Covid 19 CRISIS

Jeez so what did they decide?

Apparently she's still conscious to be able to make the call herself, and knows it's a tough decision. My brother's wife had to work from home and to quarantine, so my brother and his 6-year-old daughter can't go home. They are camping in the back yard tonight, while they make arrangements with family/friends in the area.
 
Back to politics - British tabloid media claims Trump wants to buy ALL OF THE SUPPLY of the AstraZeneca vaccine away from under Britain's nose.

This of course is exaggeration and of course Trump can't get all the supply since emergency authorization in the EU and post-Brexit UK hinges on delivery commitments.

But the interesting tidbit here is the Trump administration seemingly considering to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine based on non-American trial data, with the US Phase 3 trial still on hold. This will not go down well regarding public confidence in the vaccine. Even I, as a pro-vaccine person, at this point think I'd rather go with one of the mRNA shots...
 


We are having a fairly steady rise in cases from mid September.
 
So are we, Illinois is making the southern half roll back into more restrictions because of a rise in cases, some of the suburbs around Chicago are also seeing a steady increase, but the hospitals are filling up, not at capacity yet, but that's not something you want of course.
 
My sister and her husband are feeling better, they were going to try to get tested today but I don't know if they were able to. I'm not saying their out of the woods yet though.

In other family news, I got the call last night that my godfather had passed away Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, not covid. He had been in hospice for the last few weeks but because of covid he was in quarantine himself, he could only see him through glass. And now my godmother has been exposed so she has to quarantine herself and can't even grieve with her daughters.
 
Dr. Peter Hotez warned the country is about to experience “one of the darkest chapters in modern American history” thanks to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

 
My brother's wife's really-beloved grandmother has it, and they need to decide to put her in a ventilator or not. They live in rural Wisconsin, and I know my brother and his wife have been reluctant participants in the general "chose life over fear" philosophy everyone there seems to have, which extra sucks.

Apparently she's still conscious to be able to make the call herself, and knows it's a tough decision. My brother's wife had to work from home and to quarantine, so my brother and his 6-year-old daughter can't go home. They are camping in the back yard tonight, while they make arrangements with family/friends in the area.

She died late this morning, after complications from pneumonia. She never went on a ventilator because she was afraid of the dangers.

Another cousin found out he has it this morning. He was feeling a little under the weather and got tested. Turns out his mom tested positive for the antibodies, but never knew she had it as she never felt ill. She went to donate blood, and a test is a part of that process now.
 
3 days after being at my parents house and checking out whatever was wrong with my sisters laptop, she goes "oh yeah, October 12 (speaking on the 19th) I was told someone tested positive at work."

I feel like I can't trust my own family now.
 
 
Rather similar to Honduras actually. It acts as a wave; as restrictions loosen and people have less if a desire to abide by them you will see the second wave hit the cities and then move similarly towards the rural areas.
 
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Funeral was Friday, a very small and quick (maybe 20 people and less than a half hour) service for obvious reasons. My sister couldn't attend because she STILL hasn't been able to get tested despite her best efforts.

In other news, unelected Gov Parson continues to do something between jack and shit for the rising rates other than shrug his shoulder while shoving his head up his ass. On this side of the river Pritzker is rolling us back because cases are spiking, and somehow there's still people thinking this is no big deal and there's no point in wearing masks.

covid 2.png


I don't know what the current thinking is on gloves, but I've been wearing either work gloves or disposable ones since this shit started in March. I've got a few very very old N95 masks, one that's a few months old and only used now and then, and a stash of the cheap disposable paper ones. The new mask sucks because it just doesn't cover my face, it's too damn small so it either exposes my nose or slips off my chin and exposes my mouth. I only wear it when I go into Walmart because it's always packed with people who either aren't wearing a mask or only have it covering part of their face. Any other time I use a paper one.

You'd think after more than half a year of this there would be a a ready supply of PPE out there, enough for everyone, but oh fuck NOOOOOOOO. Can't have that.

The most galling is that this was by fucking design, because orange fuckshit said "science is stoopid, me big braine no best, sicky cough go away soon, money me nao!".
 
And people think Pritzker’s soooo bad and oh he can’t tell us what to do.

Sure, that’s true, but remember that every business is private and can tell you to fuck off. Further, this just shows these people care only about themselves.
 
I don't know what the current thinking is on gloves, but I've been wearing either work gloves or disposable ones since this shit started in March. I've got a few very very old N95 masks, one that's a few months old and only used now and then, and a stash of the cheap disposable paper ones. The new mask sucks because it just doesn't cover my face, it's too damn small so it either exposes my nose or slips off my chin and exposes my mouth. I only wear it when I go into Walmart because it's always packed with people who either aren't wearing a mask or only have it covering part of their face. Any other time I use a paper one.

You'd think after more than half a year of this there would be a a ready supply of PPE out there, enough for everyone, but oh fuck NOOOOOOOO. Can't have that.

The most galling is that this was by fucking design, because orange fuckshit said "science is stoopid, me big braine no best, sicky cough go away soon, money me nao!".

From what I've read since the beginning, catching something from a surface is the least-likely way you'll get exposed. You're not going to absorb it through your skin, so gloves are to be used where you can change gloves, but can't wash your hands, so that you can remove your gloves and have clean hands underneath. The way you would catch it from touching something is by touching something, gloved or not, and then bringing it to your mouth, eyes, nose. To protect yourself, you'd either have to change gloves before touching your face, or washing your hands before touching your face.

From an updated page on the CDCs website:
"Spread from touching surfaces is not thought to be a common way that COVID-19 spreads"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...c77e28-13c3-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html

According to a study from UC Davis, it can actually live longer on gloves than on bare hands because skin has it's own microbial defenses (to a point).

Up through yesterday, when we come home from the grocery store, our process is to put the bags only on the floor (not the counters). One of us washes our hands, and opens the cabinet doors and refrigerator doors as necessary, and rearranges items so that the new "dirty" items go to the back, so we could still use anything that self-time-cleaned without touching dirty stuff, and then not using any of the cardboard items for a day (because that was frequently reported to be one of the shortest deactivation times). Anything else, we'd give at least three days, or wash the package. Last night, we bought hamburger buns for burgers. I opened the bag with my already-"dirty" hands, and she retrieved them with her "clean" hands. We leave all mail to decontaminate for a day. In case of packages that arrive, we rip open the package, and dump the contents out if they've spent enough time in transit to have self-cleaned (3-4 days).

However, we've realized that this has LIKELY been excessive, but didn't feel the real need to cut back until there was actual updated direction/clearances, and i *think* this most recent CDC update is enough to push us over the edge of cutting back on our defensive procedures.


As for masks, my mom made me 4 early on when I couldn't find any for sale anywhere, and I had literally donated ALL extra clothing and bedding, like, 2 weeks prior, so I'd have to cut into "good" clothes. :) Since then, I've bought 7 more. This gets us through about 2 weeks of grocery store stops, her site-walks for work, and a couple other small incidental trips like Target, gas station, hardware store, etc. I have a 10-pack of disposable ones in my car in case of emergency, but we use reusable fabric ones otherwise. For the cost of disposable ones, the reusable ones are way way more comfortable on ym ears and well worth it. If I get 30-50 uses out of a $10-15 mask, I've saved that many masks from going into the landfill, kept them available for those that needed them, and like I said, are more comfortable on my ears. I can send a couple links if you'd like. We used up our N95 months ago, but don't find ourselves in situations where we don't feel safe enough. The very VERY few stops we make are all in pretty controlled environments, and people here are mostly compliant except for the oblivious "dick-noser", or the people that feel the need to pull down their mask, and shout into the gab under the plexiglass screen when talking to a cashier, because they are old and maybe aren't quite all-together there.
 
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/26/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html

My state is "hospitals could be days away from using a patient's age, health and other factors to decide who can stay in crowded intensive care units, and who can't."

Which way is it going, though?
1) you're too sick and likely won't make it, so y ou have to leave.
2) We've set up a field hospital type environment where the less-at-risk people go (either because of less-serious cases, or less risk factors like better overall health, lower age, etc).

I ask, because for example, in Wisconsin, they've set up a field hospital at the State Fair grounds, and this is specifically scenario 2: set it up for people who need observation or some care, and free up space in the actual hospital for those who need it more.
 
They have an emergency hospital already set up in a local stadium, but don't have the people to staff it. It's going to be a calculus of age, overall health, and a guess at what your life is worth relative to the other 5 people who need that one ICU bed.
 
^I hear Wisconsin is working on doing the same thing...

Meanwhile here, we're worried about the increase and while initially the Chicago mayor was looking to oppose the Illinois governor as we're going back to "no indoor restaurant and bar service" along with some sports limited and certain types of exercising at fitness places.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coro...0201028-bmwmeotdlzevjpfqjxxq3on7jm-story.html

This is going to be difficult especially with what I'm seeing in Italy where people are starting to protest a second lockdown. This all sucks and it's difficult on what the best plan of action is. :/
 
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