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

  • Thread starter baldgye
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Got my fourth shot yesterday morning. Had a slight reaction after going to bed that night. Woke up after about an hour cold and shivering, thankfully it only last for a couple of hours though.
 
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Spent the weekend in California. Lots of people around, checked out the Santa Monica Pier. Only thing that made me sick was the Panda Express I had on Sunday night. 🤷‍♂️
 
www.nytimes.com

As U.S. Covid hospitalizations climb, a chronic nursing shortage is worsening. (Published 2022)

Hospitals across the country continue to struggle to hire and retain enough nurses, as the spread of the BA.5 subvariant adds to caseloads.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

This Is Fine GIF
 
Joey D
www.nytimes.com

As U.S. Covid hospitalizations climb, a chronic nursing shortage is worsening. (Published 2022)

Hospitals across the country continue to struggle to hire and retain enough nurses, as the spread of the BA.5 subvariant adds to caseloads.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

This Is Fine GIF
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Reportedly job cuts and layoffs are now sweeping the country and may rise sharply by Fall. This easy availability of manpower might help backfill some of the nursing positions.

If that doesn't work, then going into full lockdown as China is might be even better.
 
Dotini
Reportedly job cuts and layoffs are now sweeping the country and may rise sharply by Fall. This easy availability of manpower might help backfill some of the nursing positions.
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1) Are you saying that we have an excess of workers right now? Countless businesses in town that have had to shut down, be it temporarily or permanently, would disagree.
2) You think taking someone off of the street and putting them to work in a nursing position is a viable option?
 
TB
1) Are you saying that we have an excess of workers right now? Countless businesses in town that have had to shut down, be it temporarily or permanently, would disagree.
2) You think taking someone off of the street and putting them to work in a nursing position is a viable option?
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1) No, we don't have enough workers. The Seattle Police Department has lost 400 officers. There are not enough Washington State Ferry workers for more than one ferry on several routes which normally have two ferries. The cruel irony is that we are probably going to lose even more workers. That's what happens in an economic contraction - more layoffs from business and industry.

2) Naturally nurses must have formal training which doesn't come cheaply or quickly. If there are open positions in nursing, the increased labor pool may be able to fill them with training programs.
 
Dotini
2) Naturally nurses must have formal training which doesn't come cheaply or quickly. If there are open positions in nursing, the increased labor pool may be able to fill them with training programs.
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I'm not sure that would work. RNs require a significant amount of training, plus there are a ton of regulatory policies in place that dictate what they do. On-the-job training would work for medical assistants though and with a more skilled MA staff, the workload on the nurses could be reduced. Probably the most difficult thing about becoming an MA is giving injections and blood draws. Pretty much anyone can be trained to take vitals and distribute meds based on what the computer tells them.

Many health systems do offer training programs though and they're often free. If I wanted to get into the clinical world, I could have my education paid for in exchange for signing something stating I would work for the hospital for X number of years. There are quite a few nurses out there that don't practice bedside nursing as well. It's pretty common in IT to have nurses work on clinical applications since they have a good understanding of what works and what doesn't. If push came to shove though, those nurses would be voluntold to do bedside nursing again. It happened frequently during the early days of the pandemic.
 
TB
1) Are you saying that we have an excess of workers right now? Countless businesses in town that have had to shut down, be it temporarily or permanently, would disagree.
2) You think taking someone off of the street and putting them to work in a nursing position is a viable option?
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Definitely won't work. I think you'd be better off not being treated at all if, for example, I was your nurse.
 
Our company is back to masking as of this morning. We got the notice with our checks. Any contact with a customer or outside our immediate department requires a mask to be worn. And our owner specifically called out a certain sector of our company that was the first bunch to abandon masks a long time ago as being part of the problem. So I will be interested to see how well that plays with them.
 
The good news is my test came back negative. The bad news is I’m still living in a house with a person with a full-blown case of Covid. Fortunately this is a two story house. He lives downstairs and I live upstairs. I wear a mask when I head downstairs and out the door. I’m fully vaxxed and boosted. I should be fine. Once he gets over it, I’ll get tested again to confirm I’ve somehow dodged the Covid bullet once again.
 
Every time I go to the grocery store I find at least one couple walking together in the store and one of them is not wearing a mask while the other one is. Does the mask wearing person realize that your no mask partner can catch it and transmit it to you the moment you get back to your vehicle and remove your mask? Granted I haven't worn one in months now but I still find these instances hilarious that people can be that ignorant.
 
"I think it's ignorant to wear a mask when someone you're with isn't wearing one."

Some people really do just say the stupidest **** without thinking about it beforehand. We are so thoroughly ****ed as a species.
 
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R1600Turbo
Every time I go to the grocery store I find at least one couple walking together in the store and one of them is not wearing a mask while the other one is. Does the mask wearing person realize that your no mask partner can catch it and transmit it to you the moment you get back to your vehicle and remove your mask? Granted I haven't worn one in months now but I still find these instances hilarious that people can be that ignorant.
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Maybe think about it a little more and see if you can come up with a non-ignorance reason why this might be the case. I've got a bunch on the tip of my tongue, because I do this plenty. But the first one that comes to mind is when you're out with someone who had covid within the last few months and you haven't.
 
R1600Turbo
Does the mask wearing person realize that your no mask partner can catch it and transmit it to you the moment you get back to your vehicle and remove your mask?
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If by this you mean that someone can catch COVID in a store and then immediately transmit it to someone else, then no, they cannot.

It takes on average of 3 days between infection and becoming infectious one's self.

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Also, I'm not sure you realise this, but you've just made a good job of undermining your own point - if a couple go into a premises together and (as you appear to imply) the non-masked one gets infected and the masked one doesn't, then what does that say to you about the wisdom of wearing a mask?

Of course, there are plenty of reasons why some people cannot wear masks, even if they wanted to - and there are also very good reasons why some people are well advised to wear masks even if they don't want to. The point being, however, that mask wearing is just one of a number of mitigations that people can use to limit their chances of getting COVID, and it never was and never will be completely effective on its own.

But laughing at people for something that you (wrongly) perceive to be a useless measure is, frankly, disgusting.
 
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R1600Turbo
Every time I go to the grocery store I find at least one couple walking together in the store and one of them is not wearing a mask while the other one is. Does the mask wearing person realize that your no mask partner can catch it and transmit it to you the moment you get back to your vehicle and remove your mask? Granted I haven't worn one in months now but I still find these instances hilarious that people can be that ignorant.
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Your sense of humor is very strange. As is your understanding of how the virus works.
 
Touring Mars
If by this you mean that someone can catch COVID in a store and then immediately transmit it to someone else, then no, they cannot.

It takes on average of 3 days between infection and becoming infectious one's self.

-

Also, I'm not sure you realise this, but you've just made a good job of undermining your own point - if a couple go into a premises together and (as you appear to imply) the non-masked one gets infected and the masked one doesn't, then what does that say to you about the wisdom of wearing a mask?

Of course, there are plenty of reasons why some people cannot wear masks, even if they wanted to - and there are also very good reasons why some people are well advised to wear masks even if they don't want to. The point being, however, that mask wearing is just one of a number of mitigations that people can use to limit their chances of getting COVID, and it never was and never will be completely effective on its own.

But laughing at people for something that you (wrongly) perceive to be a useless measure is, frankly, disgusting.
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The point is, that it doesn't do the mask wearer any good if the person not wearing one gives it to them later. I'm not sure how difficult that is to understand. And this will be my only reply on the subject.
 
R1600Turbo
The point is, that it doesn't do the mask wearer any good if the person not wearing one gives it to them later. I'm not sure how difficult that is to understand. And this will be my only reply on the subject.
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If the mask is worn for the protection of the wearer, then it can still do them good even when they're with someone who doesn't wear a mask - for a variety of reasons. I mentioned one earlier, there are many more. See if you can think of them.

If the mask is worn for the protection of everyone else (or for both purposes), then its benefits should be obvious.
 
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A pretty interesting new study that was just published (my workplace contributed to it too, which is cool) discusses the origins of COVID.
apnews.com

New studies bolster theory coronavirus emerged from the wild

Two new studies provide more evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Wuhan, China market where live animals were sold – further bolstering the theory that the virus emerged in the wild rather than escaping from a Chinese lab.
apnews.com apnews.com

Here's a link to the actual paper too.

While I think the virus did likely originate in the market, I'm still not 100% convinced that it wasn't due to poor lab safety protocols. But until more evidence comes out, that will still just be speculation.
 
Only ever worn a mask on a select few occasions a year ago during some flights where I was forced to. None prior or after.

Been travelling now in July, Sweden - Hungary - Italy and Italy - Poland - Sweden. Some people have them on but majority aren't. Departing from Sweden I barely saw a single one while departing from Italy some hours ago there were more. No crazy amount like last year but noticeable. Most likely because they've been pretty harsh with the rules and mandates and whatnot there for quite some time. Still heavily in people's minds, I'm sure.

In Kraków Airport in Poland now and the masks have disappeared again. :)
 
Went to get my booster shot earlier today, and...

Well, I was practically the only person aged under 60 at the local pharmacy for vaccinations. And the whole time I was there getting the paperwork done (not sure why I have to do this every single time since my details are still in the system, but whatever...) I could count on one hand people wearing masks, myself included.

With the emergence of the new, more contagious strain, I hope it doesn't lead to another cluster-crap any time soon.
 

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