The Virus - First Hand Reports?

[shinrai]

Originally Posted by kcf7z

This is one time that you need to realize that we are behind in our efforts to contain this. The media, I agree has a bad track record for reliability and sensationalism. This time though they may be underselling the issue. Our American principles of individual choice and don’t tell me what it do is going to be many people’s undoing.

I have been and am on 2 fronts. Someone who has had the virus and as a doctor. If it takes me to tell you this is not to be messed with then I am happy I have had influence in our community. Stay safe and stay home.

Asymptomatic people transmitting this are the biggest danger.

Thank you for the advice. More importantly THANK YOU for all of your efforts during this major event. I trust that you'll be able to build your health back over time.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by URY914

She'll be covered in the virus.

And she'll cover everyone else she sees in it too.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by URY914

Thank you. We have seen that story. We are cleaning our masks with ultra vielot light. It is the same machines we use to clean our patient rooms.

About three weeks ago I was directed to send my staff out to every Home Depot, Lowe's, paint store, hardware store, basically everywhere we can think of and buy all the safety glasses and face masks.

For the last week I've had contractors working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week building out empty shell patient floors into mass patient units. This week we're going to 2-12 hour shifts. We're adding about 350 beds in those floors. We took over our dining room to make it a patient ward. We have our mechanical contractor working 2 -12 hour shifts building temporary med gas head-walls in their shop. We're ordering the parts and pieces to add a second patient to every single patient room. We've bought 1200 cots for patients. Saturday I met with our oxygen supplier to add a trailer mounted tank at 3 of our hospitals. We're running 2" oxygen lines up the side of the building to feed these shell floors. Our peak in predicted to me May 3. April 24 is my deadline to get these floors ready for the surge.

Don't tell me the media is over blowing this thing. This is a result of our State and Federal government's inaction to plan and react.

Godspeed to you and your folks.

[pmax]

The PPE shortage problems are a result of basic human greed.

Report these flipper "entrepreneur" types if you know any.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx0sEoHTy_Q

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/15/coronavirus-price-gouging-men-hoarding-hand-sanitizer-urged-stop/5054155002/

... and these are the bit players when there's literally billions for the taking here.

No joke.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Well that’s too bad.
You’ve got your choices for information, the various news outlets, the government, and yoyos like the people in that video. Who do you trust implicitly? Hopefully no one. Who do you completely dismiss? Hopefully no one.
The trick is to be smart and critical and glean information from many sources.
Even the clowns in that video had some good information- the hospitals as shown in the news aren’t crowded 24/7. Good to know. Of course, like the news media, they then took it too far and implied that the hospitals are never busy.
It’s a jungle out there.

Hospitals have cancelled elective procedures and doctors' offices are instructing patients to consult by phone for non-serious conditions. This is partly to free up capacity and partly to reduce transmission. That's why you'll see some parts of some hospitals looking quiet, and why medical workers in some specialties are actually being laid off/hours cut (dermatologist, dentist, etc).

When this started, health officials looked at national average 2.6 hospital beds/1000 persons and typically 65% occupied, and realized they would need every one of those beds to be empty and ready. (In Oregon, 1.6/1000 - among lowest in nation.)

[tadd]

Originally Posted by techweenie

CNN aired an interview of a woman headed to a church for pre-Easter services (palm sunday?), who said she was unconcerned about coronavirus because she was 'covered in Jesus' blood.' So there are those folks as well...

I have truly never understood this attitude given one of the key tenants of Christianity is free will. If you accept that your supreme deity would allow you to decided to follow or not, then one would also have to expect that that deity would give you a brain... and expects you to use it.... cause well, you got free will.

Reminds me of that joke about the guy stuck on the roof during a flood praying for help. Boat comes by, refuses. Helicopter comes by, refuses. Ends up drowning and seeing god...asks why he was ignored. God say, well I sent a boat and helicopter, what did you want?!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Bad on the church, ours has been closed for weeks and doing mass via internet.

[techweenie]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Bad on the church, ours has been closed for weeks and doing mass via internet.

I think 99.9% of churches are doing that. Obviously the ones that make the news are the .01% that are flagrant.

[Rtrorkt]

Originally Posted by URY914

Thank you. We have seen that story. We are cleaning our masks with ultra vielot light. It is the same machines we use to clean our patient rooms.

About three weeks ago I was directed to send my staff out to every Home Depot, Lowe's, paint store, hardware store, basically everywhere we can think of and buy all the safety glasses and face masks.

For the last week I've had contractors working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week building out empty shell patient floors into mass patient units. This week we're going to 2-12 hour shifts. We're adding about 350 beds in those floors. We took over our dining room to make it a patient ward. We have our mechanical contractor working 2 -12 hour shifts building temporary med gas head-walls in their shop. We're ordering the parts and pieces to add a second patient to every single patient room. We've bought 1200 cots for patients. Saturday I met with our oxygen supplier to add a trailer mounted tank at 3 of our hospitals. We're running 2" oxygen lines up the side of the building to feed these shell floors. Our peak in predicted to me May 3. April 24 is my deadline to get these floors ready for the surge.

Don't tell me the media is over blowing this thing. This is a result of our State and Federal government's inaction to plan and react.

^^This
The government failed in its basic duty to keep its citizens safe. By downplaying the initial response and waiting until even the village idiot could see there was an issue, more deaths will occur than was necessary. CDC rolled out a test, too late in my view, that was flawed and could not be used. More than a week was wasted. When a test was available there were not enough and the kits did not have all of the components needed for testing. Then the two commercial labs that were authorized, though there were many more who were capable, were overwhelmed with 10 day turn around. Can't make treatment choices base on that.There were tests available from Germany and other countries that proved safe and effective, but our government said no, we only us US developed tests. Wasted more time. The only way to get out in front of these things is testing to know who and where. Total failure by the administration who disbanded the infectious disease group for no good reason. The media may be sensationalist, but when the dust settles, the only conclusion is a failure of leadership

[pmax]

NY's fate was sealed when the mayor said this



Obvious even to a layperson such as myself.

[93nav]

We are all whack jobs in one way or another. In some it is more readily apparent, others, it takes a while to appear.

Originally Posted by tabs

Well we can now tell who the whack jobs are on this Board now can't we?

[techweenie]

Originally Posted by Rtrorkt

^^This
The government failed in its basic duty to keep its citizens safe. By downplaying the initial response and waiting until even the village idiot could see there was an issue, more deaths will occur than was necessary. CDC rolled out a test, too late in my view, that was flawed and could not be used. More than a week was wasted. When a test was available there were not enough and the kits did not have all of the components needed for testing. Then the two commercial labs that were authorized, though there were many more who were capable, were overwhelmed with 10 day turn around. Can't make treatment choices base on that.There were tests available from Germany and other countries that proved safe and effective, but our government said no, we only us US developed tests. Wasted more time. The only way to get out in front of these things is testing to know who and where. Total failure by the administration who disbanded the infectious disease group for no good reason. The media may be sensationalist, but when the dust settles, the only conclusion is a failure of leadership

This is exactly my take on it. There is independent corroboration as well: https://www.wired.com/story/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coronavirus-testing/

[aigel]

Not a whole lot better here. Great fireman now, but if you set the blaze and then shine putting it out, how good a fireman are you really?

I don't think individual's greed made the PPE crisis. We were let down by our government. They did not do a proper risk analysis with mitigations, otherwise the fact that a respiratory virus could come take us by storm would have been mitigated by stockpiling PPE and equipment. I said this in other threads, but we have the biggest military in the world, missile defense systems, strategic oil reserves, cyber defense yadda yadda ... but can't stockpile a couple hundred million dollar's worth of PPE.

G

[93nav]

The problem with extreme reporting is that it has been going on for years, think hurricanes, snow storms, etc. Part of what is going on now is that some people think that the media is doing the same thing again.

TLDR: The media has cried wolf to many times in the past.

Note: I listen to NPR/MN PR, and until about half way thru March they were only scarcely covering it. They were too busy first with the impeachment, and then the Democratic primaries. They still are doing what I consider a very poor job of covering it and is onesided as well. Anything that Trump or his team members do is cast in a bad light. An example: one news segment said that the virus could not be to bad because Fauci had time to do interviews.

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Certainly there is a social benefit to the extreme reporting. Think about it...if the news were less sensational and frightening, thousands/millions would ignore the warnings about social interaction. As Americans, we don’t take orders well. Perhaps a bit of hype is helpful.

[93nav]

We did/do have a stockpile. Started by Clinton, enhanced by Bush, 75% +/- used by Obama for H1N1, and then not restocked by Obama or Trump.

Curios - What is your stockpile like for 'the big on' in LA/CA? Just wondering since a lot of people complain about the government for not planning, but not planning them selves. Not saying you are one of those, but I am sure you know of people like that.

Originally Posted by aigel

Not a whole lot better here. Great fireman now, but if you set the blaze and then shine putting it out, how good a fireman are you really?

I don't think individual's greed made the PPE crisis. We were let down by our government. They did not do a proper risk analysis with mitigations, otherwise the fact that a respiratory virus could come take us by storm would have been mitigated by stockpiling PPE and equipment. I said this in other threads, but we have the biggest military in the world, missile defense systems, strategic oil reserves, cyber defense yadda yadda ... but can't stockpile a couple hundred million dollar's worth of PPE.

G

[93nav]

Thanks for giving us a front line report on what your hospital is doing. Good Luck and Stay Safe.

Originally Posted by URY914

Thank you. We have seen that story. We are cleaning our masks with ultra vielot light. It is the same machines we use to clean our patient rooms.

About three weeks ago I was directed to send my staff out to every Home Depot, Lowe's, paint store, hardware store, basically everywhere we can think of and buy all the safety glasses and face masks.

For the last week I've had contractors working 12 hour shifts 7 days a week building out empty shell patient floors into mass patient units. This week we're going to 2-12 hour shifts. We're adding about 350 beds in those floors. We took over our dining room to make it a patient ward. We have our mechanical contractor working 2 -12 hour shifts building temporary med gas head-walls in their shop. We're ordering the parts and pieces to add a second patient to every single patient room. We've bought 1200 cots for patients. Saturday I met with our oxygen supplier to add a trailer mounted tank at 3 of our hospitals. We're running 2" oxygen lines up the side of the building to feed these shell floors. Our peak in predicted to me May 3. April 24 is my deadline to get these floors ready for the surge.

Don't tell me the media is over blowing this thing. This is a result of our State and Federal government's inaction to plan and react.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by 93nav

We did/do have a stockpile. Started by Clinton, enhanced by Bush, 75% +/- used by Obama for H1N1, and then not restocked by Obama or Trump.

Curios - What is your stockpile like for 'the big on' in LA/CA? Just wondering since a lot of people complain about the government for not planning, but not planning them selves. Not saying you are one of those, but I am sure you know of people like that.

In the 90th percentile for sure. I also prepared for covid before most people did worry about it. Gloves and face masks in late Jan and a $400 trip to Costco in late Feb. Also, we know how to cook, bake and butcher an animal. Probably would not be the first people in trouble.

G

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by aigel

In the 90th percentile for sure. I also prepared for covid before most people did worry about it. Gloves and face masks in late Jan and a $400 trip to Costco in late Feb. Also, we know how to cook, bake and butcher an animal. Probably would not be the first people in trouble.

G

Won't help much if it's all under a pile of San Francisco rubble. The government has been telling us the big one is a when, not an if. So when it hits, not if it hits, I'll be prepared to hear how the government failed by not permanently evacuating the fault lines decades ago.

[techman1]

Medical experts, explain / debate this thought:

Is it possible a history of always getting flu shots helps in the severity of the symptoms?
Your body is yearly introduced to and ramps up protection to a virus.

The possible explanation of children not as affected as much is their recent vaccinations.

How many of the 25-45 year old adults who had severe complications or death had never gotten flu vaccinations?
Just miscellaneous ramblings, not even a shade tree doctor.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

Won't help much if it's all under a pile of San Francisco rubble. The government has been telling us the big one is a when, not an if. So when it hits, not if it hits, I'll be prepared to hear how the government failed by not permanently evacuating the fault lines decades ago.

IDK - the big one was imminent when I went to middle school. It will be bad when it arrives. But suburban ranch style house? Not much to fall over. Maybe will hop off the foundation or catch on fire. Let's just pray we don't add natural disaster to the virus anywhere in the world.

G