On Topic Discussion 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2)

[KaraBulut]

So from today, for the first time in 550 days, live music is allowed in indoor pubs. Apparently, people singing and performing indoors can disperse aerosols further than just chatting. It's a welcome - although probably risky - development. Irish pubs without singing is like Hamlet without the Prince.

In this thread, there's a case study from 2020 where 87% of people in a choir practice in early 2020 were infected with COVID-19.

Hopefully, the odds will be better in a vaccinated population but long periods indoor singing in colder weather is probably not going to go well.

At just over four and a half million, it's still a long way from the Spanish flu pandemic of a hundred years ago.

A sobering thought: the Emerson mechanical ventilator was invented in 1949.

All of those COVID-19 patients on ventilators, ECMO, apheresis, dialysis and other life-saving intensive care therapies would be dead if this were 1918. Even with these therapies, the US death toll from COVID-19 has already exceeded the death toll from the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic.

And...

Doctors in these states could soon be forced to make tough choices about who gets an ICU bed, Fauci warns [CNN]

Across the US, 79.83% of ICU beds are in use -- almost a third of which are occupied by Covid-19 patients, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. Eight states had more than 90% of their adult ICU beds occupied Sunday: Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada and Kentucky.

 

[KaraBulut]

Latest Case and Death Numbers for Florida and Texas:
Florida:

• 24-Jul: 73,166 new cases / 282 deaths
• 31-Jul: 110,724 new cases / 409 deaths
• 07-Aug: 134,751 new cases / 616 deaths
• 14-Aug: 151,764 new cases / 1,071 deaths
• 21-Aug: 150,740 new cases / 1,486 deaths
• 28-Aug: 151,760 new cases / 1,727 deaths
• 04-Sep: 129,202 new cases / 2,345 deaths

Florida has 6.5% of the US population, but had 10.9% of the COVID cases and a whopping 20.9% of the deaths last week

Texas:

• 24-Jul: 36,451 new cases / 190 deaths
• 31-Jul: 62,722 new cases / 271 deaths
• 07-Aug: 96,807 new cases / 384 deaths
• 14-Aug: 98,447 new cases / 628 deaths
• 21-Aug: 124,969 new cases / 937 deaths
• 28-Aug: 106,976 new cases / 1,351 deaths
• 04-Sep: 137,679 new cases / 1,843 deaths

Texas has 8.8% of the US population, but had 11.6% of the COVID cases and 16.4% of the deaths last week



15 South Florida school district staff members die of COVID-19 in 10 days; report [New4Jax]

According to NBC6, 15 staff members in Miami-Dade County Public Schools died over a recent 10-day span.

At least 45 districts shut down in-person classes due to COVID-19 cases, affecting more than 40,000 students [Texas Tribune]

From Aug. 23-29, there were 27,353 new positive COVID-19 cases among students in Texas public schools, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, making it the biggest one-week increase in the entire pandemic. The state reports 51,904 cases among students and 13,026 among staff since the school year began. That’s about 1% of the 5.3 million students enrolled in the state as of January.

Children’s hospitals, which have been inundated with COVID-19 patients at levels never seen before during the pandemic, have also seen an uptick in patients as the school year is underway, said Dr. Corwin Warmink, medical director of emergency services for Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth.

Meanwhile, Texas Gov Abbott fiddles while Texas burns:

 

[Kulindahr]

That's sick. Why would they want that?

It's a strain if fundamentalist Christianity who practically drool over the idea of sinners suffering.

 

[belamyi]

^ Yep: while most of Sappho's work is lost, you can still read the ignorant hate-filled wet dreams of Tertullian. It's not religion and faith, it's politics and the ideology of prevailing over whoever makes you feel less special and God-chosen.

- - - Updated - - -

Actually, that goes farther back in time than Christianity, but we are ont entering into that

 

[belamyi]

Israel’s Covid Surge Shows the World What’s Coming Next

- - - Updated - - -

I was somewhat surprised to learn that their rate of completely vaccinated is only 61%. Given what we are facing with the Delta, Spain's is still quite insufficient at 72,5% and, with a speed that has been markedly lagging for over a month, it's however the best in continental Europe.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

 

[belamyi]

^ Best after Portugal.

 

[Kulindahr]

I clicked the link in an email telling me of a new post here and it landed me three pages back.....

 

[rareboy]

And now Idaho is going to ration health care because it is overwhelmed.

Idaho public health leaders announced Tuesday that they activated “crisis standards of care” allowing health care rationing for the state's northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireS...s-hospital-care-standards-amid-covid-79872485

Hopefully all those who aren't vaccinated by choice and/or who have been chugging horse dewormer will have to step back.

 

[KaraBulut]

There have been some interesting reports from reporters on the ground in rural areas around the Ozarks, which covers parts of 4 states - Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. These are the same areas that are "hotspots" for COVID-19.

The reporters have an amazing amount of patience and active listening skills. The reports give insight into an illogical set of behaviors that seem self-destructive and contrary to the self-preservation instincts that we assume people have.

This report was interesting in particular because it shows that Delta is beginning to change the minds of some of the people in this area, as they're seeing large groups of people getting sick- people that they know personally. Sadly, many of these areas of the Ozarks have limited resources for advanced life support, so a bad case of COVID-19 in this region can be a death sentence.

 

[justaguy]

New Zealand is attempting to eliminate Delta and return to Covid Zero. Last 14 days numbers of infections found 83, 84, 53, 49, 75, 48, 28, 25, 20, 20, 20, 21, 15, 13. For the past week all cases have been confined to Auckland. So we've blocked it off and the rest of the country has returned to normal apart from mandatory mask wearing, until we can get Auckland back to zero. Then they will join us. It's by no means certain we can do it, but it won't be for lack of trying.
Our plan then is to finish our vaccinations by early December. I anticipate we'll get over 80% quite easily. There isnt much vaccine hesitancy here due, in my opinion, to a lack of Murdoch media.
I think from there, if we can get back to covid zero, NZ will observe other countries, particularly Australia, and see how there opening up and the booster programs go.
Either that or Delta will get away from us as it did in Melbourne and Sydney, and try and prepare for massive case loads and make the best of it.

 

[belamyi]

One of the ten districts in BCN is getting close to zero covid: it's in the east side of the city, right where you find the neighbourhoods and districts usually reporting higher count of cases. When I was there now almost exactly one year ago, it was the part of the city where life looked as thriving as ever: no single shop out of business, and people following their lifes with only the masks as visible sign of the new situation. It is one of the many neighborhoods which are actually self-contained small towns inside the city, which gentrification barely taking off just before the pandemic. And the first wave barely touched it, at a rate of under 50.
It was always like that: war or plague, the small town or countryside was the place to keep relatively safe from the critical situations.


Apart from that, the highest rate of vaccination is consistently in the areas with the older and retired population.

 

[Kulindahr]

There have been some interesting reports from reporters on the ground in rural areas around the Ozarks, which covers parts of 4 states - Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. These are the same areas that are "hotspots" for COVID-19.

The reporters have an amazing amount of patience and active listening skills. The reports give insight into an illogical set of behaviors that seem self-destructive and contrary to the self-preservation instincts that we assume people have.

This report was interesting in particular because it shows that Delta is beginning to change the minds of some of the people in this area, as they're seeing large groups of people getting sick- people that they know personally. Sadly, many of these areas of the Ozarks have limited resources for advanced life support, so a bad case of COVID-19 in this region can be a death sentence.

I've driven through a couple of sections of the Ozarks farther to the east, and on what passes for major highways there can be stretches where the maximum safe speed is 30mph, mile after twisty, humpy mile, like the roads followed elk trails rather than being surveyed for travel by anything more advanced than a horsecart. The culture seems quite fitted to the slow, twisted roads.

 

[belamyi]

Apart from that, the highest rate of vaccination is consistently in the areas with the older and retired population.

Consistently HIGHER.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Stillbirths have doubled during covid in Mississippi. Officials are sounding the alarm. [Washington Post]

“Not a single one of them was vaccinated,” Dobbs said. “I feel confident, if they had been vaccinated, every single one of those people would be with us today. It’s a stark and painful truth, but it’s just what reality shows.”

Not surprising for Mississippi. Yet the story never mentions how covid infects the placenta. https://www.justusboys.com/forum/th...-2)/page63?p=11955564&viewfull=1#post11955564

 

[ruggerladirish]

Not sure if it's 'vaccine complacency' or just plain boredom, but after all these months, I cannot understand why so many people are now wearing masks with mouth covered, but nose exposed. Also, indoor settings are still insisting on masks. I see people outside with masks tucked below their chin, but as they enter indoors they adjust and 'fiddle' with their masks to place them over their faces. And finally, the disposable one wear masks were treated just as that, but now some people are wearing them for days on end. Strange to see.

 

[rareboy]

From a friend in the healthcare field, a relatively current snapshot of Ontario.

ONTARIO VACCINE ROLLOUT UPDATE #21:

Here's the latest vaccination and cases/hospitalization/ICU stats.
The updates have gotten a bit long in answering requests from some people, so, I'm not going to give all the vaccination numbers, just the percentages and any interesting trends. If you have any other stats questions, feel free to ask by commenting.
CANADA numbers:
74.4% of Canada's total population has received at least one dose and 68.3% are fully vaccinated.
85.4% of Canada's vaccine eligible population (12+) has received at least one dose and 78.4% are fully vaccinated.
ONTARIO numbers:
74.4% of Ontario's total population has received as least 1 dose and 68.8% are fully vaccinated.
85.0% of Ontario's vaccine eligible population (12+) has received at least one dose and 78.6% are fully vaccinated.
Though it's not official until today's vaccinations for Ontario are posted tomorrow, Ontario surpassed 11 million people with at least one dose today.
Lets look at the positive case counts, hospitalizations and ICU:
3.79 million people unvaccinated
827,355 people partially vaccinated
10.17 million people fully vaccinated
Positive cases:
784 total today (723 where we knew the person's vaccination status)
475 unvacccinated: that is 12.53 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated people.
66 partially vaccinated: that is 9.13 cases per 100,000 partially vaccinated people.
182 fully vaccinated: that is 1.79 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated people.

But these numbers could be skewed based on how many people in each vaccination status state were tested, so let's look at hospitalizations and ICU cases which would not be skewed.

Unvaccinated: 159 in hospital (excluding ICU) (up 19 in the last two weeks) and 103 in ICU (up 13 in the last two weeks). That's 4.19 and 2.72 people per 100,000 population respectively.
Partially Vaccinated: 16 in hospital (excluding ICU) (same as two weeks ago) and 8 in ICU (up 2 in the last two weeks). That's 1.45 and 0.97 people per 100,000 population respectively.
Fully Vaccinated: 42 in hospital (excluding ICU) (up 15 in the last two weeks) and 15 in ICU (up 6 in the last two weeks). That's 0.41 and 0.15 people per 100,000 population respectively.
Unvaxxed people make up 25.6% of the Ontario people and make up 74.65% of people in hospital and 81.75% of people in ICU.
Partially vaxxed people make up 5.6% of the Ontario people and make up 5.63% of people in hospital and 6.35% of people in ICU.
Fully vaxxed people make up 68.8% of the Ontario people and make up 19.72% of people in hospital and 11.9% of people in ICU.

 

[rareboy]

Not sure if it's 'vaccine complacency' or just plain boredom, but after all these months, I cannot understand why so many people are now wearing masks with mouth covered, but nose exposed. Also, indoor settings are still insisting on masks. I see people outside with masks tucked below their chin, but as they enter indoors they adjust and 'fiddle' with their masks to place them over their faces. And finally, the disposable one wear masks were treated just as that, but now some people are wearing them for days on end. Strange to see.

I always gently remind people that if I can see their nose...they aren't doing it right. The one's that make me laugh are the face shield people who look ridiculous and are not really protecting either themselves or the people around them.

 

[belamyi]

 

[cityboy-stl]

I always gently remind people that if I can see their nose...they aren't doing it right. The one's that make me laugh are the face shield people who look ridiculous and are not really protecting either themselves or the people around them.

I just got back from grocery shopping. There must have been a dozen people in the store wearing a mask with their nose hanging out. It is unbelievably stupid that after all this time people are still wearing the mask improperly. I just mutter under my breath because I don't dare say anything to them. I'd probably get shot right there in the store.

 

[belamyi]

^ The rule simply says "wear a mask"; "wearing it properly" is, like Anglos say, "just semantics".