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Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

brusselstimes.com

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Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#211

Post by nradov »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #168
jackson1442 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the strict health measures are the quarantines and consequences of testing. what happens if someone tests positive?

Seriously not impressed. Just spitballing here but to me strict health measures would be something like: 1. Here is the antiviral prophylactic we expect you to take starting X days before you depart and continuing until X days after you arrive. 2. Here is the shower at the entrance to the base that you must use before entering the base proper. 3. Here are the OTC meds or other protocols we expect to keep coughs and s…

You've got to be kidding. Effective antiviral drugs aren't at all benign; it would be completely unethical to administer them on a prophylactic basis to healthy patients who don't even have a confirmed exposure. There is no reliable evidence that showers are effective for controlling respiratory viruses. OTC cough suppressants are nearly useless, barely better than placebos.

https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/otc-meds

Seriously those are almost all bad or pointless suggestions reflecting a lack of relevant medical knowledge.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#212

Post by amyjess »

anamax wrote: post #112
WalterBright wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've all got pneumonia in our lungs, which gain ascendancy when the body becomes weakened. It's been historically dubbed the "Old Man's Friend" because it would peacefully carry off someone who was suffering under some other terminal illness.

As someone who has had pneumonia, it's not an "Old Man's Friend". There's nothing "peaceful" about pneumonia. It's a very frightening strangling feeling. The only thing "peaceful" about it is that you don't have the energy express the horror.

A now-former coworker of mine had walking pneumonia in 2019. He didn't know it was pneumonia until he eventually went to the hospital, but he had been suffering from severe unexplained back pain for days. It wasn't pleasant, and he went to the hospital because his back pain was so bad he was barely able to function.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#213

Post by tinus_hn »

jhugo wrote: post #81
akomtu wrote: post #39

What's going to happen if they simply do nothing? Basically, if they treat it like flu?

Most likely nothing serious, but given their remote location, if they get unlucky and even one person needs hospital treatment beyond what's possible at the base, that's a big problem.

Just like when any other issue arises that requires hospitalization.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#214

Post by [deleted] »

nradov wrote: post #211
DoreenMichele wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously not impressed. Just spitballing here but to me strict health measures would be something like: 1. Here is the antiviral prophylactic we expect you to take starting X days before you depart and continuing until X days after you arrive. 2. Here is the shower at the entrance to the base that you must use before entering the base proper. 3. Here are the OTC meds or other protocols we expect to keep coughs and s…

You've got to be kidding. Effective antiviral drugs aren't at all benign; it would be completely unethical to administer them on a prophylactic basis to healthy patients who don't even have a confirmed exposure. There is no reliable evidence that showers are effective for controlling respiratory viruses. OTC cough suppressants are nearly useless, barely better than placebos. https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/otc-med…

[deleted]

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#215

Post by chana_masala »

kuraudo wrote: post #60
anonygler wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you’re elderly or have health issues, Covid fatality rate was already very, very low. Therapeutics make that even better.

That's complete nonsense. If covid wasn't as deadly as we have been reliably informed, then they would not be forcing us to go through these otherwise-draconian and insane mandates or lockdowns.

> then they would not be forcing us to go through these otherwise-draconian and insane mandates or lockdowns.

Your faith in the government acting benevolently is surprising. There is the phrase "never let a good crisis go to waste"

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#216

Post by chana_masala »

belltaco wrote: post #169
normalaccess wrote: post #165

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a false positive due to the CDC is now recommending against PCR tests as they can’t tell between corona or the flu. I hate to say it but I think some of the people who were saying the numbers were wrong might be right, we might have been counting the flu this whole time along with the coronavirus. https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert...

Please, not this misinformation and fake news on HN too. There's enough of it on Facebook and right wing circles.

How? That's what the linked CDC page says.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#217

Post by tinus_hn »

anm89 wrote: post #147
machinelearning wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel like you have to qualify your comment by disclosing your vaccination status? Surely that shouldn’t dictate whether you’re allowed to express your thoughts on a subject or the factual accuracy of your statements.

Because people like to group everyone in to camps so if I say anything remotely dismissive of an official covid narrative, I'm probably just some anti science, anti vaxxer, whose opinion isn't worth listening too (according to them). So at a minimum, dismiss me if you want, but not because I'm in the evil other camp, because I'm not.

Or perhaps because people should not be divided into the two extremes of antivax conspiracy theorists and infinite lockdown aficionados.

That’s just a convenient fallacy to dismiss criticism.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#218

Post by tinus_hn »

kuraudo wrote: post #60
anonygler wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you’re elderly or have health issues, Covid fatality rate was already very, very low. Therapeutics make that even better.

That's complete nonsense. If covid wasn't as deadly as we have been reliably informed, then they would not be forcing us to go through these otherwise-draconian and insane mandates or lockdowns.

So how deadly do you think COVID is?

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#219

Post by tinus_hn »

normalaccess wrote: post #165

I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a false positive due to the CDC is now recommending against PCR tests as they can’t tell between corona or the flu. I hate to say it but I think some of the people who were saying the numbers were wrong might be right, we might have been counting the flu this whole time along with the coronavirus. https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/07-21-2021-lab-alert...

That’s not what it says, it says they want to do a new test that can detect both and differentiate between the two.

The cynical take would be that that would mean they can order quarantines for the flu as well, of course.

Re: Belgian scientific base in Antarctica engulfed by Covid despite strict measures

#220

Post by kjaftaedi »

petercooper wrote: post #25

Viruses are interesting things. I once enjoyed a case study about an outbreak of common cold on an Antarctic base that only happened after 17 weeks of isolation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2130424/ (I'm no virologist but given that the common cold didn't seem to be impacted by the severe lockdowns in the UK at all, whereas flu was, I've gotten the - uneducated - feeling the cold is a bit like some S…

Or more likely the common thread here is Antarctica and the fact that not everything dies when it freezes.
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