Coronavirus

[Mr._Clark]

Hey man! Yeah believe it or not, I'm on the internet less when I'm not at work! Don't tell anybody...

1 week later.. Today is as close as it has been to my first "good day" since the whirlwind started last Friday. Wednesday and Thursday I was mostly plagued by heavy coughing. I was coughing so much Wednesday night thought I was going to break a rib. I relaxed that with OTC cough suppressants though. Yesterday was a bit better, and today a bit better still.

I've been reading, sleeping, streaming... mostly being a bum. But I make it my mission to do "one productive thing" every day. Like one day I went over to the new house and put new outlets and switches in a room that had been repainted. Or one day I mowed the front yard here, and mowed the back another day (today is the first day this week we haven't had 100+ degree heat index, so I do as little outside as I can manage). Earlier in the week I'd wake up with energy but would feel pretty drained by late afternoon. Yesterday and today I've felt better into the evenings.

My best half did finally get through all the red tape and was able to get tested Tuesday (it wasn't an insurance thing; she had to follow specific steps in order to get reimbursed for lost time at work). She got her results back positive yesterday. It's crazy how differently her work handles the process than mine. It's going to take her possibly 2 weeks longer to be cleared to return than I will. The compensation plan is way different too.

I'm a little concerned for her, because while we've had some symptom overlap (and varying degrees of severity for the symptoms we've had in common), her breathing has been more troublesome. Not at a level where I would panic, but enough that I'm badgering her to show me she can take deep breaths. She's a stubborn ass, but I will take action if I think for a second that she's struggling. She did over 2 miles on her treadmill yesterday though, which was very impressive. Were it not for the oppressive heat we'd do some walking in secluded areas, but this has been the hottest week of the year so far.

One of my coworkers has been out since Monday and she tested positive. I feel bad since the possibility exists that she got it from me. We wear masks and our desks are spaced apart at the lab, but it's still people sharing the same small building. Plus our building doesn't have its own bathrooms so we have to walk over to an adjacent office building for that, which means you don't know whom you're going behind. I hope she comes through okay. Whether or not I was the vector, if she takes a bad turn it will weigh on my conscience. She's actually already lost people (3 family friends and 1 relative) to COVID, so her catching it is the sick irony of the universe.

Thanks for the update! Your first posts made me wonder how it was going.

I'm not sure what to say about your coworker. You must live in an area where it's spreading rapidly right now? It spreads easily, there's no doubt about that. If everyone at your work was following the protocols and she got it from you anyway, I'm not sure it's really your fault. The reality is there's probably no way to know.

 

[KEW]

It is going to suck this fall when flu season begins. The amount of symptoms that will leave people having to assume they have Covid-19 until receiving test results.
In GA we do not get back test results until 8 to 11 days.
Maybe, now that Trump has realized that ignoring the virus is a bad strategy, he will take action to get the turnaround time sped up. I'm not sure how much good contact tracing could be if you have a 10 day lag from when symptoms show (resulting in a test being taken) and when the results come back. Seems like it is about 4 days on average before symptoms become clear, so essentially transmission happened 2 weeks back. That does not seem worth much in trying to prevent contagion!

 

[Danzilla31]

It is going to suck this fall when flu season begins. The amount of symptoms that will leave people having to assume they have Covid-19 until receiving test results.
In GA we do not get back test results until 8 to 11 days.
Maybe that Trump has realized that ignoring the virus is a bad strategy, he will take action to get the turnaround time speeded up. I'm not sure what good contact tracing could be if you have a 10 day lag from when symptoms show (resulting in a test being taken) and when the results come back. Seems like it is about 4 days on average before symptoms become clear, so essentially transmission happened 2 weeks back. That does not seem worth much in trying to prevent contagion!

Honestly I don't see how were going to contaign it.

It's spread so far and so fast since the bungling of lifting the lock down I'm not sure if you can contain it anymore with contact tracing and testing not to say we still shouldn't try but with 4 million cases ongoing in the US I believe? And that's probably underreported how do you stay on top of that?

 

[Danzilla31]

It is going to suck this fall when flu season begins. The amount of symptoms that will leave people having to assume they have Covid-19 until receiving test results.
In GA we do not get back test results until 8 to 11 days.
Maybe that Trump has realized that ignoring the virus is a bad strategy, he will take action to get the turnaround time speeded up. I'm not sure what good contact tracing could be if you have a 10 day lag from when symptoms show (resulting in a test being taken) and when the results come back. Seems like it is about 4 days on average before symptoms become clear, so essentially transmission happened 2 weeks back. That does not seem worth much in trying to prevent contagion!

What that means to me then is flu season isn't going to suck it's going to be devastating

That's my fears hospitals are already stressed now throw the flu on top of it and you have a real nasty problem

 

[Danzilla31]

Even worse I'm not sure a second lock down which is really the only way to get this back under control may be possible

I don't think people will go for it I mean you can't even get them to wear masks how you going to put them back inside and keep them under control?

Because a second lock down would just flatten the regular American citizen and small businesses in America

Thanks to the joke of the first relief package people are struggling now the only thing that has held us together if you can call it that is the unemployment benefits from this

Take that away and then you have millions that can't go back to work due to schools not reopening but they have to still support those children they still have to protect there family and you have a real nasty situation coming up

 

[Danzilla31]

Put people's back against the wall get them desperate and it could get really really ugly

Man our government has just done a poor job of thinking this through

If you think there's rioting now there's a HUGE risk of it coming up with a second lock down

I fear people will have the attitude of well you can protest even riot loot and do whatever why should we have to comply as we lose our businesses homes starve and all we've done is follow the rules and guidelines to this as best we can

I'm really worried as well that people will blame the protests for this although there is no scientific results linking them from what I can see and that resentment will overshadow whatever positive change needs to come from these protests

Worse if those two seperate divisions of protestors should ever clash well that's a clusterfu.... of epic proportions

 

[Danzilla31]

So as far as I can see you've got three options 1 lock it down completely, 2 let it run its course with masks and distancing and learn how to live with the blood in the water,
Or 3 do targeted lockdowns face mask distancing and play whack a mole as different hotspots pop up across the country and still learn how to live with all the blood in the water.

Man I feel like that scene in IT the remake where the kids have to go through those 3 doors in the house upstairs and they know whatever they pick it's still going to suck

What a wonderful buffet of options we've been left with here

 

[KEW]

I'm hoping the people that refuse to wear mask are from Trump's base -The people who will follow him no matter what. Hopefully now that he's changed his message and saying it's a patriotic thing to wear mask they will follow him that way too. But who knows what percentage that really is?

 

[panteragstk]

One of my coworkers is on a ventilator. Just to be sure because people don't realize this, he's in an induced coma. He had to have a serious kidney operation and is also on dialysis. I'm assuming his life is forever changed. I also believe he suffers like most Americans, being overweight. Which is the leading cause of chronic health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. If all this wasn't bad enough, his brother-in-law died from covid the week before.

In America we seem to like to follow meme's about not being able to breathe rather than doctors and expert advice. If you go in a clinic and you're there because you're sick, they give YOU a mask to wear. I have a picture of an ENT friend getting ready for surgery - It's crazy what they're making him wear. But he gets on with the task, which anymore is trauma. I did a bike ride the other day, at the last section of the climb my HR was 175 and I'm still here to write this. I was wearing a mask even though I was by myself on a mountain road.

It appears there's a correlation to when a country adopted wearing masks to the death rate. Whether or not perfect, if I can help save lives by even one life, I'll wear a mask, no argument. That person's life I may have save could be your loved one. I actually saw a sign in a store window that said masks are optional because I fought for our freedom in Iran. I doubt he and his fighting for our freedom would support me walking in naked!

We also seem to value our economy over life. Something that's confused me, I've been told on more than one occasion that it's God's will to take these people so we should go back to work because we need to make money. Do they go to the church of capital gain? This isn't a moral viewpoint to me.

Europe seems to have gotten this under control through strict lockdowns. I've read about professional athletes who had permission to go outside and exercise were beeped at and told to go home. While in America we may look at this as bad, It's government control and takes your freedom away, etc. What I see in Europe is a sense of community between the people and the willingness to do whatever it takes to fight this thing (at least to date). On 7/1 a lot of Europe opened up to non-essential travel. Of course, the US isn't on the list.

I don't understand why this is so hard for Americans? We used to pride ourselves on our graciousness to others.

Here's the latest chart I could find comparing the US to Europe's curve .

https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/22102.jpeg

Not to diminish the importance of your great post, but if people want to argue about masks, replace the word "mask" with "pants" and show them how asinine their argument is.

 

[Swerd]

1 week later.. Today is as close as it has been to my first "good day" since the whirlwind started last Friday.

Glad we heard from you. I hope your wife recovers as soon as you did.

 

[Swerd]

It is going to suck this fall when flu season begins.

Yet another good reason to get the flu vaccine. Who cares if it's 50% effective? That's better than nothing.

@Danzilla31 – Where you work, are you required to get a flu shot each year? Around where I live, all healthcare workers and admin people who work in those health care facilities are required to get the yearly flu shot.

 

[Danzilla31]

Yet another good reason to get the flu vaccine. Who cares if it's 50% effective? That's better than nothing.

@Danzilla31 – Where you work, are you required to get a flu shot each year? Around where I live, all healthcare workers and admin people who work in those health care facilities are required to get the yearly flu shot.

Yes we are required. If we weren't I'd still get one I'm a big time believer in vaccines

I can't understand the aversion to them honestly history has clearly shown there effectiveness one of the great breakthroughs in medicine in my opinion

I think at this point @TLSGuy is right on a vaccine is really the only thing that's going to really get this under control its just got out to far too fast

 

[Danzilla31]

Yet another good reason to get the flu vaccine. Who cares if it's 50% effective? That's better than nothing.

@Danzilla31 – Where you work, are you required to get a flu shot each year? Around where I live, all healthcare workers and admin people who work in those health care facilities are required to get the yearly flu shot.

From what I've learned a vaccine doesn't have to be 100% effective for it to make the impact we need correct? I mean it's nice if you hit 100% but that's not necessary. I can't remember what the exact number is though

 

[Mr._Clark]

So as far as I can see you've got three options 1 lock it down completely, 2 let it run its course with masks and distancing and learn how to live with the blood in the water,
Or 3 do targeted lockdowns face mask distancing and play whack a mole as different hotspots pop up across the country and still learn how to live with all the blood in the water.

Man I feel like that scene in IT the remake where the kids have to go through those 3 doors in the house upstairs and they know whatever they pick it's still going to suck

What a wonderful buffet of options we've been left with here

The NYT ran an article about the Arizona approach, which seems to be muddle through it with high case counts and minimal restrictions:

>>>Is it possible to stabilize coronavirus infections without going into full lockdown? The hardest-hit Sun Belt states are offering a real-time experiment. . . .

“It is possible in the course of a month to begin to really turn things around. We saw that in March and April,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The question now is whether it is possible to do so while avoiding another full lockdown, and states like Arizona are offering a real-time experiment.

“In some ways, it is like a large-scale version of a clinical trial,” Dr. Inglesby said. “Arizona is one of the states involved and is going through crisis and now is taking a certain set of interventions, and we are seeing if those interventions work.”<<<

What Arizona’s Tenuous Virus Plateau Could Teach Us (Published 2020)

Is it possible to stabilize coronavirus infections without going into full lockdown? The hardest-hit Sun Belt states are offering a real-time experiment.

www.nytimes.com

 

[panteragstk]

From what I've learned a vaccine doesn't have to be 100% effective for it to make the impact we need correct? I mean it's nice if you hit 100% but that's not necessary. I can't remember what the exact number is though

From what I've read and seen on the news, the current crop of vaccines in development have a pretty high rate of developing antibodies on the first dose. I think @TLS Guy may have already posted this, but at least the Oxford version has 100% antibody after the second dose. I'll let him or @Swerd correct me on that if I'm misremembering.

 

[panteragstk]

 

[Hobbit]

The NYT ran an article about the Arizona approach, which seems to be muddle through it with high case counts and minimal restrictions:

>>>Is it possible to stabilize coronavirus infections without going into full lockdown? The hardest-hit Sun Belt states are offering a real-time experiment. . . .

What Arizona’s Tenuous Virus Plateau Could Teach Us (Published 2020)

Is it possible to stabilize coronavirus infections without going into full lockdown? The hardest-hit Sun Belt states are offering a real-time experiment.

www.nytimes.com

We're getting cases from AZ and TX sent here. While we're not doing great....

 

[panteragstk]

We're getting cases from AZ and TX sent here. While we're not doing great....

Curious, where you at?

TX is doing horribly simply because too many idiots won't follow protocol. That and the gov decided to relax things too damn early because we were doing really well. God forbid we continue to do well.

 

[highfigh]

I'm hoping the people that refuse to wear mask are from Trump's base -The people who will follow him no matter what. Hopefully now that he's changed his message and saying it's a patriotic thing to wear mask they will follow him that way too. But who knows what percentage that really is?

So, you hope people die because they like a President who's not your guy? Tell me that you have a 'Coexist' bumper sticker.......

Apparently, someone shares your feelings about Trump supporters-

Bernell Trammell: Black Trump Supporter Shot to Death in Milwaukee

Bernell Trammell was a well-known Black supporter of Donald Trump who has been shot to death in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

heavy.com

I have a hard time accepting the idea that a large number of people would take his word that masks aren't needed and I try to avoid underestimating the stupidity of the American people. Nobody knew a pandemic would occur during the 2016 election and if they did, they should have said something. Do you place any blame on the WHO for downplaying its severity?

I have a question that's not about Trump- if Cuomo wants to tell everyone about the great job they have done in NY about containing COVID, why did it take so long for California to overtake them as the state with the most cases?

 

[Swerd]

From what I've learned a vaccine doesn't have to be 100% effective for it to make the impact we need correct? I mean it's nice if you hit 100% but that's not necessary. I can't remember what the exact number is though

I doubt if any vaccine is 100% effective, but few things in biology are ever 100%. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is probably as good an example as there is. After two doses, 97% of people are protected against measles, 88% against mumps, and at least 97% against rubella.

MMR vaccine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Besides overall effectiveness, this graph from the Wikipedia article shows something else I want to point out. Once the vaccine became available in 1963, it took about 5 years for measles to drop below 100,000 cases per year in the USA. And that was with a highly effective vaccine. When we talk about a vaccine for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, no one talks about how long it will take before enough people are vaccinated to cause disease levels to really drop. We still don't know how effective any of the experimental SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will be.