Corona Virus

[Neil]

Sorry to hear about your sister. Has she been tested? Hope she's not in the most vulnerable age bracket. She's the other side of the symptoms now... Suspect it was CV19. Hopefully a test she's having can confirm.

[MinionZombie]

Glad to hear your sister's on the mend by the sounds of it, Neil. As for figures - I suppose the trouble is that there's no one specific way of counting them. Different countries are counting them according to different specifications, which is a bit silly. Perhaps it'll be one of the things that can be internationally agreed upon once this whole mess is over and a review is done to draw up some proper feckin' guidelines to be followed the next time some horrible virus comes along to screw everything up.

[Neil]

As for figures - I suppose the trouble is that there's no one specific way of counting them. Different countries are counting them according to different specifications, which is a bit silly. Well, I suspect most test, specifically in the UK, are people being admitted into hospital with symptoms. I suspect that's true tip of the iceburg territory where probably 20-50x (or even more) that number are simply having the symptoms at home, or not even knowing they have it. Perhaps it'll be one of the things that can be internationally agreed upon once this whole mess is over and a review is done to draw up some proper feckin' guidelines to be followed the next time some horrible virus comes along to screw everything up. This is all new territory with the world not having had a pandemic of this nature for a century, so yes will have to be a learning experience.

[MinionZombie]

This is all new territory with the world not having had a pandemic of this nature for a century, so yes will have to be a learning experience. Massively so. And hopefully without the current whiff of arrogance from the hind-sightists ... it's like, well yeah, if you were able to do everything in the now according to the clarity of hindsight (which, at this point, isn't even fully clear hindsight!), then we'd navigate through day-to-day events of the world no probs ... but we can't. There's no doubt been numerous faults in this whole thing, which will need to be rightly and strongly addressed and put into action plans as things to look out for when this next happens, but we've also seen nations and companies and so forth finding ways to adapt and figure out methods to cope under these extreme circumstances (the silliness of humankind aside - e.g. toilet rolls). So it's not all doom and gloom.

[Neil]

Massively so. And hopefully without the current whiff of arrogance from the hind-sightists ... it's like, well yeah, if you were able to do everything in the now according to the clarity of hindsight (which, at this point, isn't even fully clear hindsight!), then we'd navigate through day-to-day events of the world no probs ... but we can't. There's no doubt been numerous faults in this whole thing, which will need to be rightly and strongly addressed and put into action plans as things to look out for when this next happens, but we've also seen nations and companies and so forth finding ways to adapt and figure out methods to cope under these extreme circumstances (the silliness of humankind aside - e.g. toilet rolls). So it's not all doom and gloom. Oh we should be honest about all aspects of it. It seems we've had a bit of a let off with this one whichcould easily have been a lot worse. Although slightly more contageous than other flu like diseases, and slightly worse symptoms, it's fatality rate thankfully is much lower that first feared. ie: Well under 1% rather than 3-6%. And indeed we don't need hind sight being used as some tool to comment on response as at the end of the day we had to react based on worse case scenarios. That said, we need to adjust and maybe start contemplating the current path based one what we're learning. ie: Maybe consider relaxing the lockdown accordingly.

[EvilNed]

Chinese news agency made and released this video:

[Neil]

Cases retrospectively found in Europe back dating to December - https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ember-retested - - - Updated - - - Chinese news agency made and released this video: As comical as that is, let's not take the eye of the ball. China lied... And most likely still are...

[Exatreides]

I have volunteered for a two week position in the navajo nation treating COVID-19 patients there as a nurse. I leave Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed

[bassman]

That’s from a legitimate Chinese News Agency? Strange way to use advertisements, but I suppose it’s no worse than some of these political commercials in the US. This one is comical, though. I have volunteered for a two week position in the navajo nation treating COVID-19 patients there as a nurse. I leave Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed Internet hand shake, sir. Much respect. Stay safe!

[MinionZombie]

I have volunteered for a two week position in the navajo nation treating COVID-19 patients there as a nurse. I leave Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed Keep safe, Exatreides!

[Neil]

I have volunteered for a two week position in the navajo nation treating COVID-19 patients there as a nurse. I leave Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed Well, good luck and your feedback will be of interest of course. Take care!

[shootemindehead]

I have volunteered for a two week position in the navajo nation treating COVID-19 patients there as a nurse. I leave Thursday. I'll keep everyone informed Keep safe. It'll be interesting hearing what you have to say when you're done.

[Exatreides]

Today was a travel day, up early and away, a sad goodbye to the beautiful girlfriend the next two weeks . The airport experience was...different and my first time traveling in a COVID-19 world. Security took no time at all, I was the only person there. Then the ritual pre deployment beer, drank with a pulled aside mask and gulped hurriedly. Normally I fall asleep on the flight, but it was a bit uncomfortable with the N95. Landed, and switched planes. Met up with the new team, all of whom seem to be pretty good folks. There's 4 of us on this mission, two nurses, a doc and an NP. We picked up a rental car, made a quick stop at wal mart and headed off. We we're originally going to work in Gallop but they told us we will be working at a hospital in shiprock instead. Part of any successful disaster response is flexibility, you have to be able to go with the flow, and adjust as needed. Well, I'm a bit nervous on since I haven't done inpatient care in a long time. And Gallup was supposed to be a lower acuity setting. But hey, nerves are normal and I'm sure it will be fine. We drove first from Albuquerque to Gallup to meet with our team, get some supplies. We had a couple hour discussion with our native American Liaison about culture and history before heading off. Gallup itself is under lock down, turning folks away without reason to be there (we had a letter). Another hour and a half driving to get to our air B&B where we will be staying for two weeks, or however long we're needed.

[Neil]

Short lockdown vs long lockdown.... So a lot of folks seem to be implying a much longer lockdown (ealier?) would "save lives", vs a short lockdown? I'm confused by this thinking. First, let's agree that a lockdown of any sort is aimed at clearly keeping enough infected down to it does not swamp the health system, and secondly that people clearly at risk need longterm isolation fullstop. But let's run two scenarios considering the other 99% of the population... Short term lockdown Individuals X, Y & Z are unknowly at risk, and X catches it before the lockdown starts and unfortunately dies, and after the lockdown stops, Y & Z catch it and unfortunately die. Long (earlier) Lockdown Individuals X, Y & Z are unknowly at risk, and the lockdown stops them all from catching CV19. Lockdown ends, the virus contiues to slowly spread, they catch it and unfortunately die. ie: A lockdown of varying lengths won't really change the number of people who will catch it this year, only when? People who are unknowingly at risk will potentially die from it no matter which scenario. The only difference between a short term and longterm lockdown IMHO is:- 1) The amount of damaged to the economy. A longer lockdown increases this. 2) The amount of deaths caused to people with cancer and other medical conditions going on the back burner. A longer lockdown increases this. 3) If other treatments come online over the next 3-4 months that means at risk people protected by a longer lockdown can benefit from them. Thoughts?

[EvilNed]

As you said, any lockdown should only be put in place if it is deemed necessary in order to flatten the curve enough so that it doesn't overload the medical system. Obviously, several places failed at this - Wuhan, Italy, Spain, New York all spring to mind as places from where we've heard horror stories of hospitals filled to the brim, people dying in droves etc. And the severity of any lockdown should also reflect that particular culture. In all four places mentioned above people live as packed sardines (notice, northern italy is the hardest hit - Milan is a metropolis, southern Italy has nothing quite like it). In addition, all are places with relatively poor health - although for varying reasons. China because of smoking and traffic smog, Italy and Spain because of an elderly population (ironically a sign of relatively GOOD health) and New York because american eating and health habits are disgusting. So the length and severity of the lockdown should depend from place to place. But a densely urban place like New York obviously needs stricter regulation than rural Montana. Sweden can operate the way it does because we have a relatively healthy population - most people are fit - and we do not live like packed sardines, not even in the cities. Having said that, we do take poor care of our elderly which is represented in our mortality rates. By the way, Swedish mortality rates count everyone who has died with the disease, not necessarily from the disease. There's a big distinction. We expect to hit around 25% infection rate in Stockholm by the end of May, which should mean that 25% of people will be immune - at least for a time. What could be possibly hope to achieve by locking down? Our health system is not overburdened. We have had a total of 1670 people who either are receiving, or have received, intensive care. Not an astronomical sum for a country of 10 million.