I didn’t take it that way. He has the ability to influence the outcome for many and I interpreted it as hoping he would influence for good. I think you may be putting words in her mouth.

I was under the impression that it was fairly well accepted that the number of cases early on was significantly higher than the testing available. I know our hospital was only able to do 2 tests a day for those first weeks in March.

Yes it was fantastic that they didn’t pass it on to their clients!

We are using dexamethasone on hospitalized patients and Remdesivir on some. ETA - only a very few patients here though so far

It may be that some of the early mortality was because of things we did badly that we then stopped, rather than the fact that we have found things that really work and that’s why mortality may be lower now. I think it’s too early to make any real judgment because of the lag. In the early days there was so much anecdotal stuff coming from the hard hit areas that policies changed daily or even more often, and people were nervous about applying previous knowledge of other disease processes in case it was the wrong thing to do.

It makes perfect sense I think, that once we got our feet under us and learned more that mortality would go down. I think the big problem to continuing to do well now is testing. If we can’t test people and know who to quarantine etc. we’ll continue to lose control. At first the testing was appalling, but then we all stayed home so it didn’t matter quite so much that we didn’t know who was sick. Now we’re all trying to go about our lives not knowing who should stay home.

I think it is relevant when reading an article in the NYT to have that information. The NYT is considered political by many people. I myself am sick and tired of the left and the right spinning absolutely everything to meet their agenda. Now, I’m not sure about the article about the data linked above. It seemed fairly balanced as it seemed to include both sides of the argument about the reason for the change in reporting, but I definitely take just about every news source these days with a huge pinch of salt.

I haven’t heard that any are really sick, but haven’t heard any details other than they are positive and it seemed that bars were implicated in the spread.

The whole testing thing is just impossible right now. My dh has someone at work who got sick last week, symptoms of Covid along with a million other viruses, and got tested. He has still not received his results. He was sick for a few days but last we heard was feeling a lot better. My dh was in an office with him, for a short time, the day before he got sick. My dh has no symptoms, has moved all his appointments online and isn’t going anywhere. We are keeping away from him as much as possible and avoiding anything unnecessary, but it seems so hard to know what to do. How can we possibly get a handle on this in these conditions? Our area is still pretty low spread, but is increasing, and of course I come in contact with positive people at work when we have them, but there I’m wearing full PPE. It’s really hard to know all that we should do. We wear masks in public indoor places all the time.

But what about it getting matched up to a sample? If there is nothing on the swab then it would not be possible to even test it, and not possible to have it test positive unless it got contaminated somehow. I can see a place that is overwhelmed making some mistakes, but I have heard so many people on social media saying this about someone they heard of, and the same people saying it tend to be the ones promoting all the other conspiracy things going around. I realize someone up thread said they spoke to the actual person who it happened to, but I would imagine that is rare. Also, we have patients that we are almost certain are positive and have had their tests come back negative, so it's hard to believe there are all these false positives floating around. If someone had nefarious purposes in these labs, why would they not just be saying all the inpatient ones are positive.

There are so many things about these crazy conspiracy theories that are patently ridiculous if you just think critically about them for a few seconds. But the people I know promoting them and spreading them seem to have no interest in thinking it through. The education system is really showing itself for what it is. I don't think you could have a clearer picture of what trouble we are in with our system of education. I would add that the main propagators of conspiracies that I know are home school parents and some of their older children. Maybe that's just because of who I know, but the parents spreading them have either a limited education themselves (most not homeschooled themselves), or very strong political views and often both.

You hit the nail on the head! This is how I feel too!

Yeah I’ve pretty much given up trying to influence anyone else. Just sad that we can’t work together and problem solve this thing while we’re pulling in such different directions.

Isn’t linen a fairly loose weave or how does that work? I have to confess I only looked at the first page so didn’t delve in to see all the details.

Feeling pretty fed up about the way things are going in the US. It’s starting to feel like watching lemmings walk off a cliff.

Sorry that must be so hard. I don't know the answer but I hope you get word soon. I have seen that many places are taking longer to get results again. What we really need to be able to fight this is a quick, accurate test.

I send flowers to my mother in the UK very often and I always go online and use a UK company because it is way cheaper than using a company in the US. I don't know what country you want to send to, but it's definitely worth a try looking online.

I don't know how much effort was put into looking to be honest. I am aware of some of the contact tracing going on and it was not all that enthusiastic.

Is there anywhere your dd could go to do the online classes? Last semester my dd was fortunate to be able to go up to the small Christian school and use the internet there. The school was closed so she was often the only person in the building. Also, the public school here set up internet hot spots in various places in the community so kids could drive and park and use that. We have satellite internet and it is pretty bad too.

Other than people I’ve come across as part of my job, I know 2 people who have had it. Cousin’s dh (fit, 10K running 60 yr old) spent 13 days on a vent, recovered and back at work after several months. A school friend, 54 or 55 yr old with high blood pressure, spent a month on a vent, had a trach, on dialysis for a couple of months, survived and getting better and renal function improved so no longer needing dialysis. His dr told him, at a follow up appt, that he had only had a 5% chance of survival and was amazed that he had made it.

The ones I bought were from Taiwan and are supposed to have an N99 filter layer. I saw the picture of a cut open one so can see how it is put together.

Those figures seem a little strange though. My state, which has got increasing numbers but not going crazy at all has a higher R0 than Arizona. How can that be?

My FIL tried his on with his glasses and it seemed ok, but I don't think he's worn it for an extended period of time so don't know for sure.

My cousin’s husband got it and was really sick in ICU. He was at home sick 10 days before going to hospital. My cousin did not get sick. She didn’t move to sleep in a different room for a day or so after he got sick. She said she read that if you wash your hands at least 6 times a day your less likely to get sick so she did that as well as keeping her distance as much as possible once she realized he was sick. So you may not necessarily get it even though you may have been exposed. I’d keep distancing as much as possible.

Thanks! I looked at it and saw the cut open one. I'm sure it is true but looking at the mask it is so incredible that they have produced something so good and yet so thin and light!