Coronavirus prep

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  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,646 Member
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    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    DecadeDuchess wrote: »
    If anyone has trouble locating toilet paper, how about cleaning your closets of clothes that you don't intend to wear again & cut them into pieces, as a temporary replacement but be mindful, not to drop them into the toilet but the trash instead?

    I work with folks who grew up in places where supplies and things like running water were scarce. They used newspaper. You rub pages against each other so the ink doesn’t smear first. I have magazines. Seems like that would do in a pinch.

    I really hope things don't get to that point. 🤢🤢🤢🤢
  • DecadeDuchess
    DecadeDuchess Posts: 315 Member
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    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    The university where I work is taking classes online (except labs) through the end of the academic year. The campus isn’t closing, and we have undergrad students (like students from China) who have no place else to go. Along with pretty much every grad/professional student.

    The campus isn’t closing. It is taking steps to minimize contact. All events for 100 people or more are cancelled. Meetings are supposed to go online. Work with staff to see who can work remotely at lest a little. But the campus still needs on site folks for the remaining students. We don’t want people to become more vulnerable because the campus has few people on it and others think it’s easy pickings.

    We’re sanitizing stuff more than usual at the office. We already wipe down phones, keyboard, door handles, mice, surfaces, etc. between shifts as past of normal procedure. We’re just doing it more often now, not only for the students but because it helps the staff feel better. Just because it doesn’t make much of a difference health wise doesn’t mean it’s not important. Morale is critical in times like this.

    I already don’t touch grocery carts or baskets (just use my reusable bags—also keeps me from over shopping 😊) and I use wipes on gas pumps and when entering my pin. Ecoli and Salmonella can linger on those things, along with the flu. I minimize what I can for myself without going to extremes (as I’d call them), taking care that I work with immuno-compromised folks (students, staff, and faculty) and figuring out ways I can keep them getting paid while minimizing risk.

    I am glad that they aren't closing, especially for the students that'd have to plausibly then return to their country. I don't wish for anyone to've to return to an especially hard hit country, unless they choose to. I'd hope that even deportations to these countries're ceased, to reduce the chance of a deportee obtaining & spreading it.
  • DecadeDuchess
    DecadeDuchess Posts: 315 Member
    edited March 2020
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    Psychgrrl wrote: »
    DecadeDuchess wrote: »
    If anyone has trouble locating toilet paper, how about cleaning your closets of clothes that you don't intend to wear again & cut them into pieces, as a temporary replacement but be mindful, not to drop them into the toilet but the trash instead?

    I work with folks who grew up in places where supplies and things like running water were scarce. They used newspaper. You rub pages against each other so the ink doesn’t smear first. I have magazines. Seems like that would do in a pinch.

    I know that even corncobs were used, prior to toilet paper existing. My main concern though's paper cuts & fecal matter, potentially infecting them.
  • DecadeDuchess
    DecadeDuchess Posts: 315 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    jseams1234 wrote: »
    snowflake954 wrote: »
    extra_medium wrote: »
    ekim2016 wrote: »
    Italy in bad shape. Over 600 dead and over 10k active cases. Hospitals stopped all operations / procedures and overflowing caring for covid patients. Bad scene! We need to be vigilant and people need to stop poo pooing claiming it's just no worse than a regular flu blah blah it is killing people globally.

    The regular flu kills people globally

    We have the regular flu every year in Italy--it's not on this scale.

    https://www.thelocal.it/20200123/flu-outbreak-in-italy-half-a-million-people-struck-down-in-a-week

    This was 2019/2020. Almost 3 Million cases reported by Jan 19 and half a million additional in just one week. At the time of the report deaths were approaching 300. I'm not downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 but the only difference in scale (the flu was worse) is mostly in the response to the outbreak.

    CV is obviously harder to treat and it is killing a far higher percentage of people.

    Not to mention it all adds up. You aren't getting COVID-19 cases instead of flu cases, you're getting them in addition to flu. Even if we assume it's spreading at exactly the same rate and has the exact same mortality rate (it's not and it doesn't), would people be okay with the usual flu doubling in spread and mortality? At least we have flu vaccines if that happens so it would be easier to contain.

    The other thing people seem to forget with these 'flu comparisons is that the flu is/was already in the community. This coronavirus strain is brand spanking new. And if people keep acting like complacent muppets with essentially the same attitude as people who hold chicken pox parties for their kids, coronavirus is going to catch up with those 'flu stats pretty quickly.

    Exactly. Unlike seasonal flu, this one has pandemic potential because not many people are immune to any variation of it like they are to many variations of the seasonal flu virus. In fact, saying it's "just like the flu" is even scarier. It basically means high rates of spread and mutation without the cushion of the immunity we developed to many seasonal flu virus strains over more than a few centuries. Who knows what it may mutate to if we don't take action to contain it now.

    Sadly, if containment efforts are successful you'll hear a lot of "See? The whole thing was overblown" thrown around.

    Our family is not personally worried (other than about the sterile mask shortage, for now) so we aren't stockpiling goods (only one case in the country currently in quarantine and no new cases in the last 7 days), but this doesn't mean we aren't taking it seriously.

    I've read every post, within this thread & this' the most informative, thank you!
  • JRsLateInLifeMom
    JRsLateInLifeMom Posts: 2,275 Member
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    I’m using multiple sites to check since some aren’t adding any but the tests they’ve ran only (CDC) all others are trying to record all from the private testing lab,CDC,y Health Human Services tests. I realized the CDC was missing some when the mayor to Govenor was advising us what to do about our outbreak 😷 in my city...looked at CDC they still haven’t recorded us. Called the hotline was told Health Human Services did our testing. CDC did some of Houston’s tests so their recorded. I have a feeling after my own experience in front of our faces (Our city is on high health alert we have been asked to stay home except for work please so trying to abide until they call it off)

    https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

    Then I check CDC to WHO also.

    At the moment hubby fought got a birthday cake 🎂 for the baby 👶. Couldn’t have anything written on it . Just a plain wonderful chocolate cake. He managed to find most of our groceries. It’s more a struggle for my Dad cause his tiny retirement country towngets food deliveries 🚚 from us an hour away .
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,948 Member
    edited March 2020
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    for @kimny72

    This article is from the point of view of the nurses at the hospital here in Kirkland which has been treating all the patients who have died here, and their take on the communication level(s) from management:

    https://www.kuow.org/stories/evergreenhealth-employees-concerned-coronavirus-risk

    It was written on the third, so hopefully no one on the team has become ill. I couldn't find any stats on that.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    for @kimny72

    This article is from the point of view of the nurses at the hospital here in Kirkland which has been treating all the patients who have died here, and their take on the communication level(s) from management:

    https://www.kuow.org/stories/evergreenhealth-employees-concerned-coronavirus-risk

    It was written on the third, so hopefully no one on the team has become ill. I couldn't find any stats on that.


    Oy vey, corporate medicine in action. I'd think the story would've been latched onto if medical personnel in any of those facilities had gotten sick, so like you say hopefully they are in the clear.

    Thanks
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    edited March 2020
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    bmeadows380 wrote: »
    MikePfirrman wrote: »
    I'm dumbfounded we can't test more. We have given 8K tests so far total. Italy blamed the rapid spread on the slowness of testing. S Korea is managing to test 10K a year and seems to have contained it much better.

    Angela Merkel, the German Prime Minister, told their body of Congress to expect 60% to 70% of the population to get it.

    I do think it seems warmer temperatures will help it lessen, but I'm not optimistic at this point. It seems that regulation and red tape (as well as mixed messaging from the top -- both parties) is getting in the way.

    Just heard that now Italy is not even intubating those over 65 with comorbities. I'm connected globally with many of the top immunologists in the world (I work with science based startups quite a bit). 168 died there yesterday alone. Death rate now at 6% in Italy. Not because it should be 6%, make it clear, it's because they were overwhelmed and not prepared. And they are way more prepared than us.

    When will our government agencies get it together? I'd really like to know. In WW II (not to sound like the old guy), we built factories overnight for armery/tanks/planes/ships. We can't make test kits, masks to provide even the docs and nurses or more intubation equipment? It's reached the level of absurdity it seems. I sure hope plans are in place right now, but I doubt they are. We're still putting tests through "rigorous" standards. Bottleneck nightmares.

    From the rate this is spreading, we have around 3 to 4 weeks before the medical system is overwhelmed.

    but back in the days of WWII, the US still had a strong manufacturing base; things have greatly changed in the last 80 years. Now most items considered essential to every day life are being made over seas and shipped in; the economy has gone global and America has gone away from a manufacturing economy to more of a services economy. Hence why companies like Proctor & Gamble were warning of supply bottlenecks and possible shortages. I think someone earlier in the thread pointed out that there's only one company in the US that makes the masks and they've been unable to keep up with the demand; they can't just instantly hire a bunch of people and buy a bunch of equipment and land and expand their production line overnight or even within a month or two. It's not easy to just throw up a factory overnight (then or now), especially when you don't already have the tools to build the parts needed for that factory. Factories today also require much more complex equipment than in that time, too. And industry has technolized itself now to the point where the old techniques for human production of these items have been lost.

    My industry is the perfect example: I work in the power utility industry. Power flow on the main transmission lines across the country ( the main trunk lines, not the lines you see in your neighborhood) are anywhere from 138,000 volts to 765,000 volts. It takes highly specialized equipment to handle that sort of high voltage, especially the transformers. But there are no domestic manufactures of the large, high voltage transformers at all - they all come from over seas with as much as a 3 year lead time. I think there is one plant in Mexican that is starting to make some of the 138,000 volt ones, but there are 0 in the US that do so. If a company has a large, high voltage transformer fail, they must either bring in technicians from over seas to repair it, temporary re-route the system to bypass it until a replacement is found, or search around to see if other companies have a spare one they'd be willing to sell. If there were a huge disaster that destroyed a large chunk of the high powered grid, it would be impossible to quickly rebuild the system because there is no way that the manufacturers of the small transformers here in North America would ever be able to upgrade their factories fast enough to be able to build a high voltage transformer - it would take just as much time for them to upgrade as it would be to get one built and shipped over from South Korea.

    I've read articles that they've had tests at state levels, especially in Washington State. The CDC wouldn't let them use them. Were the perfect? Likely not, but better than nothing, which is what they were left with.

    I agree completely with much of what you're saying, but dollars fix a lot of things quickly and we're on of the richest countries in the world. We have many "job shops" all over the US with the proper machines, CNC equipment, lasers, drill punches, etc. The entire Northeast machine shops are built mostly to provide aerospace and military complex support. No one can tell me they can't change that quickly to make intubation equipment. If there were a real challenge to the power grid, I'm sure they could do the same if the priority is laid out that way. They have the capabilities, with the plans, to do that almost overnight. Actually, the tubing might be harder to come by.

    We agree on the masks. But can't they come up with alternatives? Isn't there a better mask? By the time we have masks, they will be having to use hazmat suits. Perhaps S Korea, after it contains it, can supply the US with the proper equipment. That's sad, but reality. But as this article shows, if you prioritize it, factories can literally be built nearly overnight. Foxxcon can produce 2M masks a day by the end of the month? But we're just looking at one supplier in TX to do it all? https://time.com/5785223/medical-masks-coronavirus-covid-19/
  • JRsLateInLifeMom
    JRsLateInLifeMom Posts: 2,275 Member
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    5ih7w45o9iyo.jpeg
    360 cal per tiny sliver but made babies day

    Well baby bucked at underwear o today but we saved 4 diapers yesterday!! Yay 😁

    Today he wants diapers cried so will let him but told him he had to sit this morning to get it. So 1 diaper saved still !! Yay 😀

    Every diaper saved is less to hunt for.
    Got terry cloth towels if need be for cloth diapers or cloth inserts for his training underwear 🩲 y 3 sewing 🧵 baskets 🧺 full of sewing 🧵 threads,needles,buttons,etc I can create some. No plastic underpants tho but got the plastic inside underwear. Lol hubby joked we could eat the old cloth rice bag we use for heating y cooling for ouchies .Told him after all the moisture lol probably nasty inside by now. (Made it 4yrs ago!)

    Hubby managed to get baby a Birthday 🎁 Cake! Worker wearing a mask 😷 they didn’t write on it. He got it straight from the head baker 👩‍🍳 she made sure to box it up gloves y mask on get it to him directly.So sweet of her.
  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,311 Member
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    JRsLateInLifeMom wrote: »
    5ih7w45o9iyo.jpeg
    360 cal per tiny sliver but made babies day

    Well baby bucked at underwear o today but we saved 4 diapers yesterday!! Yay 😁

    Today he wants diapers cried so will let him but told him he had to sit this morning to get it. So 1 diaper saved still !! Yay 😀

    Every diaper saved is less to hunt for.
    Got terry cloth towels if need be for cloth diapers or cloth inserts for his training underwear 🩲 y 3 sewing 🧵 baskets 🧺 full of sewing 🧵 threads,needles,buttons,etc I can create some. No plastic underpants tho but got the plastic inside underwear. Lol hubby joked we could eat the old cloth rice bag we use for heating y cooling for ouchies .Told him after all the moisture lol probably nasty inside by now. (Made it 4yrs ago!)

    Hubby managed to get baby a Birthday 🎁 Cake! Worker wearing a mask 😷 they didn’t write on it. He got it straight from the head baker 👩‍🍳 she made sure to box it up gloves y mask on get it to him directly.So sweet of her.

    But you put it on the floor? Defeats the purpose doesn't it. 😂

  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    edited March 2020
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    For death rate by age (and the website has another chart with death rates by comorbidity):

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

    There are two sources that provide age, sex, and comorbidity statistics:


    The Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission published on Feb. 28 by WHO, [2] which is based on 55,924 laboratory confirmed cases. The report notes that "The Joint Mission acknowledges the known challenges and biases of reporting crude CFR early in an epidemic" (see also our discussion on: How to calculate the mortality rate during an outbreak)

    A paper by the Chinese CCDC released on Feb. 17, which is based on 72,314 confirmed, suspected, and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 in China as of Feb. 11, and was published in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology [1]


    Age of Coronavirus Deaths
    COVID-19 Fatality Rate by AGE:

    *Death Rate = (number of deaths / number of cases) = probability of dying if infected by the virus (%). This probability differs depending on the age group. The percentages shown below do not have to add up to 100%, as they do NOT represent share of deaths by age group. Rather, it represents, for a person in a given age group, the risk of dying if infected with COVID-19.
    AGE

    DEATH RATE all cases

    80+ years old
    14.8%

    70-79 years old
    8.0%

    60-69 years old
    3.6%

    50-59 years old
    1.3%

    40-49 years old
    0.4%

    30-39 years old
    0.2%

    20-29 years old
    0.2%

    10-19 years old
    0.2%

    0-9 years old
    no fatalities

    *Death Rate = (number of deaths / number of cases) = probability of dying if infected by the virus (%). The percentages do not have to add up to 100%, as they do NOT represent share of deaths by age group.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,948 Member
    edited March 2020
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    for @kimny72

    This article is from the point of view of the nurses at the hospital here in Kirkland which has been treating all the patients who have died here, and their take on the communication level(s) from management:

    https://www.kuow.org/stories/evergreenhealth-employees-concerned-coronavirus-risk

    It was written on the third, so hopefully no one on the team has become ill. I couldn't find any stats on that.


    Oy vey, corporate medicine in action. I'd think the story would've been latched onto if medical personnel in any of those facilities had gotten sick, so like you say hopefully they are in the clear.

    Thanks

    The Life Care nursing facility where the majority of the patients came from has several staff members with symptoms. 120 residents were living there at the time of the outbreak and just about as many total employees, plus all the visitors in and out in the last 14 days. I don't know the infection percentage.

    The math again.

    edit to add this article. No idea why it took nearly two weeks to start testing the employees... https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/coronavirus-testing-starts-for-life-care-center-employees

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