COVID-19, Part VIII - heading into flu season
Just an FYI about essential workers in this area.
So, on top of the ongoing COVID-19 related health issues, mental and physical that they have had to deal with and will continue to deal with until deep into next year when effective vaccines hopefully become available to the masses, in Oregon they have had to deal with this hazardous smoke and fires and loss of homes and jobs, which also damages the lungs, respiratory system, causes headaches and stress.
For perspective, Seattle's air quality has been something that would be welcome in Oregon the last week. The Mariners' games were moved to San Francisco (because the smoke in the Bay Area has been half of what it has been up here throughout the State of Oregon the last ten days), and San Diego for this weekend. Currently, Seattle is in the "unhealthy" 150's. If only, Portland is in the 350's and that is an improvement over what it has been the last week in Oregon. 300 is the top of the scale for "hazardous", where nobody should be outside. It was in the 400's and 500's for most of the last 10 days throughout all of Western Oregon and on the Eastern side of the Cascades, too.
The essential workers have continued to go to work. County employees get to stay home, but not the essential workers like Pharmacists, for example. In fact, the Medical and Dental Clinics are even closed, but the County Pharmacies are open. (They left one Clinic open for half days)
So, all I'm saying is that many essential workers, firefighters, police officers, mail personnel (they drive around all day with their window open while they deliver the mail breathing in this toxic smoke), grocery store employees, busdrivers, pharmacists, etc. continue to sacrifice their health and well-being to deliver services necessary for others to survive.
They continue to die at an alarming number every single day.
Here's just a partial list:
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infecti.../covid19/85867
The tragedies from the disasters of 2020 know no end.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
I'm guessing we're not going to talk about Sweden --- ever again.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rojo
I'm guessing we're not going to talk about Sweden --- ever again.
ABBA is a guilty pleasure of mine and Henrik Zetterberg is the most underrated hockey player I ever watched.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rojo
I'm guessing we're not going to talk about Sweden --- ever again.
The Saab Sonett III was one of the coolest - and one of the most affordable - sports cars of the '70s, and the first true sports car with front wheel drive.
Sent from my SM-T560NU using Tapatalk
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Looking at our numbers in Wichita, we had a pretty solid surge in August with the 14 day average positive test % reaching 14.1%, dipping a bit and then peaking again at 12.4% (with as many as 322 positive tests per day). Since then, the percentage has steadily declined to 5.9%, and we're seeing numbers more like 40, 20, 45, 21 and 33 positive tests on a daily basis. It's a great trend, and one that I'm not sure what we've done to "earn", because even though we have mask requirements for indoor spaces (other than my office) that people generally follow and people are being somewhat more cautious in who they're around and how close they get to those people, we seem to be more "business as usual" than other parts of the country. In person school started here about two weeks ago, and SO FAR we haven't seen a spike related to that (the opposite is true for now), but it will be interesting to see if we get a lagging spike in the next week or two from school kids being together (with limited capacity in schools, masks and social distancing measures). If not, it's a really good sign for us.
Also, for now it's 81 Covid deaths from a population of 516,000 in the county, so .15 deaths per thousand.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RedTeamGo!
ABBA is a guilty pleasure of mine and Henrik Zetterberg is the most underrated hockey player I ever watched.
The old goat and two kids line great
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
A lot of questions about these vaccines.
Will they be effective? Will they be harmful?
I’d guess between all the studies we are at 100k people having tested them (different ones) and there’s no big life threatening risk it seems. (Not enough to stop a study...one got paused but resumed)
Now weigh that against the 1000s of people dying a day. When do you say the hell with it let people have them if they want?
I get “the process” and there are wisecracks to be made about possible side effects, but meanwhile we watch thousands die a day.
I’m not trying to stir things up but it makes me think.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
One of Sweden's stated reasons for going the "herd immunity" route is that their culture is one that doesn't have a lot of inter-personal interactions. They don't have a lot of places where they gather in groups. And they're relatively good about taking recommended precautions. None of that is true for the US. If we went that route, our rate of infection and number of deaths would be much greater than it is now.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
333 tests and 7 positives for us yesterday. Very nice. Our lowest number of new cases since June 13.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Oops, the vaccine turns you into a Zombie after incubating 2 years.
But yeah, who needs long term testing?
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WrongVerb
One of Sweden's stated reasons for going the "herd immunity" route is that their culture is one that doesn't have a lot of inter-personal interactions. They don't have a lot of places where they gather in groups. And they're relatively good about taking recommended precautions. None of that is true for the US. If we went that route, our rate of infection and number of deaths would be much greater than it is now.
And they are a homogenous nation...people think alike socially. They are an extremely tiny populous type. What works for them could only work with a population similar to them in social behavior, like Denmark, for example. Comparing them to the U.S. is like comparing them to....,well,...nothing else that has ever existed.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WrongVerb
One of Sweden's stated reasons for going the "herd immunity" route is that their culture is one that doesn't have a lot of inter-personal interactions. They don't have a lot of places where they gather in groups. And they're relatively good about taking recommended precautions. None of that is true for the US. If we went that route, our rate of infection and number of deaths would be much greater than it is now.
I've been reading this kind of thing about Sweden my whole life. We can't have nice things because we're fundamentally flawed in a way that Swedes aren't.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season
Also, ABBA, Saab and a lot of non-answers.
Which means Sweden's winning.
When I've been proven the fool, I kind of want to gear down to inanity. I get it.
The problem is that I want people to learn from this. And like Russiagate, I fear nobody will.
Lots of people in NYC died from the poisons that flowed out of WTC bombings and the government said we didn't need masks. But we need masks in the middle of nowhere for a disease with a 99.7% survival rate.
Ok. Whatever.
Re: COVID-19, heading into flu season