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My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

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Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#81

Post by makomk »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
loriverkutya wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be joking about Iran, based on pure math, it’s clear they are lying about the number.

Or, more likely: they don't actually know the real numbers. So you can treat what you do get from them as lower bounds, that's the bits they are sure about so they report them but events have possibly overtaken the authorities there to the point that their reporting is completely botched.

There's some evidence that the Iranian government knows the number of coronavirus deaths there is much higher than they're admitting to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-51673053 Of course, even just the official number of deaths implies that coronavirus is a lot more widespread there than their numbers say.

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#82

Post by garmaine »

seraphsf wrote: post #47
tejohnso wrote: post #42

> At this point, the hospital called the CDC requesting permission to perform the COVID-19 testing. The CDC denied the request on the ground that I did not have the most life-threatening symptoms Two questions: 1. Why would the hospital require permission to run a test? 2. Why would the CDC not want to test suspicious cases before severe symptoms present? From what I've read, the virus is contageous whether severe sy…

The core problem is that the CDC (and country) has had the capacity to test only a few hundred samples per day. Meaning, they don’t have the ability to test everyone with flu-like symptoms. Nobody thinks it’s right to NOT test every potential case. It just wasn’t possible. Good news: Just today, they released new rules that should increase testing capacity by 400x.

The CDC doesn't run the tests. The hospitals and independent labs do. There has been some issues with the test kits distributed by the CDC, but since the virus genome has been sequenced you don't actually need a test kit (it's just a faster process if you have one).

However the CDC has enacted emergency powers to make it illegal for hospitals to use their own testing equipment, which they have in-house, to test their own patients unless they first get CDC approval. And the CDC has ridiculously stringent requirements for approving these tests.

As a result, the only confirmed case of community-spread COVID-19 in the US is in Northern California, because the UC Davis hospital basically said "go fuck yourself" to the CDC and tested anyway.

This is not because COVID-19 is not spreading throughout the community--it is!--but rather because the CDC's stringent testing requirements prevent testing of any case that cannot be rationalized away as having been caught elsewhere. If you don't test for the virus, then you don't confirm the presence of the virus, so there is no virus, amirite?

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#83

Post by malandrew »

endorphone wrote: post #16
sschueller wrote: post #8

The Swiss government issued the following guidelines [1] to prevent further spread of the virus. Masks are considered useless unless you are infected. - Wash your hands thoroughly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcvvRp3lsY - Cough and sneeze into a paper tissue/handerchief or the crook of your arm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3_rFPtQgKE - If you experience shortness of breath, have a cough or fever: • Stay at…

Masks are considered useless unless you are infected. This is a bizarre claim that can be countered against the reality that every front-line worker is equipped with a mask. EDIT: Almost immediately I dropped to -2. Bizarre. Again, every health agency the world over equips health workers who deal with potential COVID-19 with N95+ masks. For some reason people desperately want to clutch onto the notion that it's usele…

One thing I'm wondering about is "useless in what sense?"

Will they prevent you from getting sick? Unlikely unless it is N95 or even N100 PPE

But I'm been wondering if they are not useless in terms of the speed at which the human body experiences a high viral load.

If only one virus particle gets through that should be enough to infect if it takes root and multiplies, but going from one virus to tons in your body takes times since they have to multiply.

Compare that with an infected person coughing right in your face. In this situation, potentially thousands of virus particles will infect you. In this situation, the viral load your body experiences will climb high quickly.

The faster the viral load climbs the less time your immune system has to be able to develop antibodies and learn to fight off the infection.

I imagine this is not too dissimilar from how vaccines work.

If this is the case, that might explain why Li Wenliang died at 34 years of age. Being at the center of it all, it's likely he was exposed to many more virus particles than the typical person. I imagine this would be enough to trigger a cytokine storm if the viral load got high fast enough.

Disclaimer, IANAE (i am not an epidemiologist), I'm just reasoning from first principles here.

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#84

Post by wmitty »

voidmain wrote: post #77
soared wrote: post #36

> This is a tough one. I'm an attending physician. > Guidelines are there for a reason. As much as I despise our Commander in Chief, I don't think the CDC is compromised. Fear doesn't rank over guidelines, but I understand the situation. No one wants to be the doctor that discharges patient zero. > Personally, I'd admit you for fever of unknown origin for the time being and monitor you for any signs of sepsis. If eve…

The guidelines for testing were so absurdly stringent because there was almost no testing capacity in the US, despite their being hundreds of labs with RTPCR equipment, because the CDC screwed up their test kits and the FDA used emergency powers to prohibit labs from developing their own tests, and forbids the creation of commercial test kits and the importation of foreign ones. Three weeks after CDC (after an alread…

Details from sciencemag.org (A magazine from the American academy for the advancement of science):

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/united-states-badly-...

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#85

Post by redwood »

dghughes wrote: post #62
76543210 wrote: post #15

So is there a way to prepare our bodies for getting sick? Me and my wife and our 8 month old live 40 hours a week in public, so it's going to happen. We already eat healthy, me and the wife workout. But the kid? Not sure how to prepare him.

I'd say you're doing the only thing a person can. You see many people speak of "boosting your immune system" but it's pure quackery. A person's immune system is many layers and types, a system, it's not a single thing that can be adjusted at will. The way I see my immune system is a 100 liter tank of water. You can't overfill it but it can be low. At most it can only be 100 liters. Your immune system can only be as g…

Get enough sleep.

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#86

Post by hutzlibu »

seraphsf wrote: post #47
tejohnso wrote: post #42

> At this point, the hospital called the CDC requesting permission to perform the COVID-19 testing. The CDC denied the request on the ground that I did not have the most life-threatening symptoms Two questions: 1. Why would the hospital require permission to run a test? 2. Why would the CDC not want to test suspicious cases before severe symptoms present? From what I've read, the virus is contageous whether severe sy…

The core problem is that the CDC (and country) has had the capacity to test only a few hundred samples per day. Meaning, they don’t have the ability to test everyone with flu-like symptoms. Nobody thinks it’s right to NOT test every potential case. It just wasn’t possible. Good news: Just today, they released new rules that should increase testing capacity by 400x.

"Good news: Just today, they released new rules that should increase testing capacity by 400x"

How can new rules increase testing capacity? All you can do, is adjust the rules to the existing capacities ...

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#87

Post by Keloo »

tyfon wrote: post #30
vanusa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masks are considered useless unless you are infected. That's not what the guidelines said. They guidelines were referring only to "hygienic masks" a.k.a. generic surgical masks: The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) does not recommend that people who are well wear hygienic masks (surgical masks). If you are in good health, they do not protect you effectively against an infection with respiratory viruses (i.e. se…

You can actually increase your odds of infection by different deceases by having a paper mask since they are often uncomfortable or fit poorly and people put their hands to the face to adjust them.

I've heard the opposite rationale. Having 'any' kind of mask decrease the number of times you touch your mouth or nose..

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#88

Post by dredmorbius »

101404 wrote: post #9
dredmorbius wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To a substantial extent, yes. UC Davis Medical Center statement on refusal of CDC to grant permissions to test suspected patient: https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/contenthub/novel-coro... "UC Davis Health does not control the testing process." Florida refusal to release testing data: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/02/27/flo... Note that Spring Break in the US, in which about 10 million colle…

> consume substances I find this kind of euphemism use really weird. "Substances"? Water is a "substance". A carpet is too. Why not just say what one is actually referring to?

You might care to insert "mind altering" before the phrase.

But as used, relatively common in standard English.

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#89

Post by prostheticvamp »

partiallypro wrote: post #70
soared wrote: post #36

> This is a tough one. I'm an attending physician. > Guidelines are there for a reason. As much as I despise our Commander in Chief, I don't think the CDC is compromised. Fear doesn't rank over guidelines, but I understand the situation. No one wants to be the doctor that discharges patient zero. > Personally, I'd admit you for fever of unknown origin for the time being and monitor you for any signs of sepsis. If eve…

Apparently some kits were recalled because they were flawed and there is a shortage as a result. So it is somewhat understandable that the CDC doesn't want to test just anyone with flu like symptoms.

During flu season.

That line is always left out of this: the CDC doesn’t want to test just anyone with cold and flu symptoms ... during flu season.

The false positives are basically guaranteed to absolutely swamp the true positives at this time, and demolish any attempt to target the sick.

Re: My Covid-19 Story in Brooklyn

#90

Post by [deleted] »

sschueller wrote: post #8

The Swiss government issued the following guidelines [1] to prevent further spread of the virus. Masks are considered useless unless you are infected. - Wash your hands thoroughly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcvvRp3lsY - Cough and sneeze into a paper tissue/handerchief or the crook of your arm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3_rFPtQgKE - If you experience shortness of breath, have a cough or fever: • Stay at…

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