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

[BillsFan4]

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

I think i actually have photos of a lot of these same places. I’ll have to take a look when I get a chance. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by BillsFan4

[Hapless Bills Fan]

This is really good so Imma just put this here.  This is a doctor from our premier biocontainment hospital at U of Nebraska.
 

This is an email from Nebraska Medicine critical care anesthesiologist Dan Johnson, MD, to his friends and family about the seriousness of COVID-19. It is shared with permission from Dr. Johnson.

---

Dear Family,

The COVID-19 pandemic will be a challenge to the USA unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime. For the last several weeks, I have been involved in multiple meetings each day where I get to hear the thoughts of experts in the field of pandemics, specifically about this pandemic, and what we need to do.

If anyone hears from family or friends who think this is “no big deal,” or that the USA’s response has been excessive, please know that they are very wrong. I’m sure you have all read about the many reasons that this is NOT “just like flu.” The numbers of infected, worldwide and in the USA, are extreme underestimates (because many infected have not been tested). The best metric to use, right now, is talking with hospital workers in the hotbeds, and asking them what their situation is.

I have been in communication with a friend who is a critical care physician from the Lombardy region of Italy. The health care workers there are living in a nightmare, having to decide who lives and who dies from lack of oxygen because their health care system is overwhelmed.

In the USA, we have three pathways for COVID-19:

1. The country views this challenge like WWI and WWII, and almost everyone does the right things, and we will be harmed but okay.
2. Many people do the right things, and many don’t, and we will have the same struggles that Italy is enduring.
3. People blow this disease off as no big deal, and our health care system (and life as we know it) will be crippled.

You have all probably seen the concept of “flatten the curve.” If we fail to flatten the curve, and we fail to eliminate the portion of yellow above that line, there will be dire consequences:

1. More people, including some of our friends and family, will die.
2. Health care workers like me, Rachel, and several of you are at higher risk of dying.
3. All health care workers will have to witness the needless deaths of patients who could have survived.

In the SARS-1 outbreak, critical care doctors and nurses in Asia and Canada acquired life-long PTSD from watching patients gasp for air and die because they did not have enough ventilators. SARS-1 was nothing compared to COVID-19. If we do not flatten the curve, Rachel, Bridget, and I will have to witness many of these types of deaths.

In the absence of a vaccine or an anti-viral in the immediate future, our best chance to avoid overwhelming our hospitals is non-pharmaceutical interventions. The two best ways to do that are (1) social distancing, and (2) excellent hygiene.

Please check out these simulations from the Washington Post, and share this article.

The best ways for you to achieve social distancing are pretty simple:

1. You and your kids should stay home. This includes not going to church, not going to the gym, not going anywhere.
2. Do not travel for enjoyment until this is done. Do not travel for work unless your work truly requires it.
3. Avoid groups of people. Not just crowds, groups. Just be around your immediate family. I think kids should just play with siblings at this point – no play dates, etc.
4. When you must leave your home (to get groceries, to go to work), maintain a distance of six feet from people. REALLY stay away from people with a cough or who look sick.
5. When you do get groceries, etc., buy twice as much as you normally do so that you can go to the store half as often. Use hand sanitizer immediately after your transaction, and immediately after you unload the groceries.

I’m not saying people should not go to work. Just don’t leave the house for anything unnecessary, and if you can work from home, do it.

Everyone on this email, besides Mom and Dad, are at low risk for severe disease if/when they contract COVID-19. While this is great, that is not the main point. When young, well people fail to do social distancing and hygiene, they pick up the virus and transmit it to older people who are at higher risk for critical illness or death. So everyone needs to stay home. Even young people.

Tell every person over 60, and every person with significant medical conditions, to avoid being around people. Please do not have your kids visit their grandparents if you can avoid it. FaceTime them.

Our nation is the strongest one in the world. We have been through other extreme challenges and succeeded many times before. We WILL return to normal life. Please take these measures now to flatten the curve, so that we can avoid catastrophe.

Love,

Dan

 

Link
https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/a-message-from-one-of-our-doctors-to-his-family-about-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR3rCHLYtrd3yHJc2P41Y35OrhwDSiPeJtDZzA4S_OqD4Hn2HCt3u_42J1A

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

12 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

Wow.

 

Stephon Diggs retweet on coronavirus:
 

 

[Bad Things]

Our Prime Minister just announced that New Zealand's borders are closed to all non-citizens.

 

Yikes!

[Sundancer]

China new cases to 0 does not mean it is over. But it is good news. Very easy to start contagion again if all movement restrictions are lifted though. This will be our issue in the US in particular. Once we get on top of this, which will take longer, we will need to stay on top of it by staying in our communities, not exposing ourselves to many others, not just launching back to the old normal. It will need to be a slow climb back to protect the bubble from resurging. We need to get to the no new cases point first, then let experts guide the next steps and follow them. 
 

Unlike the responses that worked in China, the US communities are already starting to give up on tracing contacts citing spread via “normal activity,” which shows a lack of commitment to quarantine and tracing efforts (national database and contact mapping would seem so so easy for this...Facebook for Covid) compared to Korea, Singapore, Japan, and China. This is not good news. By not doing this, it may take longer to reach containment. As suspected by many, the west may lack the backbone to get on this in a way that makes the most difference early. 

 

Hapless: upstream my reference to you was just about the dire need for more testing Since you’ve been beating that drum so hard. Nothing more. 
 

On that topic of testing the admin’s primary strategy right now is distancing, not testing, due to continued lack of test availability to meet needs. Tough to read this knowing testing is a key to managing and resuming normalcy. Focusing the tests on elderly and healthcare workers is fine because we continue to literally have no choice but the low symptom folk may then carry and spread obliviously. No tracing, no testing is the opposite of Korea and Japan.  
 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[Punching Bag]

10 hours ago, K-9 said:

I’ve been more interested in Italy’s numbers. Our delayed response to this closely mirrors theirs, imo. 

 

What does not match up is ages.  That part of Italy had a lot of elderly.

 

[Cripple Creek]

6 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

I think i actually have photos of a lot of these same places. I’ll have to take a look when I get a chance. 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/488302-florida-governor-refuses-to-close-beaches-amid-covid-19-outbreak  I'm sure that this will change, but way too late. Stupid.

 

Tuesday:

[plenzmd1]

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

[Sundancer]

50 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

 

This is consistent with what the administration was saying yesterday. They can't test everyone who needs it, so they are focusing on elderly and health care workers with the tests they do have. It's a real problem. We can't return to any normalcy until we are only quarantining those who test positive, and we can't know who those people are without massive testing, which is not currently possible. 

 

I don't really care "why" at the moment. I am happy to play the blame game in November--right now I am just concerned that we remain without tests and without an ability to return to normalcy even once the cases peak in a few weeks in the big coastal cities (and a couple months in places like Buffalo). 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[Not at the table Karlos]

40 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

I would be willing to bet a lot of money that UB students returning to school from China at the end of January had it. I uber and picked up a lot of Asian students that all had some type of cold and there was very little testing happening at the time. There was a person that was highly suspected to have it that refused to go to hospital less than a quarter of a mile from my house and Ub in January.   
 

I had an odd cold in the weeks following the students coming back. Had minor sore throat, runny nose and cough but it was hard to breathe and I could only take short breaths. I also gained about 15 lbs in a few days. My feet were really swollen and I struggled to get my shoes on with the laces almost undone(I didn’t see weight gain in any corona symptoms but the dr was really worried when he heard that) My dr refused to allow me in the office when I told them my symptoms and sent me to the ER.
 

On my way to ER I get a call from my dr saying that I won’t be allowed into hospital and to go home. That was my last contact with my primary dr at the beginning of February. No tests or anything just go home.  Others in the area have had similar symptoms but were told the same thing as me. Stay home. 

 

Edit- I have a decent amount of family in law enforcement and health care and they’ve both been hinting that the numbers of infected are much higher than reported but the symptoms are so minor that people don’t go for treatment. 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Not at the table Karlos

[davefan66]

47 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

It’s a huge issue.  If we started testing when the first cases hit the US, we could have better controlled this.  Quarantining everyone is actually less useful than quarantining only those who test positive.  Also, the ability to test helps verify actual hotspots to decide where to best utilize what resources we have.

 

And everyone needs to keep in mind, as testing does begin we will see a huge spike in numbers.  No need to freak out about that as it is not indicative of rapid spreading, just indicative of knowing who actually is positive.  Sustained testing will allow us to actually track how the virus is spreading and being successfully slowed/stopped.

 

Edit: what’s truly scary also is that healthcare workers are not being tested. Being told if symptomatic, must report to work.  I understand that there is only a finite healthcare workforce.  But sending workers who are positive to care for others will only serve to incresse the spread. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by davefan66

[Steptide]

Why do my posts in this topic keep getting deleted? 

[Sundancer]

1 minute ago, Steptide said:

Why do my posts in this topic keep getting deleted? 

 

Depends on what you're saying. If you want to be political or spread conspiracies, they are probably getting deleted because there's already a place for that. Hapless is trying to keep things in this thread apolitical with respect to Dem/Rep politics and conspiracy talk. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[plenzmd1]

POsitive tests at NYSE, to be shut down today..trading still open, just all electronic

[BillsFan4]

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country took it very serious, the other did very little for a month and a half (except talk about how it was all under control and a big media hoax) and now we are starting to pay the price. 

[davefan66]

10 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country took it very serious, the other did very little for a month and a half (except talk about how it was all under control and a big media hoax) and now we are starting to pay the price. 

I work in healthcare.  The mask shortage is real with no end in site.  The CDC back down on the type of mask that should be used for positive patients.  It used to be N95 masks that are actual filters.  CDC now states regular surgical masks are OK.

 

Front line staff are being told if they do receive a N95 that it’s OK to reuse.  That is new based on the shortage.

 

Front line staff are scared for themselves, coworkers and family.  Let alone the other patients we take care of that are hospitalized during this.

 

Not protecting those treating these patients will only infect them which will lead to massive staffing shortages.

Edited March 19, 2020 by davefan66

[Sundancer]

6 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country...

 

The blame game is not helpful right now. We need to solve this as best we can. We have what we have. Right now that's inadequate testing and hospitals getting bombarded. Our local hospital is re-using masks (unheard of) and asking for mask donations from the public. 

 

Even the most skeptical are coming around to this being a big deal. 

[Steptide]

16 minutes ago, Sundancer said:

 

Depends on what you're saying. If you want to be political or spread conspiracies, they are probably getting deleted because there's already a place for that. Hapless is trying to keep things in this thread apolitical with respect to Dem/Rep politics and conspiracy talk. 

Haven't posted anything conspiracy related. I did post my displeasure of certain businesses staying open amidst the crisis, but I didn't think that's a deletable offense 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/video/gal-gadot-leads-star-studded-123917561.html

 

 

 

damn it....  Firewalls at work just nixed Youtube 

Gal Gadot, Natalie Portman , Amy Adams, & Zoë Kravitz and more singing  Imagine all the people

[K-9]

20 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

POsitive tests at NYSE, to be shut down today..trading still open, just all electronic

Does this mean we will see a picture of a frantic computer with every story about Wall Street instead of the worried traders in smocks on the floor? And how are the computers gonna point and look up in the distance at something we can’t see?