Coronavirus prep

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  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    allother94 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    @allother94,
    It's mind boggling that people are still not choosing to get vaccinated. They must be seeing all of this play out?? But instead of turning unvaccinated people away at the hospitals, why don't they turn them away everywhere else? Maybe it'd force their hand a bit more. JMO

    They say the problem with the spread is overcrowding hospitals. If that really is the problem, then that is what they should address…

    When someone says "They say" or "They should", without further amplifying, I wonder who the heck "they" are.

    So, who is the "they" who should address the overcrowding of hospitals, and how should they do that, specifically - what are your ideas?

    I suspect that public health authorities and governmental officials - here in the US, dunno where you are - believe that they are trying to address the overcrowding of hospitals by forming support teams of military members and sending them out to help staff hospitals, helping to build/equip auxiliary facilities where staffing is less the constraint, trying to limit exposures in less economically vital sectors or in less economically destructive ways (mask mandates, vaccination requirements, limiting crowding in social situations, etc.) . . . and telling people who aren't vaccinated to get vaccinated so they stop being the overwhelmingly largest group now overcrowding the hospitals.

    If it's hospital administrators who are "they", I suspect they believe they're trying to address the overcrowding by converting wards that aren't usually infectious disease wards to wards for Covid patients, hiring traveling staff at exorbitant pay rates, eliminating elective surgeries (which aren't all trivial things!) to free up staff and space, requiring staff to be vaccinated to avoid further short-staffing from more-rampant sickness and the resulting absenteeism among staff, rededicating administrative staff to things like cleaning duties (yes, that's happening, in some places near me), and much more.

    What are your ideas for what more "they" should do, to address hospital overcrowding, that's actionable and realistic?

    Shouldn't "we" do our part, by getting vaccinated, avoiding truly unnecessary ER visits, and that sort of thing?

    My suggestion is that hospital administrators make a policy that no unvaccinated Covid patients are accepted once the ICU or the hospital as a whole are at 90% capacity. That's generous, tbh... Probably should just be no unvaccinated patients at all (even non-Covid patients).

    Edit: Is that specific enough?!
    Here's something that I do not understand... An employee where I work was sick and took a home test on Fri., Came up positive. He was very sick on Mon. and went to the Dr. where he tested positive and was given a note saying he can go back to work in 3 days. When did the standard become 3 days?! It is 5 days for positive when asymptomatic, but this person is NOT asymptomatic at all. WTF?!

    I can do you one better. California, due to nursing shortages, has just said that nurses who test positive can still work if they wear masks. Not nurses who are EXPOSED, nurses who actually have covid. Caring for patients, who might or might not have covid.

    I agree with this.

    And it is true. Doctors are also working with Covid because otherwise there won’t be any left to work. What alternative is there?
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,899 Member
    MA may require it. Some places do, some don't.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,145 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Was feeling really good yesterday so I decided to do my Zwift workout for my current 6 week training plan (FTP Builder). I'm already a week behind schedule for my event in May. It felt good and I felt good afterwards, but woke up this morning hacking up a lung and a headache that won't go away and my head feels full of snot again. My wife who had little to no symptoms also woke up feeling crummier than she has since we tested positive and has been in bed most of the morning and is taking a sick day rather than WFH day.

    I felt pretty great for about a week after I lost my taste and smell and tested positive. Just felt like my usual fall allergies. Then I got hit by a very large covid truck and it took a while to come back from that. Hopefully you guys will be past this soon! Rest all you can and take Tylenol instead of ibuprofen if you need it.
  • allother94
    allother94 Posts: 588 Member
    edited January 2022
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    allother94 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    allother94 wrote: »
    ReenieHJ wrote: »
    @allother94,
    It's mind boggling that people are still not choosing to get vaccinated. They must be seeing all of this play out?? But instead of turning unvaccinated people away at the hospitals, why don't they turn them away everywhere else? Maybe it'd force their hand a bit more. JMO

    They say the problem with the spread is overcrowding hospitals. If that really is the problem, then that is what they should address…

    Well yes, But what is currently causing overcrowded hospitals? Has there ever been a time it's been this bad and the medical professionals have been stretched this thin? Shouldn't they address the origin of this issue? And if more people were having mild cases as opposed to life-threatening lung problems, the hospitals wouldn't be filling up their ICU's, etc. :( And statistics show if a person's been fully vaccinated, most likely their symptoms will be milder. And people are still refusing to get the vaccine, some with legit reasons but my guess is most are not.
    JMO
    ETA: I realize vaccines still aren't a 100% guarantee of anything; they never were and never will be. But nobody can argue the fact that they do help. Numbers don't lie.

    Unfortunately, people don’t want to get vaccinated. We need to accept this and find a better solution

    This reminds me of the joke about someone knowing that God will save him from rising flood waters. So he ignores the evacuation orders. When the roads are impassible he waves off a boat rescue. Water keeps rising forcing him onto his roof yet he refuses a helicopter rescue. Eventually he perishes and asks God why He didn’t save him. God responds, “I tried. I sent a warning, a boat and a helicopter. You didn’t accept being saved.”

    Point is vaccines are the “better solution.” We need to accept that and avail ourselves of the lifesaving medical miracle that they are. The other ways to reduce transmission—masking, testing, distancing, closing gathering places— aren’t 100% effective either, and closing/limiting businesses has more negative consequences for the economy and people’s livelihoods. Obviously people are resisting those measures, too.

    It doesn’t matter how good the solution is if you can’t get buy in from the people. Unfortunately, people aren’t going to do it no matter how right your solution is. That’s reality. Continuing to tell people, who will never do it, to get the vax is not a solution and gets us nowhere.
  • allother94
    allother94 Posts: 588 Member
    ChelzFit wrote: »
    allother94 wrote: »
    nooshi713 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Heard a report (NPR news) today about a hospital where they test everyone on arrival, no matter what has brought them to the hospital/ER, no matter whether Covid-symptomatic or not. With the Omicron wave, 1 in 7 people coming into the hospital are testing positive. The test report comes back after they've been in the hospital for a while, if only in the ER.

    Those presenting for other conditions, with no Covid symptoms, have by that time encountered various staff members who are not in full Covid-precautions mode. It's leading to an increase in cases among the staff, usually minor because staff are vaccinated. Even so, staff need to isolate for a minimum of 5 days, so even more staffing shortages are resulting.

    There are a lot of moving parts to all of these systems, and new circumstances cause new complications/problems.

    Another reason to stay away from the ER if you don't truly need to be there is the potential to contract Covid from fellow patients in the ER. Obviously, don't stay away if you have a serious medical problem. It's a balance of risks question.

    Very true! If one doesn’t have Covid then there is a high chance of catching it by coming in. Everyone who has had a potential exposure or respiratory symptoms even if not Covid are lumped together in our Covid tent, because we can’t put them with the general population.

    We are short staffed again tomorrow. It sucks. And patients complain so much about the wait times not realizing we get no breaks, bend over backwards for them, and put our health on the line. This pandemic has really made me lose faith in humanity as a whole.

    My current stance is that hospitals should turn away unvaccinated patients and not offer testing. That should solve the CoVid hospital problem.

    Why don’t hospitals have an online checking and waiting system? I know emergencies are just that, but what good does it do sitting in a room for 10 hours when you can stay at home until you can be seen?

    I am for the vaccine, but I also don't really feel that we need to turn away those from the hospital that are unvaccinated. What about those that choose not to get vaccinated because of a reaction. For example my dad is 66 years old. He went in and got his Pfizer shot and had about two weeks of body aches, fatigue and felt awful. After getting his second shot, within in 24 hours he was rushed to the hospital in severe pain. He stayed in the hospital over a week, turns out there was increasing inflammation that was pushing on a nerve in his back. He had to have surgery and it has almost been a year and is still not able to walk without a limp. There was no proof that it was the vaccine, but now he is really scared to get his booster and I don't blame him.
    My father in law is another one that won't be getting his booster. After his two shots his RA flared up and has been worse ever since. I know it could all be a coincidence, but why look down on those who choose not to get vaccinated because of reactions they have had.

    There can be exceptions. Like a handicap sticker for you car. Needs to be light though…
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,048 Member
    33gail33 wrote: »
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I read this yesterday and it is still lingering with me. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/opinion/omicron-covid-biden.html
    Britain, Stephanie H. Murray points out in The Atlantic, is determined “to ask as little as possible of children,” imposing harsher restrictions on adults so that students can continue to go to school. “Even during the strictest portion of last year’s lockdown, when all pubs and restaurants were closed and sitting on a bench with someone you ran into at the park was illegal, in-person schooling remained available for vulnerable kids and children of essential workers,” she writes.

    Americans, by contrast, “have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults, often without acknowledging the dilemma or assessing which decisions lead to less overall harm,” The Times’s David Leonhardt writes.

    Lamentable.

    Well if their parents lose their jobs and homes because businesses are locked down then that won't be great for children either. They are opening in person school here on Monday after an extended break - but many business are still locked down. I personally don't agree with that.
    I mean the parents and teachers around here are never happy - they want the schools open, but also an online alternative for those who want it, and also a guarantee that their children won't get Covid.
    Covid is everywhere now if you want to guarantee that your children won't be exposed then you'd just have to keep them home. I mean do people have so little faith in the vaccines they are taking, and giving to their children, that they are panicking about school exposures? I don't get it. Your double vaxx'd kid is going to be fine.

    I agree with you that business closures are bad for everyone. However, the point of the article was more nuanced than that. The point was showing how different public policy makers distribute the weight of the bad impacts differently.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    COGypsy wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Was feeling really good yesterday so I decided to do my Zwift workout for my current 6 week training plan (FTP Builder). I'm already a week behind schedule for my event in May. It felt good and I felt good afterwards, but woke up this morning hacking up a lung and a headache that won't go away and my head feels full of snot again. My wife who had little to no symptoms also woke up feeling crummier than she has since we tested positive and has been in bed most of the morning and is taking a sick day rather than WFH day.

    This is also how I'm still feeling almost 3 weeks later. So much fatigue 😩 😪

    I tested positive at the end of October and the second week of December was the first week I didn’t need at least one solid 1-2 hour nap a day. Luckily I work from home so I had the flexibility to do that. The fatigue and body aches were unreal. Imagine how bad this could be for someone unvaccinated!

    I fortunately never had the body aches. The fatigue isn't too terribly bad but I don't get pretty worn down by the afternoon. Seems to be improving though. I think I overdid it with my training ride the other day...so I'll be curious as to when a good training ride isn't going to leave me blah the next day.