Pandemic 2020

Sativied said:

No, I didn’t say “largely”, I said partly. “Large“ was in regards to the difference in the amount of testing. The fact is that during the first wave people, in NL, people were barely tested, not until they were very sick and needed care. My point is not that there are more cases now because of testing.... the first wave however was in reality much higher than the graph shows, because the low amount of testing then. Nowadays everyone with just the slightest symptoms gets tested, exposing a more completely picture.

Trump already lost, no longer needed to refute his nonsense with half-truths. Given a steady rate of infection, more testing does result in more cases on paper, and less testing results in less results on paper. Of course the amount of testing doesn’t change the actual amount of infections, but guess what... the number of cases in a graph or a report are never a completely accurate representation of reality, they depend heavily on the amount of testing.

Clearly your own weed impairs you’re reading ability too much already so you’re not ready for mine yet.

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I believe there were antibody tests early on that established the rate of infection in NL. I posted one here using blood donations to detect those who had been infected and serum converted. There is another factor at play here, apparently a more infectious strain has appeared, a minor mutation that affects the R0, but not the virulence, I posted about it a few pages back on this thread with a link. Apparently they think the new strain is more vulnerable to the current vaccines than the one it largely replaced by natural selection forces.

Can someone please explain to me why my coworker was told to quarentine home for 2 weeks because his roommate tested positive and ...As soon as he found out she was positive he went and got tested and went into quarantine . His test results negative after waiting 3 days and still had to stay off work for another week!!! With no more tests required. Leaving me up shits creek without a paddle. This is not making any sense at all!

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

Can someone please explain to me why my coworker was told to quarentine home for 2 weeks because his roommate tested positive and ...As soon as he found out she was positive he went and got tested and went into quarantine . His test results negative after waiting 3 days and still had to stay off work for another week!!! With no more tests required. Leaving me up shits creek without a paddle. This is not making any sense at all!

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I have no idea. I understand medical staff in some hard hit states are at the breaking point from exhaustion and there are no replacements. It's not like the stupid bastards who ran the state into the ground weren't told, even begged by medical people. People are fucking ready to drop and dropping, those sons of bitches didn't stab them in the back, the cut their throats while looking them in the eye. People in their states will soon be fucked and the regular people who need hospitals will suffer and die too. Mortality rates will go from less than .5% to over 10% with people dying at home in droves with out treatment.

You are a victim of this bullshit and consider yourself lucky, from what I've seen in some place there on TV. Stay safe we are too close to the end of the tunnel Amber, be extra cautious, good luck.

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

Can someone please explain to me why my coworker was told to quarentine home for 2 weeks because his roommate tested positive and ...As soon as he found out she was positive he went and got tested and went into quarantine . His test results negative after waiting 3 days and still had to stay off work for another week!!! With no more tests required. Leaving me up shits creek without a paddle. This is not making any sense at all!

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If Donald doesn't fuck things up too much, you could be vaccinated by January, if you want it, since you are a healthcare worker and they are first up, near the top of the list. They've been manufacturing this Moderna vaccine for awhile and I imagine it's being ramped up and internationally licensed for production. I understand they should have 20 million doses ready by the end of the year and much more on the way in the new year. I expect Donald will fuck this up too, by how much is to be determined, by Joe's people.

DIY-HP-LED said:

I have no idea. I understand medical staff in some hard hit states are at the breaking point from exhaustion and there are no replacements. It's not like the stupid bastards who ran the state into the ground weren't told, even begged by medical people. People are fucking ready to drop and dropping, those sons of bitches didn't stab them in the back, the cut their throats while looking them in the eye. People in their states will soon be fucked and the regular people who need hospitals will suffer and die too. Mortality rates will go from less than .5% to over 10% with people dying at home in droves with out treatment.

You are a victim of this bullshit and consider yourself lucky, from what I've seen in some place there on TV. Stay safe we are too close to the end of the tunnel Amber, be extra cautious, good luck.

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Thanks. He comes back in a couple days and I am so stressed out and tired as fuck. I can’t go on much longer without him at this rate. Colleagues are dropping out with Covid left and right these days . Even the Infection Control Officer for the hospital got it and had to check into the hospital gasping for air !

'It's not real': In South Dakota, which has shunned masks and other COVID rules, some people die in denial, nurse says

South Dakota's high rates of COVID-19 and low virus regulation have sparked criticism even as some dying of the virus there don't believe it poses a real threat.

That's according to Jodi Doering, a South Dakota nurse who has gained national attention for her account of working on the front lines in a state where leaders have long minimized the impact of the virus and refused to implement rules like mask mandates.

"I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real," Doering wrote in a Saturday tweet.

"They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens."

In an interview with CNN, Doering said her description wasn't about a single patient. She tweeted after her frustration boiled over, as she recalled numerous patients whose dying words echoed the same theme: "This can't be happening. It's not real."

'This is unacceptable by any standards':The Dakotas are 'as bad as it gets anywhere in the world' for COVID-19

Other health professionals have accused South Dakota's leaders of also being in denial.

“You in the Dakotas … you knew it was coming,” Dr. Ali Mokdad, a professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, told USA TODAY this month. “You denied it ... even today you are denying it.”

Mokdad was responding to South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem saying her state's per capita death rate was better than New York's over the course of the pandemic.

While many patients accept that they are sick with the virus, the ones who do not will often lash out in anger and grasp at other explanations, suggesting they have the flu or even lung cancer, she said. Doering said she often watches these patients' conditions deteriorate as she tries to convince them to say goodbye to loved ones.

'Our neighbors, our family members':Small-town hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 deaths

Mokdad said such comparisons are misleading, given how early and hard New York City was hit this spring. He pointed to a number of factors that have made both North and South Dakota vulnerable to the virus' spread, including higher rates of preexisting conditions and economic inequality, in addition to health care that lags behind the U.S. standard.

Tuesday data from the COVID Tracking Project shows that South Dakota and neighboring North Dakota continue to have the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 infection and death in the nation.

Over 900 Mayo staff have gotten COVID-19 in past two weeks
All 32 beds in dedicated Covid ICU at Mayo are now full, clinic adding more beds

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Over 900 Mayo Clinic staff have contracted COVID-19 in the past two weeks, according to a briefing on Tuesday, Nov. 17, by Dr. Amy Williams, dean of clinical practice.

Williams said that 93% of staff who have contracted the virus did so in the community, and that the majority of those who contracted the virus at work did so while eating in a break room with a mask off.

"It shows you how easy it is to get COVID-19 in the Midwest," said Willams, during an afternoon press call. "Our staff are being infected mostly due to community spread, and this impacts our ability to care for patients. We need everyone in the communities we serve to do their part to limit the spread of COVID-19."

The 900 staff newly diagnosed with COVID-19 equals over one-third of the 2,981 Mayo employees diagnosed since the start of the outbreak. When you add in staff who are quarantined or taken offline in order to care for relatives, the clinic is currently experiencing a stable shortage of 1,500 staff systemwide, 1,000 in Rochester.

In other news, with 32 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the clinic's General Medicine ICU dedicated for the care of COVID-19, the clinic has filled all of its allotted ICU beds for the virus in Rochester, and is in the process of expanding that center by 12 to 13 beds. "We have 32 COVID patients needing tertiary care, and that's not good," Williams said. "It tells us we're in a surge."
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Coronavirus immunity could 'last for years,' new study suggests
An encouraging new study conducted by several leading labs, including the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, found that most people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection within the last eight months likely have enough immune cells to fight off serious reinfections, The New York Times reports.

While it's still unclear exactly how long immunity may last, or whether it could prevent transmission (though that is certainly plausible), the new study has eased experts' concerns of short-lived protection based on studies that pointed to declining antibodies. Antibodies, after all, are just one facet of the body's complex immune system, and the new study indicated that other factors like T cells showed only a slight decay several months out from infection, while B cells, which produce new antibodies as needed, had actually grown in number in most participants.

The new findings, the Times notes, appear to line up with another recent discovery that survivors of SARS, which was also caused by a coronavirus, still carry important immune cells 17 years after infection. And while there have been cases of reinfection, they seem to be rare, per the Times.

More studies will be required to back up the not-yet-peer-reviewed findings, but it's not "unreasonable to think that these immune memory components would last for years," Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona told the Times. It may also be another layer of good news on the vaccine front, since vaccinations typically provide better, longer-lasting protection than natural infections. If that holds true in the case of COVID-19, people would theoretically get to avoid an annual booster shot. Read more at The New York Times.

The cult of the individual turns into the cult of death.
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These GOP governors long resisted mask mandates and coronavirus rules. Now their states are in crisis.

(CNN)Since Covid-19 hit US shores, Republican governors in the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains have largely taken a hands-off approach. The results of that strategy have been poor.

When adjusted for population, no states have had more new Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths over the past seven days than North and South Dakota. The nearby states of Iowa, Wyoming, Nebraska and Idaho are not far behind.

This surge has pushed hospitals to the brink even as businesses have struggled to keep up a healthy work force. In response, several of these governors have acknowledged the failures of their permissive strategies and pushed for stricter health rules and mask mandates to prevent the virus's spread.

"We've relied on people to be responsible," Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said Friday, "and they're being irresponsible."
Yet other governors, including in South Dakota, have continued to resist taking actions like requiring masks.
Here's a look at how these governors have dealt with the fall surge.
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I used to live in Manitoba, America is not alone with covid, Canada is facing a tough winter too in some places. We also have our morons who won't wear masks. My own opinion is they should be arrested and interned, right at the protest and right on camera. Cuffs and spit bags on the heads of everybody and off into a van, bye for awhile and after a big fine. Send a message, try this shit and you will be in camp covid behind razor wire, or in jail if appropriate. It's a simple moral and ethical decision for me, the public health laws are on the books, use them to save lives. Lives vs bullshit is no decision at all and I don't give a fuck what they believe or how they feel.
Manitoba may use ice rinks as COVID-19 wards as hospitals run out of space

DIY-HP-LED said:

I used to live in Manitoba, America is not alone with covid, Canada is facing a tough winter too in some places. We also have our morons who won't wear masks. My own opinion is they should be arrested and interned, right at the protest and right on camera. Cuffs and spit bags on the heads of everybody and off into a van, bye for awhile and after a big fine. Send a message, try this shit and you will be in camp covid behind razor wire, or in jail if appropriate. It's a simple moral and ethical decision for me, the public health laws are on the books, use them to save lives. Lives vs bullshit is no decision at all and I don't give a fuck what they believe or how they feel.
Manitoba may use ice rinks as COVID-19 wards as hospitals run out of space

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sounds more authoritarian than Trump :/

Dryxi said:

sounds more authoritarian than Trump :/

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There are public health laws on the books for over a century, I'm a liberal, but I'm no fool. Ideals are important, but human lives and the truth are more important, responsibilities are more important than rights, if they weren't, the government couldn't draft you and give you a death sentence in the army.

This is a moral and ethical question and it can be simplified, are these people putting others first? Being part of a community means putting others first and all communities have rules, heroes put others first, it's why they are heroes, heels put themselves first, that's why they are assholes. Rights come with responsibilities, even the second amendment was created so the community could draft you and your gun in it's defense. If you didn't want to fight in your community's defense, they would simply take your gun and give it to someone who would.

I had the most racist patient of my life yesterday. She was an older white women and she really caught me off guard. That’s the thing with healthcare you treat everyone with dignity and respect and compassion and care and they can be the most horrible people but we look past that and soldier on and get no respect. It truely is a horrible profession to be especially right now. I say all the anti mask wearers and Trump supporters go to the back of the line into the hospital that you so desperately need . Give the beds to the people that respect the ones putting their lives in the line to save your life.

DIY-HP-LED said:

Coronavirus immunity could 'last for years,' new study suggests

An encouraging new study conducted by several leading labs, including the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, found that most people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection within the last eight months likely have enough immune cells to fight off serious reinfections, The New York Times...

news.yahoo.com

Coronavirus immunity could 'last for years,' new study suggests
An encouraging new study conducted by several leading labs, including the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, found that most people who have recovered from a coronavirus infection within the last eight months likely have enough immune cells to fight off serious reinfections, The New York Times reports.

While it's still unclear exactly how long immunity may last, or whether it could prevent transmission (though that is certainly plausible), the new study has eased experts' concerns of short-lived protection based on studies that pointed to declining antibodies. Antibodies, after all, are just one facet of the body's complex immune system, and the new study indicated that other factors like T cells showed only a slight decay several months out from infection, while B cells, which produce new antibodies as needed, had actually grown in number in most participants.

The new findings, the Times notes, appear to line up with another recent discovery that survivors of SARS, which was also caused by a coronavirus, still carry important immune cells 17 years after infection. And while there have been cases of reinfection, they seem to be rare, per the Times.

More studies will be required to back up the not-yet-peer-reviewed findings, but it's not "unreasonable to think that these immune memory components would last for years," Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at the University of Arizona told the Times. It may also be another layer of good news on the vaccine front, since vaccinations typically provide better, longer-lasting protection than natural infections. If that holds true in the case of COVID-19, people would theoretically get to avoid an annual booster shot. Read more at The New York Times.

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I am of the belief that a can of fruit cocktail (extra cherry) every morning helps boost Covid-19 immunity

blu3bird said:

I am of the belief that a can of fruit cocktail (extra cherry) every morning helps boost Covid-19 immunity
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These guys got more cred than either of us, they got them thar letters behind their names!

blu3bird said:

I am of the belief that a can of fruit cocktail (extra cherry) every morning helps boost Covid-19 immunity
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Good if you don't have any soup on hand.

Here is some great news for us old farts! The new mRNA vaccines are almost as effective in older people as younger, way better than the flu vaccine.
"And don’t worry about the elderly not responding to the vaccine; the efficacy only drops to 94% in people older than 65, the companies said in a press release. "
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The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine candidate has 95% efficacy according to the latest analysis offered by the companies.
BIONTECH
‘Incredible milestone for science.’ Pfizer and BioNTech update their promising COVID-19 vaccine result
Not to be outdone by a rival with a similar product, Pfizer and BioNTech today provided an update on the previously announced success of their COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. pharma giant and its German biotech partner now report 95% efficacy for their vaccine candidate, drawing on the final analysis of a 43,000-person study. And don’t worry about the elderly not responding to the vaccine; the efficacy only drops to 94% in people older than 65, the companies said in a press release.

As opposed to the vague initial report last week that their vaccine had greater than 90% efficacy, Pfizer and BioNTech are providing more specific data now that the study has reached enough COVID-19 cases to end. In all, the trial had 162 confirmed cases of symptomatic COVID-19 in the placebo group versus eight among those who received the two scheduled doses of the vaccine. The efficacy, which was measured 7 days after the second dose of the vaccine, was the same in different races and ethnicities, the companies say—although subgroup analyses always have more uncertainty. Nine of the 10 people who had severe cases of COVID-19 during the trial received the placebo, which indicates that even if the vaccine fails to prevent symptomatic disease, it still offers powerful protection from serious harm. No serious side effects surfaced, the companies report, although 3.7% of the vaccinated reported fatigue after the injections.
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captainmorgan said:

Covid-19 mink variants discovered in humans in seven countries

Denmark has already launched a nationwide cull of its farmed mink herd after concerns for vaccine efficacy

www.theguardian.com

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The question is does the vaccine work on it too and even on the minks, we might end up vaccinating domestic animals too.