n95 dust masks

[flowerbug]

I have been tagging along on the genetic tracking for covid as they keep announcing the genetic evolutions from dna bits they identify. I read yesterday they found dog dna. So a dog ate a bat basically. Then there are the bits from the different populations of humans, found at different times on different continents. When the final chapter are done it will be an interesting tale to read.

i'm sure there will be a lot of science done on this, but i wouldn't believe much of the popular press articles right now. too many of them have been speculation and not really reports of peer reviewed research.

 

[flowerbug]

This antibody test to see if you have been exposed and immune, how does this work? If you had the measles in the past or were vaccinated then blood work will show you are immune, but if you had influenza A last year or a few months ago, would there be antibodies in your blood? Now they are saying that they are finding no antibodies in survivors, so isn't that to be expected or in your blood you have antibodies to the Hong Kong Flu, the Swine Flu, influenza A, influenza B, if you had those in the past?

when i read "that they are finding no antibodies in survivors" without a cite of an article this doesn't really reflect what i've been reading. when testing people who've had the disease to see if they are over it they are testing for viruses being given off in various ways (or perhaps even still circulating in the blood) - this is different from detecting antibodies to the virus.

 

[flowerbug]

We were all sick in February ~ lasted for weeks ~ we believe it was this Luhon or covid What ever you call it ~ no we didn't go to the hospital or doctor ~ everyone didn't get the same degree of sick ~ my daughters and I were the sickest ~ Sickest is a good word isn't it ~ got me in the lungs ~ there are thousands and thousand of people coming each week from China ~ this thing wasn't spread by one person or two or ten ```

Some who are exposed show little or no sign ~ others get damn sick ~ or Darn Sick ```

glad you made it through! the problem is that this also came through during prime flu, cold and pneumonia season. so a lot of people wouldn't think it was anything other than those.

 

[flowerbug]

There,s a lot of people that think most if not all of us have been exposed ,,,some got sick, others a little less, some hardly at all ,, What's your thought ,, typing this on my phone ,,not easy,,,

it depends upon where you were, how close you are to places where others travel through. for us, we are not a hub of travellers, but certainly some of the people in this area were overseas this past winter.

right now the main wave of infections we have coming at us are from the larger cities which likely picked it up from their travellers and airports. we are about a month and a half behind as far as out here in the country. the neighboring county has had only 7 confirmed cases while we've gone from 50 to over 300. i'm pretty sure most of our confirmed cases are in the city and not so much out here in the sticks.

i would be quite happy if i can stay home for another six weeks - it actually makes no difference to me in what i need to do anyways.

the problem now is that i do think that not everyone takes this seriously enough and so we still have too many people out and about spreading this. until those spreaders are all infected and through the infection they're making it worse.

the first thing you have to do to get out of a hole is to stop digging.

 

[flowerbug]

People that work with virus out breaks on a daily basis-swine producers-will all tell you the only way to control a virus is either infect all (they develop their own antibodies) or vaccinate. Since this virus likes to mutate. Vaccines of very limited use. Whenever everyone comes out of their homes, the virus will then be spread to those who have not been infected. IMO, it’s not IF you will get introduced to this virus but when.

Caution anyone to not get excited over stats since currently all deaths are being credited to Coronavirus.

this virus does not mutate that much compared to many others.

yes, like all organisms it will mutate through time, but that doesn't mean this one is like the flu (which mutates more often).

there's a lot of people that jump at conspiracy theories every chance they get.

i'm sure that the families of the 135,000 people around the world are not considering this event a minor inconvenience that has been overhyped. i hope y'all who haven't had to cope with this yet never have to experience what they are going through.

 

[seedcorn]

Sorry, it does mutate fast which is why they call it a “slippery “ virus. Already mutated n states at least once.

130,000 world wide deaths (& many are from other factors but are being attributed to Coronavirus) vs 60,000 deaths from flu, cold and influenza in USA ALONE! World wide numbers would be off the charts? Most (not all) are 70+ with other conditions-check the numbers on DEATHS not testing positives. (I am in the high risk group-over 65, male, type A for deaths)

Nobody is taking anyone’s pain and discounting it-to suggest that is condescending. Overall some of you are in hysteria and worrying about the ants when you can’t see the elephants in the room. IF we get procedures in place where sick stay home (& away from Walmart), mission accomplished.

Under guise of “caring “ about people and Coronavirus, Congress gave themselves a $54.000 raise, allowed banks to loan money they don’t have, took away safety features on transportation, etc. open your eyes.

@Zeedman 2 comments to your well thought out piece. 1). We older will die from something, always have, always will at a higher rate than younger.
2) Why when one member of Family or association group gets it, why doesn’t everyone get it? Works that way with colds and usually flus. Once one family member gets it, everyone in house gets it to some degree. IMO, why we are seeing strange rate of infections or deaths because it needs something besides a host. As we know from deaths, it likes 65+ year old type A men with any respiratory problems.

 

[thistlebloom]

Nobody is taking anyone’s pain and discounting it-to suggest that is condescending. Overall some of you are in hysteria and worrying about the ants when you can’t see the elephants in the room. IF we get procedures in place where sick stay home (& away from Walmart), mission accomplished.

Exactly.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Not yet, and as people become immune they will serve as insulators in addition. As it grows, it slows.

Annnd although I truly enjoy crusty commentary carving covid conditions, I need to drop this graph here.

View attachment 35182

I love this, it's worth repeating. So true.

I personally do not believe any of the "number of cases" numbers. Enough people haven't been tested and what testing has been done has been limited to specific cases since we don't have enough tests, plus testing facilities have limits too. I'm not sure either how accurate many of those tests are.

The number of deaths is probably a better number. It's still an estimate. Not everyone is tested. Some deaths could be attributed to pneumonia or other causes so there may be an undercount. Or even if Coronavirus was present it may have been a contributing factor, not the total cause so there could be an over-count. Or they coud just guess that it might have been Covid 19. People die from underlying conditions all the time. For what it is worth 11 people have died attributed to this virus in my parish out of a total population of about 23,000.

There has been another pandemic in modern history. The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed an estimated 500,000 to 675,000 Americans out of a population of just over 100,000,000. With today's population of over 300,000,000 Americans that would be well over 1,500,000 deaths depending on which estimate you use. When I see a site quote one of these numbers instead of giving the range I figure they are being political and move on. Let's say I don't consider them a credible unbiased source. These numbers are estimates, you can nitpick all you want. This is still a lot of dead people.

Covid 19 is not the Spanish Flu. It attacks the body differently. Both are quite contagious but is one "more" contagious than the other. Argue all you want but Covid 19 is contagious.

This is not 1918. We've learned a lot on how diseases spread and how to treat them. Equipment has improved, how many people are being saved today because of ventilators that did not exist in 1918. Comparing death rates of Covid 19 to Spanish Flu makes as much sense as comparing yield per acre of wheat to what was grown in 1918 to the yields we get today. But it gives you an order of magnitude as to how bad it could be if it was 1918. Or if we act as if it were still 1918.

I agree we will not be past this until we get herd immunity. That might be when everyone is exposed and those that die, die. Or maybe they can develop a vaccine to give us that immunity if we can slow the spread enough to give them time. And they are learning better how to treat it. In that respect the longer you can delay getting it the better your chances.

But the flip side of that is that if we don't use what we have learned to slow the spread, we won't slow the spread. If our medical facilities, equipment, and personnel get so overwhelmed they can't use what they know and have the death rate and suffering will dramatically increase. That's why they are trying to flatten the curve. So our friends and relatives that this thing hits hard can be treated humanely and given a chance instead of stacked like cordwood in hallways to die.

In my opinion we will start opening back up pretty soon. I don't expect it to be exactly like it was before where you could go anywhere at any time and crowd up as much as you wished. They will try to control it so the increase in cases can be treated as they increase the treatment facilities, equipment, and hopefully get more people trained to treat the infected.

 

[baymule]

We are having quite a spirited discussion here. This is an ugly virus, new to the human family and we have no immunity to it. Shutting the world down is slowing it down, but ultimately won't stop it. Stopping the world is for the reason of not swamping the medical system all at once. Some are already swamped, some are prepared and sitting idle.

Conspiracy? There is certainly a political spin to this, governments are using this to clamp down and further enslave their people. Why waste a good crisis? There is a one world government planned for our future, just read up on the United Nation's 2030 agenda or agenda 2021. There is evil afoot and it is worldwide. That's all I'm going to say about this, study it for yourselves.

We are in the age group that this virus finds friendly to it. So we are wearing masks, slathering sanitizer on, using wipes and washing hands when out in public, which is few and far between. It just makes sense to do so. We have never taken a flu or pneumonia shot and don't plan to. Won't take a covid 19 vaccine shot either. We concentrate on staying healthy and keeping up a good immune resistance. What good is a vaccine of last years virus when it is useless on this year's virus?

We may have already had it. DD and family were all sick the first of the year. We kept the sick granddaughters and DH got sick, I didn't. So did they have the covid virus? They certainly had the symptoms. Did DH have it? Did I have it and was just asymptomatic? Who knows? We will still take precautions.

 

[baymule]

I love this, it's worth repeating. So true.

I personally do not believe any of the "number of cases" numbers. Enough people haven't been tested and what testing has been done has been limited to specific cases since we don't have enough tests, plus testing facilities have limits too. I'm not sure either how accurate many of those tests are.

The number of deaths is probably a better number. It's still an estimate. Not everyone is tested. Some deaths could be attributed to pneumonia or other causes so there may be an undercount. Or even if Coronavirus was present it may have been a contributing factor, not the total cause so there could be an over-count. Or they coud just guess that it might have been Covid 19. People die from underlying conditions all the time. For what it is worth 11 people have died attributed to this virus in my parish out of a total population of about 23,000.

There has been another pandemic in modern history. The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed an estimated 500,000 to 675,000 Americans out of a population of just over 100,000,000. With today's population of over 300,000,000 Americans that would be well over 1,500,000 deaths depending on which estimate you use. When I see a site quote one of these numbers instead of giving the range I figure they are being political and move on. Let's say I don't consider them a credible unbiased source. These numbers are estimates, you can nitpick all you want. This is still a lot of dead people.

Covid 19 is not the Spanish Flu. It attacks the body differently. Both are quite contagious but is one "more" contagious than the other. Argue all you want but Covid 19 is contagious.

This is not 1918. We've learned a lot on how diseases spread and how to treat them. Equipment has improved, how many people are being saved today because of ventilators that did not exist in 1918. Comparing death rates of Covid 19 to Spanish Flu makes as much sense as comparing yield per acre of wheat to what was grown in 1918 to the yields we get today. But it gives you an order of magnitude as to how bad it could be if it was 1918. Or if we act as if it were still 1918.

I agree we will not be past this until we get herd immunity. That might be when everyone is exposed and those that die, die. Or maybe they can develop a vaccine to give us that immunity if we can slow the spread enough to give them time. And they are learning better how to treat it. In that respect the longer you can delay getting it the better your chances.

But the flip side of that is that if we don't use what we have learned to slow the spread, we won't slow the spread. If our medical facilities, equipment, and personnel get so overwhelmed they can't use what they know and have the death rate and suffering will dramatically increase. That's why they are trying to flatten the curve. So our friends and relatives that this thing hits hard can be treated humanely and given a chance instead of stacked like cordwood in hallways to die.

In my opinion we will start opening back up pretty soon. I don't expect it to be exactly like it was before where you could go anywhere at any time and crowd up as much as you wished. They will try to control it so the increase in cases can be treated as they increase the treatment facilities, equipment, and hopefully get more people trained to treat the infected.

VERY well said.