Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

Bambooza

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So it's only UAMS that is at capacity with COVID-19 patients with 56 patients fighting the virus of those 25 are in the ICU and 14 are on ventilators. Not all of the hospitals in the state or surrounding regions. While it is concerning it's not like the Twitter and TikTok alluded to that the state is out of beds, and while the message about getting vaccinated is fair their credibility with the significant over-exaggeration of the truth damages the message.

The truth is Only 3% of the state's intensive care unit beds and 20% of its hospital beds are available as of July 27th.

There are some things that should get more attention.

  • The hospital beds at UAMS are full and so they are unable to move patients out of the ICU even if they are ready to go. So it's not entirely caused by ICU needed patients but a lack of hospital beds in general which has been a problem for years.
  • The delta variant seems to be more aggressive.
  • While Arkansas children's hospital has reported the most COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic and they are not the only children's hospital reporting this which is concerning given the previous trend that children were not impacted.
 

Jolly_Green_Giant

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My Paramedic Uncle in Miami recently told me its currently the worst its ever been for them as far as interdepartmental cases. He told me he knows 5 guys in the department right now that are hospitalized. Not sure if he meant his station or the whole city of Miami department. He told me its pretty much the pandemic of the unvaccinated at this point.
 

Vavrik

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So it's only UAMS that is at capacity with COVID-19 patients with 56 patients fighting the virus of those 25 are in the ICU and 14 are on ventilators. Not all of the hospitals in the state or surrounding regions. While it is concerning it's not like the Twitter and TikTok alluded to that the state is out of beds, and while the message about getting vaccinated is fair their credibility with the significant over-exaggeration of the truth damages the message.

The truth is Only 3% of the state's intensive care unit beds and 20% of its hospital beds are available as of July 27th.

There are some things that should get more attention.

  • The hospital beds at UAMS are full and so they are unable to move patients out of the ICU even if they are ready to go. So it's not entirely caused by ICU needed patients but a lack of hospital beds in general which has been a problem for years.
  • The delta variant seems to be more aggressive.
  • While Arkansas children's hospital has reported the most COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic and they are not the only children's hospital reporting this which is concerning given the previous trend that children were not impacted.
I totally agree. The evidence is that this young lady was being dramatic, it's understandable given the stress load many health care workers, nurses, and doctors are under. But it's still just drama. That said, 3% of ICU availability is a problem, overcapacity in ICU is a crisis you want to avoid.
 

Vavrik

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My Paramedic Uncle in Miami recently told me its currently the worst its ever been for them as far as interdepartmental cases. He told me he knows 5 guys in the department right now that are hospitalized. Not sure if he meant his station or the whole city of Miami department. He told me its pretty much the pandemic of the unvaccinated at this point.
My hat's off to your uncle. A paramedic can be an unsung hero in the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.
 

Bambooza

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That said, 3% of ICU availability is a problem, overcapacity in ICU is a crisis you want to avoid.
It really is, but it's been a problem well before Covid. And mostly it has to do with the huge costs of establishing and maintaining ICU wards and beds are, the significant cost of putting someone into one of the beds, and the fact that very few people leave those beds alive. Compounded by the fact that Critical care personnel has been in high demand for years so even if Hospitals increase the number of beds they still cannot find the staff needed. And as the population in the states continues to age it's only getting worse. We really just need Baymax.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Wednesday 28th of July:

- World: 195,617,174 confirmed cases and 4,182,007 confirmed deaths.

- US: CDC reports concerning results of Delta Variant transmission study in the fully vaccinated: "With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others, but with the Delta variant we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”

- US: All state employees of New York State required to get vaccinated by September 6th and take weekly tests for COVID-19.

- Vaccines: Pfizer vaccine found to be 84% effective after 6 months, down from 96% when new.

- UK: Prime Minister states in an interview self isolation removal for the fully vaccinated on August 16th is "nailed on" meaning anyone who has had all their vaccine jabs will no longer have to isolate if they have been in the presence of someone with COVID-19. If they get COVID-19, they do still have to self isolate.

- UK: Announces quarantine no longer required for any fully vaccinated traveller from the US or EU.

- UK: Drop in new daily cases appears to have hit a plateau but it's too early to say if that is a one-off or a trend.

- UK: Local council passes vote of no confidence on previous Health Secretary: "As secretary of state for health he has demonstrated hypocrisy and hubris in the pursuit of his own interests. Newmarket Town Council states that we no longer have confidence in Matthew Hancock MP representing Newmarket."

- Japan: Olympics host city Tokyo again sees record high new daily cases.

- Nigeria: Economic impact of COVID-19 on peoples livelihoods doubles the number suffering from hunger.

- France: To bring in new Health Pass to prove vaccination status and access public places such as Cafes.

Guatamala: Following delays in deliveries, the president renegotiates a contract for 16 million Russian vaccines down to 8 million with intention to reinvest the funds in doses from other manufacturers.

- Tanzania: President launches vaccination drive by receiving a dose.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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So it's only UAMS that is at capacity with COVID-19 patients with 56 patients fighting the virus of those 25 are in the ICU and 14 are on ventilators. Not all of the hospitals in the state or surrounding regions. While it is concerning it's not like the Twitter and TikTok alluded to that the state is out of beds, and while the message about getting vaccinated is fair their credibility with the significant over-exaggeration of the truth damages the message.

The truth is Only 3% of the state's intensive care unit beds and 20% of its hospital beds are available as of July 27th.

There are some things that should get more attention.

  • The hospital beds at UAMS are full and so they are unable to move patients out of the ICU even if they are ready to go. So it's not entirely caused by ICU needed patients but a lack of hospital beds in general which has been a problem for years.
  • The delta variant seems to be more aggressive.
  • While Arkansas children's hospital has reported the most COVID cases since the beginning of the pandemic and they are not the only children's hospital reporting this which is concerning given the previous trend that children were not impacted.
When a fire starts, at what point do you shout for help and hit the alarm to get people out of the building? At the first sign of flame? At growing smoke? Perhaps once it has taken hold and a whole room is ablaze?

Think of the State as a house and that one hospital as one room in the building. Will the fire burn itself out in that one room? Will it be gutted and the other rooms start to smoulder? Can you shrug and wait to see if it spreads before shouting for people to take action to protect their safety and for the other rooms to prepare for the flames?

I do wonder if the attitude to the original whistleblower doctors reports of the growing epidemic in China were viewed in a similar way...? At one point in China it was only one hospital which had hit capacity...
 
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Vavrik

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When a fire starts, at what point do you shout for help and hit the alarm to get people out of the building? At the first sign of flame? At growing smoke? Perhaps once it has taken hold and a whole room is ablaze?

Think of the State as a house and that one hospital as one room in the building. Will the fire burn itself out in that one room? Will it be gutted and the other rooms start to smoulder? Can you shrug and wait to see if it spreads before shouting for people to get to safety and for the other rooms to prepare for the flames?

I do wonder if the attitude to the original whistleblower doctors reports of the growing epidemic in China were viewed in a similar way...? At one point in China it was only one hospital which had hit capacity...
I think the point is, the smoke has been noticeable for a lot longer than COVID has been around. I can attest to that from first hand experience. It's been a systemic issue.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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I think the point is, the smoke has been noticeable for a lot longer than COVID has been around. I can attest to that from first hand experience. It's been a systemic issue.
Ah, not being from the country I am not surprised I didn't pick up on that :-)
 
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Bambooza

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- US: CDC reports concerning results of Delta Variant transmission study in the fully vaccinated: "With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others, but with the Delta variant we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”
One way or another ones immune system is going to be enhanced. But it doesn't bode well that those who have been fully vaccinated are still asymptomatic carriers of the virus. This means even if the vaccine significantly reduces your chances of having a severe immune response to the virus the vaccine is not creating the same immune response to reduce/eliminate the spreading of the virus that should be expected.
So really the two options are
A. The virus is still able to gain enough of a foothold in the vaccinated to allow the vaccinated infected to spread the virus through the respiratory droplets. Which should still show up as flu-like symptoms while the infection is being countered.
B. The virus is far more infectious by fomites and the vaccinated while not being infected are able to spread it by not washing their hands enough.
 
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Vavrik

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One way or another ones immune system is going to be enhanced. But it doesn't bode well that those who have been fully vaccinated are still asymptomatic carriers of the virus. This means even if the vaccine significantly reduces your chances of having a severe immune response to the virus the vaccine is not creating the same immune response to reduce/eliminate the spreading of the virus that should be expected.
So really the two options are
A. The virus is still able to gain enough of a foothold in the vaccinated to allow the vaccinated infected to spread the virus through the respiratory droplets. Which should still show up as flu-like symptoms while the infection is being countered.
B. The virus is far more infectious by fomites and the vaccinated while not being infected are able to spread it by not washing their hands enough.
I vote option C. "All of the above". I reserve the right to add D, E, F... etc as we discover them.
 

Aramsolari

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I'm on a Netflix show right now and yeah...they're probably gonna extend this to all crew/cast members sooner or later instead of just Zone A folks. Yours truly is double vaxxed. No issues at all on my crew but I'm sure there are crew/cast members out there who will raise a stink.

 

Montoya

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I'm on a Netflix show right now and yeah...they're probably gonna extend this to all crew/cast members sooner or later instead of just Zone A folks. Yours truly is double vaxxed. No issues at all on my crew but I'm sure there are crew/cast members out there who will raise a stink.

Time to get triple vaxxed with that Pfizer goodness.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Thursday 29th of July:

- World: 196,280,506 confirmed cases and 4,192,702 confirmed deaths.

- Vaccines: Deliveries of Russian Sputnik V vaccines have stalled, with reports from multiple countries saying they have only recieved a fraction of what was ordered.

- UK: Health officials indicate vaccines prevented 60,000 deaths and 22 million cases in the UK.

- UK: Track and Trace app hits new record ping rate at 689,313 in one week, up 70k on the previous week.

- UK/World: UK sends 9 million vaccine doses to vulnerable countries however reports indicate a sizeable portion of those apparently expire in September limiting the amount of time countries will have to administer them.

- US: Economy grew by 6.5% in the second quarter, however apparently missed forecasts.

- US: Eveiction ban to end at the end of the week following Supreme Court ruling it cannot be extended. The number this is expected to effect runs to the millions.

- Ireland: Prime Minister says vaccination will not be required to return to office work settings.

- Northern Ireland: Announces plan to give everyone on the electoral register a £100 high-street voucher to use in local shops and services.

- Bhutan: Home to 800,000 people, the country fully vaccinates 90% of the population within 7 days of the program starting.

- Israel: To begin administering booster shots to the over 60's.

- Pakistan: Announces stricter measures including banning air travel for any unvaccinated person.

- China: City of Nanjing sees 170 cases in the last 10 days, the countries worst outbreak in months.
 

Bambooza

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Yeah looks like that’s the way things are going huh? Booster shots and all that. Pfizer’s gotta rake in that caaash.
It indeed looks to be true. A flu booster shot every six months, makes me wonder how they are planning on supporting the logistics when it's getting close to a year and there is still a significant portion of the population looking for their first course. Then factor in those who were amongst the first is soon going to need their yearly booster and it's clear that even a yearly booster at the moment is going to be difficult.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today Friday 30th of July:

- World: 196,995,824 confirmed cases and 4,203,926 confirmed deaths.

- US: Leaked CDC presentation indicates Delta variant far more transmissible and is as contagious as Chicken Pox but spread via the air rather than touch or surface contact.

- US: Study indicates 75% of people infected with COVID in Massachusetts at public events were fully vaccinated: “The masking recommendation was updated to ensure the vaccinated public would not unknowingly transmit virus to others, including their unvaccinated or immunocompromised loved ones,”

- US: Google and Facebook expect staff to be vaccinated before they return to the office.

- US: President Announces all federal workers must be vaccinated or subjected to regular testing, and called for a $100 vaccination incentive.

- US: Dr Fauci suggests giving faccines full authorisation rather than emergency authorisation would illeviate

- Italy: Delta variant now accounts for 95% of cases.

- Algeria: Hospitals run out of oxygen sparking social media outrage.

- Kenya: Suspends public gatherings.

- China: Nanjing now the worst outbreak since Wuhan, at 200 cases and counting.

- Thailand: Bans the sharing of news that can cause public fear, even if reports are true.
 
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