Coronavirus Thread

[CTJacket]

We’re fine in Florida except for Miami metro area. Half the cases are down there now. As long as we can keep the chaos isolated, we’re getting back to normal everywhere else fairly soon.

You keep saying that but I know an ER nurse in the Jacksonville metro area (not second hand, I know her and her husband directly). They're painting a different picture.
Edited to add, I guess you would consider that South GA - I know it feels like it there. Anyway, I'm glad your area seems to be pulling through. The more places that do their part the better off we'll be.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Deaths went back over 1000 yesterday. Georgia also had its second highest death total yesterday. The rest of this week is going to be rough.

I haven't read too much into how pooling tests affects the results yet, but at least those seem to be staying steady?

Pooling shouldn’t affect anything other than enabling more testing volumes.

SC is having a bad July like we knew it would. Cases appear to have leveled off for the last 3 weeks. We came really close to exceeding ICU capacity but haven’t yet. Hospitalizations and Ventilators have plateaued. All of that is a good sign. We’re seeing around 20-25 deaths per day when pre-June that would have been 4-5 days worth. All manageable right now still.

 

[CTJacket]

Pooling shouldn’t affect anything other than enabling more testing volumes.

SC is having a bad July like we knew it would. Cases appear to have leveled off for the last 3 weeks. We came really close to exceeding ICU capacity but haven’t yet. Hospitalizations and Ventilators have plateaued. All of that is a good sign. We’re seeing around 20-25 deaths per day when pre-June that would have been 4-5 days worth. All manageable right now still.

That seems like it's trending positive. I hope so. We all knew this week (and probably next) would show a death spike due to the 4th.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

That seems like it's trending positive. I hope so. We all knew this week (and probably next) would show a death spike due to the 4th.

Yep, even if cases stay flat or even drop off, I suspect deaths here will remain high and even increase for a few more weeks.

 

[TampaBuzz]

There’s plenty of choices and my district is evaluating many different options here. For example:

a. Two five hour sessions per day, kids attend one of the two sessions. Cut out all the Bs classes like I have 2 Mommies and he has 2 Daddies and focus strictly on Math, English, Reading, Science and History. Older kids ditch the reading and get another core class. Elective BS crap done at home online because nobody cares if you learn that or not. This gets you to 50% classrooms, Sat & Sun off. Teachers have a 50 hr work week, stop the presses !!!

b. Three sessions of 4 hrs per day, 6 days per week. This creates a teacher shortage so OT would cover until the gap was met. Teachers would teach 8 hrs per day for 6 days; 6 hrs in class and 2 hrs online. Same rules for BS classes. Teachers have a 48 hr workload and some extra staffing required. OT upfront to cover shortfall. Reduces classrooms to 1/3 of capacity.

c. In class 1 week, at home the next. Kids alternate in class and when they’re home they watch live broadcast. Same classes as before.

There’s other but this is hardly unsolvable nor is it a binary deal. That will appeal to the alphabet soup crowd.

I wish. There was discussion about being in classroom 2 day/week and 3 days/elearning...but that idea quickly disappeared. Mainly seemed to be ditched due to costs for busing and transportation costs (it's too complicated!!). It also didn't help that the state education commission is against the idea. So our option is either full time in class schooling, or full time e-learning/virtual school for a 3rd grader. If he does in school, we risk the health of his 85-yr old mother that lives with us. If he is on-line, he learns very little - too young for the required discipline and parents both work full time and can't supervise him full time. There is no good solution.

 

[TooTall]

Deaths went back over 1000 yesterday. Georgia also had its second highest death total yesterday. The rest of this week is going to be rough.

I haven't read too much into how pooling tests affects the results yet, but at least those seem to be staying steady?

COVID-19 Status Report

These data represent confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

dph.georgia.gov

Deaths @ 2.1%
ICU @ 1.9%
Hospital Admissions @ 10.4%
% of tests with positive results @ 11.5%

So 11.5% are positive, of those, 10.4% will be hospitalized. 1.9% of the 11.5% will be in ICU. 2.1% of the 11.5% have died.

Take time to look at the charts for state wide and your local area, some folks on here only see doom and gloom.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Rmember the lady with th Florida Department of Health who was fired because she was being obstinant and ornery? She had accused Florida of lying about its data.

If you go to her website, her main beefs are that if someone tests a bunch of times, she only wants to count that as 1 test. And most important (to me), she wants to count all positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths, even if the people aren’t Florida residents.

States don’t count visitors in their numbers, they pass those along. Florida’s numbers would be about 10% worse if they did this because so many people in Florida are visitors or snowbirds.

Anyway, kind of not really that big a deal anyway. But, she just filed al whistleblower complaint all these months later, stating all these bad numbers were what she was trying to warn people were coming. I’m not sure she realizes how bad that logic makes her look. Hopefully she had to pay everyone else’s legal costs when she loses.
https://news.yahoo.com/a-public-hea...verything-i-was-trying-to-warn-184810565.html

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Prominent Yale professor, Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiological scholar, speaks out about HCL ---

Dr. Risch calmly details the fact that hydroxychloroquine, when used properly, is actually an excellent potential treatment for mitigating the worst effects of coronavirus.
Risch lamented that a propaganda war is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on medical facts.

Risch said that most in the mainstream are not allowing people to speak about the evidence on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. Risch also said discussions about the drug became political as opposed to medical.

"All the evidence is actually good for it when it is used in outpatient uses. Nevertheless, the only people who actually say that are a whole pile of doctors who are on the front lines treating those patients across the country and they are the ones who are at risk being forced not to do it," Risch said, arguing that the mainstream media is not covering the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.

 

[MWBATL]

Prominent Yale professor, Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiological scholar, speaks out about HCL ---

Dr. Risch calmly details the fact that hydroxychloroquine, when used properly, is actually an excellent potential treatment for mitigating the worst effects of coronavirus.
Risch lamented that a propaganda war is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on medical facts.

Risch said that most in the mainstream are not allowing people to speak about the evidence on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. Risch also said discussions about the drug became political as opposed to medical.

"All the evidence is actually good for it when it is used in outpatient uses. Nevertheless, the only people who actually say that are a whole pile of doctors who are on the front lines treating those patients across the country and they are the ones who are at risk being forced not to do it," Risch said, arguing that the mainstream media is not covering the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.

We do continue to hear this type of thing over and over again...I wonder if the people doing the censoring ever doubt the wisdom of what they are doing?

 

[armeck]

Prominent Yale professor, Dr. Harvey Risch, an epidemiological scholar, speaks out about HCL ---

Dr. Risch calmly details the fact that hydroxychloroquine, when used properly, is actually an excellent potential treatment for mitigating the worst effects of coronavirus.
Risch lamented that a propaganda war is being waged against the use of the drug for political purposes, not based on medical facts.

Risch said that most in the mainstream are not allowing people to speak about the evidence on the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. Risch also said discussions about the drug became political as opposed to medical.

"All the evidence is actually good for it when it is used in outpatient uses. Nevertheless, the only people who actually say that are a whole pile of doctors who are on the front lines treating those patients across the country and they are the ones who are at risk being forced not to do it," Risch said, arguing that the mainstream media is not covering the benefits of hydroxychloroquine.

Source?

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Source?

I am sure you would discount the source from which I read that, so I did YOUR homework for you and Googled Dr. Harvey Risch and found this ---

Using Hydroxychloroquine and Other Drugs to Fight Pandemic

Professor Harvey Risch, M.D., Ph.D., is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health with a specialty in cancer etiology, prevention and early diagnosis,

medicine.yale.edu

 

[LibertyTurns]

You keep saying that but I know an ER nurse in the Jacksonville metro area (not second hand, I know her and her husband directly). They're painting a different picture.
Edited to add, I guess you would consider that South GA - I know it feels like it there. Anyway, I'm glad your area seems to be pulling through. The more places that do their part the better off we'll be.

This is about a week old from Jax, definitely not overwhelmed. I just checked the locals ERs quickly- 5 min wait, 10 min wait, etc. Does not seem out of control. My wife’s aunt works at Memorial. She doesn’t talk to her and gets info thru her Mom but they visited over the 4th and it seemed like a normal visit. no signs of frantic/panic/exhaustion. Says pace is kinda normal. The database on hospitals and their occupancy rates are all near normal maybe even slightly lower than normal. Not sure what ER your friend is at but the data does not seem to jive, maybe it’s the shift or timing? South Florida is a mess. Many wives/ Nurses of guys at work and neighbors are carpooling down there for contract work. There’s all the work you want down there.

https://bi.ahca.myflorida.com/t/ABI...link&:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y

Doctor: Baptist Health not ‘overrun’ by coronavirus cases

As coronavirus continues to spread in Florida, the state has begun releasing current hospitalization data for those receiving treatment for symptoms of COVID-19.

www.news4jax.com

 

[CTJacket]

This is about a week old from Jax, definitely not overwhelmed. I just checked the locals ERs quickly- 5 min wait, 10 min wait, etc. Does not seem out of control. My wife’s aunt works at Memorial. She doesn’t talk to her and gets info thru her Mom but they visited over the 4th and it seemed like a normal visit. no signs of frantic/panic/exhaustion. Says pace is kinda normal. The database on hospitals and their occupancy rates are all near normal maybe even slightly lower than normal. Not sure what ER your friend is at but the data does not seem to jive, maybe it’s the shift or timing? South Florida is a mess. Many wives/ Nurses of guys at work and neighbors are carpooling down there for contract work. There’s all the work you want down there.

https://bi.ahca.myflorida.com/t/ABI...link&:isGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&:embed=y

Doctor: Baptist Health not ‘overrun’ by coronavirus cases

As coronavirus continues to spread in Florida, the state has begun releasing current hospitalization data for those receiving treatment for symptoms of COVID-19.

www.news4jax.com

It's a small hospital, to be sure, probably a part of it. She never said overrun either - just that it's getting worse. I see what you mean about South Florida, though, I looked and they definitely look like they have the bulk of the cases even on a per capita basis.

 

[LibertyTurns]

It's a small hospital, to be sure, probably a part of it. She never said overrun either - just that it's getting worse. I see what you mean about South Florida, though, I looked and they definitely look like they have the bulk of the cases even on a per capita basis.

Sorry. Thought you were implying they were overwhelmed. Business is definitely up in many areas. That being said normal historical ER utilization is maybe 70%, we dropped down to 40% in a huge number of hospitals for a long period of time and now in the last month some are running 70-80% of capacity, about 5-15% more than what they’d normally average from what I’m being told.

I’ll repost the website we’re using to monitor trends and make decisions. Started watching it about 2 months ago now and it’s very predictive we’ve found. They predicted we’ve peaked and are on the downhill slide for about 10 days and the data is matching the prediction so far again. Miami is abating just not at the rate the rest of the state is.

There are a few areas flatlining, but overall it has been all positive data for about 2 weeks and you could see the peak coming. It topped nearly 16k/day when it looked like we may hit 18k so I think we’ll recover even faster. Just need Miami to lockdown and get under control. Those people down there are clueless. There’s way too much Yankee in that crowd and they’re paying the price because of it.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

Sorry. Thought you were implying they were overwhelmed. Business is definitely up in many areas. That being said normal historical ER utilization is maybe 70%, we dropped down to 40% in a huge number of hospitals for a long period of time and now in the last month some are running 70-80% of capacity, about 5-15% more than what they’d normally average from what I’m being told.

I’ll repost the website we’re using to monitor trends and make decisions. Started watching it about 2 months ago now and it’s very predictive we’ve found. They predicted we’ve peaked and are on the downhill slide for about 10 days and the data is matching the prediction so far again. Miami is abating just not at the rate the rest of the state is.

There are a few areas flatlining, but overall it has been all positive data for about 2 weeks and you could see the peak coming. It topped nearly 16k/day when it looked like we may hit 18k so I think we’ll recover even faster. Just need Miami to lockdown and get under control. Those people down there are clueless. There’s way too much Yankee in that crowd and they’re paying the price because of it.

One of the metrics a lot of people watch is ER visits. That’s when people first get sick enough to get help and get tested. I’ve heard for the past few days those are trending down but haven’t verified. We definitely seem to have plateaued in SC without overwhelming hospitals. Most sectors are at 75% capacity. Some are pretty full, but flattening the curve is not eradication. It’s protecting the most vulnerable and making sure the rest don’t crush the hospital systems.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I saw an interview with Yale Professor Ricsch on Fox News last night, and he was as outspoken as before, if not more so, about the ludicrous (his word) reaction by some doctors and some in the media concerning the use of hydroxychloroquine, both as a treatment AND a prophylactic for Covid. Meanwhile, I saw an interview on CNN with another doctor saying the same thing, and the woman doing the interview talked over him, argued with him, said she didn't want to hear anything else he had to say, and then cut away mid-interview. WOW

 

[Deleted member 2897]

I saw an interview with Yale Professor Ricsch on Fox News last night, and he was as outspoken as before, if not more so, about the ludicrous (his word) reaction by some doctors and some in the media concerning the use of hydroxychloroquine, both as a treatment AND a prophylactic for Covid. Meanwhile, I saw an interview on CNN with another doctor saying the same thing, and the woman doing the interview talked over him, argued with him, said she didn't want to hear anything else he had to say, and then cut away mid-interview. WOW

I saw the CNN one. Advocacy in place of journalism is obnoxious - especially when you cut off the person you're interviewing, calling him a liar, and you're the one who's wrong LOL.

 

[MWBATL]

I saw the CNN one. Advocacy in place of journalism is obnoxious - especially when you cut off the person you're interviewing, calling him a liar, and you're the one who's wrong LOL.

Journalism? There isn't any of that these days.....

 

[armeck]

I am sure you would discount the source from which I read that, so I did YOUR homework for you and Googled Dr. Harvey Risch and found this ---

Using Hydroxychloroquine and Other Drugs to Fight Pandemic

Professor Harvey Risch, M.D., Ph.D., is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health with a specialty in cancer etiology, prevention and early diagnosis,

medicine.yale.edu

Well, I'd argue that it was in fact your homework - you make a claim, you provide the evidence. Simple, straightforward logical argument guidelines. Also, not sure why you are being so cantankerous about it, it was obvious that you copy/pasted something - I was asking where you got it.

Generally, when posting, "so and so said that..." or "a recent article said..." it is good form to link to it, else you have to take the posters word for it which is seldom a good thing.

 

[RamblinRed]

I am sure you would discount the source from which I read that, so I did YOUR homework for you and Googled Dr. Harvey Risch and found this ---

Using Hydroxychloroquine and Other Drugs to Fight Pandemic

Professor Harvey Risch, M.D., Ph.D., is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health with a specialty in cancer etiology, prevention and early diagnosis,

medicine.yale.edu

I can't speak to the interviews on FOX News and CNN since I don't watch either channel as both are hopelessly biased. Given the biases of both networks i'm not surprised by the reactions on either one.

As far as this study, I went ahead and read it and it has a number of issues.
First, Dr. Risch has been a consultant for multiple companies that produce HCQ, azithromycin and doxycycline. So he starts with a conflict of interest.

Second, even in his report he clearly states there have been no random controlled studies that support his point of view
" Some of my medical colleagues still prefer to wait until more studies are done and stronger evidence such as from RCTs becomes available, and government and professional advisory panels do reevaluate the evidence. I strongly urge these panels to reconsider the data and arguments discussed above. "
The problem with the studies he sites are since they are not randomized, controled studies (RCT's) you can't actually say it is due to HCQ that patients had better outcomes.

Third, his argument is that all the clinical studies that show HCQ is not effective come with patients who are farther along in their disease rather than early on and that HCQ should be used early on. This is no longer the case as there is a RCT from the Univ of MN released last week that shows no effectiveness from HCQ or HCQ with azithromycin used early on in diagnosis or as a Prophylaxis.

ACP Journals

Also, here is a good study of the biases in the various clinical studies on HCQ, both those that showed no positive results results and those that did (including ones that he mentioned in support of his position)

ACP Journals

Fourth, the study linked was reported on June 2nd. There are a number of studies, including RCT's that contradict his point of view since the publication of his study.
And while in his study he mentions the use of HCQ by doctors in some countries he fails to mention that some of those countries including France, Italy, Belgium and the UK no longer using HCQ, with France (one of the countries he cites multiple times) having banned the use of HCQ in hospitals.

Keep in mind it was due to the complaints from doctors that forced the FDA to change its initial guidance on HCQ as the majority of doctors were not seeing positive results from its use and were seeing some negative results so most moved on to other theraputics to try to treat COVID19.

And finally, Dr. Risch is affiliated with the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a 5,000 member conservative doctors association which has promoted a number of scientifically discredited positions in the past such as HIV not causing AIDS and there being a causal link between vaccines and Autism.