Topic: Coronavirus outbreak

@JaxonH I apologize. I misunderstood one of your comments. I should have gone back and read the whole conversation.

And goodness, is there evidence of multiple strains already emerging? I hadn't heard much about that yet.

Haha I can't believe this thread is still this sweaty; looks like poor JaxonH is being overrun attempting to converse. Can't imagine that happening to anyone else though, sane heads prevailing and all that.

Now what could be worse than a viral pandemic, nothing right? Roll tomorrow's news.

Approx. 30 million people will have died worldwide during 2020. About 500k of those will have been Covid deaths. If we all started emoting about human lives every time somebody died we'd never do anything. We'd just be stood with heads bowed in respectful silence for the fallen... all the frickin time, just permanently mourning while we waited for our own deaths.

Hundreds of people have probably died while I've been making this post. Let's all pause for the loss of human life please.

Thank you. Now while we've been pausing for those we have lost while I've been writing this post, another 30 people have died around the world, so let's pause again please.

Yes, I'm being facetious. I do that. But the reason so many people are seemingly content to go on with their lives as normal with little heed for the Covid risk is because not everyone wants to spend their lives living in fear of their demise. Worrying about death may or may not extend your life. But wouldn't most people agree that living in worry is less preferable to living care-free?

I get that Covid represents something new and unpredictable, which naturally makes it a bit more frightening, but it's still a small fraction of all the death we have to live amongst day-in, day-out. We haven't got time to think about those human lives lost to Covid because there's so many more human lives lost to other things, plus we'd actually like to have a little time to enjoy our own lives before we shuffle off too.

We focus on the numbers to keep things in perspective; to sensibly think about how to manage this new situation.

Well since you asked there's new cases of the black death popping up now. I personally blame you for tempting fate.

@Heavyarms55
Ya, misunderstanding, no worries,

@NEStalgia
I get what you’re saying. Totally.

There’s definitely a healthy emphasis on the death statistic because that is what people care about most. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing else to worry about. But again, shades of grey. Caring more about dying doesn’t mean people don’t care at all about anything else. It’s not mutually exclusive. But the level of worry for anything else is going to be less. And rightfully so. Once you die, that’s it. Your life is finished. Fear of the unknown is a powerful driver. Most people try not to think about it because there’s nothing they can do to change it anyways (though there is something people can do to secure what happens to them afterwards). But when you put a person face-to-face with their mortality, that’s a sure fire way to get their attention. Don’t blame people for that- that’s natural.

Also, felt like a 1/10 fever last night, only briefly before going to bed. Not even a fever, but the feeling you get from a fever in your head, but way less intense and no hotness to touch. Very similar to the onset of symptoms I first noticed. Could just be I was tired though. Still closely monitoring and documenting.

I’ve heard immunity is not guaranteed. Or rather, they just don’t know yet. Logic would dictate people would get immunity but, if it’s changing then who can say. You would think by now they would have more published information about it.

Tried to help but it doesn't work at all.

Well, at least I got it to show the whole address.

That report says about 1 in 3 are Asymptomatic. 1 in 3! That’s crazy.

It showed we’re nowhere near herd immunity right now. That’s not to say it won’t happen eventually. But it would require a much higher toll on all of us before getting there (not that we’ll likely end up with a choice in the matter- we fend it off the best we can but, eventually we may just get there, but at that point the vast majority will have been exposed anyways).

This kind of data is great. Need more of this. The power of statistics is amazing.

@JaxonH Yeah, it's amazing that they esimate that 10x more people likely have covid un-diagnosed.

"Coronavirus may have infected 10 times more Americans than reported, CDC says"
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-cas...

Yeah it's entirely possible that quite a few of us got infected at some point in the last few months.

And didn't notice.

@Eel
and for those people its like it can come and leave the body at anytime.
i think about that a lot.
theres several people where i work that have been "sick" for weeks. they wont say why they arent coming to work...
yall stay safe

Got a bit of a cough, a brief spell or two yesterday. It wasn’t that bad. The urge to cough was just barely over the threshold to the point I did actually in fact cough. And it only lasted a few minutes, and that little spell only hit me like two different times throughout the day.

That was on day 8, you’re feeling basically fine for several days beforehand. The lines up with the chart that says people typically develop a cough around day 8 (and the more serious ones need a ventilator). Seems to be gone today though.

All I need to know about COVID is that my wife's grandmother died from it and that my little girl has had her backpack packed for kindergarten for three years and now I have to break her heart and tell her she can't go. Just grow up and wear a mask. It's not that difficult.

@heavyarms55 So, how are schools doing over there in japan? I'm guessing ok, because japan managed it's outbreak.

I have no idea how schools can open in the US where the virus isn't contained. Opening schools will take massive loads of money, cleaning crews, actually adequate testing, partitions everywhere, temperature screenings, hand sanitizer dispensers, masks (obviously). We already see huge reluctance to pay for adequate testing. So, I don't see how opening schools can be done realistically without incredibly large costs.

My high school typically had 28-32 kids per class room, which is a room full. Most desks cannot be distanced. About 600 students per grade.

I know you have plenty to say about the US handling the virus, and I totally agree with it(so we can skip that). I'm mainly curious how schools are doing over there in japan. Or if you're aware of how schools can be open during an outbreak.

@WoomyNNYes Japan has handled the virus because Japanese culture already discouraged handshaking, hugs and contact beyond family and close friends and no one really bats an eyelash at wearing masks. However the numbers here are likely considerably higher than reported due to limited testing. Not out of control, but higher.

Schools are enforcing masks, educating kids and families and all schools have on duty nurses who got special training on how to watch for symptoms of the virus. Buy children cannot handle social distancing. I don't care how strict you are, you put 25-35 kids in a room and they are gonna play, touch, take masks off, etc etc.

The US opening schools despite knowing, for sure, that there have been millions of cases is insanity.

Japan has dodged the bullet so far. But the minute there is a confirmed outbreak in a school, someone is gonna "have to" "resign" publicly.

@JaxonH How ya doin, buddy?

@Heavyarms55 The problem is in the US, schools are little more than a publicly funded daycare system of an effectively enforced 2 parent (or single parent) working model where nobody raises their kids, the government raises their kids and charges everyone for it. So for business and therefore parents to work, the "public daycare" needs to be open. Thus to keep anything functioning they need to just open the schools and whoever survives, survives.

I suppose it's consistent with US policy on everything. Survival of the fittest, the slow are left to die.

Though I do propose that we rename them from "school" to "sample" - so the children from Sample A, Sample B, Sample C etc, so as we operate the large brick incubators we can tag the test subjects appropriately. I can already imagine the kids ripping masks off other kids, stomping them on the floor, rubbing them on each other's faces to torment the kids following the rules. Kids suck everywhere, but kids of parents that have taught them that rules are for losers and defiance is freedom should be used for biofuel before their tenth birthday.

I also can't imagine the magical thinking in the US that says "the following states have controlled the outbreak and are safe while the rest of the country is in free fall." if it's not safe elsewhere....how long does it stay safe in the "safe" places? It's as though they don't remember how it superspread in Feb and Mar from single events to a dozen states......

I'm in east Tennessee, with my kids about to start third grade and kindergarten. The day after the school district released their safety protocols, parents started a petition to not have any changes in place whatsoever or they would pull their kids out. They want no distancing, no masks, nothing. They just want their kids out of their hair for eight hours. I'm so glad they are providing an online option.

And today our community is having the single largest public gathering in the world (I believe) since all of this started: the NASCAR race at Bristol with 30,000 in attendance. But it's okay because the Speedway holds over 120,000, so they don't have to sit near each other! This is going to be a disaster that will assuredly result in a multitude of deaths, but no one cares because "FREEDOM!" America sucks.

Apparently the CDC is no longer going to be keeping track of Covid-19 numbers as the White House has/is setting up an in-house operation that will be doing so instead (apparently Trump wants hospitals to report their data to his administration's team rather than the CDC, so the official case count will be up to his administration).

That... Can't be good.

@RR529 What are talking about? That's amazing. That means starting tomorrow (or whenever this goes into effect), coronavirus will have been eliminated in America! All those sick and dead people are clearly the result of something Trump and his cronies don't think is overblown. Maybe carpal tunnel or SIDS.

@Ralizah
Doing great, thanks for asking.

However, another person in my lab tested positive. Theres only 5 of us total in here, and that makes 3 who've contracted it.

He said oh well, may as well just get it over with. Cant say I blame him. On the bright side, our lab will basically be immune after this 😀