wuhan - coronavirus

[Laura Corin]

In case you hear that 'only' 17,000 people in the UK have died of Covid

BBC News - Covid: Posts claiming only 17,000 died of virus 'factually incorrect'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/60145237

[Melissa Louise]

Dd sounding and feeling worse, despite the meds, so I've told her to go to the ED. Hoping they can assess her in a timely way, and that there's an easy fix - antibiotics, or Prednisone or something. Scary. I just hope she isn't waiting a day to be seen.

At least I don't have to worry about her getting Covid in the ED, I guess. It would be overkill to fly down right now, wouldn't it? Wait to see what ED says? 

 

[Ausmumof3]

2 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

Dd sounding and feeling worse, despite the meds, so I've told her to go to the ED. Hoping they can assess her in a timely way, and that there's an easy fix - antibiotics, or Prednisone or something. Scary. I just hope she isn't waiting a day to be seen.

At least I don't have to worry about her getting Covid in the ED, I guess. It would be overkill to fly down right now, wouldn't it? Wait to see what ED says? 

 

How hard is it to get flights at the moment if you do need one? 

[Melissa Louise]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

How hard is it to get flights at the moment if you do need one? 

No idea. Worst comes to the worst, someone can drive me, I guess. Idk. I can't be in ED with her, I assume, so I suppose the sensible thing is to wait and see what ED say. Just instinct, I guess, to want to be in the same city. 

[Melissa Louise]

Ok. There are plenty of flights. I'll wait till I hear what ED say. 

Dd is so worried - she starts her new job in a week, in a different state. No-one knows if she'll lose the position if she needs to take sick leave from Day 1. 

[Melissa in Australia]

Update on 100 year old mil. She has had no symptoms at all, just very tired. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Melissa in Australia

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, Melissa Louise said:

Ok. There are plenty of flights. I'll wait till I hear what ED say. 

Dd is so worried - she starts her new job in a week, in a different state. No-one knows if she'll lose the position if she needs to take sick leave from Day 1. 

Good on the flights. I think knowing I could get one if needed would help me to stay put. Hopefully ED will give her some answers and her employer will be understanding given how many people are in this kind of situation right now.

[ieta_cassiopeia]

On 1/25/2022 at 7:38 PM, KSera said:

I remember early on there was an app that was shown to be highly accurate at detecting Covid from someone coughing into the phone. I don’t know whatever happened with that. That’s a pretty risky way to do it for those tasked with administering it, though.

I saw a recent story on this, and they are quite accurate. I can’t recall the detection right off hand, but I do imagine it would be difficult to scale up.

Latest is that it's been through some testing, and according to a study in JAMA Network Open (summary at UC Santa Barbera), the smaRT-LAMP test (requiring a user's own smartphone plus a miniature lab kit) has had good results at detecting COVID-19 (including variants) and flu. The app exists for Android on the Play Store but isn't much use without the lab kit. No word on when the lab kit will enter mass production. Also, it looks like the method now involves taking a saliva sample and having the smartphone camera do imaging on it, which seems much more hygienic and less prone to false positives than coughing on a phone would be...

[Melissa Louise]

34 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Good on the flights. I think knowing I could get one if needed would help me to stay put. Hopefully ED will give her some answers and her employer will be understanding given how many people are in this kind of situation right now.

Thank you. She's settled in a room, BP low but oxygen normal, thank goodness. Not sure what's going on, if her oxygen is ok, but glad she is being looked at in person. 

[Danae]

29 minutes ago, ieta_cassiopeia said:

Latest is that it's been through some testing, and according to a study in JAMA Network Open (summary at UC Santa Barbera), the smaRT-LAMP test (requiring a user's own smartphone plus a miniature lab kit) has had good results at detecting COVID-19 (including variants) and flu. The app exists for Android on the Play Store but isn't much use without the lab kit. No word on when the lab kit will enter mass production. Also, it looks like the method now involves taking a saliva sample and having the smartphone camera do imaging on it, which seems much more hygienic and less prone to false positives than coughing on a phone would be...

Reading the article it sounds a lot like the test kits my kid's school sent home over winter break.  Much more annoying that Binax, because you had to install an app on your phone and then follow along with the video instructions for each step.  It wouldn't let you advance without playing the video, and it included instructions for calming your younger child if they were freaked out by the swab, how to safely hold the kid to take the swab, etc.  AND you had to play the video for every test, even if you were testing two kids in a row.  

In the end it was just like a rapid test but instead of one line for negative two lines for positive there was a pattern of lines that you had to scan with your phone and then the app told you whether it was positive or negative.  

[ktgrok]

39 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

Thank you. She's settled in a room, BP low but oxygen normal, thank goodness. Not sure what's going on, if her oxygen is ok, but glad she is being looked at in person. 

Maybe she's dehydrated? That would cause low blood pressure. 

[Melissa Louise]

2 hours ago, ktgrok said:

Maybe she's dehydrated? That would cause low blood pressure. 

Could be. Potassium was slightly elevated, which I think is a dehydration thing? 

I also wonder if she is anemic. She is usually only just into a normal range, and has been much lower, and a week of Covid might have kicked her back into low iron. 

ED discharged her.

Chest X ray was clear, bloods ok, oxygen ok.

They said it's likely post viral breathlessness, which, idk...doesn't make sense to me? Something must be making her breathless. Inflammation, I guess? 

But I am grateful she was seen and they seem to have been thorough.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Melissa Louise

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@Melissa Louise  Thinking of you and your daughter, and wishing you all well.

I hope she makes a quick and full recovery. 

I can imagine how hard it is to be a state away. At least there are flights if need be. I'd be struggling with that decision for sure.

Sorry if I missed it earlier in the thread, but does she have an oximeter? If not, could a pharmacy deliver one?

When my eldest had Covid, I drove some RATs to her and her fiance, and waved from my car on the road. It hurt my heart to not go in and hug her and help in some way 😕 

And I really hope your daughter's new employer is a decent human. Any decent human should understand that this situation is what it is.

[Melissa Louise]

21 hours ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

@Melissa Louise  Thinking of you and your daughter, and wishing you all well.

I hope she makes a quick and full recovery. 

I can imagine how hard it is to be a state away. At least there are flights if need be. I'd be struggling with that decision for sure.

Sorry if I missed it earlier in the thread, but does she have an oximeter? If not, could a pharmacy deliver one?

When my eldest had Covid, I drove some RATs to her and her fiance, and waved from my car on the road. It hurt my heart to not go in and hug her and help in some way 😕 

And I really hope your daughter's new employer is a decent human. Any decent human should understand that this situation is what it is.

 You'd like to think so!

No oximeter, and none to be found locally. I'd order one online for her, but delivery is a problem as they are in between home, hotel, and ACT hotel. 

Thanks for the good wishes. At least they are out of iso in another day. 

 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Melissa Louise

[Melissa in Australia]

Hugs Melissa 

[lewelma]

Almost here. Wastewater is positive about 20 miles north of me. 

[lewelma]

We are at around 100 cases in the country per day, and they are expecting doubling every 3 days. So 400 by the end of the week. My booster and my son's is on Feb 8, so I think we will squeeze in our 2 weeks post booster before things go belly up.

It is just so weird to see it coming like a slow train wreck. It is a beautiful summer day today and there are currently no known cases in the city. Seems so odd to expect and be planning for massive issues in 3 weeks time, especially because we have never had covid here. 

I will say, however, that most people are not particularly worried. I think it is because they and everyone around them has done what we needed to do with vaccines -- there is a feeling of solidarity. And we also never faced the fear associated with Delta and are also not weary from 2 years of covid. Everyone I know is feeling ready to take on the public health measures needed to help our hospitals and whanau. The mood here is still good. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@lewelma I assume you're onto it, but now would be the time to buy some essentials and do some stocking up - all your basic groceries, plus covid-specifics like masks, thermometer, oximeter, vitamins, paracetamol etc. 

We're several weeks into our wave here in QLD. Supply chain issues have been real here despite high vax rates. Luckily, most vaxed cases are mild, but it is taking out a lot of people at once.

Good luck!

[lewelma]

5 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

@lewelma I assume you're onto it, but now would be the time to buy some essentials and do some stocking up - all your basic groceries, plus covid-specifics like masks, thermometer, oximeter, vitamins, paracetamol etc. 

We're several weeks into our wave here in QLD. Supply chain issues have been real here despite high vax rates. Luckily, most vaxed cases are mild, but it is taking out a lot of people at once.

Good luck!

Yup. Got the food. The masks finally arrived 3 days ago, bought the oximeter from China 6 weeks ago, own a thermometer, stocked up on pills of all sorts. Slow and steady, we have been preparing for a month. DS will be going to university on the 14th and will live in a hall. So we have doubled all supplies so he can take one of everything. We are ready to hunker down and work from home. 

[Laura Corin]

Reinfection rate data

BBC News - Covid-19: How many people have been infected more than once?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60174478

[KSera]

3 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Reinfection rate data

BBC News - Covid-19: How many people have been infected more than once?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60174478

I'm reading that the UK wasn't including reinfections in their data at all until now. That seems strange. I wonder why not?

[Laura Corin]

37 minutes ago, KSera said:

I'm reading that the UK wasn't including reinfections in their data at all until now. That seems strange. I wonder why not?

I thought it was that they had not separated them out as reinfections until now. But maybe I misunderstood. 

[KSera]

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

I thought it was that they had not separated them out as reinfections until now. But maybe I misunderstood. 

Apparently, in the past, someone could only be counted as a case once. So now cases will increase as they backfill the ones that previously weren't counted.

 

Quote

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by KSera

[Ausmumof3]

Has been a bit hectic here with school going back and work going back so I haven’t been keeping up. Cases seem to be trending down. I had one student come in slightly sick in the first day - could have been allergies or not. One not in today as a close contact. Things are messy in the apy lands I think due to both covid and flooding cutting off roads 

[Melissa Louise]

Sneezers in class today too. Slightly more masking but not much. 

[Ausmumof3]

Just now, Melissa Louise said:

Sneezers in class today too. Slightly more masking but not much. 

Gah… now feeling very slightly sneezy myself! Hoping it’s just because I’m thinking about it.  Will have to see in the morning I guess.

[Melissa Louise]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Gah… now feeling very slightly sneezy myself! Hoping it’s just because I’m thinking about it.  Will have to see in the morning I guess.

Have you been given RATs?

I got a box of four. Testing tomorrow. 

[Ausmumof3]

10 hours ago, Melissa Louise said:

Have you been given RATs?

I got a box of four. Testing tomorrow. 

Nope. Not doing that in SA just on an as-needs basis. It was part of the reason a strike was being considered.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Laura Corin]

Covid challenge trial

BBC News - Deliberate infections give unique Covid insight
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60229388

[KSera]

52 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

Covid challenge trial

BBC News - Deliberate infections give unique Covid insight
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60229388

This is super helpful information gained this way, but people participating in challenge trials with a new virus have to be so brave! Besides long covid risk, I still have worries about the unknowns of whether this is a virus that may lie dormant and can have repercussions down the road--like varicella or epstein barr does.

[Laura Corin]

13 minutes ago, KSera said:

This is super helpful information gained this way, but people participating in challenge trials with a new virus have to be so brave! Besides long covid risk, I still have worries about the unknowns of whether this is a virus that may lie dormant and can have repercussions down the road--like varicella or epstein barr does.

I would worry too. However, as they are young and haven't chosen to be vaccinated,  they may well be convinced of their own invincibility. 

[AurieD]

Things are odd here in WA. Our first community spread of Omicron was a month ago and yet numbers are still only around 15 a day. 

Optimistically it’s our high vacc rates and good contact tracing.

More likely though I think is there is a much higher number of infections in the community that are not being picked up as the demographic it’s currently circulating in (from the many nightclub exposure sights) are reluctant to get tested and have to quarantine.

Edited February 3, 2022 by AurieD

[Laura Corin]

The power of vaccination 

U.S. Has Far Higher Covid Death Rate Than Other Wealthy Countries https://nyti.ms/35xmmUY

[rebcoola]

Well my county now has the dubious honor of having the 2nd highest case rate in the nation.  This is the 3rd time we have cracked the top 10.

[kbutton]

19 hours ago, KSera said:

This is super helpful information gained this way, but people participating in challenge trials with a new virus have to be so brave! Besides long covid risk, I still have worries about the unknowns of whether this is a virus that may lie dormant and can have repercussions down the road--like varicella or epstein barr does.

I didn't even know challenge trials existed. Yikes!

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-04/qld-coronavirus-covid-pcr-tests-queensland-health-symptoms/100771540
 

Pretty interesting results from random tests in QLD here.

of 117 tested Jan 22, 20 tested positive. Only two of them knew they had the virus.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

40 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-04/qld-coronavirus-covid-pcr-tests-queensland-health-symptoms/100771540
 

Pretty interesting results from random tests in QLD here.

of 117 tested Jan 22, 20 tested positive. Only two of them knew they had the virus.

I don't know whether to be freaked out that it's so ridiculously everywhere, or relieved that it's so mild in so many people that they don't even know they have it 🤷‍♀️

[ieta_cassiopeia]

Novovax has been approved in the UK. This is good news for everyone hoping it will get formal approval in the USA (it started a formal filing on Monday) because it means it has likely solved the manufacturing issues that previously stopped it from getting mass approval. That it has a good record against Omnicron with two doses, including among 12-year-olds, is particularly heartening to hear. (Novovax's peak effectiveness is 89%, though it's not clear how useful that statistic is any more).

The UK now approves 5 different vaccines.

[lewelma]

Don't know how this is possible but still no omicron in my city two weeks after seeding in the community. Numbers are rising, but focused in the larger Auckland region. It is like a slow train coming this way!  98% double vaxed here (12+), and 90% of those can get their boosters from today. They are expecting a very high uptake, so are trying to hold off the omicron spread for 2 to 4 more weeks. 

[Eos]

17 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

The power of vaccination 

U.S. Has Far Higher Covid Death Rate Than Other Wealthy Countries https://nyti.ms/35xmmUY

This is fascinating, thank you for sharing.  I wonder if lack of universal health insurance has trained the US population to avoid seeking care until a problem is worse, thus being less likely to recover.  Not a political statement, just thinking out loud.  This is certainly my personal experience, unfortunately.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Eos

[Melissa in Australia]

I have read several times that the level of extreme obesity in USA has a direct impact on death rates as well

[Laura Corin]

1 hour ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I have read several times that the level of extreme obesity in USA has a direct impact on death rates as well

That's true but would not explain the Omicron discrepancy, would it? I haven't heard that Omicron is particularly hard on obese people.

The UK is just behind the US in obesity. 

[prairiewindmomma]

A news piece I listened to last night commenting on the above graph had an expert speaker who noted that the majority of us deaths have occurred after vaccines have been available, and that those deaths have occurred largely among the unvaccinated.

Perhaps other countries have higher vaccination rates and thus lower death rates per capita?

Edited February 4, 2022 by prairiewindmomma

[Laura Corin]

16 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

A news piece I listened to last night commenting on the above graph had an expert speaker who noted that the majority of us deaths have occurred after vaccines have been available, and that those deaths have occurred largely among the unvaccinated.

Perhaps other countries have higher vaccination rates and thus lower death rates per capita?

Exactly. You can see the vaccination rates in the graphs too. The UK booster rate is something like double the US, and concentrated in the elderly. This is Scotland's booster dose graph - 

[kbutton]

17 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

A news piece I listened to last night commenting on the above graph had an expert speaker who noted that the majority of us deaths have occurred after vaccines have been available, and that those deaths have occurred largely among the unvaccinated.

Perhaps other countries have higher vaccination rates and thus lower death rates per capita?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner as they say. I truly think this is likely to blame. Some of the same people refuse antibody treatment as well, and in our area, we had a spike in Delta just prior to Omicron, and the antibodies were still working for those Delta folks. 

Also, in places where people are less likely to vax, they are also more likely to assert that it's really the hospital killing people, so they wait. Our local vaccination rates look decent on paper, but among the 18-65 groups, they are still very low, and those are the people out and about. When a bunch of people get sick all at once, they also have to wait longer in the ER, etc., which I am sure affects outcomes. While we've had near overwhelm, our state has done a good job of managing scarce resources by region and infection level, so it's more about manpower (and then they bring in the national guard to do grunt work).

I think it's also that some people aren't always thinking straight by the time they are sick enough to go due to low oxygen levels. If both adults in a home have it at the same time, they aren't necessarily able to take really good care of each other. I am pretty sure one couple I know was in this category, and one outcome was not good. 

Local hospitals have been putting out infographics on just how many more unvaccinated people are getting seriously ill. It's a huge difference.

[prairiewindmomma]

I’m attending a (virtual) conference on probate administration today and multiple speakers have brought up anecdotes of issues that have come up in covid deaths—everything from guardianships being filed for end of life care by hospitals so there can be clarity in decision making where they don’t know next of kin, to both spouses dying within a couple of weeks of each other. It’s been a grim conference. 
 

I haven’t heard a news piece on this aspect. Has anyone else? 

[KSera]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

A news piece I listened to last night commenting on the above graph had an expert speaker who noted that the majority of us deaths have occurred after vaccines have been available, and that those deaths have occurred largely among the unvaccinated.

Perhaps other countries have higher vaccination rates and thus lower death rates per capita?

Yes. And for the omicron wave, we have much lower booster rates than the countries that are doing much better. What is particularly relevant is the boost rate among older folks, who are most at risk. Last I saw, people in the UK were boosted at a far higher rate than in the US.

Edited February 4, 2022 by KSera
Typo

[prairiewindmomma]

900,000 US deaths—hit the sad milestone today.

https://apnews.com/article/us-hits-covid-deaths-milestone-coronavirus-omicron-76dc452fb7263612529e09eb23bc0f24

[KSera]

1 hour ago, prairiewindmomma said:

900,000 US deaths—hit the sad milestone today.

https://apnews.com/article/us-hits-covid-deaths-milestone-coronavirus-omicron-76dc452fb7263612529e09eb23bc0f24

It’s stunning. And even more so to hit that milestone in the midst of increasing insistence by a sizable group of people that the pandemic is over. It’s mind boggling. As Jha says in the article, if you had told people at the beginning that in two years we were going to be approaching 1 million Americans dead from this disease, I think the response might have been very different. That would’ve been unfathomable at that point. (What would people have thought to hear that the majority of those came after there was a safe vaccine that would’ve prevented most of them?) Unfathomable. 😢

[prairiewindmomma]

Congress was told at the beginning of the pandemic that 150 million Americans would get the virus and up to 700,000 would die. I snapshotted that headline and I look back at it from time to time in my photos album. I think we all knew the toll would be high, the stunner is that so many died after an effective treatment to prevent death (vaccine) became widely available. 
 

It reminds me of Numbers 21:8-9 in the Bible—Moses makes a brass serpent for the people to look upon if they were bit by venomous snakes. If they do so, they would live, but many refused to look and died.