wuhan - coronavirus

[KSera]

1 hour ago, popmom said:

This is the best graphic I have found for gauging stress on hospitals in the US. You can see a drop off of staffed beds this fall.

This is a nice tool. I wish there was one that accounted for pediatric beds. I tried a number of the states that are out of pediatric ICU beds, and they show overall ICU room still available. But that doesn't help if it's a pediatric bed needed.

eta: Try Illinois, for example. Illinois reported yesterday that their pediatric ICU beds are 96% occupied. But the tool shows their ICU at 65% occupied. Very different stories in those two numbers.

Edited November 18, 2022 by KSera

[popmom]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

This is a nice tool. I wish there was one that accounted for pediatric beds. I tried a number of the states that are out of pediatric ICU beds, and they show overall ICU room still available. But that doesn't help if it's a pediatric bed needed.

eta: Try Illinois, for example. Illinois reported yesterday that their pediatric ICU beds are 96% occupied. But the tool shows their ICU at 65% occupied. Very different stories in those two numbers.

agree. I also tried to find one for pediatric beds. I guess I am spoiled in thinking I should have all of this info at my fingertips! I went to Childrens website earlier, and there was nothing about flu or RSV on their main page. I guess they have it under control. Clearly the situation here isn't newsworthy.

I did find one site that stated our Childrens was at 98% of ICU beds as of a week ago, but I didn't want to link it here because the chart was a little weird. I think that's probably pretty accurate though. Similar to your example in Illinois

Edited November 18, 2022 by popmom

[Acadie]

Small study, 34 pregnant women with mild Covid during pregancy. Fetal lung volume was significantly reduced compared to age-adjusted reference values. The impact was most significant when infection occurred during third trimester. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926408/

With off-the-charts hospitalizations for respiratory illness in babies less than six months old, I wonder if this could be one factor.

[Acadie]

Boardies in Australia and New Zealand, what did your governments do, if anything, in response to the surge of respiratory illnesses this past winter? Were there any mask requirements or other public health measures before, during or after the surge?

Was there public discussion or news coverage questioning "immune debt" and considering other hypotheses? 

In the US it looks like we're going into the holiday season with our pediatric hospitals full and zero mitigations. My kids are older but what's happening with our littlest ones is hitting me hard today. 

[kbutton]

4 hours ago, Acadie said:

Small study, 34 pregnant women with mild Covid during pregancy. Fetal lung volume was significantly reduced compared to age-adjusted reference values. The impact was most significant when infection occurred during third trimester. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8926408/

With off-the-charts hospitalizations for respiratory illness in babies less than six months old, I wonder if this could be one factor.

Totally an aside, but relevant if people don't know it exists...pulmonary rehab is amazing. DS has restrictive lung disease as a feature of his overall rare disease, and pulm rehab has been a big help.

They do baseline testing for eligibility, and you might have to push, but my son was accepted based on a six-minute walk test. 

[Mom_to3]

Our area pediatric hospital was in the news that it was overflowing with never before seen wait times, then a few days later announced that the infections had stabilized and it was less than 100% occupied. Hmm, might it have been that parents decided not to head to the ER unless the kid was in absolutely terrible state?

And at the same time local pediatricians from that same hospital claim this is likely because kids weren't exposed to viruses for over two years.

[Ausmumof3]

5 hours ago, Acadie said:

Boardies in Australia and New Zealand, what did your governments do, if anything, in response to the surge of respiratory illnesses this past winter? Were there any mask requirements or other public health measures before, during or after the surge?

Was there public discussion or news coverage questioning "immune debt" and considering other hypotheses? 

In the US it looks like we're going into the holiday season with our pediatric hospitals full and zero mitigations. My kids are older but what's happening with our littlest ones is hitting me hard today. 

In my state they extended free flu shots to the general public not just the over 70s or whatever the usual age bracket is eligible. It was a bit messy though. There was at least two horror stories here - one where an old lady was in the outdoor overflow waiting area for the local hospital for six or seven hours in bad weather and one where a guy died waiting for an ambulance that never came. Our ambulance response times have fallen below their target for the first time ever, and not just a little bit below its fallen from about 70pc within the targeting time to under 60. There were preexisting issues in the health system though and all energy has gone towards blaming and fixing them and less toward controlling infection. Oh, they also moved a tonne of patients to rural hospitals from the city and they had a concerted effort to get people who needed aged or disability care out of the hospitals faster. Some of them were stuck in hospital for lack of a suitable placement.

[Ausmumof3]

6 hours ago, Acadie said:

Boardies in Australia and New Zealand, what did your governments do, if anything, in response to the surge of respiratory illnesses this past winter? Were there any mask requirements or other public health measures before, during or after the surge?

Was there public discussion or news coverage questioning "immune debt" and considering other hypotheses? 

In the US it looks like we're going into the holiday season with our pediatric hospitals full and zero mitigations. My kids are older but what's happening with our littlest ones is hitting me hard today. 

Just remembered they also really pushed the early use of antivirals for covid although many people weren’t eligible as the criteria were tight. They also ramped up hospital at home services 

[Ausmumof3]

Cases are escalating in China and also lockdowns. Although some are saying there’s indications China may be softening on zero Covid. Beijing is affected. 
 

Im assuming there will likely be some more flow on supply chain/logistic effects from this if China has a large outbreak? 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

Kind of interesting study from Sigal lab on whether or not covid attenuates during a long term chronic infection in an immunocompromised person. Unfortunately it seems the answer is no, indicating that if new variants develop in this way, they won’t necessarily be less severe.

[Ausmumof3]

Ref is still above 1 in most of Australia but down from last week, so we should be near the peak for this wave. 

[Ausmumof3]

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ccr3.6510
 

“The two cases we present are the first to demonstrate novel manifestations of COVID-19 related interaction between the liver and the immune system in pediatric patients.”

[Ausmumof3]

Looks like there’s a shortage of the ingredients for the carrageenan nasal sprays 

[Ausmumof3]

The first official Covid19 case was three years ago yesterday, meaning we’re technically heading into yr 4 of the pandemic.

[kbutton]

15 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

The first official Covid19 case was three years ago yesterday, meaning we’re technically heading into yr 4 of the pandemic.

I always expected a gradual return to normal, and this just doesn't seem to be it. Ugh!

[Ausmumof3]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

I always expected a gradual return to normal, and this just doesn't seem to be it. Ugh!

Most people here seem to be living their best 2019 life other than a few vulnerable or cautious. I’m not sure how normal things really are with excess deaths and long covid but they are definitely surface normal, if you ignore that stuff.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Ausmumof3

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2022-12-02/covid-immune-system-infection-virus-rsv-cold-flu-respiratory/101716360
 

Immune issues post covid very solidly making mainstream media here now. Haven’t seen it in commercial media yet, though.

[kbutton]

12 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2022-12-02/covid-immune-system-infection-virus-rsv-cold-flu-respiratory/101716360
 

Immune issues post covid very solidly making mainstream media here now. Haven’t seen it in commercial media yet, though.

It's interesting that they say that T cells are reprogrammed vs. eliminated. I thought that there are studies saying that they were killed off to some extent by Covid. 

Very accessible article!

[Ausmumof3]

Higher than prepandemic rates of Group A Strep in the UK this year.

[Ausmumof3]

The ref has increased again in several states across Aus so seems we aren’t nearing a peak just yet. I wonder if with all the Christmas parties it will stay high now for a bit? 
 

Although schools start wrapping up for summer from next week so that might help.

[Ausmumof3]

Study shows Omicron was on South Africa from August 2021 

[Ausmumof3]

Victoria ambulance went to Code Red last night. 

[Ausmumof3]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-06/delays-at-melbourne-childrens-hospital/101736714
 

“Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital yesterday warned there could be wait times of up to 12 hours for non-critically ill children due to what it called unprecedented demand.

The hospital yesterday delayed some non-urgent surgeries and reported 90 patients in the emergency department seeking treatment.”

potential covid immune system damage gets a mention in this article as well, again.

[kbutton]

DH's hospital is on and off diversion (meaning they won't take ambulances, etc.) lately. 

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

22 minutes ago, kbutton said:

DH's hospital is on and off diversion (meaning they won't take ambulances, etc.) lately. 

All three of our area hospitals have been on and off diversion over the last two weeks.  For reference, I can’t think of any that went on diversion even in the thick of Covid.

One issue seems to be simply not having enough staff. One hospital has the physical ER beds, but not enough nurses to staff them safely.  Another issue is that they aren’t moving people out of inpatient beds quickly.  Either because the patients are still too sick to be discharged or because they need a nursing home/rehab/24-7 aides at home and that seems impossible to find. Last week one ER went on diversion because they had literally every bed full with a patient who needed admission but there were no inpatient hospital beds available at the hospital OR they needed transfer and they were unable to find a facility with inpatient beds to transfer too.  We also have an unusually high number of psychiatric holders—people who need psychiatric care but all inpatient beds everywhere are full.

One thing we really aren’t seeing is people very sick with Covid. I can’t remember right now the last time I had a really sick Covid patient. It’s all flu and RSV—even adult patients with RSV.

[kbutton]

22 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:

All three of our area hospitals have been on and off diversion over the last two weeks.  For reference, I can’t think of any that went on diversion even in the thick of Covid.

The hospitals here were on diversion on and off during the holidays the last couple of years.

DH is seeing a lot of Covid as well as the rest. I don't know that all the Covid patients need to be there or are likely to be admitted, but it's just a soup of sick right now.

Our flu rates are through the roof right now. 

[YaelAldrich]

The city of Boston will increase the number of stations (currently two over the whole city) monitoring wastewater for various illnesses.

 

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/boston-establishing-11-wastewater-covid-19-testing-sites/2912211/

Edited December 7, 2022 by YaelAldrich
Comprehension is a thing!

[bookbard]

Well Twitter has now blocked people from seeing feeds unless they're signed in, so I have no idea what the latest is on Covid, except that we had over 200 deaths last week (in Australia).

I took a risk and went to a friend's house for dinner with the kids, we of course caught something off them and have been sick - fortunately it isn't covid, just a cold, but it meant we missed out on a couple of different activities and it's been hard because I've had to work. A good reminder I guess to keep my visits to outdoor only. 

[Faith-manor]

7 hours ago, bookbard said:

Well Twitter has now blocked people from seeing feeds unless they're signed in, so I have no idea what the latest is on Covid, except that we had over 200 deaths last week (in Australia).

I took a risk and went to a friend's house for dinner with the kids, we of course caught something off them and have been sick - fortunately it isn't covid, just a cold, but it meant we missed out on a couple of different activities and it's been hard because I've had to work. A good reminder I guess to keep my visits to outdoor only. 

Sorry about that! So frustrating.

We are socializing a lot now while the weather is good outside. I have enjoyed not getting flu, colds, sore throats, etc. in the winter from hunkering down in our pod - my mom, Mark's mom, our adult kids, and one couple - friends who are very careful - and masking inside public spaces if they have a bunch of people, like the supermarket. So we will be doing that again, and getting the fall updated vaccine plus flu shot.

Right now Michigan, at least our area, is doing well. This is the season of backyard barbecue, beach, hiking, sailing, kayaking, and gardening. Everyone is outdoors, and stores are not busy because people just pop in, grab what they need quickly, and get back out there. The lack of being cooped up indoors is helping so much, but I am sure by the time winter hits hard, numbers will be rising. I had really hoped by now that covid would have mutated so much that it lost enough genetic information to make it far less virulent and dangerous. I guess that hope was misplaced.

[bookbard]

12 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

Sorry about that! So frustrating.

 

Thanks, we're in the coldest part of winter now so I guess peak 'colds' time. I think we'll just hunker down until it warms up in September and then do our socialising outdoors. On the plus side, I was able to cancel the birthday bonfire I didn't want to host anyway, so silver lining and all that.