Covid has hit home for me

RandyWilson said:
I know/knew two people directly that have died of COVID. Unfortunately every bit of COVIUD news, stats, and advice is now fully and completely politicized. By the rules, this is a non-political forum... one of the reasons I've been hanging here more lately. I get bombarded with the "news', crap, and outright lies from both sides every place I turn on the web. I will not stand for someone spouting off one side and calling the other side derogatory names here. Doesn't matter if I agree or not. savarin, congrats on being the first on my block list.
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Hi Randy, you know just to be fair in case you didn't know. Savarin is from Townsville Australia so any Political reference he may have made (If their was one) Would NOT have been for Virginia or the USA. I don't know savarin or you, in fact i have never net anyone on this site and am not bias in any way, just trying to see folks get treated fairly.

Don
 
I really don't understand why we tend to think that there's going to be a vaccine for COVID 19 in the near or distant future. It's just wishful thinking. What virus vaccines exist today? Where's the vaccine for the common cold or for influenza? If they were possible, they would have been developed long ago. The best we have is annual flu shots, not a vaccine. From what I have read so far, individuals' immunity is currently only lasting for a couple of months. I do hope that we come up with something, but I don't think that a vaccine is going to be the answer for a long time. I am not trying to be a defeatist, but I think we should be seeking alternative avenues and getting real.
Randy
 
...What virus vaccines exist today? ...
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So I'm going a little outside my area of expertise but I have done a bit of reading over the years about this. The flu shot is a vaccine. It is not a long lasting vaccine like measles or polio etc. though. The C.D.C. / W.H.O.? /Others do the job of trying to look ahead a year or more to determine which variants of the flu will most likely be out there and put together a vaccine to battle those predicted ones. It is not perfect but it lowers the number of cases drastically if enough people actually get the shot. It is done to lower economic costs and deaths due to sometimes bad outcomes of flu.

The common cold doesn't have common causes. There are many rhinoviruses and corona-viruses and others that can cause cold symptoms. My recollection is that it is not very often a serious affliction so developing vaccines each year isn't done. Probably not enough money in it. Maybe hard to keep up with the variants each year. Not sure about those reasons though.

[EDIT:
I forgot to also say that I agree with you Randy that developing the vaccine is not a slam dunk. But, because it is just a few related strains of corona, there is apparently a reasonably good chance of that happening...at some point in the future. I suppose it could eventually be combined with the annual flu concoction but I'm certainly at the edge of my knowledge with that. The other thing that will likely happen is that the virus mutates over time to become less of a serious problem for susceptible people. Or vice versa I guess. ]

This is an interesting quick read on a few diseases, many viral, we don't worry about so much anymore due to vaccines.

"Diseases You Almost Forgot About (Thanks to Vaccines)"
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/diseases/forgot-14-diseases.html
 
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Guess I should be taking it a little more seriously. Frankly, been taking the approach that it's a variation on the flu/common cold bug, albeit a serious one. Wife and I wear a mask in public, and we do go out. I frequently visit my 81-year old mom who is in the "at risk" group. We don't wear masks but do socially distance when with mom. Especially since I work at an auto assembly plant and can be exposed by any one of the hundreds of folks I work with daily. We had one guy in our engineering group test positive in April (plant was closed on March 20). He was hospitalized and was on oxygen for a few days. He's 62 and a former smoker, commented he was struggling to get air with every breath. His doctor treated a dozen cases and didn't ventilate anyone, just put them on O2 with no fatalities.

Google "Hong Kong Flu 1968". Guess that could have been categorized as a pandemic with 1-4 Millions deaths across the world (no good numbers from China where it likely started, 1 million confirmed deaths from the rest of the countries who reported numbers).

HK flu hit Hong Kong around July 1968 from China. Spread across southeast Asia and made its way to California through returning Vietnam troops in September 1968. It spread across the globe and was a killer for 2 years. Got so bad in West Germany that bodies were being stacked in subway tunnels and garbage collectors were burying people as the undertakers were overwhelmed.

Average death age for HK flu, 65. Average death age for Corona, 80. Difference is likely from the social distancing and mask wearing. Masks aren't 100% but do offer some protection from people who "spray it instead of say it". Entry points are your eyes, nose, and mouth. It cannot be absorbed through the skin. But frequent hand washing with alcohol/soap (which washes away Covid's fatty outer layer - it dies quickly in UV light) lessens your chance of transferring it to yourself through inadvertent face touching.

We're starting to see some push-back in MI from the "not at risk" age groups who want their lives to get back to normal. They quote that we have a constitutional right to assemble. They see it as a harsh seasonal flu that will weed out just the weak and maybe a few of the strong. Seems like they're banking on catching it, getting over it, having some immunity to a second helping and getting on with life. Easy to say if you're a healthy 20-30 year old with no pre-existing conditions. I wonder what they'd say if they passed it on to one of their grandparents who aren't so healthy.

Bruce
 
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This hit home for me on April 11, when my uncle died from it. My mom's good friend died shortly thereafter. It becomes more real when it is someone you know. I have a feeling that by this time next year most of us will know someone that has died from it.
On a more positive note, the hospitals here aren't overwhelmed anymore, and the refrigerated morgue semi trailers my department had to help build aren't being used currently. Also, back in March when it was hitting the fan here, I talked to my friend who is a doctor, and a co-worker who is also a paid on call firefighter/EMT. The doctor said they were prohibited from performing CPR on anyone, because of the expulsion of droplets would coat the room and it took too long to sanitize and they needed the room for the next person. The EMT said the hospitals weren't taking anyone who they had already been working on for more than ten minutes. So if from the time they got to someone and put paddles on them or did cpr to when they got to the hospital was longer than ten minutes, the hospital didn't even try their "advanced tactics and drugs", they just sent them to the morgue. He said make sure not to get in a car wreck, and that a lot of the OD's weren't making it when before the hospital was able to bring them back. I think both of these orders have been rescinded now by the hospitals since it has calmed down here.
 
Barncat said:
This hit home for me on April 11, when my uncle died from it. My mom's good friend died shortly thereafter. It becomes more real when it is someone you know. I have a feeling that by this time next year most of us will know someone that has died from it.
On a more positive note, the hospitals here aren't overwhelmed anymore, and the refrigerated morgue semi trailers my department had to help build aren't being used currently. Also, back in March when it was hitting the fan here, I talked to my friend who is a doctor, and a co-worker who is also a paid on call firefighter/EMT. The doctor said they were prohibited from performing CPR on anyone, because of the expulsion of droplets would coat the room and it took too long to sanitize and they needed the room for the next person. The EMT said the hospitals weren't taking anyone who they had already been working on for more than ten minutes. So if from the time they got to someone and put paddles on them or did cpr to when they got to the hospital was longer than ten minutes, the hospital didn't even try their "advanced tactics and drugs", they just sent them to the morgue. He said make sure not to get in a car wreck, and that a lot of the OD's weren't making it when before the hospital was able to bring them back. I think both of these orders have been rescinded now by the hospitals since it has calmed down here.
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Ditto in the Lansing, MI area. Harper's Bar opened for business and has over 150 cases from patrons. No hospitalizations from any of those cases at the time of this writing. Seems like the initial wave took out the most susceptible as we weren't shut-ins at the time.

Bruce
 
mickri said:
My mom's got you all beat. She'll be 102 in August. She lives with me. We both like being at home and even before the covid we only left to get necessities.
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My mom is only 89 and also lives with me. She is healthy and only has one prescription medication (eye drops for glaucoma) but it's hard not being able to go to senior exercise class or anything else. My friends dad did get it but recovered thankfully.

One thing I did was to install an outdoor handwashing sink, I've let my guard down a little though in the past few weeks but will be more careful now that numbers are going up.


John
 
We are seeing a huge jump in cases in Victoria (where my kids live)
Up here in Queensland we only had a few cases so most of us have been very lax of late.
Two days ago a plane load of Victorians landed at our local airport so I expect our number to start increasing very soon.
 
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