Covid II: Medical Info and Implications

[bsjkki]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

I still wish we could have had some kind of international effort to try to equalize distribution a bit but the leadership wasn’t there to make it happen.

I also don’t think we did a very good job but our money got a lot of vaccines quickly which is nice.

I think with vaccines, we did a great job. We have plenty of ventilators and other medical supplies we should be sending right away. 
 

I wish the whole world could have been vaccinated all at once. Many countries relied on Chinese vaccines that were not as effective. And Europe was slowed down with issues with the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

[Calm]

Another reminder much of the rest of the world is still in the midst of the pandemic even if the US and some others are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

[pogi]

10 hours ago, Calm said:

Another reminder much of the rest of the world is still in the midst of the pandemic even if the US and some others are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pray for India!

[Calm]

10 minutes ago, pogi said:

Pray for India!

I actually forgot to include a link about a flight from India that resulted in a Covid cluster. 
 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/20/49-passengers-on-india-hong-kong-flight-test-positive-for-covid

As a side note:

Quote

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist at the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter that only eight cases from the Vistara flight were detected before hotel quarantine began. The rest were only identified during the time in quarantine.

“If it weren’t for hotel quarantine – [Hong Kong] would have completely allowed these [positive cases] to begin spreading in the community!” he said. “This is why border quarantines are critical

Hong King has less daily cases than the total infected from the plane. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Calm

[The Nehor]

10 hours ago, Calm said:

Another reminder much of the rest of the world is still in the midst of the pandemic even if the US and some others are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[The Nehor]

When you get to hell, tell smallpox we say hello.

[Calm]

This is so heartbreaking I can’t make it through the article. 

We should be so grateful that as a country we are blessed with a large and decent healthcare system even with its problems.  I wish more people felt that way so they would try to help raise the standard of care even higher by consciously living in healthy ways so that we could then have tons of excess resources we could share with the less fortunate.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/27/in-covid-grip-india-gasps-for-air-if-there-is-an-apocalypse-this-has-to-be-one/

[T-Shirt]

On 4/27/2021 at 2:47 PM, Calm said:

This is so heartbreaking I can’t make it through the article. 

We should be so grateful that as a country we are blessed with a large and decent healthcare system even with its problems.  I wish more people felt that way so they would try to help raise the standard of care even higher by consciously living in healthy ways so that we could then have tons of excess resources we could share with the less fortunate.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/27/in-covid-grip-india-gasps-for-air-if-there-is-an-apocalypse-this-has-to-be-one/

It is very heartbreaking.  India is getting a lot of attention in the news, however, when you figure the new deaths per million population, there are 61 countries that are worse than they are, including the US.

Edited April 29, 2021 by T-Shirt

[strappinglad]

I fear that for some places , that light at the end of the tunnel,  is an oncoming train . In my area we are experiencing a major up tick in variants , for the first time a girl of 18 in a nearby town died from covid.   

[pogi]

38 minutes ago, T-Shirt said:

It is very heartbreaking.  India is getting a lot of attention in the news, however, when you figure the new deaths per million population, there are 61 countries that are worse than they are, including the US.

The concern is that they are likely way under-reported with their slums etc.  And even worse they are short on oxygen and having to actually turn patients away at the door. 

Edited April 29, 2021 by pogi

[T-Shirt]

25 minutes ago, pogi said:

The concern is that they are likely way under-reported with their slums etc.  And even worse they are short on oxygen and having to actually turn patients away at the door. 

I understand that.  It is very sad that their supplies are so short and their healthcare system can't keep up.  But still, they would have to multiply their deaths by ten just to be even with Hungary, which has the worst new deaths per million population.  India is number 62.

Edited April 30, 2021 by T-Shirt

[Calm]

1 hour ago, T-Shirt said:

It is very heartbreaking.  India is getting a lot of attention in the news, however, when you figure the new deaths per million population, there are 61 countries that are worse than they are, including the US.

The articles I am reading state numbers are significantly undercounted in India, so probably a good idea to be careful about drawing comparisons.  

Also, as far as I am aware in the US people weren’t using Twitter to find oxygen or hospitals that had beds though at times it got bad in some states.  They just don’t have the resources needed to care for this level of infection.  And unfortunately it will likely only get worse, which is one reason India is so troubling.  It is also a great contrast to some of the other countries, given it has a huge medical business (pharmaceuticals) and lots of doctors but poor general health care.  The Atlantic has an interesting article on how the much smaller private care system has been invested in by those with the money to do so as opposed to the public.

added:  your comment hit me the wrong way, not accusing you, just explaining if I come across as defensive as I was at the beginning.  I read it at first as if you were rating trauma or something that downplayed India’s experience when now I reread it I am guessing you were likely pointing out much of the world is in the same state and you wanted to make it clear what India is experiencing is not unfortunately unusual.

Edited April 30, 2021 by Calm

[T-Shirt]

17 minutes ago, Calm said:

The articles I am reading state numbers are significantly undercounted in India, so probably a good idea to be careful about drawing comparisons.  

Also, as far as I am aware in the US people weren’t using Twitter to find oxygen or hospitals that had beds though at times it got bad in some states.  They just don’t have the resources needed to care for this level of infection.  And unfortunately it will likely only get worse, which is one reason India is so troubling.  It is also a great contrast to some of the other countries, given it has a huge medical business (pharmaceuticals) and lots of doctors but poor general health care.  The Atlantic has an interesting article on how the much smaller private care system has been invested in by those with the money to do so as opposed to the public.

added:  your comment hit me the wrong way, not accusing you, just explaining if I come across as defensive as I was at the beginning.  I read it at first as if you were rating trauma or something that downplayed India’s experience when now I reread it I am guessing you were likely pointing out much of the world is in the same state and you wanted to make it clear what India is experiencing is not unfortunately unusual.

I agree with what you said,  It is a tragedy what is happening there.  I was not trying to downplay the death and suffering at all.  My point was more that the media focuses on total numbers, but India has 1.4 billion people, which is more than North and South America combined.  When you figure the numbers per million, numbers wise, they are doing better than many other counties, even if the numbers are under reported.  I was just looking at numbers and averages.  The death and suffering breaks my heart.

[pogi]

1 hour ago, T-Shirt said:

I understand that.  It is very sad that their supplies are so short and their healthcare system can't keep up.  But still, they would have to multiply their deaths by ten just to be even with Hungary, which has the worst new deaths per million population.  India is number 62.

That does put things in perspective. 

Think about how nasty it could get when you combine the rates of Hungary with the conditions of India.  I think people are frightened for that possibility which might explain the focus on India.  Also, knowing that people are being turned away and dying who would have likely survived in a more developed country with oxygen supplies and preventative vaccines readily available is another hard thing to accept, which might also be drawing interest in India.  

[The Nehor]

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by The Nehor

[Hamba Tuhan]

6 hours ago, strappinglad said:

I fear that for some places , that light at the end of the tunnel,  is an oncoming train.

Yep. I fear that the last 14 months may have been prelude to what's about to come. Beyond India, I just picked a handful of nations that I'm personally worried about: Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Poland and Colombia. All but Colombia reached their historical peaks in daily new cases some time in the past five weeks, and Colombia is trending that way now.

I just picked three more: Ukraine, Peru and Indonesia. Ukraine and Peru both reached their historical peaks this month. Indonesia appears to be faring much better ... for now. (India was recently in that category.)

As the Deseret News reported yesterday, America's vaccines are working well, but no vaccine provides 100 per cent protection. (That's why herd immunity is so necessary!)

Quote

There have been more than 7,100 cases nationwide — and 273 in Utah as of Wednesday — of what’s known as breakthrough COVID-19 in people who are considered fully vaccinated, meaning they received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, at least 14 days ago ...

Breakthrough cases are climbing in the state, according to data provided by the Utah Department of Health. Just 18 Utahns tested positive for the virus at least two weeks after their final vaccine dose in February; but there were 101 breakthrough cases in March and 154 so far in April, with 41 new cases reported since April 22.

No one has died from a breakthrough COVID-19 case in Utah, although the virus has killed at least 77 fully vaccinated people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and hospitalized at least 331.

 

Edited April 30, 2021 by Hamba Tuhan

[halconero]

My wife and I got our first shots two days ago (Pfizer). No adverse effects beyond a sore arm for a day, and maybe some muscle aches, but I've had a bad back since a car accident anyways, so it's hard to tell. Meanwhile, my home province hit our highest record in new case case counts, and hospitalizations are catching up. This wave feels different though, with more young people getting it, falling seriously ill, and more dying.

[Calm]

I think this was mentioned before, but the details and discussion provided in this article about the training and the how dogs do this as well as mention of other conditions currently using dogs as identifiers were highly interesting to me. 

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-sniffing-dogs-large-gatherings-research-penn-20210501.html?_gl=1*189bib8*_ga*NmN6TEtMZzc3NVQtZ0VOTUR1Uk9GbFpfZ09EM2k0SHp0SUgzTjkyNF96UnljMy15Z2RHd0ZpQ1lqX3pkUEZMLQ..

I wonder about the cost of this method. It is very unobtrusive imo (as long as there isn’t fear of dogs involved), instant results, and expenses for the care of the dog not too much. The salary of the handler would likely be the highest cost, but not much difference between paying someone to process the tests. 

 

Quote

Within eight weeks, the dogs in the study were able to identify which samples were from people with COVID-19....

Eventually the dogs will need to be able to reliably identify the scent among people so accurately, their findings yield a low rate of false positives and false negatives. Otto would like to develop a standard training that could be used among dogs elsewhere.

Wonder how long full training will take. Seems like false negatives are more important as I am guessing most positives then get the more traditional testing done so false positives would get eliminated by the second step testing, but I suppose if speed is important (such as screening at airports or events where time and bottlenecks are potential issues), false positives could also be a problem. 

[strappinglad]

Well, it finally happened. A man I knew personally, who was a former student of mine, age 48 , has died of covid. He was diabetic also. 

It brings one up short !!!

[Tacenda]

My daughter and her husband are anti maskers and vaccine. They, my daughter, her husband and my 19 month old granddaughter got covid a month or so ago and the thought occurred that it might be why my granddaughter doesn't like most foods, just her milk bottle. Could this be because of covid I wonder?

[The Nehor]

20 hours ago, Tacenda said:

My daughter and her husband are anti maskers and vaccine. They, my daughter, her husband and my 19 month old granddaughter got covid a month or so ago and the thought occurred that it might be why my granddaughter doesn't like most foods, just her milk bottle. Could this be because of covid I wonder?

Was only wanting to drink milk a new thing? If so, maybe. It could be a weird toddler phase though. Do they have ways to test toddler taste ability? I have no idea.

[pogi]

On 5/1/2021 at 3:47 PM, Tacenda said:

My daughter and her husband are anti maskers and vaccine. They, my daughter, her husband and my 19 month old granddaughter got covid a month or so ago and the thought occurred that it might be why my granddaughter doesn't like most foods, just her milk bottle. Could this be because of covid I wonder?

Was she like that before Covid, or is it new onset?  It is interesting, some people don't lose taste completely but it actually changes the way their food tastes, many describe it as a "nasty taste", so it is very reasonable to think that it could be related to Covid if this started with your granddaughter since getting Covid.   It goes away with time.  

[Rain]

1 hour ago, pogi said:

Was she like that before Covid, or is it new onset?  It is interesting, some people don't lose taste completely but it actually changes the way their food tastes, many describe it as a "nasty taste", so it is very reasonable to think that it could be related to Covid if this started with your granddaughter since getting Covid.   It goes away with time.  

I had a real problem with a nasty taste for probably 6 or 7 weeks.  It took me quite a while to figure it out. Then one day it wasn't near so bad and the next day it was completely gone.  Had me really worried about other health problems before I figured it out and still a little till the day it was gone.

The worst was when drinking water.  It was best first thing in the morning or while eating "creamy" foods.  Not sure how to describe that.  Ice cream yes. And sour cream. But not all milk items. Steel cut oatmeal with peanut butter. 

[Tacenda]

2 hours ago, pogi said:

Was she like that before Covid, or is it new onset?  It is interesting, some people don't lose taste completely but it actually changes the way their food tastes, many describe it as a "nasty taste", so it is very reasonable to think that it could be related to Covid if this started with your granddaughter since getting Covid.   It goes away with time.  

She seems to have dropped off eating as much since Covid. I'll mention this to my daughter, thanks Pogi!

[Stargazer]

Just for the fun of it, I will mention that I got my second Covid vaccine shot last week. I did seem to have a reaction to it this time. The first dose was completely without any kind of reaction. This time I felt vaguely unwell for about a day and a half, starting a day after the shot.