All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (7 Viewers)

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    Maxp

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    I fear we are really going to be in a bad place due to the obvious cuts to the federal agencies that deal with infectious disease, but also the negative effect the Affordable Care act has had on non urban hospitals. Our front line defenses are ineffectual and our ability to treat the populous is probably at an all time low. Factor in the cost of healthcare and I can see our system crashing. What do you think about the politics of this virus?
     
    I'm hoping my parents get a call this week about starting their vaccine. They're both in their 70's. I guess the town pharmacy is going to be administering it. At least, that's how my mom understood it.
     
    Couple of guys I follow discussing new strain in Ireland, Bosslet’s next tweet was “Yes, I think we are in for it”

     
    Couple of guys I follow discussing new strain in Ireland, Bosslet’s next tweet was “Yes, I think we are in for it”


    Yes, although I would add that Ireland was also pretty darn lax in December. They went back to level 4 and gradual reopening at the start of December - and you can see from that graph they still had pretty high levels of the virus in the community at that point - opening up shops, hairdressers, gyms, cinemas, indoor gatherings of up to 15 people, and pubs as well (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55179262). They only went back to level 5 in their National Framework on December 24th, but even then, over Christmas they allowed 'visits from up to 2 other households' up to and including 26th December, and 'visits from one other household' through to 31st December. (I've been following Ireland's state fairly closely, as I'm trying to get my son's Irish citizenship sorted out, and they don't process them when they're under level 5 restrictions!)

    That very obviously creates a lot of opportunities for transmission, and then people got together for hours at Christmas? That wasn't a good idea.

    That said, I was hoping that the more transmissible strain thing was an attribution error (i.e. that the increased rate of transmission was down to relaxing restrictions and the spread of that particular strain was largely down to it coinciding with those relaxations), but it's increasingly looking to me like it's rules being relaxed too soon and too much and this strain being more transmissible, because, while I'm not an expert on this, this particular strain has spread incredibly rapidly.

    This tweet is a visualisation of the spread of the B.1.1.7 strain in the UK through to late December (with shading representing the proportion of cases the strain represents in each area):



    Again, not an expert, but I don't think you'd see that level of dominance if that strain did not have a significant advantage over other strains.

    And in terms of cases, there are wild spikes in a lot of places. This is my local area:



    Again, a lot of that will be Christmas relaxations creating a lot of opportunities for transmission. But Liverpool is supposed to have been the poster child for the Government's 'control through testing' approach, with walk-in testing on demand available for the area, with the argument being that then allows for lower restrictions. Again, a lot of that transmission will be down to mingling over Christmas creating a lot of opportunities for the virus to spread, but it seems like an increasingly long stretch to suggest that all of it is, so it does seem, to me, like yes, this strain is indeed bad news.

    The fact that it's hit with unduly lax restrictions in the run up to Christmas is just a disaster, frankly. For another example, my local hospital is packed at this point. 187 Covid-19 patients as of today, 25 of them in ICU. Ordinarily it has 20 ICU beds total.

    No amount of subsequent vaccination is going to undo that damage.
     
    It was numbers like those that prompted our government to basically shut everything down mid December, even though at the time B117 had only been registered with 89 patients. The week before it was 40 and the week before 13...

    None of the infected were part of a "cluster" and generally did not know how or where they got infected - so basically we're still in lock down at least until feb. 1st by now. It was just prolonged another 2 weeks.
     
    So we've been having it out with the state...

    Initially, we were told that we would be getting 1,300 doses that would constitute first and second doses for staff and patient population. We instead received 3,200 doses that were to be used as 1st dose only. So the state decides to send an email complaining we were wasting vaccine and needed to develop a plan to get the remaining doses to other places like pharmacies...

    Uh no, you dopes. Your issue should be with the distributor who gave us all these damn doses. And no, we're not giving back anything unless forced to. Despite your fork-up, we administered 1,000 doses in three days. Go take several seats, asshats.

    :rant:
     
    I don’t know. IIRC I read that a significant number of them refuse to be tested.
     
    Well, did the R colleagues test positive too? I think that's ultimately going to matter. Regardless, whoever didn't wear masks should be censured and fined the maximum amount. Ridiculous.

    They aren't even going to bother getting tested because they are the literal scum of the earth.
     

    Lying liars and the lies they tell...

    When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.

    Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding eligibility for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.
     
    This crap should be criminal. Just lies everywhere.
    The only good part of it, is that they did it because they feel like the supply is steady, so this won't hurt states from administering shots, just likely mucked up some of their planning, thinking they were going to get a wave of extra.

    But, clear communication is key for any project, let alone one this massive.
     
    Fiance and I tested positive. Her Friday and me earlier today. Mild symptoms thus far, but neither one of us feel particularly good.

    I was discharged a few days ago after a 6 days of hell. If you have any shortness of breath, just go to the ER. I tried to get by w/ chills, fever and sinusitis for 10 days but the pneumonia was too much. Hospitalization saved my life. My entire system reacted adversely. Liver, GI, you name it. Simple labs were off the charts. Go to the ER if u have any difficulty breathing.
     

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