Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #50

[Tippy Lynn]

I've come to realize that nobody knows what the COVID-19 virus likes or dislikes. Whatever is said today is subject to change tomorrow. I wouldn't rely on 99% of the information being presented on any given day. My best advise would be to use your best judgement and to look out for yourself and your family.

jmo

 

[Inthedetails]

Regarding the stimulus money to individuals:

"...100 million Americans who haven’t recently filed returns — including pensioners, retirees and veterans — could wait up to five months to see a paper check, the IRS estimates."

https://nypost.com/2020/04/23/second-wave-of-stimulus-checks-could-take-up-to-20-weeks-to-arrive/

 

[TMAN2014]

So, at the press conference, it was stated that the virus hates light, humidity, heat, etc.

So, maybe we will have a good summer at the beaches?

 

[musicaljoke]

From your post

"Nearly half of those that have died in Canada from Covid-19 are linked to residents in long-term care centers throughout the country. In Ontario, where there are well over 100 senior residences with outbreaks, more than 70% of those who have died of the virus are residents of care centers.

“We’re seeing terrible tragedies in long-term care facilities across the country, this is unacceptable. If you’re angry, frustrated, scared, you’re right to feel this way, we can do better, we need to do better. Because we are failing our parents, our grandparents, our elders, the greatest generation who built this country,” Trudeau said.

[...]

So Canada is similar to Europe also? Will it be the same for the US deaths too?

Possibly half the deaths in care homes?

This is terrible news and could have been prevented with PPE surely?

I can't imagine how having soldiers tromping around the seniors homes is going to help keep CoV19 from spreading. Are they planning to stand guard at the doors? Seniors homes have been closed to visitors since back in March, and some even earlier when the flu was going around. Does anyone have any ideas what the soldiers will do? I hope their presence doesn't terrify the residents.

 

[Inthedetails]

I can't imagine how having soldiers tromping around the seniors homes is going to help keep CoV19 from spreading. Are they planning to stand guard at the doors? Seniors homes have been closed to visitors since back in March, and some even earlier when the flu was going around. Does anyone have any ideas what the soldiers will do? I hope their presence doesn't terrify the residents.

IDK, but my guess is they could provide nursing care so each current nurse or aid doesn't have as many patients, thus reducing chance of spread?

I'm assuming the military will not be wearing fatigues and will make efforts not to be scary. My sister was a nurse in the Air Force and she wore a regular nurse's uniform. She wasn't terrifying.

jmo

 

[tresir2012]

This is going to be simplistic. When you SCUBA dive, the pressure on your body increases every 33 1/3 feet of depth. This is one Atmosphere.

The deeper you go, the more pressure on your body, and the slower your blood gasses are off-gassed. The gasses stay in your blood longer. That's why SCUBA divers can only go so deep, and for so long. You will be poisoned by nitrogen if you don't follow the rules.

A hyperbaric chamber mimics this effect. It acts as if you are going deep into the ocean, putting pressure on your body. You can't feel it. This keeps blood gasses in your body longer ~ in this case, beneficial oxygen is forced into your tissues. It is used for wound healing, co2 poisoning, and decompression sickness.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few chambers in the US.

Ok so sounds like the opposite of the old iron lung machines then. I think they reduce the pressure on the body.

 

[ilovewings]

l

So, at the press conference, it was stated that the virus hates light, humidity, heat, etc.

So, maybe we will have a good summer at the beaches?

Gotta tell ya--it has been 95 almost every day here in Southwest Florida for 3 weeks, along with lots of sun and humidity and those elements have not stopped or slowed down the virus

 

[CSIDreamer]

INDIANAPOLIS —

Indiana officials announced Thursday that the state will be one of the first to start testing people at random for COVID-19.

Officials said the new study of random samples will provide a greater understanding of the true spread, and will in turn, help make better decisions about the state's response.

Indiana now selecting Hoosiers at random for COVID-19 testing

 

[tresir2012]

I can't imagine how having soldiers tromping around the seniors homes is going to help keep CoV19 from spreading. Are they planning to stand guard at the doors? Seniors homes have been closed to visitors since back in March, and some even earlier when the flu was going around. Does anyone have any ideas what the soldiers will do? I hope their presence doesn't terrify the residents.

I wonder if they will be Army medics? Also, the closing of the homes in early March makes me wonder if they knew CV19 was in the homes then. We thought they were stopping infections getting in but perhaps it was the opposite, knowing what we know now.

I think the residents will love having the military looking after them.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

RSBM ER doctor shares what he learned at a New York hospital... Dr. Richard Levitan,...volunteered at Bellevue Hospital in New York City for 10 days last month....told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King that people could potentially detect coronavirus earlier by checking their oxygen levels at home with pulse oximeters.

(see video at the link for details)

[...]

House will vote today on $484 billion coronavirus relief package
House lawmakers will meet on Thursday to vote on a $484 billion interim coronavirus relief package. The legislation, known as the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, is the product of weeks of negotiations between congressional Democrats and the White House.

[...]

Read more here.

70% of residents at Chicago nursing home test positive for COVID-19
A total of 111 residents at the Symphony of South Shore nursing home in Chicago have tested positive for COVID-19, out of 158 altogether, CBS Chicago reports. Ten residents have died.

A representative of the facility said an aggressive isolation procedure is currently in place.

[...]

FDNY firefighter's 5-month-old daughter has died from coronavirus
A New York City firefighter's 5-month-old daughter has died due to coronavirus complications, according to the president of the FDNY Hispanic Society.

[...]

Read more here.

A surge of supplies and staff will be sent to nursing homes in NYC, mayor says
[...]

De Blasio said the city already sends almost 10 million pieces of personal protective equipment, including N95 and surgical masks, and gowns and gloves – to 169 facilities every week. Weekly shipments will now increase by at least 50%.

The mayor also said the city has sent 210 clinical staff volunteers to 40 nursing homes and will double that amount going forward.

EU: Malaria drugs used for coronavirus could cause side effects
[...]

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have long been used to treat malaria and anti-inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. In addition to the heart problems, the two drugs can also cause side effects including liver and kidney damage, seizures, and result in low blood sugar.

"Clinical data are still very limited and inconclusive, and the beneficial effects of these medicines in COVID-19 have not been demonstrated," the EMA said. It noted that several clinical trials testing the drugs' effectiveness against the coronavirus are using higher than recommended doses, which it said could increase the risk of side effects including abnormal electric activity that could disrupt the heart rhythm.

[...]

Coronavirus "shouldn't be a death sentence" for inmates, film producer says
Film producer Scott Budnick said that in the 15 years he's volunteered inside prisons, he's consistently seen illness like the flu "spread like wildfire," and that more needs to be done to mobilize early releases during the coronavirus pandemic.

[...]

Budnick said he frequently receives calls from inmates he has known for years through volunteering. "They are terrified not just for themselves, but really for their families, for their friends and for their communities," he said.

Thousands of "Dreamers" are health care workers – but fear they could face deportation
[...]

Espinoza de Piña, 26, is registered nurse who has been working on the neuro floor of SSM Health in the St. Louis, Missouri, area for three years. She mainly works with stroke and seizure patients, but since the coronavirus outbreak began she has been rotating on the isolation floor tending to COVID-19 patients.

Her health isn't her only worry. The Supreme Court is expected to decide sometime in the next few weeks — by June at the latest — whether to end the DACA program, created by the Obama administration in 2012, which allows undocumented "Dreamers" like her to study and work without the constant fear of having immigration officers turning up at their doors.

[...]

Read more here.

Large-scale trial of potential vaccine kicks off at Oxford
[...]

Professor Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford team behind the potential vaccine being developed in partnership with the Jenner Institute, said it has an "80% chance" of success and could be available for wide use by the public as soon as September.

Human trials of the vaccine began Thursday in Oxford. It will be administered to 510 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55.

Read more here.

Coronavirus updates: 4.4 million more Americans just filed jobless claims

And thanks to this thread and Dr. Campbell, I got my pulse oximeter in early February, and check it two times a day just to get a feeling of what my "Normal" is.

 

[Inthedetails]

l


Gotta tell ya--it has been 95 almost every day here in Southeast Florida for 3 weeks, along with lots of sun and humidity and those elements have not stopped or slowed down the virus

New Orleans too. But maybe it's a fine line - if it's too hot and humid, people stay inside and turn on the a/c.

jmo

 

[Tippy Lynn]

So, at the press conference, it was stated that the virus hates light, humidity, heat, etc.

So, maybe we will have a good summer at the beaches?

Australia and Iran are experiencing rapid virus spread and they are currently in summer climates.

 

[JaneEyre]

And thanks to this thread and Dr. Campbell, I got my pulse oximeter in early February, and check it two times a day just to get a feeling of what my "Normal" is.

I wish I had gotten one before the prices doubled.

 

[TMAN2014]

l


Gotta tell ya--it has been 95 almost every day here in Southeast Florida for 3 weeks, along with lots of sun and humidity and those elements have not stopped or slowed down the virus

Well, we only hear gloom and doom. What if this thing does go away quickly? Anything is possible. I haven't heard much about Africa, where it is hot and humid.

 

[10ofRods]

That veteran one was not a proper study, no placebo group and no peer review. I was asking for other completed studies beside that one if you know of any. I know there are several still ongoing but would like to see the ones you mention.

Most doctors consider giving placebos to very ill patients unethical and immoral. So, you will either have to accept these various closed-cohort retrospective studies or wait some nation decides to undertake this. HC has already been tested in completely non-sick people, but the study you are asking for would require everyone in the study to be equally sick (which is what happened in the Veterans study, more or less). Even better, would be good to take some mildly symptomatic people and put them in the study (with symptomology - this takes combing through medical records, often done by medical students and grad students - who are currently not permitted into CoVid heavy environments right now). Photocopying all those records is not a use a resources that most hospitals can sanction right now.

So, the only studies we have are of "CoVid patients" (sick) and no placebo group (CoVid patients - sick - given NOTHING." Doctors simply cannot "give nothing" to sick people in a pandemic to see if they die.

Have you listened to the podcast on the Guardian? It would help you understand the problems with HC. Here are some other studies, but again, no one is just testing CoVid patients who are sick and then putting them in a hospital bed and doing nothing other than watch them (and give them a known placebo, such as a sugar pill). Since the mechanism of this virus is better understood today than 10 days ago, it's unlikely you'll see many HC studies (as it is associated with more deaths and not fewer in the study we're discussing). That's not a positive indicator. People who got merely antibiotics did better. See the problem?

HC + Zinc seems to be doing better than HC + Zpac, but still not great.

BTW, since HC may actually be harmful, it would be interesting to back and back out all HC patients from every hospital study and see the stats. That'll get done and if it turns out that HC was actually upping mortality rates, then it's really been a bad idea for someone with a bully pulpit to tell people to take it.

The NIH says the data from all the studies that are published says there's neither data for OR against HC.

Therapeutic Options Under Investigation | Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

So rather than ask for the individual studies (all of which will have the problem you're pointing out), why not just go with what the experts say? If doctors do elect to prescribe HC, they need to monitor for specific heart problems, as that side effect seems to be significantly negative for CoVid patients (it's predictive of an increased risk of heart attack).

If there were *any* studies that gave HC a positive outcome, then perhaps the heart issues would simply mean that some patients couldn't take it, but the rest could

However, the NIH review of the literature shows absolutely no evidence that HC works, and the VA study shows that it might actually encourage a more severe course.

There is, however, a pharmaceutical company that has received FDA permission to conduct a test with placebos. The design calls for the patients to be pulled out of the placebo test if they worsen or if a doctor for any reason thinks they need something else. There's nothing in the design that would prevent, for example, those placebo patients from getting plasma. All patients will receive "standard of care," which means they may actually get some other drug in addition. This will take the placebo patients out of the placebo group, of course, and if the HC group and the HC+Z group also gets some other drug, they'll be out of the study as well.

In one study, ALL of the placebo patients were removed from the placebo group, so we shall have to see how this study goes.

Here are some links to studies about HC:

No Hydroxychloroquine Benefit in Randomized COVID-19 Trial

This is a 150 patient study where the non HC patients simply received basic standard of care (SoC). There was no difference in quality of symptoms, except that the HC group had a 10% chance of an added symptom that none of the non-HC group had (diarrhea). Two patients in the HC group progressed to more serious symptoms while that was not true of the non-HC group.

For the study where they had to stop the HC because of side effects, etc, see here:

Coronavirus drug chloroquine – touted by Trump – has test halted

The last study, while without placebo groups, was double blind (nurses and attendings did not know which patients were getting HC, but as they had to treat more symptoms, the researchers had to reveal that fact and in all cases, the attending doctor d/c'ed the HC).

The heart issues with HC are now well-documented and alarming enough to some doctors, that they recommend against it:

French officials report heart incidents in experimental coronavirus treatments with hydroxychloroquine

There were no studies of comatose, ventilated patients who all of a sudden started receiving HC on their last day of life. At least, I can't find any and naturally, those would be of little therapeutic or scientific value unless the patient made a miraculous recovery, which would likely be reported in Lancet and JAMA as anecdotal.

It's of interest that among the many trial drugs out there, physicians at university hospitals conducting such studies aren't studying HC. The one big study is sponsored by a big pharma company. Given that stark divide in research motivation, I don't think you'll see any large scale studies about HC except that one, in the near future.

The Zinc + HC guy in Los Angeles is facing federal charges regarding his claims.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I wonder if they will be Army medics? Also, the closing of the homes in early March makes me wonder if they knew CV19 was in the homes then. We thought they were stopping infections getting in but perhaps it was the opposite, knowing what we know now.

I'm utterly convinced it travels through the heating/cooling system. My mother lives in an apartment building for senior citizens and disabled. It hasn't leveled them and I dont know why. I've seen them ignore mask and social distancing rules. A bit hard to social distance / mask up when a lot of them have hearing issues. I'm convinced it's because they all have their own heating/cooling units in their apartments. Jmo

 

[JaneEyre]

Australia and Iran are experiencing rapid virus spread and they are currently in summer climates.

I thought Australia was moving into fall right now. It’s not the dead of summer, anyway, from what I remember an Aussie posting.

ETA From my google search, actually, it says it is autumn March-May.

 

[pocketaccent]

l


Gotta tell ya--it has been 95 almost every day here in Southeast Florida for 3 weeks, along with lots of sun and humidity and those elements have not stopped or slowed down the virus

Maybe because everybody is hunkered down inside the air conditioned, cold, dry space?

 

[Tillicum]

I can't imagine how having soldiers tromping around the seniors homes is going to help keep CoV19 from spreading. Are they planning to stand guard at the doors? Seniors homes have been closed to visitors since back in March, and some even earlier when the flu was going around. Does anyone have any ideas what the soldiers will do? I hope their presence doesn't terrify the residents.

I can't remember which state now but the National Guard went in and disinfected the nursing homes. Anyone else remember that?

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Chatted with a friend today. With time on her hands during lockdown, she contacted a local volunteer organization (the kind that is like a clearinghouse, that matches volunteers with projects depending on their skills, interest, location, etc.).

They told her they were no longer accepting volunteers over the age of 50 as they are in a vulnerable group for Covid.

Cannot imagine why tracing and tracking people would be rejected for age...............