COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

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Famine
In addition, oleandrin has no known therapeutic benefits (it was researched as a cancer medication, but was not proven effective) and sits firmly on the "alternative medicine" shelf. If someone is willing to take a literal poison given to them by someone who believes that sugar remembers what the water that evaporated off it remembered of a drug that is so diluted that not a single atom of it remains, that's up to them...
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Ugh, I can't abide it. Our last dog suffered terribly at the end of her life with some kind of skin-attacking super cancer. It was a few weeks before I realised the vet was giving her homeopathic tinctures.

I can understand idiot humans deciding they don't trust medicine or whatever, and if you wanna make your money off them, be my guest. But my dog, man, my ****ing dog? We switched vets the next day. It was too late for her. How soulless that man was, looking my mum in the eye saying "it will help her."

Myself, my dad and my brother needed some serious talking out of paying the man a visit.
 
Famine
It is, but that's pretty common. The stuff that makes plants poisonous can be refined and used as medicines, because of how the poison acts. Take foxgloves - they're poisonous and can definitely kill you by stopping your heart, but we derive the drug digoxin from it... a heart medication (particularly used in atrial fibrillation, because of how it interferes with cardiac rhythm). Atropine is used to treat excessively slow heart rhythms (and as eyedrops for cataract surgery; it paralyses the muscles that adjust the lens), but can extremely kill you and comes from deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna, which also gives us scopolamine).

Generally these drugs have an extremely narrow "therapeutic window" - which is basically the amount of it you can take and make it work, but not kill you - which means that even the smallest error will either make it useless or deadly.

That said, oleandrin has no known therapeutic benefits (it was researched as a cancer medication, but was not proven effective) and sits firmly on the "alternative medicine" shelf. If someone is willing to take a literal poison given to them by someone who believes that sugar remembers what the water that evaporated off it remembered of a drug that is so diluted that not a single atom of it remains, that's up to them...
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Appreciate the crash course on it. 👍

I am just worried we might see a repeat of the "man takes fish cleaner b/c it has chloroquine & dies" story b/c someone may see "oleandrin works" & stupidly try to eat the plant in some fashion.
 
Question for the mask experts in here.

Can anyone recommend one that is good with glasses (no fogging issues), light weight and doesn't give you swamp face for 8+ hours a day? The one I'm using is made out of a t-shirt type material and very hot, especially here in AZ.
 
R1600Turbo
Question for the mask experts in here.

Can anyone recommend one that is good with glasses (no fogging issues), light weight and doesn't give you swamp face for 8+ hours a day? The one I'm using is made out of a t-shirt type material and very hot, especially here in AZ.
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Use a surgical mask. They're light, they work well. They come with stiff strips across the top that you can conform to your nose. I haven't had severe fogging with the surgical mask. Some people claim the anti-fog spray works.
 
Dr. Birx reported today the White House will be returning the duty of handling hospital data on Covid back to the CDC.
Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, told hospital executives and government officials in Arkansas this week that the current system under which hospitals report new cases is “solely an interim system” and that the reporting would soon go back to the CDC.

“CDC is working with us right now to build a revolutionary new data system so it can be moved back to the CDC, and they can have that regular accountability with hospitals relevant to treatment and PPE,” she said, referring to personal protective equipment used by doctors and nurses.
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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...hospitals-covid-19-data-collection-2020-08-20
 
I wonder if they had a data breach? It wouldn't surprise me in the least since Chinese and Russian hackers are targeting healthcare data like crazy right now.
 
Joey D
I wonder if they had a data breach? It wouldn't surprise me in the least since Chinese and Russian hackers are targeting healthcare data like crazy right now.
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Interesting theory. If I were a conspiracy theorist, or just cynical, I'd say that it's because the US has convincingly turned downward in the number of cases and no longer needs to cook... er... massage the books to keep things from looking so bad.
 
I reckon that the damage that will be caused by the pandemic in the US is only just beginning.

The number of deaths caused by the virus is the most obvious statistic, but it is by no means the only significant impact.

The US is currently facing an unprecedented set of related crises, at a time where the country is being led by one of the most incompetent and dangerously deluded people imaginable.

The US is facing a jobs crisis, an eviction/homelessness crisis, and the long-term health impacts of the virus that are as yet not fully understood, but already there is real cause for concern.

All of these issues play into each other. Long term health affects one's ability to work; not being able to work means not being able to afford rent, which leads to evictions and homelessness etc..

These issues are backing up like an economic tsunami that is perhaps just weeks away from breaking... indeed, millions of people are already facing hardship, but millions more are also staring down the barrel of a gun, esp. now that short-term relief efforts are coming to an end.
 
Touring Mars
I reckon that the damage that will be caused by the pandemic in the US is only just beginning.

The number of deaths caused by the virus is the most obvious statistic, but it is by no means the only significant impact.

The US is currently facing an unprecedented set of related crises, at a time where the country is being led by one of the most incompetent and dangerously deluded people imaginable.

The US is facing a jobs crisis, an eviction/homelessness crisis, and the long-term health impacts of the virus that are as yet not fully understood, but already there is real cause for concern.

All of these issues play into each other. Long term health affects one's ability to work; not being able to work means not being able to afford rent, which leads to evictions and homelessness etc..

These issues are backing up like an economic tsunami that is perhaps just weeks away from breaking... indeed, millions of people are already facing hardship, but millions more are also staring down the barrel of a gun, esp. now that short-term relief efforts are coming to an end.
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There are a few additional crises not listed there. Especially inflation, but also government debt. Real estate is weird right now, but I'm still expecting a massive commercial real estate crash.
 
Touring Mars
I reckon that the damage that will be caused by the pandemic in the US is only just beginning.

The number of deaths caused by the virus is the most obvious statistic, but it is by no means the only significant impact.

The US is currently facing an unprecedented set of related crises, at a time where the country is being led by one of the most incompetent and dangerously deluded people imaginable.

The US is facing a jobs crisis, an eviction/homelessness crisis, and the long-term health impacts of the virus that are as yet not fully understood, but already there is real cause for concern.

All of these issues play into each other. Long term health affects one's ability to work; not being able to work means not being able to afford rent, which leads to evictions and homelessness etc..

These issues are backing up like an economic tsunami that is perhaps just weeks away from breaking... indeed, millions of people are already facing hardship, but millions more are also staring down the barrel of a gun, esp. now that short-term relief efforts are coming to an end.
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If Biden gets elected, all the blame, all of it, will be laid upon him in the eyes of the Republican Party.
 
Touring Mars
I reckon that the damage that will be caused by the pandemic in the US is only just beginning.

The number of deaths caused by the virus is the most obvious statistic, but it is by no means the only significant impact.

The US is currently facing an unprecedented set of related crises, at a time where the country is being led by one of the most incompetent and dangerously deluded people imaginable.

The US is facing a jobs crisis, an eviction/homelessness crisis, and the long-term health impacts of the virus that are as yet not fully understood, but already there is real cause for concern.

All of these issues play into each other. Long term health affects one's ability to work; not being able to work means not being able to afford rent, which leads to evictions and homelessness etc..

These issues are backing up like an economic tsunami that is perhaps just weeks away from breaking... indeed, millions of people are already facing hardship, but millions more are also staring down the barrel of a gun, esp. now that short-term relief efforts are coming to an end.
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In short, it has strong indicators of another depression (not recession).
 
Liquid
If Biden gets elected, all the blame, all of it, will be laid upon him in the eyes of the Republican Party.
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Blitz24
In short, it has strong indicators of another depression (not recession).
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Yes, I am expecting a combination of pandemic and depression will prevail as Democrats come into national executive power. They may take the blame, but on the other hand they take the responsibility to fix it, and will have - or maybe not have depending on the makeup of the Senate - all necessary power to enact swingeing new taxes, social policies and economic plans.
 
Liquid
If Biden gets elected, all the blame, all of it, will be laid upon him in the eyes of the Republican Party.
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Also if he doesn't get elected, all the blame will be laid on him. He has taken over from Hillary in the role of Chief Scapegoat.
 
Imari
Also if he doesn't get elected, all the blame will be laid on him. He has taken over from Hillary in the role of Chief Scapegoat.
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In other words, it's not that Trump is so likeable, it's that the Democrats couldn't find anyone to nominate that voters would be able to choose their candidate over Trump.
 
Liquid
If Biden gets elected, all the blame, all of it, will be laid upon him in the eyes of the Republican Party.
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I'm not so sure about this. If Biden gets elected, I'm thinking a good number of people in office in the GOP would be happy that they no longer have to grit their teeth at whatever stupid thing Trump has done this morning that they now have to go along with and will be willing to throw him under the bus. Maybe not a majority, but I don't think an amount small enough to write off completely.


I think it's been fear of public reprisal from him so far rather than actively supporting him that has guided a fair bit of the GOP sentiment, which is why people who are powerful themselves in the GOP or whose careers are Trump-proof have been much more willing to rebuke him.
 
I know this is a case of Captain Obvious ... but what I just can't get my head around is how Trump could be so stupid in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. If he had acted like a normal, responsible political leader from the start, rather than absurdly downplaying the virus, the cases & deaths would have gone up, there would have been economic ramifications, but nobody would have held him personally responsible for the existence of the virus.

In Canada, Trudeau's handling of the pandemic has been generally regarded in a positive way. The "populist", somewhat Trump-like Conservative premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has co-operated with the federal Liberals, enacted sensible measures to prevent the out of control spread of the virus in the Ontario & his handling of the pandemic has generally been regarded in a positive way. In contrast, Trump's behaviour has been not only damaging to the health & well-being of Americans, it's been plain idiotic in terms of his own political self-interest.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...n-teachers-at-dundee-school-contract-covid-19

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53887022

I must admit, I am quite worried about what may happen in Scotland now that schools have gone back.. (schools went back on 12th August in Scotland).

Clearly, children need to be back at school as much as possible - but unfortunately I think there is a potentially dangerous combination of too much wishful thinking and not enough precautionary/preventative measures in place to avoid schools becoming hubs for community transmission.

Schools should be testing kids now - in fact, they should have had mandatory testing programmes in place before the schools went back. Scotland does have 'track and trace' in place, but this is a fire-fighting measure, not a preventative measure or a screening programme.

Kids being kept out of school is tremendously damaging - but the question remains as to how much more or less of a risk is posed to parents, carers and teachers by the virus itself if not enough is being done to tackle the spread of the virus among the student body.

-

For reference, school kids are not required to wear masks or maintain social distancing from each other at school or on school buses.

My ex-boss had to have his 7 y.o. daughter tested for COVID-19 last week as she developed a respiratory infection just a week after returning to school. Turns out she tested negative, but my ex-boss was/is furious and doesn't think that schools are doing enough.
 
The first documented case of reinfection with a different strain of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported in Hong Kong

 
Touring Mars
The first documented case of reinfection with a different strain of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported in Hong Kong

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I haven't seen the research for this, only news articles that say "researchers have said" based on a difference of nucleotides. I'd be curious to see how this was all determined. I have to imagine that some people will be susceptible to reinfection, but if reinfection was a constant instead of an outlier wouldn't we see more reinfection cases? I'm not smart enough when it comes virology to know.

If reinfection will end up being a normal thing though, I wonder if we will start to be able to "predict" what strain might be more prominent at a given time like we do with influenza. Honestly, getting a COVID vaccine with my annual influenza vaccine doesn't sound too bad if that's what I'd have to do. Also, I have to assume eventually we will figure out a solid, safe treatment sort of like how Tamiflu is today.
 
The story I heard about the reinfection case was that it was determined to be a slightly different virus by sequencing. They would have sequenced the virus both times he had the virus and compared them side by side. The number and location (genetically) of the mismatches would give an indication of how removed the two infections are from each other.
The positive spin that was put on this is that his first infection was very mild, and the second was completely asymptomatic. The mild infection may not have induced a strong lasting immune response, and what was there mitigated the second infection anyway. Need waaay more datapoints to form any conclusions though.
 
Well it was going to be a matter of time until it hit someone close to me. A cousin's auntie died yesterday of Covid19. She was in her mid 50s, no known health issues. What I'm finding shocking is just how quickly it killed her. She tested positive for the virus and two days later she was gone. This was in Oran in Salta Province, Argentina. My dad lives near there in the capital and I'm scared for him. He's 62 and has hypertension and is overweight. Yesterday was a reminder that no one is fully safe from this.
 
Fat Tyre
Well it was going to be a matter of time until it hit someone close to me. A cousin's auntie died yesterday of Covid19. She was in her mid 50s, no known health issues. What I'm finding shocking is just how quickly it killed her. She tested positive for the virus and two days later she was gone. This was in Oran in Salta Province, Argentina. My dad lives near there in the capital and I'm scared for him. He's 62 and has hypertension and is overweight. Yesterday was a reminder that no one is fully safe from this.
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Sorry to hear that :indiff:

I am currently going through periods of both quiet confidence and deep worry, not so much for myself but for my family.

I spoke to my Mum last night and it sounds like they are doing everything they can, but yet I also get the sense that they are vulnerable.

Ironically, lockdown made decisions about what to do very easy - you just couldn't go out or visit each other, period. But now, with a broad spectrum of possibilities, some people (like me and my nephew) are returning to life pretty much as it was before; but, others (like my parents) really should not be - and they are not... but the trouble comes at where their lives intersect with those of us who are returning to normal.... and that's why I am worried about them.

I've said many, many times that the schools going back pose a risk to my parents, and they do get it - but the reality is that they are not shielding themselves from my nephew or my sister (his mum) anything like as much as they had to during lockdown. Add to this that my Dad is now also going back to the pub (which he insists is safe because they have safety measures in place) and it is not hard to see how the virus could now reach my Mum without my Mum even doing anything more than spending more time with the family.

I've encouraged my Mum to spend as much time with the family as she can (for her own mental health well-being), but with an important caveat that she shouldn't let her guard down... but that is easier said than done.

It is tempting for those who are more vulnerable to see others going about something close to their normal lives and think that the risk to them has decreased somehow, when in reality the risk is likely higher for vulnerable groups precisely because others are returning to normal. So instead of relaxing precautions, I reckon my parents should be exercising as much caution as before, if not even more... but that is perhaps unlikely.
 
Touring Mars
Sorry to hear that :indiff:

I am currently going through periods of both quiet confidence and deep worry, not so much for myself but for my family.

I spoke to my Mum last night and it sounds like they are doing everything they can, but yet I also get the sense that they are vulnerable.

Ironically, lockdown made decisions about what to do very easy - you just couldn't go out or visit each other, period. But now, with a broad spectrum of possibilities, some people (like me and my nephew) are returning to life pretty much as it was before; but, others (like my parents) really should not be - and they are not... but the trouble comes at where their lives intersect with those of us who are returning to normal.... and that's why I am worried about them.

I've said many, many times that the schools going back pose a risk to my parents, and they do get it - but the reality is that they are not shielding themselves from my nephew or my sister (his mum) anything like as much as they had to during lockdown. Add to this that my Dad is now also going back to the pub (which he insists is safe because they have safety measures in place) and it is not hard to see how the virus could now reach my Mum without my Mum even doing anything more than spending more time with the family.

I've encouraged my Mum to spend as much time with the family as she can (for her own mental health well-being), but with an important caveat that she shouldn't let her guard down... but that is easier said than done.

It is tempting for those who are more vulnerable to see others going about something close to their normal lives and think that the risk to them has decreased somehow, when in reality the risk is likely higher for vulnerable groups precisely because others are returning to normal. So instead of relaxing precautions, I reckon my parents should be exercising as much caution as before, if not even more... but that is perhaps unlikely.
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I'm starting to feel the same worry for both my sets of parents. They're all in their 70's now, with the usual health issues associated with being that age, and after the period of self isolation that everyone went through they're now going out and about more and socializing with their children and grand children. For now that's fairly low risk, but once those grand children go back to school, which is likely to be closely followed by colder, wetter weather setting in and an increased chance of a virus resurgence occurring, i fear they'll find it hard to lock back down again.

My mother-in-law who now lives with us is officially shielded due to her Parkinsons and my wife is self-shielding due to her EDS and PoTs which would mean she would struggle to cope with even the mildest of Covid symptoms. Because of this i'm effectively shielding as well and have been since the back end of March. After a period of furlough i'm now working from home. My wife is an author so nothing changed for her and other than walking the dogs none of us has been out. No shops or supermarkets. No bars or restaurants/coffee shops. No socializing with friends or family other than the occasional meet up outside. It's become the definition of normality for us. But for my parents who maybe are feeling their level of mortality isn't likely to be that long, i think they struggle to not spend that precious time doing what they want to do whilst they still can and i find it hard to not push the point across that they should be more cautious.
 

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