Coronavirus Thread

[takethepoints]

Actually not. I am sitting here watching the South Carolina DHEC daily press conference. They said although there are exceptions, they do not recommend testing people that do not have symptoms. If there is reason to believe that they may have the virus, they are to self Quarantine. But they said even people that have the virus may not test positive if they are not showing symptoms yet. The only way around that is to keep testing those people every day for 14 days, which does not scale.

Problem with this approach = we need to test a vastly larger part of the population then we are doing now in order to get a valid statistical/demographic profile of the disease. That's especially needed in the US because its territory is so large and we have many areas with low population density. And those areas tend to have older populations that are at a higher risk.

But, as I say above, I think this restriction is temporary; the production of tests is taking off and any hospital lab can do the work. This part of the response seems to be coming on line as I write.

Update: But the point about shortages of medical personnel is well taken. Let's hope we can find ways around that, but that would mean using the armed forces and getting retired nurses/lab techs back on line instanter.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

If this is true, this is worrying. While the younger victims are not dying, the damage is awful. I’m also reading more and more about permanent lung damage. This needs to be impressed upon the younger generations.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/coron...ng-patients-were-nothing-short-of-terrifying/

 

[kg01]

People are overreacting and flooding emergency rooms requesting to be tested. Less than 10% of people they do test, even after pre-screening turn out positive. If we multiply these test requests by 14 or 1400, it’s not just the test kits, it’s the labor. My ER nurse connections are begging people to stop requesting tests because they can’t get their jobs done.

This is a mess on many levels, sadly.

 

[Lotta Booze]

People are overreacting and flooding emergency rooms requesting to be tested. Less than 10% of people they do test, even after pre-screening turn out positive. If we multiply these test requests by 14 or 1400, it’s not just the test kits, it’s the labor. My ER nurse connections are begging people to stop requesting tests because they can’t get their jobs done.

Too many people requesting because they are panicked is a problem as well. I think we're probably on the low side currently but that's a hunch influenced by stories I read about people having trouble getting tested. There's probably a sweet spot in the middle, and I think that's more testing than what we're doing now. And it could vary location to location

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/top...ys-coronavirus-testing-system-is-failing.html

 

[Milwaukee]

Does ANYONE here actually know someone who has the virus?

 

[Lotta Booze]

Does ANYONE here actually know someone who has the virus?

Yes. My dear friend Tom Hanks

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Yes. My dear friend Tom Hanks

God Bless the Internet. God Bless Lotta Juice.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

4,600 cases in the US yesterday to 5,900 today...on top of the testing limitation caveat. Damn. Italy 31,000....that’s equivalent to 170,000 in our population. I has a sad for the world.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I just read that if you give blood (it was on the news), they screen it for all kinds of things including the virus. That doesn’t seem right to me given what we’ve been reading about testing limitations, but that’s what they said. So if you’re worried and you can’t get a test, go donate blood!

 

[GT_EE78]

Problem with this approach = we need to test a vastly larger part of the population then we are doing now in order to get a valid statistical/demographic profile of the disease. That's especially needed in the US because its territory is so large and we have many areas with low population density. And those areas tend to have older populations that are at a higher risk.

agree. much seems to rely on the chinese study(40K+ patients) released in Feb where we know
<< 1% death rate under age 60 (regardless of underlying conditions)
<< 1% death rate without underlying conditions (regardless of age)
.
So I'm patiently waiting to see a breakdown for us oldsters
60-70,70-80 and 80+ death rate with and without underlying conditions
hec , maybe they could even list the conditions with mortality rate for each subgroup

 

[kg01]

God Bless the Internet. God Bless Lotta Juice.

Give him credit. The man's got a .... lotta juice.

What can I say. I'm just on a roll today, boysss

 

[GTpdm]

Yes. My dear friend Tom Hanks

Yeah, but Tom Hanks is the nicest guy in the world He’s literally everybody’s friend.

 

[slugboy]

Basically you have a tube down your throat back to a machine that breathes for you. Not anything that encases you like in the older days.

Back to @Supersizethatorder-mutt 's original post. You mostly have ventilators in the ICU's, and in a few other places for emergency medicine. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventilator). The ICUs have so much space and equipment for so many beds. The ICUs, like everything else in the hospital, are funded (indirectly) by health insurers, who want to minimize their costs. There aren't a ton of government bucks funding more hospital capacity, unless you're thinking of Medicare or Tricare, which aren't throwing money around for building sprees. So ICUs are funded for normal times, as is everything else in the hospital.
These times aren't normal.
If you want more ventilators, you either get bigger ICUs, or maybe you set up emergency ICU space from other space in the hospital--but hospitals don't have a ton of other space, and it's not easy to make that kind of space.
Also, ICUs are fairly full most of the time from other causes, like people who have had heart attacks.
As for the CDC being the culprit here: the CDC isn't a heavily-funded agency. The people I know there do incredible work because they're committed, but they don't get a lot of funding or support to do it. They scrape by. I don't know why you think the CDC or the NHS has authority to make hospitals build bigger ICUs or buy more ventilators in normal times. Maybe they get that authority now, but the horse is already out of the barn.

 

[Milwaukee]

This is all bull****. The only people that need to be quarantined are old people and vulnerable people. Stop messing with the American way of life. “But you may have it with no symptoms and pass it to the vulnerable!” No, not if THEY are quarantined. This is a global sham, we’ve all been had. “But death totals are spiraling!” “The body count is PILING UP!” I don’t see any of these athletes or actors dying or feeling any more ill than a cold. Are there not famous people in Italy?

Get a grip. Once I get it I’ll quarantine myself but until then it’s business as usual. I’ll punch corona in the face.

Triggered crowd incoming in 3, 2, and 1...

 

[Deleted member 2897]

This is all bull****. The only people that need to be quarantined are old people and vulnerable people. Stop messing with the American way of life. “But you may have it with no symptoms and pass it to the vulnerable!” No, not if THEY are quarantined. This is a global sham, we’ve all been had. “But death totals are spiraling!” “The body count is PILING UP!” I don’t see any of these athletes or actors dying or feeling any more ill than a cold. Are there not famous people in Italy?

Get a grip. Once I get it I’ll quarantine myself but until then it’s business as usual. I’ll punch corona in the face.

Scientifically False. Please read the article I posted about complications people are getting. Then also realize we don’t have spare hospital and ER capacity. Settle down Beavis.

 

[kg01]

This is all bull****. The only people that need to be quarantined are old people and vulnerable people. Stop messing with the American way of life. “But you may have it with no symptoms and pass it to the vulnerable!” No, not if THEY are quarantined. This is a global sham, we’ve all been had. “But death totals are spiraling!” “The body count is PILING UP!”

Get a grip. Once I get it I’ll quarantine myself but until then it’s business as usual. I’ll punch corona in the face.

This is why we hate ...er love you, mildew-aukee. You're a ranting idiot, but you're our ranting idiot.

Don'tchu ever forget it.

 

[Milwaukee]

That hurt @kg01. I will not forget that...until the panic blows over, then I’ll forget that.

 

[GT_EE78]

This is all bull****. The only people that need to be quarantined are old people and vulnerable people. Stop messing with the American way of life. “But you may have it with no symptoms and pass it to the vulnerable!” No, not if THEY are quarantined. This is a global sham, we’ve all been had. “But death totals are spiraling!” “The body count is PILING UP!” I don’t see any of these athletes or actors dying or feeling any more ill than a cold. Are there not famous people in Italy?

Get a grip. Once I get it I’ll quarantine myself but until then it’s business as usual. I’ll punch corona in the face.

Triggered crowd incoming in 3, 2, and 1...

Ok,,,,,,,, just tell your parents to listen for the cart
" Bring out your dead"

 

[LibertyTurns]

I’m now leaving work and I believe we’ve finally breached the hysteria phase.

a. The virus is here
b. We’ve suspended travel from high risk places
c. College went to distance learning then local schools shutdown
d. Bars and restaurants are shuttering
e. There’s no meat, toilet paper, etc to buy
f. The stock market crashed
g. Medical supplies are low and hospitals are getting overwhelmed
h. Sports got cancelled
i. Sure I missed something else major

We are now transitioning to the F it phase. There’s nothing more they can do to us that matters.

There’s a weird calm here now. The pie holes have tired of yammering and the crisis is no longer unique. The balance is about to tip in our favor.

 

[Techster]

This is all bull****. The only people that need to be quarantined are old people and vulnerable people. Stop messing with the American way of life. “But you may have it with no symptoms and pass it to the vulnerable!” No, not if THEY are quarantined. This is a global sham, we’ve all been had. “But death totals are spiraling!” “The body count is PILING UP!” I don’t see any of these athletes or actors dying or feeling any more ill than a cold. Are there not famous people in Italy?

Get a grip. Once I get it I’ll quarantine myself but until then it’s business as usual. I’ll punch corona in the face.

Triggered crowd incoming in 3, 2, and 1...

Coach: There's no "I" in TEAM!

Milwaukee: But Coach, there's an "M" and "E"...ME!!!