Coronavirus

campgottagopee wrote

When I can't distance I wear one. I'm enjoying going out for dinner and drinks again. We'll only sit outside.

Outside is key.  18x greater chance of spreading indoors vs out.

I can't wait to see what Andrew does when other states ask for help.

Governor Cuomo  already sent ventilators to other states , that was mentioned in one of his earlier sessions .

It was also mentioned that many NYS medical pros have volunteered elswwhere, so the precedent already exists,  TJ  

https://abcnews.go.com/US/alabama-students-throwing-covid-parties-infected-officials/story?id=71552514

From the NYT today, while cases are spiking like crazy death count as a percentage is really dropping.

Probable causes:

• Older people are being very careful, new cases are much younger than in April

• Remdesivir is helping. It makes the recovery time less, reduces stress on the body improves outcome

• Increased testing is helping identify cases earlier

I guess, in the next month we'll know if that is enough to counter act the massive spike.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-exactly-do-you-catch-covid-19-there-is-a-growing-consensus-11592317650?mod=e2fb&

Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College will all be having in-person classes this fall. That brings 28,000 students back to Tompkins County.  This should be interesting.

WP

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-rules-of-social-distancing-health-experts-answer-your-questions-11592230050

wonderpony wrote

Cornell University, Ithaca College and Tompkins Cortland Community College will all be having in-person classes this fall. That brings 28,000 students back to Tompkins County.  This should be interesting.

WP

Just got back from Lake Placid.  Spent a week at a private house with the two families who are part of our "merged bubble" near Raleigh.  We stayed out of town except for a few grocery trips.  One evening, we visited with friends who live in LP.  The family includes a Cornell student.  We had take out dinner on the house porch (big house, huge screened porch).  He's a North Country School classmate and good friend of my daughter.  Students coming from the North Country probably won't be an issue for the colleges.

My daughter will be heading to UNC Asheville in mid-July to move her stuff into her dorm room.  It's a pre-move for people moving back to campus the weekend of August 8-9, with classes starting Aug. 10.  Students signed up for a 3-hour window during two July long weekends (Fri-Sun).  It's the reverse of the process that was used to let people empty their dorm rooms in March after the decision was made to close campus after the extended spring break.

The drive to/from NC to LP made clear the differences between the northeast and the southeast in terms of how people feel about face masks.  We mostly stopped at a Sheetz for gas or a restroom.  I take I-81/I-88, not I-95.  Lots of Sheetz in NC so it's been easy to see how the company adjusted starting early on.  In NY and PA pretty much everyone was wearing a mask inside.  In VA, while everyone keeps their distance there were always a few people without masks.  The sign on the door in VA said that masks were required but it would be assumed that anyone without a mask had a medical reason for not wearing one.

Masks.....uugghh.  

Ask two different nurses and one will say there is no science behind wearing them, while the other will say it’s a small inconvenience that can save your life.

Interesting to hear marznc’s mask observations.  Spikes in southern states that seems to have fewer mask wearers?  Who really knows if there’s any correlation....

I’m sure even medical professionals are somewhat incapable of rendering an opinion on the subject that isn’t somewhat colored by politics.

I’ve given up on trying to sort through the science and politics of COVID and masks.  Heck, even if I wanted to throw in with Joe and choose truth over facts....most people’s truths are defined by the content they consume, so good luck with that, right?

What I struggle with lately when it comes to masks is the passionate, no...vehement, pushback by some.  While news coverage of gun-toting protesters on State House steps has been pushed to the background with everything else that is going on, there’s a growing contingent of everyday citizens who push the freedom narrative.  

I understand that I am very fortunate, COVID hasn’t stolen my livelihood and threatened my home and financial future, and that the response to COVID impacts/restrictions is going to be very different for people not as fortunate as I have been so far in the COVID era.

That said, there are a lot of people  who see masks not as an inconvenience that could save your life (or someone else’s) or a symbol of the financial hardships they’ve been subjected to since March, but rather a direct (realistically perhaps more of a slippery slope) assault on the very freedoms upon which this country was founded.  America was founded in opposition to an unjust tyrannical government.  There are those who draw a direct line from wearing masks to acquiescing to be tagged and tracked and controlled by the government in a complete and total loss of freedom.

I really don’t know if those folks are patriots or fools.  Me, in this case I’m not willing to gamble a life to protect my freedoms, largely because I don’t see masks as the assault on freedom that some do, so I play the good sheeple and I wear the mask.

We couldn’t even make it to the fall before the second wave....uugghh.

My money is on masks are important. The countries that have beaten Covid (to date) are using them.

I think if you gave people a choice between paying their share of the 3 trillion and wearing a mask, they'd probably take the mask.

if this chart is wrong I’m open to the discussion but I have been noticing over the last month or so that people have been switching from one metric to another pretty freely. If this is accurate then there’s a lot more reason to be optimistic about how things are going then most people are acknowledging.

We'll know for sure in a month.

I read something tonight that predicted that a huge portion of the US has been infected and we are accumulating some herd immunity.

Fingers crossed.

Harvey wrote

I read something tonight that predicted that a huge portion of the US has been infected and we are accumulating some herd immunity..

What number is “a huge portion”? How and when did they get infected?

Virus spikes where people are blowing off masks and social distancing.  Everything I've read, case load is still growing, and we're nowhere near a peak.  3 million cases in a population of 330 million isn't enough to provide herd immunity.

Also there is not proof that getting Covid makes you immune..There is a good chance that herd immunity doesn't exists..

JasonWx wrote

Also there is not proof that getting Covid makes you immune..There is a good chance that herd immunity doesn't exists..

I‘ve heard other people say this repeatedly. Is there any evidence that antibodies don’t provide immunity? I mean, is there some reason to think this virus is all that different from most other viruses? Shouldn’t we expect that most people that get it will have some level of immunity until proven otherwise?

I tried to find it but I couldn't. I thought it was NYT but no.

NYT says:

More testing
Better treatment
Younger patients
Mask wearing

Also warns not to focus only on death. Other bad things happen.

The mask wearing thing is fascinating.  The theory: HOW MUCH virus you get matters. Getting a smaller does can infect you but not as bad.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/health/coronavirus-mortality-testing.html

ETA:

I also found this:

https://reason.com/2020/07/01/covid-19-herd-immunity-is-much-closer-than-antibody-tests-suggest-say-2-new-studies/

But I don't think that was the original article I saw.  Never heard of Reason, but it looks pretty political so it may not be trustworthy.

People who are not wearing masks are just being jerks,  we all know they work.  If you don't think they do you are part of the problem.  You can't cure stupid unfortunately.    I do like the death numbers, I never saw a chart before, it is encouraging.   The Vaccine is the show stopper but how it is being treated makes a huge difference as well...evidently.