Covid-19 discussion and humor thread [Was: CDC says don't touch your face to avoid Covid19...Vets to the rescue!

[BillsFan4]

16 minutes ago, K-9 said:

This is concerning. Do they know if it was brought in by a visitor or spread from a care giver at the hospital. I fear that soon we will reach a perfect storm of too many infected patients and too many infected care givers too sick to care for them. 

Not sure yet. Her boss called her at home and told her they had 2 inpatient cases and to stay home for now. Then they called her back a few mins later and said “never mind, we need you to come in”. So I’m guessing she will find out more details later. I’m not sure if they are new patients that maybe caught it before they came in, or if someone brought it in or what. 

 

She has has issues with her immune system, so not only is she worried for all the patients, she’s a bit worried about herself as well. I feel bad for her. I know she’s spooked. 

 

One thing I know is that they will take every precaution they can there. They already deal with a lot of high risk patients with compromised immune systems and have a lot of restrictions in place. I have confidence in the way they will handle it.

 

 

 

———————————————-

 

Felt this was worth sharing:

 

 

 

I cant tell you how grateful I am for all the healthcare workers on the front lines dealing with this around the world. They are heroes in my eyes.

Edited March 18, 2020 by BillsFan4
Accidentally combined posts

[Sundancer]

1 hour ago, plenzmd1 said:

Interesting article..as someone mentioned upthread..might the cure be worse than the disease?

 

 

 

Economically, it might be. The data from outside of China (where we have limited confidence) will tell how serious this is across wider populations. To get that data, we need...Hapless? 

 

Nothing would be better than if people could say in June that they told you so and this was never going to be a big deal but areas ahead of us in time are showing it's a big deal. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Sundancer

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, plenzmd1 said:

Interesting article..as someone mentioned upthread..might the cure be worse than the disease?

 

 

 

He makes good points, but I can easily dispute some of his contentions.  And here is a piece online which does so:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/we-know-enough-now-to-act-decisively-against-covid-19/

 

1. He is absolutely right we have no clue how many people are really infected, and that makes it impossible to assess where we really are.  We badly need more testing.

2. Please GTFO with this "3.4% case fatality rate meaningless".  and " Adding these extra sources of uncertainty, reasonable estimates for the case fatality ratio in the general U.S. population vary from 0.05% to 1%."  That is not based on expertise, it's complete surmise.  

It's time to stop dismissing evidence from countries that aren't us.   Really.  People act as though China is mud huts and acupuncture.  China has a very good modern medical system with all modern equipment and techniques in big cities like Wuhan and Shenzen and comparable beds/person to US cities.  I know a physician working in Shenzen and dozens of Chinese scientists.  They have everything we have, and they're just as smart at science - really.

Right now, globally, the case fatality rate is 4.0%.  That is a fact.  A lot of people are still critically ill on vents - a situation with 50% mortality so far - so while the deathrate may go down as more mildly ill people are tested, the death rate may also go up as more people who are still on vents pass away.

What we do know, is that countries with death rates <1% have contained the virus so as not to overwhelm their health care systems.  Don't take my word, go to the linked site and calculate the case fatality rate from countries with >1000 cases so data, but medical system not overwhelmed like S. Korea - 1%.  In China, the WHO joint commission found outside Wuhan, the case fatality rate was 0.7% and in Wuhan, 5.8%.  They attributed this to the health care system being overwhelmed in Wuhan (they euphemistically refer to this as "standard of care evolved")

US, by the way, currently stands at 1.8% case fatality rate.  So how can he argue  0.05% to 1% is a "reasonable estimate" when we already factually exceed that, with, yes, many undiagnosed mild cases, but also already many ill people on ventilators many of whom may yet die, and more coming every day? 

 

The economic shutdowns are ruinous. 

 

The societal cost of not shutting down and trying to "buy time" is also going to be horrific - decimated Health Care Workers (we may see this anyway, due to inadequate PPE), improvised ventilators 3 patients/vent, inadequate care because of HCW shortages and lack of coordinated distribution of supplies here, triage as they are already having to do in N. Italy.  (I know people recently back from Spain and Italy too). 

 

We need to buy some time to get our ***** together. 

 

Yes, John Ioannidis is a smart guy, but he seems to be working from a strange set of assumptions that are out-of-tune with current facts.

 

20 minutes ago, K-9 said:

This is concerning. Do they know if it was brought in by a visitor or spread from a care giver at the hospital. I fear that soon we will reach a perfect storm of too many infected patients and too many infected care givers too sick to care for them. 

 

That is exactly the concern.

[Foxx]

Cuomo holding press conference right now. Mandating all non essential work places can not have more than 50% of workforce reporting for duty outside home.

[Sundancer]

5 minutes ago, Foxx said:

Cuomo holding press conference right now. Mandating all non essential work places can not have more than 50% of workforce reporting for duty outside home.

 

That's an interesting approach. We have to keep the economy going. I have no solution to that but something like this has to happen where people get back to work. Shutting it all down is not actually a thing that can last. 

 

Picking up this idea as interesting:

Quote

 

With President Trump proposing to send $1,000 checks to every American and industries, like the airlines, lining up for bailouts, there is a better way to arrest the panic.

 

I chronicled the 2008 financial crisis and spent the past week on back-to-back telephone calls with many of the experts who crafted that bailout, as well as the programs put in place after 9/11, Katrina, the BP oil spill and other crises. Now here is a thought experiment that could prevent what is quickly looking like the next Great Recession or even, dare it be mentioned, depression.

 

The fix: The government could offer every American business, large and small, and every self-employed — and gig — worker a no-interest “bridge loan” guaranteed for the duration of the crisis to be paid back over a 5-year period. The only condition of the loan to businesses would be that companies continue to employ at least 90 percent of their work force at the same wage that they did before the crisis. And it would be retroactive, so any workers that have been laid off in the past two weeks because of the crisis would be reinstated.

 

 

Apologies if this is tending to politics and not science but I'm trying to avoid the critiques of party and discuss alternatives to problems in the air. 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Sundancer

[aristocrat]

looks like my gf is about to commit to a position in seattle as they are in some dire need for nurses.   

[Sundancer]

3 minutes ago, aristocrat said:

looks like my gf is about to commit to a position in seattle as they are in some dire need for nurses.   

 

Brava to her. She's a heroine. 

[Hardhatharry]

7 minutes ago, aristocrat said:

looks like my gf is about to commit to a position in seattle as they are in some dire need for nurses.   

Is the pay increase worth it or she has no choice?

[Foxx]

Trump just suspended all foreclosures and evictions till the end of April.

[aristocrat]

9 minutes ago, Hardhatharry said:

Is the pay increase worth it or she has no choice?

oh yea. 60k over 4 months 

[BillsFan4]

 

They are officially invoking the defense production act. Was announced today. 

Very happy to hear that. Hopefully production of ventilators, masks etc will be ramped up. About a week ago I saw a company that produces ventilators saying that they have the capability to ramp up production 5 x. So hopefully that will happen now.

 

edit - here’s the article I was referring to:

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by BillsFan4

[Saxum]

10 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

Testing numbers as of today. The U.S. is still lagging way behind every other country in testing. I’m still reading all sorts of stories on social media of people with symptoms who can’t get wasted.

 

I know some think MJ is cure all but MJ will not solve virus issues although you might enjoy them more. 

[Saxum]

9 hours ago, K-9 said:

From a VOX report dated 3/8:

 

 

For weeks we’ve heard empty promises of the imminent shipments of millions of test kits. For weeks we’ve heard from the scientists how critical it is to have this testing done ASAP.  And for weeks we’ve heard story after story of how people with symptoms have been denied the test and/or given the bureaucratic run around when trying to obtain one. Sure looks like a deliberate plan to keep the numbers low from where I sit. 
 

Like I said, we all know why that is. And it should piss us off to no end. 

 

When I worked for US Census saw same thing - attempt to get numbers to match what WH leadership wanted.  They invested a lot of money to ramp up to support doing Census online, it was tested and then when number crunchers at WH did not like potential results cancelled it.  Money just thrown away.

[Saxum]

1 hour ago, /dev/null said:

 

Even the Aliens are getting infected?

 

Just illegal ones according to WH which is why we need wall between US and Mexico NOW!

[Greg S]

[CountDorkula]

42 minutes ago, Foxx said:

Trump just suspended all foreclosures and evictions till the end of April.

 

Just talked to my buddy who does this. That is for HUD/ low income only.

 

Private lending still not suspended.

[Cripple Creek]

Gastros are, apparently feeling under appreciated. 

 

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/gastrointestinal-symptoms-should-be-monitored-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-doctors-say

 

 

Ventilator shortage update:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/03/18/theres-a-shortage-of-ventilators-for-coronavirus-patients-so-this-international-group-invented-an-open-source-alternative-thats-being-tested-next-week

 

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184308/coronavirus-italy-medical-company-threatens-sue-3d-print-valves-treatments

Edited March 18, 2020 by Cripple Creek

[K-9]

39 minutes ago, CountDorkula said:

 

Just talked to my buddy who does this. That is for HUD/ low income only.

 

Private lending still not suspended.

Heard the CEO of BoA say in an interview on Sunday that if you’ve been impacted by the crisis all,you have to do is call the bank, explain that, and your payment due will be suspended. This needs to happen across the board for all mortgages, all loans, all rents, all utilities, etc. It’s our moral imperative. 
 

My cynicism says, “good luck with that.” 

[Sundancer]

2 minutes ago, K-9 said:

Heard the CEO of BoA say in an interview on Sunday that if you’ve been impacted by the crisis all,you have to do is call the bank, explain that, and your payment due will be suspended. This needs to happen across the board for all mortgages, all loans, all rents, all utilities, etc. It’s our moral imperative. 
 

My cynicism says, “good luck with that.” 

 

People need to keep paying if they can. If they can't, the last thing anyone will do is evict. It's the reality of the situation that we need capital flowing through the system. If you don't pay the bank, the bank can't loan the restaurant that closed money. If the bank doesn't make that loan, the waiter living paycheck to paycheck who is still getting something gets $0. Imagine that times 100000 permutations of downstream effects. $$ has to keep moving. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

 

At Cornell University, the campus is a ghost town, but Touchdown the Bear is prepared!!!!!