How COVID-19 is affecting society

[danielravennest]

As we're learning from announcements about planning in the UK, it's an immense challenge, not least because you've somehow got to find trained staff and the facilities safely to vaccinate huge numbers of people (so ensuring social distancing and keeping the facilities clean) at a time when medical staff are already struggling with the consequences of the pandemic.

As I understand it, the current plan is to rely on the big US drug store chains (i.e. Walgreens and CVS) to do the bulk of the vaccinations. That's where most people go for their annual flu shots. Your local pharmacy already has your info on file, who your doctor is, etc. People who aren't tied into the system would be directed to public vaccination sites. Schools may require proof of vaccination before they let kids return, same as they already do for other diseases.

 

[Free]

Elon Musk says he has tested positive for COVID-19

Musk took a rapid antigen test that has a substantial false negative rate.

arstechnica.com

"Was tested for covid four times today," Musk wrote on Thursday evening. "Two tests came back negative, two came back positive."

Musk believes that "something extremely bogus is going on."

But a mix of positive and negative results isn't that surprising. Musk took a rapid antigen test from the medical technology company BD. According to the FDA, "positive results are usually highly accurate" with antigen tests, while false negatives are more common. So it wouldn't be unusual for a patient with COVID-19 to get both negative and positive results.

Musk says he has also ordered a PCR test. This type of test is more accurate, but it will take about 24 hours to get the result.

 

[Sovereignty]

ETA: In the short term, I'd say: yes, Black Americans need to get vaccinated. And I am not being paternalistic or racist in saying that. It is an obvious immediate need. At the same time, we need nationalized health care. Black people should not have to be so needful of relief from the threat of COVID-19--or Indigenous Americans, Latinos, or Pacific Islanders. That's how I interpret Rhea Boyd.

ETA2: No, I don't think nationalized health care would automatically solve all the medical care problems faced by POC, but it would go a long way towards that goal.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

The main problem, as I understand it, will be finding enough qualified people to administer this huge number of vaccinations at a time when the NHS is already stretched to capacity by Covid-19, on top of their usual workload.

Here in Wales they are already using a lower-qualified* grade of nurse, and local pharmacists, to give flu injections - presumably they could do the covid stuff as well.

* I'm uncomfortable at using the term 'lower-qualified' here, as it sounds rather disrespectful. That's not my intention , as I'm talking about caring professionals earlier in their careers. Can anyone (Innula perhaps ) think of a better phrase ?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Here in Wales they are already using a lower-qualified* grade of nurse, and local pharmacists, to give flu injections - presumably they could do the covid stuff as well.

* I'm uncomfortable at using the term 'lower-qualified' here, as it sounds rather disrespectful. That's not my intention , as I'm talking about caring professionals earlier in their careers. Can anyone (Innula perhaps ) think of a better phrase ?

Junior nurses?

That's not the point, though -- the nurses, pharmacists and whoever else who will be helping vaccinate people already have a full-time job, in which they are already fully occupied doing blood tests, vaccinating children and adults against other diseases, dispensing prescriptions and so on, and they're already overstretched because of Covid-19.

Somehow, on top of everything else they've been doing all year, they'll have a huge new programme to deliver, on top of their already hugely burdensome workload.

 

[Arkady Arkright]

Somehow, on top of everything else they've been doing all year, they'll have a huge new programme to deliver, on top of their already hugely burdensome workload.

Fair point, although our local practice and pharmacy actually seem less busy that in more normal times. Perhaps it's a rural/urban difference ?

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Here in Wales they are already using a lower-qualified* grade of nurse, and local pharmacists, to give flu injections - presumably they could do the covid stuff as well.

* I'm uncomfortable at using the term 'lower-qualified' here, as it sounds rather disrespectful. That's not my intention , as I'm talking about caring professionals earlier in their careers. Can anyone (Innula perhaps ) think of a better phrase ?

I'd use less experienced.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Here's a Chinese study which determines that when suffering from COVID19 the affected males do become infertile.

Becoming infertile is not in any relation to how much of your lung capacity you lost, or not. It is also the standard case, not the exception.

It's still a study with a small sample size, though.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30348-5/fulltext

 

[Beebo Brink]

Here's a Chinese study which determines that when suffering from COVID19 the affected males do become infertile.

So there's at least one silver lining from the coronavirus pandemic.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Elon Musk says he has tested positive for COVID-19

Musk took a rapid antigen test that has a substantial false negative rate.

arstechnica.com

Musk has always claimed that coronavirus is "just a flu" and that preventative measures are tyranny. Even if this separate, different test confirms his diagnosis, expect a lot of "I feel fine, this is nothing" and "there's still something bogus going on".

 

[danielravennest]

Junior nurses?

That's not the point, though -- the nurses, pharmacists and whoever else who will be helping vaccinate people already have a full-time job, in which they are already fully occupied doing blood tests, vaccinating children and adults against other diseases, dispensing prescriptions and so on, and they're already overstretched because of Covid-19.

Somehow, on top of everything else they've been doing all year, they'll have a huge new programme to deliver, on top of their already hugely burdensome workload.

The lab tech at my doctor's office already sticks me with a needle to draw blood for tests. Doing a vaccine injection wouldn't be new or difficult for her.

 

[danielravennest]

Musk has always claimed that coronavirus is "just a flu" and that preventative measures are tyranny. Even if this separate, different test confirms his diagnosis, expect a lot of "I feel fine, this is nothing" and "there's still something bogus going on".

He's an arrogant know-it-all. He knows *some* things - rockets, building factories, and battery devices. Outside those areas, I consider his statements no better than the average Joe. He doesn't even know securities law, which got him fined as CEO of Tesla.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

He's an arrogant know-it-all. He knows *some* things - rockets, building factories, and battery devices. Outside those areas, I consider his statements no better than the average Joe. He doesn't even know securities law, which got him fined as CEO of Tesla.

Or, you know, like Ben Carson speaking on anything that isn't Brain Surgery, or Rand Paul speaking on anything [Well, he might be a decent Opthalmologist, who even knows].

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

The lab tech at my doctor's office already sticks me with a needle to draw blood for tests. Doing a vaccine injection wouldn't be new or difficult for her.

Phlebotomy requires skillz. I have been informed that I have what is known as difficult veins, and I can tell when they don't have them.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The lab tech at my doctor's office already sticks me with a needle to draw blood for tests. Doing a vaccine injection wouldn't be new or difficult for her.

I'm sure it's not, but my point is that she's presumably kept reasonably busy drawing blood and all the other stuff she does as part of her normal duties.

Now, on top of her normal duties, she's has to help deliver vaccinations to (initially, if the plan is similar to that in the UK, all the patients registered with the practice who are 80 or over, or at elevated risk for various reasons, then everyone 70 to 80 and then everyone 60 to 70.

I don't know many vaccinations an hour she expects to deliver, but each hour she spends vaccinating people is an hour she's not doing blood tests, or anything else, and they're still going to need doing, which means she, along with everyone else at the practice, is going to be doing a great deal of overtime, and there are only so many hours in a day.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

This is the honourable member for QAnon.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

This is the honourable member for QAnon.

Ladies and Gentlemen - my poor mom's congresscritter.... I ought to send her that link so she can see someone calling her out.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I ought to send her that link so she can see someone calling her out.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Are you worried about becoming infertile as a man due to COVID19? Don't worry, here are two more medical studies to worry about more.

First one is made by universities in the USA and UK; it basically says that one long term effect of surviving COVID19 is that you are getting dumber up to 8.5 IQ points.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.20.20215863v1.full.pdf

Still worried? You will definitely not, because COVID19 also causes an increase in mental heal consequences like anxiety or depression.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30462-4/fulltext

PS: wouldn't it have been nice that the Don catched COVID19 a few decades ago? He would be most like unable to procreate, get dumber in the long term and be occupied mostly with himself.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

The only reason not to is... my mom has the opposite problem of a lot of her peers; She won't believe -anything- off of the internet [unless its on TV from some presenter...]