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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

#281

Post by DoreenMichele »

newsclues wrote: post #249
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 can clean the nasal passage with hydrogen peroxide but it’s not a nice thing to do.

I have a form of cystic fibrosis. Nasal washes are routinely prescribed for the condition and my CF specialist gave me a recipe for a strong saline wash containing alcohol.

I have, in fact, used peroxide to wash my sinuses. The result was that, in addition to being tortured, my sinuses were stripped of mucus and I was now defenseless and more vulnerable to infection. It took a while for my sinuses to heal.

Medically recommended sinus washes are generally based on some kind of salt solution. I've tried at least three different variations over the years. Gentler is better because it is less of an assault on the body.

A xylitol-saline solution was the gentlest and most effective. Xylitol is a simple sugar known to kill infection. That worked far better for me than standard saline, strong saline or saline with alcohol added and it wasn't torture like the others.

I would strongly recommend against using peroxide on your nasal passages.

This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor. I'm just a factory reject with defective genes who has put lots of stuff up my nose over the years, sometimes out of desperation. So I have, in fact, put peroxide up my nose and my personal opinion is that it's a really bad thing to do as it hurts like a bitch and also leaves you defenseless.

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

#282

Post by tandymodel100 »

chana_masala wrote: post #210
tandymodel100 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The game plan should’ve been built around there non-compliance. That is correct, and that's why they proposed the OSHA rule for mandating vaccinations after months of incentives. I think some % of non-compliance is understandable, but the remaining unvaccinated seem to be doing it for political reasons over anything else. > As far as lockdowns are concerned, we have had the mass shutdown of in person school and wor…

I am in the US and schools are still doing "distance" learning and restaurants are not allowed at full capacity.

I don't know any school districts that have permanently been doing distance learning (though some, stupidly, are doing another round of it because of the omicron surge) and I have not heard of any restaurant capacity restrictions in my very blue, COVID conscious city.

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

#283

Post by tandymodel100 »

claytongulick wrote: post #140
tandymodel100 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all honesty I don't want people uneducated or conspiracy-minded enough to not take the vaccine treating me anyway even in a shortage situation.

You don't want people who have medical degrees and are experts in their field treating you? Because you have a better understanding of this than they do? That seems like a strange position to take. I would take a different position, like "what do these highly qualified health care workers understand that I don't?"

> Because you have a better understanding of this than they do?

I think that the vast majority of doctors that have taken the vaccine to protect themselves are probably smarter than the tiny minority that have refused, yes.

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

#284

Post by nradov »

Aerroon wrote: post #228
juskrey wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After years of self-observations I have a petty theory that, in addition to outside infections, we always have a zoo of cold viruses inside, and different factors trigger them from time to time. I am quite surprised this is never discussed and mentioned by scientific community. BTW for some other viruses this is well documented and acknowledged, but with cold/flu/covid we seem to suffer worldwide scientific amnesia.

I thought this is how viruses operated in general. If somebody gets infected by herpes they basically have it for life. It only rarely flares up, but it's clearly still there. I figured this applied to all/most viruses because of the way viruses reproduce. The immune system just takes care of them and prevents the viral load from increasing. Is that not the case?

That is not always the case. Only certain types of viruses such as herpes viruses remain dormant in the patient's body. Most respiratory viruses are completely cleared out within a few weeks, assuming the patient survives and has a functioning immune system.

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

#285

Post by chana_masala »

tandymodel100 wrote: post #282
chana_masala wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in the US and schools are still doing "distance" learning and restaurants are not allowed at full capacity.

I don't know any school districts that have permanently been doing distance learning (though some, stupidly, are doing another round of it because of the omicron surge) and I have not heard of any restaurant capacity restrictions in my very blue, COVID conscious city.

Well, where I am things are still quite restrictive

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

#286

Post by zzzeek »

claytongulick wrote: post #140
tandymodel100 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all honesty I don't want people uneducated or conspiracy-minded enough to not take the vaccine treating me anyway even in a shortage situation.

You don't want people who have medical degrees and are experts in their field treating you? Because you have a better understanding of this than they do? That seems like a strange position to take. I would take a different position, like "what do these highly qualified health care workers understand that I don't?"

It seems like you don't have that much experience with real world doctors. Lots of highly educated doctors become complete crackpots who you'd not want to be putting a band-aid on you. Dr. Oz is one such very high profile example (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz#Reception) but there's lots more. I've had experiences with much less famous doctors that got all the proper education but then later lost their minds and/or decided to just make as much cash as possible. Really really common. I have trust in the field of medicine but in specific doctors just because they have their medical degree? no way.

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

#287

Post by enchiridion »

Spooky23 wrote: post #108
enchiridion wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about scale up the hospitals, or at least covid capacity in a meaningful way. How long does they public have to bear burden of insufficient health infra. EDIT: Sorry that might have come off a bit blunt. But the entire pandemic response has been frustratingly insufficient in my opinion. A variant like Omicron was long predicted and expected. How are we not prepared with a plan to end lockdowns? And blaming unvacc…

The US is a public health failure. We didn’t want “socialized” medicine. So we got what we wanted, the best nurses are making $300/hr in COVID hotspots and leaving new grads and understaffed facilities in their wake.

This is not a productive viewpoint, it’s defeatist.

How would socialized medicine help in this specific case? More power to the government? The government already has plenty of power to influence outcomes through spending. However, that power has been applied poorly.

We need mass repeal of old government regulations and the appointing of technocrats (as in people concerned with low level details of regulations). Additionally we need new highly adversarial independent regulatory bodies to prevent capitalistic interests from causing market collapse.

The current agencies are too in bed with industry, and it’s not beneficial to the public.

Giving more power to the current government systems which rolled out this poor response seems like the wrong answer.

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

#288

Post by Spooky23 »

TMWNN wrote: post #150
Spooky23 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is a public health failure. We didn’t want “socialized” medicine. So we got what we wanted, the best nurses are making $300/hr in COVID hotspots and leaving new grads and understaffed facilities in their wake.

Feel free to name the country that isn't experiencing the exact same issues regarding COVID hotspots and understaffed facilities, "socialized medicine" or not.

Japan, Israel, South Korea, New Zealand come to mind. Honestly, it’s not very hard… the US went from the respected world leader to a public health carnival sideshow overnight.

CDC is taking cues from places like South Africa and Israel now. It’s pathetic.

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

#289

Post by Spooky23 »

trentnix wrote: post #116
Spooky23 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s pretty simple. They are more likely to get sick and more likely to infect those whose care they are entrusted with. There’s a long history of this type of sanction. If you are a provider or nurse in a hospital who fails to get a measles, hepatitis, or rabies (after exposure) shot, you’ll be terminated for cause in many places. The reason why recovery doesn’t “count” the same as vaccination is that immunity doesn…

> It’s pretty simple. They are more likely to get sick and more likely to infect those whose care they are entrusted with. In a vacuum, that makes sense. But in the midst of genuine shortage of healthcare professionals, it's myopic foolishness. And I'd guess your comment about the lasting effect of actual recovery is going to turn out to be very wrong and already contradicts most everything I've seen recently regardi…

Israel issues vaccination credentials to recovered COVID patients with 1 Pfizer dose. There’s a lot of data from there about this topic.

Initially, those folks are “super immune”, but it fades much quicker than expected last summer. Around November data started indicating that those individuals were much more likely (10x iirc) to contract COVID than a person fully vaccinated in the same timeframe.

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

#290

Post by jhugo »

tinus_hn wrote: post #280
tjpnz wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issues they're not able to deal with tend to be slow burners. You might get a week to plan an evacuation or supply drop for a cancer patient. But with Covid Pneumonia not so much.

So what would a mainland hospital be able to do what they can’t do? Using what supplies they can’t get in advance?

That's a great question. I wonder if they took a belt-and-braces approach — as well as all the quarantining and testing, bring along some remdesivir/molnupiravir/ritonavir/etc, monoclonal antibodies and so on, just in case you get really really unlucky and one of the (presumably quite fit and healthy) people ends up with a severe case.
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