All things political. Coronavirus Edition. (2 Viewers)

[Maxp]

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?

 

[Bigdaddysaints]

Those people are trash. Prove me wrong.

 

[coldseat]

Says it all:

I bet they're all so proud of themselves.

Seeing stuff like that and Jan 6th pulls me to the dark side. Like, I feel myself wanting to wish that Covid has its way with them.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

You have to wonder at what point healthcare workers get fatigue and just quit their jobs and/or move to other areas of the country where they are appreciated -- there is no shortage of people hiring nurses right now.

COVID is impacting rural parishes in Louisiana the hardest and the hospitals are getting stressed.

 

[Dragon]

Says it all:

How should they know better? They get their information from the church and from fox news. They literally live in another reality than the rest of the world.

I went to School in Tennessee 40 years ago and even then I was astounded by how a lot of people lived in a world so far from what I was used to. The things accepted as "fact" was so far from the reality I came from. (Racism, womens place in the world even basic scientific facts as evolution)

 

[zztop]

You have to wonder at what point healthcare workers get fatigue and just quit their jobs and/or move to other areas of the country where they are appreciated -- there is no shortage of people hiring nurses right now.

COVID is impacting rural parishes in Louisiana the hardest and the hospitals are getting stressed.

I can't imagine the stress and pressure. And then add to that how in some cases last year where (probably still happening) "Asian looking" healthcare workers get harassed and attacked.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I like this guy.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I can't imagine the stress and pressure. And then add to that how in some cases last year where (probably still happening) "Asian looking" healthcare workers get harassed and attacked.

I'll tell you. I pulled into the parking lot of one of our clinics in a very rural part of the state. Nurse goes to one car and administers five tests to each of the passengers in there. There were five more cars lined up next to that one. I imagine at some point, our nursing staff is just going to say fork it.

 

[Optimus Prime]

I'll tell you. I pulled into the parking lot of one of our clinics in a very rural part of the state. Nurse goes to one car and administers five tests to each of the passengers in there. There were five more cars lined up next to that one. I imagine at some point, our nursing staff is just going to say fork it.

posted this on EE:


I had not heard this term until today

it was in a story about nurses quitting

this article is from almost exactly a year ago

story today was about how the tipping point was treating the unvaccinated, seeing and comforting people who didn’t need to be and shouldn’t be dying in the hospital

Between telling patients and family members now begging for the vaccine that’s it’s too late for that and dealing with people still angrily anti vax it’s a lot to bear

as cases rise I hope this doesn’t cause a mass exodus of nurses leaving
_____________________

Compassion fatigue is the physical, emotional and spiritual result of chronic self-sacrifice and/or prolonged exposure to difficult situations that renders a person unable to love, nurture, care for or empathize with another’s suffering. — DR. CHELSIA HARRIS

“A nurse’s innate capacity to nurture and take on another’s suffering as if it is his or her own … to have empathy or the deep awareness of another’s suffering and the desire to do something to make it better is compassion,” explains Harris, one of the nation’s leading researchers on compassion fatigue. “Fatigue is extreme tiredness resulting from mental or physical exertion or the state of being weakened under repeated stress. Compassion fatigue leads to an inability to nurture and can have a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of that nurse.”

Burnout is often mistaken for compassion fatigue. Harris co-authored an article with Dr. Mary T. Quinn Griffin, associate professor in Case Western Reserve University’s Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing, that was published in the Journal of Christian Nursing about their research on the phenomenon. In Nursing On Empty: Compassion Fatigue Signs, Symptoms and Interventions, Harris and Griffin assert that burnout triggers and characteristics differ in significant ways.

“Combining the old and new schools of thought, burnout is believed to be triggered by increased workplace demands, increasing healthcare expectations in general, lack of resources, interpersonal stressors and organizational policy leading to diminished caring, cynicism and ineffectiveness.”

Harris defines compassion fatigue as the physical, emotional and spiritual result of chronic self-sacrifice and/or prolonged exposure to difficult situations that renders a person unable to love, nurture, care for or empathize with another’s suffering.

“I love talking about compassion fatigue,” admits Harris. “I’m passionate about it and I want to help people.”……..

Pandemic leads to compassion fatigue, burnout for health care workers​

Nurses are known as nurturers. Compassion and empathy are at the very heart of the nursing profession. Nurses are relied upon to provide medical treatment, support and encouragement during times of physical, emotional and spiritual anguish. But who nurtures the nurses?

 

[Optimus Prime]

I like this guy.

‘Shut up, this is your fault‘ should be our “Lock her up!”

 

[superchuck500]

 

[Lapaz]

I think we have to (politely) push back. I had a lady tell me that her friend who is anti-vax “really does her research, she’s got some good points”. I just gently said “no, she doesn’t do research, and no, she doesn’t have any good points, dear. What she is doing is watching quacks’ YouTube videos, and/or reading lies on Facebook. I have worked in a research lab in the past, the stuff out there on social media isn’t research.”

She just chuckled (we’ve known each other for 30 years). I’ve been trying to get her to get vaccinated. She says she’s not anti-vax, just “hesitant”. I’m trying to gently lead her to a space where she will feel comfortable getting the vaccine, which her husband already has done.

Perhaps you should tell your friend that more than 96% of doctors had gotten the vaccine as of 11 June.

AMA survey shows over 96% of doctors fully vaccinated against COVID-19

New data point toward high COVID-19 vaccine confidence among practicing physicians.

www.ama-assn.org

With that said, the vaccines around the world are not doing that great. The countries around the world with the highest vaccination rates are not doing any better than some countries with lower vaccination rates. Some of that is precautions they are taking, and I still see better outcomes among the vaccinated, but the outcomes keep shrinking. I think the virus has mutated and is making the vaccines less effective with every passing day. We will need adjusted vaccines and boosters, and we'll need to keep taking other precautions.

 

[Bolo]

It is kind of interesting to see right-wing types make decisions that affect other people by choosing not to wear masks and get vaccinated. These same people get triggered everyday over the supposed choices democrats make that affect other people, such as "The Border Crisis under Biden" during covid. When you point out this hypocrisy, covid then magically reverts back to either, "It's a hoax" or "It's just the flu" as a deflection.

 

[zztop]

surprised considering he has been railing against vaccines etc, but not surprising this happened:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., revealed Wednesday that his wife bought stock in Gilead Sciences - which makes an antiviral drug used to treat the coronavirus - on Feb. 26, 2020, before the threat from covid-19 was fully understood by the public and before it was classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

The disclosure, in a filing with the Senate, came 16 months after the 45-day reporting deadline set forth in the Stock Act, which is designed to combat insider trading.

 

[superchuck500]

Meanwhile in Maine, Cindy Johansen, an officer with the Aroostock County (ME) GOP has died of respiratory failure due to Covid. Johansen and her husband, lawmaker Chris Johansen, were active on social media downplaying Covid, criticizing public-health measures and vaccines, and publicly refusing to follow mask mandates.

Her husband was also hospitalized with Covid but released last month. Both were unvaccinated.

Maine Lawmaker Who Opposed Coronavirus Restrictions Reportedly Has COVID-19

Rep. Chris Johansen, a Republican legislator from Monticello who has been an outspoken opponent of coronavirus restrictions, has reportedly contracted COVID-19.

www.mainepublic.org

 

[superchuck500]

Sort of interesting graphic.

 

[J-DONK]

Sort of interesting graphic.

My understanding is that minority groups are still very vaccine hesitant. Also, I remember reading that a fox news conservative is far more likely to have gotten the vaccine then a conservative who gets their news from facebook. I feel like demographics are playing into that some. With the older you are being the strongest indicator of having gotten the vaccine.

 

[Lapaz]

The poorer effectiveness of the vaccines isn’t uniform. Moderna is still doing well, but Pfizer has lost a lot of its effectiveness. I knew something was wrong based on the data I was seeing reported around the world. We need to narrow down which ones work and move in with those. I saw a report about one of the Russian vaccines being worthless, but the Sputnik is good.

Pfizer's vaccine could be less effective against the Delta variant, study suggests, even though vaccines help prevent serious illness or death

The preprint charted the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines given out in the Mayo Clinic Health System in Minnesota between January and July.

www.google.com

"The Moderna vaccine is likely — very likely — more effective than the Pfizer vaccine in areas where Delta is the dominant strain, and the Pfizer vaccine appears to have a lower durability of effectiveness," Soundararajan told Axios.”

Unfortunately this feeds the anti-Vaxers, but it seems to follow the data.

 

[coldseat]

The poorer effectiveness of the vaccines isn’t uniform. Moderna is still doing well, but Pfizer has lost a lot of its effectiveness. I knew something was wrong based on the data I was seeing reported around the world. We need to narrow down which ones work and move in with those. I saw a report about one of the Russian vaccines being worthless, but the Sputnik is good.

Pfizer's vaccine could be less effective against the Delta variant, study suggests, even though vaccines help prevent serious illness or death

The preprint charted the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines given out in the Mayo Clinic Health System in Minnesota between January and July.

www.google.com

"The Moderna vaccine is likely — very likely — more effective than the Pfizer vaccine in areas where Delta is the dominant strain, and the Pfizer vaccine appears to have a lower durability of effectiveness," Soundararajan told Axios.”

Unfortunately this feeds the anti-Vaxers, but it seems to follow the data.

From reading the article, I have a few questions. It says that 40% of the people in the study where over 65, but was that evenly split between Moderna and Pfizer? We know that Pfizer was approved first and first administered to those in nursing homes and over 60. Also, given the release of the two vaccines, were the people in the study that had Pfizer vaccinated longer than the people with Moderna?

I would think those two things would have to be controlled for to have a good comparison and study, but that's not clear in the article.

Also, I wouldn't clasiffy it as Pfizer losing a lot of effectiveness. There was a 10% difference in the two. Certainly no reason to stop administering Pfizer and just go with Moderna.

Over the course of the study in Minnesota, Moderna's vaccine was found to be 86% effective against a COVID-19 infection while Pfizer's was 76% effective. Both were also highly effective against hospitalization (Moderna 91.6%, Pfizer 85%), ICU admission (Moderna 93.3%, Pfizer 87%), and death from COVID-19 (no cases found).