Coronavirus prep

TonyB0588 wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

kimny72 wrote: »

SuzySunshine99 wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

I live in AZ now, but I'm a huge (and hopeless) Bengals fan. NFL fans are hoping the season gets played and if you pay any attention to the draft, Joe Burrow is now a Bengal, so fans are even more excited about Cincinnati.

I personally don't see an NFL season happening, as much as I'd like it to. They, like MLB and the NBA, are allowing players to "opt out" of the season. Here's the thing with football players. Be definition, O-linemen are obese. They have to be to be 300 plus pounds. It's part of the job.

I'd be curious how other football fans feel. Though I'd love to see my team play this year, I have no desire for anyone to die for my entertainment.

Every professional league and university athletic program is desperate for their seasons to start. Even if they can't host fans, they need the TV revenue. They are trying to preserve their profitability and their jobs, regardless of the risk to players and staff.

So, far, the NBA and NHL have been successful in restarting their seasons ONLY because they are keeping players and staff in a quarantined "bubble" in host/hub cities. No travel, no going home, no outside food, no families, no women.

MLB opted for allowing teams to play in their home ballparks, travel to other team's ballparks, stay at their own homes in their home cities. And now you see the Miami Marlins have a huge outbreak with at least 17 players testing positive. That was in the first week of play. This will happen to other baseball teams, and I will be very surprised if the MLB season plays through to its conclusion.

The NFL will be in the same boat, since they are also allowing teams to play in their home facilities. They may have a slight advantage over MLB, with travel only once a week and far fewer games.

I'm a sports fan, but I just don't see how any of this is going to work right now. As with many industries, shutting down is going to cost people their jobs, but at least they'll have their lives.

As an NHL fan, I give them a slight edge in making it work as not only are they in a bubble but the two bubbles are in Canada.

But as much as I will enjoy watching as many of any of these games as they can put out, I'm concerned by the sheer volume of testing supplies they are using for something that is just entertainment. Here in the US where there are still people waiting 7+ days for test results, it just doesn't seem responsible.

The Cardinals just announced two players have tested positive, so here we go again. The worst case scenario for MLB is they don't even manage to play the season and several players or staff members see their careers ruined or even lose their lives. Not that completing the season would be worth it either, but you know what I mean.

I keep waiting to hear the NFL cancel the season. Between the example baseball is setting, the fact you mentioned that there are obese football players, and the NFLs crappy history of taking care of their players long term, it just seems like a tragedy waiting to happen.

At this point, the actual tests are pretty abundant...as for getting results back, that's really more of a lab thing. Places like urgent care facilities and pharmacies, etc do not have the ability to test in house, so those are sent to private labs. In New Mexico we have a number of testing places that are run by the DOH and Presbyterian hospital and those results usually come back within a day because they can do everything in house.

Sports teams have the ability to do that lab work in house, so they really aren't taking away resources from the general public.

Results should usually be available in four hours. Can't understand this 7 day business.

For mine, it took 2 days for the lab results and another 14 days to communicate those results to me. 16 days total.

TonyB0588 wrote: »

Which practices? The ones that many parents taught their children while growing up? Wash your hands before eating. Cover your nose when you sneeze. Wash your hands after using the toilet. Cover your mouth when you cough. Wash your hands after touching money. Don't lie in bed with clothes you wore outdoors. By the way, did I mention wash your hands?

Why are normal civilized people no longer doing these things??

After returning to the office for 4 days this week, I’m pretty confident half my coworkers have spent their summer doing drugs or something else to wipe off all brain cells that carry learned human decency and guidelines. It has consistently always been the rule, first as general human decency and then as official HR policy, that you wash your hands with water and soap when you come in to any space from outdoors. We have hand sanitizer bottles all around the office, but at this point everyone should know water and soap are better and hand sanitizer should be used as complementary add-in or when proper hand-washing isn’t available. Some of the discussions I’ve had this week include:

”Please wash your hands first, you just came in from outside”
”But I only touched a few doorknobs”
”Still.” (Me in my head: yeah, you went outside, probably touched your face while smoking, and then used the doors and elevators in this 11-floor office building that has quite a lot of people)

”Please wash your hands with water and soap”
”But I’m using hand sanitizer”
”That’s great as an addition, but doesn’t replace soap”
”Huh, since when?”
”It never has...”

After referencing these discussions the CEO gave me permission to start giving personal office bans at my discretion for those who can’t or won’t follow the hygiene rules. At this point being allowed to leave home and come to work at the office is a privilege and those who don’t follow the rules to make it safe for others won’t be allowed to use it. If people want to ignore hygiene and safety rules, they can do it in the privacy of their own home where they won’t risk their colleagues. They just have to deal with focusing on work with their kids jumping around etc., but life is full of choices and everyone is welcome to continue working from home if hand-washing at the office is too much trouble.

Mike Dewine, as it turns out, tested negative (the Governor of Ohio). He took a second test and the second one was negative. The first test he took was a rapid testing machine, which has around a 90% accuracy. Just another reason for Ohioans to deny that it even exists.

The conspiracy theorists are out in larger numbers than ever. My wife was talking to a friend (also from Ohio) in TN now. Her son knows a friend of a friend that was in line for testing and left early and then got a positive test result all without ever actually doing a test. Sound familiar?? Facebook just kicked off a group of bots yesterday found to be spreading this type of false information from a radical political organization. So if anyone you know fell for this story, it's likely they have been listening to Russian trolls.

I mentioned viral loads yesterday. S Korea just released a study where those that are asymptomatic have shown they can spread viral loads that are just as strong as someone that is very sick. And as a matter of fact, they are spreading MORE viral load right before they get sick, if they ever show symptoms at all. So those walking around without masks, that are now asymptomatic, are the greatest risk to all of us. That's what makes this thing such a nightmare to control.

CNN (I know some of you think it's a communist news network) had a segment on yesterday that scared the daylights out of me. It was a woman, in her 20s, that was a Machine Learning PhD scientist. First of all, you have to be flat out brilliant to do this kind of work. As an Executive Search consultant, I've placed people in this arena. They are way smarter than I will ever be. She couldn't work after like four months post Covid-19 because she couldn't think as clearly. She's getting better, but it's coming slow. She said she couldn't even focus on the plot of a movie post Covid-19 and was watching cartoons just to be able to follow a plot. That is terrifying to me. I make a living with my ability to think. Probably more terrifying to me than dying would be to lose my cognitive skills.

Just to add, and many more have alluded to this on this ongoing thread over time. If Covid-19 is affecting the brain, there's potential for long-term damage that we just simply can't predict. I know many scientists reexamining, right now, if bacterial infections can contribute to Alzheimer's. Lupus, they think, starts with a virus. B Breve, a common strain of bacteria found in your microbiome, has been found to rapidly improve early dementia (very recently).

When you have a virus that is clearly affecting the brain in some people, it's just another reason that it's clearly not "the flu or a cold".

ChrissyChickie wrote: »

baconslave wrote: »

corinasue1143 wrote: »

My granddaughter graduated high school this year. No graduation. Once in a lifetime. She’s ok. No senior prom. Once in a lifetime. She’s ok. No state softball tournament. It’s hard, but she’ll be ok. No all state softball tournament. Once in a lifetime for her. She’s heartbroken.

I had a senior as well. She has missed so much: volunteering, an internship experience, a free summer to hang with friends, a summer job. She's really losing patience with people who won't take the precautions needed to get the virus down. She's bracing herself for the possible further disappointment of ending up with all her Freshman classes in college online-only. I was talking to her a min ago, and she had the crazy eyes. I wouldn't cross her today...

My senior was bummed about the sports aspects also. Fortunately for her, she is going to a college that is actually having classes in-person. The school is starting early so when kids go home for Thanksgiving break they don't return a couple days later with possibly having covid and getting others ill. So, we dropped her off at her university on Monday Aug 3rd. The first semester will then end right before Thanksgiving.

My daughter's school isn't starting until the 24th. She lost another in-person class yesterday. I told her due to the spread here in TN, and how many people refuse to follow mitigation methods here, that she should expect them all to move online. But so far she still has 3 classes in-person. They are going, no breaks for any holiday, until the week of Thanksgiving, at which time they will have Fall Break the whole week, after that students will not return to campus but finish the rest of the courses online.

I think your daughter's school was wiser. But I guess things are so "on fire" here it didn't matter when they start, but as the month goes on, it does get worse. We have already passed Virginia in total known infections, and they have a larger pop. than us by almost 2 million. We are chasing NC now who has 3.7ish million more folks than us.




People keep posting on the local news comments on FB, "well we have this mandate and cases going up so it ain't working is it? Masks don't work." Well we have a toothless mandate, not enforced, not even by some businesses who said they would but stopped pressing it in fear that people will assault their employees, and we have people still having parties and not masking up and not being careful all over the region. And they think disproves masks working how? Minimum 90% compliance is required over a month or more for this to do anything to the numbers. But no one with authority is saying this. The governor only does briefings on FB Live. They are saying it then. Many who see it aren't listening, but people who don't catch the briefing within an hour aren't getting the info at all as they take it down soon after. The Gov said they were going to do a media campaign. I have seen 2 signs in the next town over. Nothing else. And then there are those who hear it but don't care or don't believe it is necessary.

Hubby keeps telling me to not read the comments. And while there are influencers there rabble-rousing without a doubt (and if you think that's bunk, you should check out an article on the recent report on Russia and social media from the State Dept that no one is talking about right now), there are people that do indeed believe these conspiracies being spread, and it's stupid to act like these people don't exist and not know what is going on in the head and actions of so many in my community.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Mike Dewine, as it turns out, tested negative (the Governor of Ohio). He took a second test and the second one was negative. The first test he took was a rapid testing machine, which has around a 90% accuracy. Just another reason for Ohioans to deny that it even exists.

The conspiracy theorists are out in larger numbers than ever. My wife was talking to a friend (also from Ohio) in TN now. Her son knows a friend of a friend that was in line for testing and left early and then got a positive test result all without ever actually doing a test. Sound familiar?? Facebook just kicked off a group of bots yesterday found to be spreading this type of false information from a radical political organization. So if anyone you know fell for this story, it's likely they have been listening to Russian trolls.

I mentioned viral loads yesterday. S Korea just released a study where those that are asymptomatic have shown they can spread viral loads that are just as strong as someone that is very sick. And as a matter of fact, they are spreading MORE viral load right before they get sick, if they ever show symptoms at all. So those walking around without masks, that are now asymptomatic, are the greatest risk to all of us. That's what makes this thing such a nightmare to control.

Yep, I live in TN and heard the comment a couple weeks ago "If you just drive by a testing center, you'll get reported as positive." Sooo much conspiracy disinformation.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Mike Dewine, as it turns out, tested negative (the Governor of Ohio). He took a second test and the second one was negative. The first test he took was a rapid testing machine, which has around a 90% accuracy. Just another reason for Ohioans to deny that it even exists.

The conspiracy theorists are out in larger numbers than ever. My wife was talking to a friend (also from Ohio) in TN now. Her son knows a friend of a friend that was in line for testing and left early and then got a positive test result all without ever actually doing a test. Sound familiar?? Facebook just kicked off a group of bots yesterday found to be spreading this type of false information from a radical political organization. So if anyone you know fell for this story, it's likely they have been listening to Russian trolls.

I mentioned viral loads yesterday. S Korea just released a study where those that are asymptomatic have shown they can spread viral loads that are just as strong as someone that is very sick. And as a matter of fact, they are spreading MORE viral load right before they get sick, if they ever show symptoms at all. So those walking around without masks, that are now asymptomatic, are the greatest risk to all of us. That's what makes this thing such a nightmare to control.

Happened to a friend of my wife's here in IL too. For sure there are going to be screw ups with this many tests but I personally believe this person (even though some on here may think I'm spreading conspiracy info )

What I personally believe is happening is that people are reading what bots or trolls put up on the internet and then relaying the story as "this happened to me" for embellishment. Do I think that there are machine/rapid testing mistakes? Absolutely. That's part of the scientific process of figuring out how to test accurately and quickly against the possibility of false positives.

But what I think is happening is the rare amount of administrative mistakes along with the percentage of false positives that considered within the acceptable amount of risk in order to have testing accelerated is giving opportunities to foreign governments or bad actors to divide the population and get people to dismiss this as a real problem. Did you see the letter? In many cases, it's the exact same story. Doesn't that make you suspicious at all? Was it published or are you relying on someone's word? Does that medical center even send out letters?

I'm not saying administrative mistakes don't happen. I just believe that there are many, that tend to be easily influenced, now spreading information as first or second hand accounts that simply saw it somewhere on the internet (and that much of that information is deliberately influenced by trolls and bots).

What is happening is when reporters try to first hand authenticate these types of stories (and we're not talking from websites like Reddit), they can't confirm the stories.

https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/kootenai-health-covid19-false-positive-rumors-not-true/293-4fbc450b-c16e-4982-85a1-8d31a26ba90a

This is just one Idaho news station that went to the "source" of the letters -- one large hospital group. Turns out, they don't ever send letters to begin with.

This sounds similar to the common conspiracy theory that deaths are exaggerated by counting every Covid-positive person who dies rather than the method of death. George Floyd is a high profile example of someone who was positive at death and his death was NOT counted as a Covid death. When I ask people to name the deceased who are mis-identified, nobody has a legitimate answer.