Just the Facts, the Crown virus.

[doc henderson]

finishing a 6 night stent of work.. glad to have company Ianab.  In this big crisis we actually laid folks off and reduced hours and pay for the entire hospital.  we are now back up to normal numbers.  Our ICU is full of non covid folks.  starting to see strokes and heart attacks again.  many stayed home before.  now we see if we get a big wave, since most here have not had it.

[SwampDonkey]

We had a little outbreak here in the northern end of the province. A Dr. travelled to Quebec on personal business, came back, never self isolated which is mandatory. Then of course was working and infected a nursing home up there and one resident died, only death we've had from corona. The Dr. apparently is from overseas and worked up there, but has recently resigned and going back to where ever he is from.

"do as I say, not what I do" comes to mind. :

[thecfarm]

That's too bad. Maine has been lucky so far. I said so far.
I had a little scare a few days ago.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=110995.0

[caveman]

In Florida they have reported over 1000 new cases every day for the past several days.  I expect the numbers to increase a bit more due to the disregard of CDC recommendations during the recent ___________ (protests, riots, civil unrest, fill in the blank).

[alan gage]

It's ramping up locally here. A few weeks ago the state was shut down and the Des Moines area was seeing a surge but the rural counties were pretty much untouched. The whole state pretty much followed the same protocol in terms of shutting down. Now the state has opened back up but pretty much everyone is ignoring local conditions. Three weeks ago we had zero cases in our county (~10,000 people) and most things were shut down. Right now we have 30 something cases (and increasing) and everything is going back to business as usual. The county next door is huge on tourism with lots of resorts, restaurants, and bars (all of which seem to be in full swing). They have close to 50 cases over there. Will be interesting to see what happens. So far no one locally has died that I know of. Would be nice if it stays that way.

As usual we have short attention spans that fixate on one issue until we get tired of it and move onto something else.

Alan

[Magicman]

The way I understood it, "flattening the curve" didn't lessen the number of cases so much as spreading them out so as not to overwhelm the medical professionals and facilities.

Of course that didn't take into consideration these latest huge "gatherings".  :

[SwampDonkey]

It will be interesting how it plays out, all over the world. I certainly don't have any answers. People still have to be able to make a living in this world. The freebies will soon dry up.

[Walnut Beast]

It will be interesting how it plays out, all over the world. I certainly don't have any answers. People still have to be able to make a living in this world. The freebies will soon dry up.

Hopefully you recovered from Monday 🤣😂

[SwampDonkey]

Mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies is all I have to contend with. :D :D

[Ianab]

The way I understood it, "flattening the curve" didn't lessen the number of cases so much as spreading them out so as not to overwhelm the medical professionals and facilities.

Of course that didn't take into consideration these latest huge "gatherings".  :

It should in theory reduce the number of cases a little as well because of the way "herd immunity" develops. It should also reduce the total death rate because because people are still able to get top rate medical care if they need it. So it's better than doing nothing. 
Problem is that going that route, the US (and most of the world) is only now in the early stages of the pandemic. It's going to have to simmer along (with regular flare ups) until most of the population has been exposed. 
The NZ Govt have admitted that was their intention when the country was first put into lockdown (slow the spread so hospitals didn't get overwhelmed etc).  But the response was hard and early enough that it worked even better than anyone really hoped. Most of the restrictions apart from borders have been lifted now and only ones really suffering now are the tourist based businesses. There is now some domestic tourism happening, as we can really only travel around NZ at the moment, and lots of people felt like a break after 5+ weeks at home. 
Hopefully Australia get their outbreak fully under control, they are close but the lockdown there wasn't quite as strict and co-ordinated, and they seem to have a longer "tail" of lingering cases. But they are down to single digit new cases now. That would be a significant boost to the tourist industries in both countries
Various other countries are also close to eliminating the virus, and are down to tracking the last few cases. So it can be done. 

[Sedgehammer]

On a personal note, my wife was exposed to a positive patient a little over a week ago. A 20 something lady came in thinking she was having asthma issues. She just found out yesterday that the lady was positive. Only way she found out was by doing a follow up. Tried calling her for several days, as the patient never called to inform. Finally got a hold of her yesterday. My wife had a regular mask on, the patient didn't. New clinic protocol is anyone coming in the clinic has to have a mask on. Wife isn't feeling well today. 99.3° temperature

[Stephen1]

Keep us up to date. Hoping all is good.

[dgdrls]

Sedgehammer,
I hope your wife is well and not infected,
The clinic should have instituted better infection control protocols long before
one of their staff was infected/exposed to a positive patient.

D

[dgdrls]

There has been some headlines reporting a "second wave" of CV,

John Hopkins is reporting the contrary,  no second wave...yet.



 

[thecfarm]

I went into 2 different places and all was suited up to the teeth in the exam rooms. One called it her bunny suit. Mask, face shield, gloves and a yellow grown for all. I mentioned in another thread, Doctor would not even come into the room until I put my mask back on.

[Sedgehammer]

Mask issue was there were none to be found, now that there is, patients must also wear. 
No clinics here dress up. If you think you got it, you go to the hospital or a testing center depending your severity.
Wife isn't overly worried about it either way. Not because it can't be serious, but because our demographics show it to not be a huge risk factor. Plus she said were going to get it eventually, better now then this winter when it's bad again. 
She said she's felt a little off for a few days. A little tired this morning, but no temp. She worked in the garden this afternoon and as I type, she's washing the suburban. So who knows. 

[Ianab]

There has been some headlines reporting a "second wave" of CV, John Hopkins is reporting the contrary,  no second wave...yet.

It's more that the first wave hasn't finished. The infection curve for the USA (as a total) is quite different from most other countries. The curve for New York State alone is fairly "normal" where the disease has reached a peak, then controls have kicked in, and new infections are down to 5% of the peak. Keep that up and the disease gradually dies out.  But California and Texas the curve is still ramping upwards. If the virus ramped up again in New York (because everyone relaxed thinking it was over), that would be a "second wave"

Worldwide the curve is still going up due to the virus now getting a solid foothold in Brazil / Russia / India 

The problem with "It's just the new normal" is that those scary initial death estimates that the CDC came out with suddenly become more real. That's was 1-2 million dead from memory. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, the deaths keep adding up, even in the US estimates were around 500,000 deaths from medical folks giving warnings for at least 10 years previous. I think some folks have it in there heads that this is a 4 or 5 month thing then it's over. So they see, hmm, nowhere near deaths predicted. I do think death rates have slowed though.  Your infection rate in the US has not yet plateaued nation wide if the numbers reported have any accuracy. CA and TX are large populations and numbers of infections keep adding up significantly. I'm not counting on any vaccine any time soon, lots of viruses we have never cured and $billions spent. We have not cured much since the 60's, to be quite honest. No money in it.

[Ianab]

We have not cured much since the 60's, to be quite honest. No money in it.

Dunno about that, there are now treatments for HIV and Hep C. No vaccine as such, but at least Drs now have useful treatments. Influenza has a semi-effective vaccine, and again there are drugs that help treat it, so it's not considered a major threat any more. We don't get major epidemics of influenza any, although it's a game of cat and mouse to keep up with the mutating strains. You are right about the common cold though, it's mutated into so many versions and is considered mostly harmless, so the cost / benefit isn't there to find a cure. 

But yeah, that's not going to happen overnight, in spite of 100 plus serious research programs happening around the world. A vaccine need not even be 100% effective (as long as it's 100% safe). Getting even 75% of the population immune would soon squash the virus down to nuisance levels.

Thing is the virus CAN be controlled, basically with the same methods they used in 1918. Keep your distance from anyone who might have the virus. 

[SwampDonkey]

Treatments manage and alleviate, but don't cure. You can get reinfected. TB for instance was cured in the 60's, an actual vaccine that apparently reduces your risk from COVID-19 as well. This was found out in the cancer centre in Texas, forget name now, but it's up higher in this thread.

[doc henderson]

Just a note, TB has not been cured.  we isolate, take some antibiotics for those exposed.  we monitor those at risk yearly, like health care workers.  It usually takes 2 antibiotics for a year with supplements to protect you from the ill effects of the antibiotics.  and you may still get it when you are older.  It remains dormant for years like shingles.  In Europe there is a vaccine, and some military folks get that here, but not the general population.  I was exposed as a respiratory therapist working my way through school.  took the antibiotics.  so it is the equivalent of getting the vaccine.  I still have some risk.  I no longer get the skin test as I will test positive, but have to get annual CXRs.  The radiologist in Albany got a kick out of my x-ray as I have small granulomas, from organism that grow in hay, and we all get them in the farm belt.  not TB.  the granuloma is the way the body sequesters things like histoplasmosis, and TB.  this is why it is hard to treat, and comes back years later as the immune system fails.  I assume you may have the vaccine like the UK.

[Ianab]

That's what I'm saying. TB for example hasn't been eliminated, but there are treatments. If you show up at the hospital with it, the Drs can do something useful. 

So even a "treatment"  for Covid-19 would be a big help. From local figures it has about a ~1% death rate, weighted towards the older / sick folks. 

Now if you showed up seriously sick at the hospital, and they said, this drug has a 99% chance of curing you. Then it's not really problem any more. Only maybe 95% of people end up in hospital, and if you can cure 99% of those, then it's minor disease. 

We just don't have that yet. 

[Bandmill Bandit]

Doc:

Is that condition from "hay" and other farm dust you mention above what older farmers call farmers lung?

If yes, I have it and so does my Dad and Dad will be 92 in September. He had a round of treatments at U of A respiratory research department about a year ago and he has a LOT less issues ever since. Think there was 20 or 30 participants in that batch. I was not picked because mine is pretty minor compared to Dad and I didn't meet the basic minimim threshold on the lung capacity testing.  

[SwampDonkey]

I had TB when I was 2, never had it since.

[doc henderson]

@SwampDonkey and I hope you never do.  but the problem is it can re-activate as you immunity wanes. (old age).  The histo rarely causes trouble and I think farmers get lung disease from all the chemicals and dust (silica) and stuff, but not sure.  silica, like asbestos causes a lot of inflammation as the immune system struggles to clear it, and can result in copd and cancer.