Coronavirus Updates

[Aribeth Zelin]

You can get a virus and practice social distancing. I know from personal experience. Don't know what kind though I have my guesses.

Yes, that's why I had to fight with my spouse about him going out at the drop of a hat. I didn't go into medicine, but I've always been fascinated. I just don't handle blood all that well anymore.

 

[Kara Spengler]

MSNBC is owned by Comcast, whose responsibility is to their shareholders, like it or not. They will air the stories they think will attract the most viewers, and thus the most advertising dollars. In the days of broadcast TV with a limited number of channels, the FCC required some measure of responsibility in the public interest as a condition of using the public airwaves. That's not required of cable channels, so they are free to pursue profit, or in the case of Fox, a political point of view.

I no longer own a TV, and get my news from a curated set of websites so as to get a balanced feed. If you have a better idea, let me know.

Actually, broadcast tv is getting more important. More and more people are cutting the (cable) cord then getting over the air and/or ala carte premium stuff.

 

[Isabeau]

You don’t need to cheek-kiss to catch a virus. I’m sure Finns don’t stand 2 metres apart when talking in usual times.

 

[Kara Spengler]

And yet Finland has 2,500 cases, so there must be other methods of infection besides close human contact.

There are some cities so people can not always be their preferred distance apart.

 

[Kara Spengler]

That's the exact point I tried to make to my spouse because I know that Finland is a very social distance country.... because he thought it'd be enough.

Certainly not enough. While not as common someone infected can touch something and then you touch it after them. Then when you feel safe later touch your face.

 

[Kara Spengler]

You don’t need to cheek-kiss to catch a virus. I’m sure Finns don’t stand 2 metres apart when talking in usual times.

Right but further away in many situations than, say, the us. For example, if all the seats on a bus have 1 person it is considered full.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

You don’t need to cheek-kiss to catch a virus. I’m sure Finns don’t stand 2 metres apart when talking in usual times.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I can't say that isn't true in the USA because I don't know, but from reading about this it seems "patient can't breathe" and "patient isn't getting enough oxygen" are two separate conditions, three different states, with oxygen alone being by far the least severe treatment. The implication of Covid-19 not benefiting from respiration in (sounds like) most cases is that ICU usage would go down, and there wouldn't be such a need for respirators, and most importantly, survival rates should go up.

For what it's worth, here's what intensive care units are like in the UK

Intensive care

Find out about intensive care units (ICUs), specialist hospital wards for people who are seriously ill.

www.nhs.uk

Intensive care units: 'The point is to keep people alive'

Doctors on coronavirus frontline say admission to ICU is about giving patients chance to recover

www.theguardian.com

“The whole point of an intensive care unit is to keep people alive. But our main task as staff is to provide support to patients and their vital organs rather than treatment. We hope that they recover naturally and that a disease like Covid runs its course, and that they don’t die in the meantime.”

 

[Beebo Brink]

You can get a virus and practice social distancing. I know from personal experience.

Social distancing is worthless if you don't also wash hands frequently and avoid touching your face. All it takes is a careless hand resting on a table surface or a railing, no matter how afar away the next person may be at that moment.

 

[Fionalein]

Social distancing is worthless if you don't also wash hands frequently and avoid touching your face. All it takes is a careless hand resting on a table surface or a railing, no matter how afar away the next person may be at that moment.

No, all it takes is having bad luck and inhaling contaminated particles. That's how aerosol droplet infections work, stop implying otherwise please. Yes, washing your hands and avoiding touching your face reduces the risk dramatically, but no you cannot conclude folks who caught it did not do so.

 

[Eunoli]

No, all it takes is having bad luck and inhaling contaminated particles. That's how aerosol droplet infections work, stop implying otherwise please. Yes, washing your hands and avoiding touching your face reduces the risk dramatically, but no you cannot conclude folks who caught it did not do so.

Those two scenarios are not mutually exclusive. You are both right.

 

[Sovereignty]

Social distancing is worthless if you don't also wash hands frequently and avoid touching your face. All it takes is a careless hand resting on a table surface or a railing, no matter how afar away the next person may be at that moment.

Totally agree. Two things I learned/figured out in addition:
1) wash your hands before you go to bed, don't know where they go when you're asleep [if you aren't already in the habit of washing your face and hands then [in the proper order!], advice for my brother]
2) cover your face with mask and eyewear (glasses, safety glasses, goggles) when handling mail or packages to prevent accidentally touching your face while handling suspect items

 

[Sovereignty]

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Overview

COVID-19 is a new type of coronavirus that causes mild to severe cases. Here’s a quick guide on how to spot symptoms, risk factors, prevent spread of the disease, and find out what to do if you think you have it.

www.webmd.com

Some are thinking Covid-19 is acting more like high altitude sickness than pneumonia. That might mean ventilation is counterproductive in the majority of patients, and what they really need is oxygen.

Dr. Roger "MedCram" Seuhult spent a lot of time in today's video beginning to discuss this issue. One interpretation of the issue is that COVID19 might interfere with hemoglobin binding to oxygen. Seuhult has not seen evidence of that.

Seuhult will continue the discussion in another video with Is Protocol-Driven COVID-19 Ventilation Doing More Harm Than Good? which I think involves the questions raised in Italy and brought up in the WebMD article you link to. I'm looking forward to it. Today he said he hasn't seen that, at least yet, but will talk about the question more in the next video. (If you watch the most recent video, "high compliance" means lungs don't resist when air is pumped into them, i.e., you can breathe fairly normally, and "low compliance" means you cannot breathe normally, the lungs resist air being pumped into them.)

Overall, a lot of interesting topics in today's video, like another "new" drug for treating COVID19, potentially. Ivermectin. It has been used in humans for parasitic infections (shades of hydroxychloroquine). Ivermectin also happens to be in my dog's heartworm medication. In vitro, it keeps COVID19 proteins manufactured in the cell from entering the nucleus and depressing the immune response. That's the theory.

I'm waiting for reports of people overdosing on heartworm medicine and shortages of my dog's medicine.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The tennis tournament Wimbledon has been paying since 20 years for a pandemic risk coverage insurance - so now they are getting paid 141 million US$ as compensation.

Wimbledon paid pandemic insurance for almost 20 years. Now it’s getting $141 million

The tournament’s risk and finance subcommittee insisted on a pandemic clause nearly 20 years ago.

www.sbnation.com

 

[Fionalein]

The tennis tournament Wimbledon has been paying since 20 years for a pandemic risk coverage insurance - so now they are getting paid 141 million US$ as compensation.

Wimbledon paid pandemic insurance for almost 20 years. Now it’s getting $141 million

The tournament’s risk and finance subcommittee insisted on a pandemic clause nearly 20 years ago.

www.sbnation.com

Kinda makes me wonder if subsidizing an industry which did not insure itself is fair...

 

[Kara Spengler]

Totally agree. Two things I learned/figured out in addition:
1) wash your hands before you go to bed, don't know where they go when you're asleep [if you aren't already in the habit of washing your face and hands then [in the proper order!], advice for my brother]
2) cover your face with mask and eyewear (glasses, safety glasses, goggles) when handling mail or packages to prevent accidentally touching your face while handling suspect items

I just wash my hands multiple times per day even though I leave my appartment maybe once a week to get mail or take out the trash and have not been out of the building since mid march. Even people specifically testing and TRYING not to touch their face touched it multiple times per day so the best strategy is to just wash your hands several times each day. Also use some sort of hand cream every few days to keep them from drying out.

 

[Beebo Brink]

No, all it takes is having bad luck and inhaling contaminated particles. That's how aerosol droplet infections work, stop implying otherwise please. Yes, washing your hands and avoiding touching your face reduces the risk dramatically, but no you cannot conclude folks who caught it did not do so.

Yeah, times are rough right now. I'm going to assume you're on edge rather than trying to pick a random fight for no good reason.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Kinda makes me wonder if subsidizing an industry which did not insure itself is fair...

You cannot insure you against all odds that might happen to you; this here is an event of force majeure.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Kinda makes me wonder if subsidizing an industry which did not insure itself is fair...

Depends on how important you think the particular industry is, I guess.

 

[Sovereignty]

I just wash my hands multiple times per day even though I leave my appartment maybe once a week to get mail or take out the trash and have not been out of the building since mid march. Even people specifically testing and TRYING not to touch their face touched it multiple times per day so the best strategy is to just wash your hands several times each day. Also use some sort of hand cream every few days to keep them from drying out.

My experience is that I have contracted some virus while isolated in my house. As far as I know, my only opportunities to get infected were when handling mail or packages. I washed thoroughly after handling anything and actually wasn't thinking about not touching. Touched my face anyway. So I want to raise awareness.

During those limited times, covering the face will make touching your face more difficult so you don't have as much risk--and don't have to rely on thinking about it.

Washing before going to bed also seems like a critical time to do hand washing.

Just to give perspective, when ICU workers don and doff PPE, they have someone watch them to make sure they do it right. It is so easy to screw up. I didn't have anyone to watch me dealing with packages and ... bingo .... I think.