason...is it the hormones? or the behaviors? or some mixture...)

It's not a huge difference between men and women, in terms of CoVid and the variables are not yet understood (and may vary by culture).

 

[TGIRecovered]

I live in a smallish city in Texas, but my loved ones, including grown children are in a very large city a few hours away. It’s easy to take a look at the rapidly growing numbers and see that we need a hard lockdown before the hospitals are completely overrun, not after. We need it before the schools and daycares open, not after! I don’t know anyone who wants that, but as Taste123 said, sacrifices must be made in order to protect lives. MOO

My work is online, I am alone, and that’s not good. I had to put my cat and my dog down within the last 3 months, (unrelated natural causes). It is too hot to walk or garden for more than a few minutes. I am keeping it together but just barely.

I’m very grateful to be able to converse with everyone here at WS! I look forward to Trisha’s podcasts. It’s like having a few friends (and their pets),over in my living room.

I’m ready to bite the bullet with a complete lockdown because this has got to be stopped, the sooner, the better!

 

[10ofRods]

'I am now paying the price': Grayson County sheriff, family test positive for coronavirus

'I am now paying the price': Grayson County sheriff, family test positive for coronavirus

Um...and he's still trying to blame his situation on the states that had ALMOST zero Coronavirus...before he arrived? Seriously?

I think it might very well be the other way around, based on data collection across the 50 states.

Anyway, I'd want way more evidence before blaming Montana for exporting CV to Kentucky.

Okay - it could have gone both ways - let's just go with that until more is known. Quit the blaming, people and stop traveling. The family also went through all these states on the way. At gas stations, etc.

I do not mean to blame the sheriff nor do I withhold sympathy, I feel terrible for him - a victim of a current government/culture that does not have an agreed-upon way of teaching the public. Of disseminating information. Of explaining (and yes, sometimes it requires maps and some repetition).

 

[anneg]

I was wondering the same. All units where I live and work are installed on a concrete pad outside the building. Air is from outside, then is cooled. Then goes through whatever filter is between the unit and the ductwork.

We do not have one, we often wish we did.

So...the filter would have to go on the outside, where the air is first brought in, zap it at a high temp (but very briefly) and then work the A/C system hard to cool it off. When it's hot here, the A/C can't usually get the temps down below 78-80° inside (at work). It's a school, where things are antiquated (although most of the buildings I work in are only about 20 years old).

There was an HVAC expert here on this thread, weeks ago - he gave some reasons why this type of thing wouldn't work without upgrading the motor or whatever it is that sucks the air and pushes it through the ducts.

By the time it's been approved for schools, it'll be 2030.

It sounds quite promising to me (no expertise in this area, though). The story comes from a University of Houston news release. BBM

“This filter could be useful in airports and in airplanes, in office buildings, schools and cruise ships to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said Ren, MD Anderson Chair Professor of Physics at UH and co-corresponding author for the paper. “Its ability to help control the spread of the virus could be very useful for society.” Medistar executives are is also proposing a desk-top model, capable of purifying the air in an office worker’s immediate surroundings, he said."
...

"The researchers knew the virus can remain in the air for about three hours, meaning a filter that could remove it quickly was a viable plan. With businesses reopening, controlling the spread in air conditioned spaces was urgent.

And Medistar knew the virus can’t survive temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade, about 158 degrees Fahrenheit, so the researchers decided to use a heated filter. By making the filter temperature far hotter – about 200 C – they were able to kill the virus almost instantly.

Ren suggested using nickel foam, saying it met several key requirements: It is porous, allowing the flow of air, and electrically conductive, which allowed it to be heated. It is also flexible.

But nickel foam has low resistivity, making it difficult to raise the temperature high enough to quickly kill the virus. The researchers solved that problem by folding the foam, connecting multiple compartments with electrical wires to increase the resistance high enough to raise the temperature as high as 250 degrees C.

By making the filter electrically heated, rather than heating it from an external source, the researchers said they minimized the amount of heat that escaped from the filter, allowing air conditioning to function with minimal strain.

A prototype was built by a local workshop and first tested at Ren’s lab for the relationship between voltage/current and temperature; it then went to the Galveston lab to be tested for its ability to kill the virus. Ren said it satisfies the requirements for conventional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems." ...

Researchers Create Air Filter that Can Kill the Coronavirus - University of Houston

And here is the journal citation from ScienceDaily article:

1. Luo Yu, Garrett K. Peel, Faisal H. Cheema, William S. Lawrence, Natalya Bukreyeva, Christopher W. Jinks, Jennifer E. Peel, Johnny W. Peterson, Slobodan Paessler, Monzer Hourani, Zhifeng Ren. Catching and killing of airborne SARS-CoV-2 to control spread of COVID-19 by a heated air disinfection system. Materials Today Physics, 2020; 100249 DOI: 10.1016/j.mtphys.2020.100249

 

[10ofRods]

DBM...

Welcome BACK, Kenzie.

 

[ZoriahNZ]

I wonder if such a filter system would have added benefits in destroying other harmful particles, viruses et cetera.

 

[10ofRods]

By making the filter electrically heated, rather than heating it from an external source, the researchers said they minimized the amount of heat that escaped from the filter, allowing air conditioning to function with minimal strain.

But therein lies the problem. How does one "electrically heat" something without..electricity? Electricity is King, here (unless you live in Vegas).

What heats the filter, is my question? Where does the electricity come from? I feel like someone wants me to buy stock in an impossible scheme.

Air conditioning still has to cool the heated air back down. So that's an increase of X in terms of electricity - which is coming from where?

 

[anneg]

I wonder if such a filter system would have added benefits in destroying other harmful particles, viruses et cetera.

Looks like it would. It kills anthrax for one thing. BBM:

"The researchers reported that virus tests at the Galveston National Laboratory found 99.8% of the novel SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was killed in a single pass through a filter made from commercially available nickel foam heated to 200 degrees Centigrade, or about 392 degrees Fahrenheit. It also killed 99.9% of the anthrax spores in testing at the national lab, which is run by the University of Texas Medical Branch."

ALSO: "This novel biodefense indoor air protection technology offers the first-in-line prevention against environmentally mediated transmission of airborne SARS-CoV-2 and will be on the forefront of technologies available to combat the current pandemic and any future airborne biothreats in indoor environments," Cheema said.

Hourani and Peel have called for a phased roll-out of the device, "beginning with high-priority venues, where essential workers are at elevated risk of exposure (particularly schools, hospitals and health care facilities, as well as public transit environs such as airplanes)."

That will both improve safety for frontline workers in essential industries and allow nonessential workers to return to public work spaces, they said."

I hope it will work as well as it sounds.