The Covid-19 Thread: News, Preparation Tips, Etc

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
This is another map from the Financial Times coronavirus tracker.
There are currently nine (9) states that are not on lock down. They are highlighted in white.


 

Jmartjrmd

Well-Known Member
What are essential grocery items you’d be purchasing? MA will hit its peak in just under 2 weeks and I’m working on compiling a list of food that’ll last longest in case I can’t grocery shop for weeks.
Not all this is essential lol but this is what I have...
Rice, dry beans, pasta, things you can freeze like cheese and meat, canned veggies, canned fruit...I also get fresh veggies and seal and freeze..I don't do the canned unless I can find no salt versions...tuna in the packets, crackers, popcorn, nuts...I get the 100 cal snack packs, bottled water, bread..I like chibata rolls so that's what I get and I freeze that too, eggs, butter, taco stuff, pancake stuff, grits, oatmeal, spices, olive oil, tea bags, frozen yeast rolls, potatoes..I cook and freeze if i am not going to eat in a reasonable time, egg roll wrappers, shrimp, fish, gummie bears, oranges, chocolate chips...hey gotta make cookies!!, sugar, flour, onions, lemon and limes and if I'm feeling it ice cream and popcicles oh and kool aid packets.
I also have a stock of soap, toothpaste, toliet paper, paper towels, washing powder, dishwashing liquid, lysol spray, bleach, 70% rubbing alcohol, shampoo, paper towels, cleaning gloves, extra batteries, light bulbs, trash bags, freezer bags, stuff for my food saver...not a crazy amount just a bit more than I'd normally keep in the house. Just stuff that I need and dont want to have to run and get.
Tylenol, Advil, cough drops
I'm sure I left something but this will last me at least 6 weeks if not longer but it's only me and my niece and occasionally my man that comes for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
I was on NextDoor and a neighbor was complaining about food being more expensive at a grocery store. She felt they were price gouging. Another neighbor who works for a grocery chain responded. I've attached her response. Basically she's saying we should expect food to cost more because the supply chain can't handle the increased volume being consumed so they outsource but that raises the price and the expense is passed down to the store and ultimately the customer.

 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
This is good to know. I feel like the US and UK have not done enough regarding isolation and barrier measures and were way too slow to respond.
There is hope:
Looks like 25 days after complete lock down that one starts to see a small positive change.
Looks like 40 days after complete lock down that one starts to see major positive changes.


Italy and Spain death toll is plateauing, or leveling off. The next thing that usually happens is that the death toll will then start to decrease and decline. It's what Governor Cuomo calls, "The other side of the mountain".




First number of new infections decreases.

Second number of deaths decrease. Usually, you will see the number of deaths spike and increase before they go down. There is a lag time for deaths. Meaning, that even if the number of new infections has significantly decreased, there will be death among and from those that were infected.

 
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shelli4018

Well-Known Member
@shelli4018 How's your niece?

She’s doing much better! Still has lingering congestion and breathing problems. But it’s much better than before. She’s definitely on the mend.

How about you? I hope you’re doing better.

We think my husbands former BIL has it now. If so, he’s been symptomatic for a week. Had to close his restaurant while he takes to his bed. So far he has fever and body aches. I’m finding the first hand information shared here provides helpful information I can share with my family. So thanks for that.
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
I am having a nightmare moment. We sold our house before all of this began and bought another house. By the time all of this unfolded it was too late to renege on the deals. We are moving from a 6 bedroom 4 reception room house (4 sets of huge sofas) and 5 car garage (filled with DH crap, including 2 riding lawn mowers) to a 3 bedroom, 1 living room house. We had male relatives coming over from ny to help us move. Thats no longer happening for obvious reasons.

We cannot even get a rented truck to move. No moving companies are currently open. DH was diagnosed with sciatica 8 weeks ago. He was scheduled for sessions with a therapist but that was cancelled. A months worth of therapy would have been better than nothing.

For some reason I had the 2 houses overlap. So that we have one month to move from one house to the next. Doing this cost us several thousand dollars but the idea of having one day to move such a big house seemed crazy. That was a good thing. We will just have to move stuff every other day. Or every day if we have to. We have a suv. Not sure what we are going to do with the bigger items.

As I am writing this I just had a thought. In the summer I had a couple do the gardening from a local ad. The husband stank of booze at 11am and they were a rough looking lot but were nice. I wonder if I should reach out and ask them for one days work and pay them double. I feel I would be risking their health and our health.

The other option is to ask the new owners if we can leave the heavy stuff in the garage. They are not moving in right away. They are doing Reno to turn the house into a 2 family home.
 

Reinventing21

Spreading my wings
@Chicoro

That is great news! But how is the U.S. ever going to get there when we have nine states not doing lockdown, a bunch of pockets of people doing whatever they want including deliberately contaminating others and someone pretending to be president who won't lock down country due to exteme narcissism, arrogance and ignorance?

Some other countries are threatening, ticketing, jailing and behind closed doors likely shooting those that won' t comply.

Plus, our health and mental health systems are sorely lacking.

I fear 45 will look at other countries getting better and reopening and he will think, hey see I told you it wasn't so bad, we can reopen too-- it will just 'go away' without ever admitting why other countries were able to heal.

ETA: And then you have these egoists ^^ posted by @CurlyNiquee ...
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
Thanks this idea is very helpful. Never even thought of this. I live in Canada but we have a Craigslist equivalent. Maybe I could put an advert for a man with a van... I feel kind of stupid to be having this problem. It’s so first world. I don’t know why we bought such a big house. I guess it was a cheap fixer upper and I have a lot of nieces and nephews who come and spend summers with us.
If you’re in the US you can find day laborers on Craigslist or congregating near the big box hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s. I would also think small businesses and independent contractors would still be looking for work.

Hope you find someone.
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
Hello ladies. Watch this video. This is a VERY interesting theory! 80%of the videos I am sent are pure foolishness and face palmy but this is fascinating and they are in fact doing studies. It cannot help people already in hospital but it is interesting and I am going to post some articles to follow up on what this guy is saying. Any thoughts ladies?
 

prettywhitty

Well-Known Member
@Chicoro

That is great news! But how is the U.S. ever going to get there when we have nine states not doing lockdown, a bunch of pockets of people doing whatever they want including deliberately contaminating others and someone pretending to be president who won't lock down country due to exteme narcissism, arrogance and ignorance?

Some other countries are threatening, ticketing, jailing and behind closed doors likely shooting those that won' t comply.

Plus, our health and mental health systems are sorely lacking.

I fear 45 will look at other countries getting better and reopening and he will think, hey see I told you it wasn't so bad, we can reopen too-- it will just 'go away' without ever admitting why other countries were able to heal.

ETA: And then you have these egoists ^^ posted by @CurlyNiquee ...
I think other countries will deny us entry because of how lackadaisical and disorganized our country been as a whole. So our borders may reopen but no one is coming here. And we won’t be able to go international for a season.
 

january noir

Sunny On a Cloudy Day
A few years ago, my company (Novartis Pharma) distributed each employee a box of 3M N95 respirator masks and boxes of gloves during a possible coming pandemic that, thankfully, never materialized.

I used up all the gloves over the years using them with my henna and indigo treatments but forgot all about the masks! I found the box on a shelf in my laundry room when tidying up a few weeks back. Thank God! Since finding them, I use one every time I go out to buy groceries and supplies. For a while, I was one of the few people wearing a mask when out and about until recently. I even made a few "kits" with each kit containing a mask and gloves in a Ziploc bag. I keep them in my car for "just in case."

When I went to BJs last week, the cashier wasn't wearing a mask. She asked me where I got mine and that she couldn't find any. After I checked out, I went to my car to get one of the kits and gave it to her. She was very grateful.

I had to get used to wearing the mask because the strap made me develop a tension headache at first, but now I don't get one. I also recently purchased two face shields and several cute face masks that have filters but are not N95 compliant, just for style purposes that I can wear with the shields and/or goggles.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
@Chicoro

That is great news! But how is the U.S. ever going to get there when we have nine states not doing lockdown, a bunch of pockets of people doing whatever they want including deliberately contaminating others and someone pretending to be president who won't lock down country due to exteme narcissism, arrogance and ignorance?

Some other countries are threatening, ticketing, jailing and behind closed doors likely shooting those that won' t comply.

Plus, our health and mental health systems are sorely lacking.

I fear 45 will look at other countries getting better and reopening and he will think, hey see I told you it wasn't so bad, we can reopen too-- it will just 'go away' without ever admitting why other countries were able to heal.



I sincerely believe the US will get there. Americans are incredible. There is no more creative, more enterprising group of folks than Americans. We are not better than other folks, we just have some unique aspects about us culturally.

A note about the map in my post #2715.

There are 9 states that are not under lock down. Many people are concerned that if these states continue to resist lock down, they will prolong the coronavirus infection in the US.

Ideally, it would be best for them to lock down the same time as the other states. The virus is moving rapidly from East to West in the US. It is moving much slower from West East. The nine (9) states not under lock down have very small incidents of positive cases. We all know now that is how it always starts out. A little bit and then exponential explosion.

I think those states will likely became an epicenter and they will hit the apex and peak of infections later than a New York or a California. Regionally, you can look at US as being a big Europe. The states are in regions. For example, South Korea and Taiwan have had their peak infections and their economy is open. Italy and Spain are starting to plateau and may begin the taper down phase like China and South Korea.d

I really think if push comes to shove, the US will be able to handle these 9 states issues. The question is not will they have infections that will present on the curve, but when. By the time they are at that point, the US's largest economies, California and New York will most likely start to be approaching or be at where China, South Korea and Taiwan are.

To get out of this situation the fastest, as one entire nation, ideally every state should be in lock down at the same time. What may happen is that as the virus infection rate increases from East to West, eventually so the curve will decrease from East to West. I think state economies are going to come up in waves just like the infection peaked in various states in waves.

Other country populations and land sizes are the equivalent to state populations in the US. Spain , France, Germany and Italy all border one another, yet, they have different lock down timetables. Italy and Spain are plateauing just like China did. I think their economies will come back up one, by one.

In a parallel comparison, I think we will see the same thing in the US, various regions and state groupings may experience peaks and then flattening and descents in the curve for the US, at different times. One by one, those states that were previously an epicenter, will eventually turn on their economies.

There will be continued loss of life because scientific data has shown that deaths tend to spike even after there is a decrease in infection rates. Those spikes represent those people who were infected prior to the infection rate decreasing.

Hopefully, the state and region economies will re-open when the states themselves determine that they have their situations under control. It is quite possible that the Federal Government may take credit for it. That is something that is out of our control, including that of the state governors'.

New York is doing a surge and flex process, also called 'rolling deployment', across the state. I think the US is going to copy what New York is doing, which will be a surge and flex process across the US. Once places like New York and California are back up and running, they will probably dispatch people, equipment and personal protection equipment to states that develop a huge patient load, later in time when those other states begin to experience a climb in the infection rate.
 
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Ganjababy

Well-Known Member



JA YE1 day ago
Basically all countries have universal BCG vaccination other than the U.S., Canada, Italy, Spain and France.

supporting articles
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/health/coronavirus-bcg-vaccine.html

A recent analysis of the disparate toll the new coronavirus has taken on middle- and high-income countries found a correlation with B.C.G. policies, concluding that countries that did not implement or had abandoned universal B.C.G. vaccination have had more coronavirus infections per capita and higher death rates. (Low-income countries were excluded from the analysis because of unreliable Covid-19 reporting data and generally poor medical systems.)

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/in...ebate-over-old-vaccine/ar-BB128HgM?li=AAggbRN
COVID-19 link, as claimed
Researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) analysed the global spread of COVID-19, correlated it with data from the world BCG Atlas that shows which countries have BCG vaccine coverage, and came to the conclusion that countries with a policy for universal BCG vaccination have had a lower number of cases than those like the US, where universal BCG vaccination was discontinued after the incidence of TB came down, and Italy.

https://business.financialpost.com/...-vaccine-might-help-fight-the-new-coronavirus
Unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system, first-line defenses that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from establishing an infection. One study in Guinea-Bissau found 50% lower mortality rates in children vaccinated with BCG than in kids who did not get this vaccine. That is a much bigger drop in deaths than could be explained by a reduction in TB cases. Some studies have found similar reductions in respiratory infections among teens and the elderly.





 

shelli4018

Well-Known Member
Thanks this idea is very helpful. Never even thought of this. I live in Canada but we have a Craigslist equivalent. Maybe I could put an advert for a man with a van... I feel kind of stupid to be having this problem. It’s so first world. I don’t know why we bought such a big house. I guess it was a cheap fixer upper and I have a lot of nieces and nephews who come and spend summers with us.
Your house sounds like a palace. Lol!

I know you’ll make sure the contractor you choose wear masks and gloves.
 

january noir

Sunny On a Cloudy Day
Oh, and I purchased one of those toilet seat bidets (from TUSHY) because it was hell trying to find toilet paper in all the stores in my area and online. I managed to get a 24 pack of TP from BJs last week, but that was enough for me. I had to try and do something about that. I hope the bidet meets my expectations when I get it. I've always wanted one anyway.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I think other countries will deny us entry because of how lackadaisical and disorganized our country been as a whole. So our borders may reopen but no one is coming here. And we won’t be able to go international for a season.

I'm here in France and there are issues here, too. Countries in continental Europe don't discuss their issues and missteps openly. Add to the fact that many of these countries speak their native language, which may not be English, and thus their information may be more difficult to access. Because of the admiration there is for the US and because our language is English, it is much easier for the US to be scrutinized and criticized.

The difference is that the US shows it issues and openly discusses them, for better or for worse. I may not like everything that is being said and done in the US, but I prefer this openness. It creates more complexity but at least we have an idea of where people stand, whether one may agree with their stance or not.

I too may lose loved ones in the US.

Yet, as a whole, I see a light at the end of the tunnel for our beloved country.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
This information about the BCG vaccine sounds promising but I’m wondering about the numbers out of Jamaica and other countries that still administer the vaccine. Do we know how many people are being tested to have the confidence that their numbers aren’t artificially low?
 

Everything Zen

Well-Known Member
JA YE1 day ago


supporting articles
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/health/coronavirus-bcg-vaccine.html

A recent analysis of the disparate toll the new coronavirus has taken on middle- and high-income countries found a correlation with B.C.G. policies, concluding that countries that did not implement or had abandoned universal B.C.G. vaccination have had more coronavirus infections per capita and higher death rates. (Low-income countries were excluded from the analysis because of unreliable Covid-19 reporting data and generally poor medical systems.)

https://www.msn.com/en-in/health/in...ebate-over-old-vaccine/ar-BB128HgM?li=AAggbRN
COVID-19 link, as claimed
Researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) analysed the global spread of COVID-19, correlated it with data from the world BCG Atlas that shows which countries have BCG vaccine coverage, and came to the conclusion that countries with a policy for universal BCG vaccination have had a lower number of cases than those like the US, where universal BCG vaccination was discontinued after the incidence of TB came down, and Italy.

https://business.financialpost.com/...-vaccine-might-help-fight-the-new-coronavirus
Unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system, first-line defenses that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from establishing an infection. One study in Guinea-Bissau found 50% lower mortality rates in children vaccinated with BCG than in kids who did not get this vaccine. That is a much bigger drop in deaths than could be explained by a reduction in TB cases. Some studies have found similar reductions in respiratory infections among teens and the elderly.

BCG is already in short supply for other diseases. Namely bladder cancer as it is one of the only drugs available for this often overlooked malignancy. Bladder cancer is one of the more common types and has one of the highest rates of recurrence. This will severely hurt my company’s first BLA. Merck is the only company in the world right now that produces BCG. There are only so many times for recurrence when a TURBT (transurethral resection of a bladder tumor) can be done before the patient is forced to have a cystectomy (bladder removal) which is obviously a significant decrease in the patient’s quality of life.
 
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UmSumayyah

Well-Known Member
@Chicoro

That is great news! But how is the U.S. ever going to get there when we have nine states not doing lockdown, a bunch of pockets of people doing whatever they want including deliberately contaminating others and someone pretending to be president who won't lock down country due to exteme narcissism, arrogance and ignorance?

Some other countries are threatening, ticketing, jailing and behind closed doors likely shooting those that won' t comply.

Plus, our health and mental health systems are sorely lacking.

I fear 45 will look at other countries getting better and reopening and he will think, hey see I told you it wasn't so bad, we can reopen too-- it will just 'go away' without ever admitting why other countries were able to heal.

ETA: And then you have these egoists ^^ posted by @CurlyNiquee ...
Freedom has costs and benefits. During a pandemic yes an authoritarian government can freely and openly weld your doors shut, shoot you for coming out of the house and disappear you if you disobey orders and speak against them.

The downside to that is that at ANY time an authoritarian government can freely and openly weld your doors shut, shoot you for coming out of the house and disappear you if you disobey orders and speak against them.

A severe pandemic comes along every 50-100 years or so. You gotta live with that government all the time, and China shut down and disappeared the doctors for giving them bad news before they were forced to acknowledge that they had a problem.

Personally I am glad that Trump and anyone else in the future (I hope) doesn't have dictatorial powers. People in China can't even post pics of Winnie the Pooh because their dear leader is pissed at the comparisons of him to the bear. I don't want our president to be able to ban Saturday Night Live and imprison political cartoonists for making fun of him.
 

HappyAtLast

Simplicity & Peacefulness
I'm convinced that the problem is that the symptoms of this disease aren't jarring enough to convince people that this is truly life threatening. Now if the symptoms involved folks bleeding from their eyes and coughing up blood, there would be tumbleweeds rolling in the streets.

This was in DC yesterday. We'll never get through this if people won't stop being selfish and taking it seriously. :mad:

 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
Def not enough. The amount of people being tested in Jamaica is utterly ridiculous. As of 2 days ago it was under 300 for the whole country. But I think South Korea testing is high compared to some other countries and I think they still do the bcg, if I am not mistaken. SK (bcg) tested nearly 9k per million and has 4 deaths per million. Italy (no bcg) tested nearly 11k per million and has 254 deaths per million. Spain (no bcg) tested 7.5k per million and has 266 deaths per million.

Germany is an anomaly at nearly 12k cases per million but only 18 deaths per million because of their approach to social distancing and their broad based free testing which started in mid January (more testing than any country in Europe) and the fact that their health care system as very good. No lack of ventilators, among other factors.
This information about the BCG vaccine sounds promising but I’m wondering about the numbers out of Jamaica and other countries that still administer the vaccine. Do we know how many people are being tested to have the confidence that their numbers aren’t artificially low?
 
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Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
BCG is already in short supply for other diseases. Namely bladder cancer as it is one of the only drugs available for this often overlooked malignancy. Bladder cancer is one of the more common types and has one of the highest rates of recurrence. This will severely hurt my company’s first BLA. Merck is the only company in the world right now that produces BCG. There are only so many times for recurrence when a TURBT (transurethral resection of a bladder tumor) can be done before the patient is forced to have a cystectomy (bladder removal) which is obviously a significant decrease in the patient’s quality of life.

What is BLA, please?
 

shelli4018

Well-Known Member
I sincerely believe the US will get there. Americans are incredible. There is no more creative, more enterprising group of folks than Americans. We are not better than other folks, we just have some unique aspects about us culturally.

A note about the map in my post #2715.

There are 9 states that are not under lock down. Many people are concerned that if these states continue to resist lock down, they will prolong the coronavirus infection in the US.

Ideally, it would be best for them to lock down the same time as the other states. The virus is moving rapidly from East to West in the US. It is moving much slower from West East. The nine (9) states not under lock down have very small incidents of positive cases. We all know now that is how it always starts out. A little bit and then exponential explosion.

I think those states will likely became an epicenter and they will hit the apex and peak of infections later than a New York or a California. Regionally, you can look at US as being a big Europe. The states are in regions. For example, South Korea and Taiwan have had their peak infections and their economy is open. Italy and Spain are starting to plateau and may begin the taper down phase like China and South Korea.d

I really think if push comes to shove, the US will be able to handle these 9 states issues. The question is not will they have infections that will present on the curve, but when. By the time they are at that point, the US's largest economies, California and New York will most likely start to be approaching or be at where China, South Korea and Taiwan are.

To get out of this situation the fastest, as one entire nation, ideally every state should be in lock down at the same time. What may happen is that as the virus infection rate increases from East to West, eventually so the curve will decrease from East to West. I think state economies are going to come up in waves just like the infection peaked in various states in waves.

Other country populations and land sizes are the equivalent to state populations in the US. Spain , France, Germany and Italy all border one another, yet, they have different lock down timetables. Italy and Spain are plateauing just like China did. I think their economies will come back up one, by one.

In a parallel comparison, I think we will see the same thing in the US, various regions and state groupings may experience peaks and then flattening and descents in the curve for the US, at different times. One by one, those states that were previously an epicenter, will eventually turn on their economies.

There will be continued loss of life because scientific data has shown that deaths tend to spike even after there is a decrease in infection rates. Those spikes represent those people who were infected prior to the infection rate decreasing.

Hopefully, the state and region economies will re-open when the states themselves determine that they have their situations under control. It is quite possible that the Federal Government may take credit for it. That is something that is out of our control, including that of the state governors'.

New York is doing a surge and flex process, also called 'rolling deployment', across the state. I think the US is going to copy what New York is doing, which will be a surge and flex process across the US. Once places like New York and California are back up and running, they will probably dispatch people, equipment and personal protection equipment to states that develop a huge patient load, later in time when those other states begin to experience a climb in the infection rate.

1. At least half of the states refusing to lock down are sparsely populated. That may work in their favor if/when there’s an outbreak. My concern lies with vulnerable populations on reservations with very little resources. I understand some are banning outsiders to protect themselves.

2. California and Washington State have flattened the curve. Their economies may rebound much sooner than red states who are resisting. I wonder how that will play out in an election year?
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
I'm convinced that the problem is that the symptoms of this disease aren't jarring enough to convince people that this is truly life threatening. Now if the symptoms involved folks bleeding from their eyes and coughing up blood, there would be tumbleweeds rolling in the streets.

Interestingly enough, there have been several mentions of folks coughing up blood. It is not a symptom that presents in the majority of cases, based upon my limited understanding, but it is a symptom that has presented itself. I saw a video by Simone Gao where one woman was forcibly removed from her home in China. As she was being wrestled into the van, she dropped to the ground, then spewed blood filled vomit on the ground. The people who were trying to subdue here and place her in the van spread out and away from her, in unison. Two men in protective gear held onto her arms and held her up.
 

Chicoro

5 Year Shea Anniversary: Started Dec 16th, 2016!
1. At least half of the states refusing to lock down are sparsely populated. That may work in their favor if/when there’s an outbreak. My concern lies with vulnerable populations on reservations with very little resources. I understand some are banning outsiders to protect themselves.

2. California and Washington State have flattened the curve. Their economies may rebound much sooner than red states who are resisting. I wonder how that will play out in an election year?

Your points are very thought-provoking. I don't think you were looking for me to answer, but I of course I have to add that I personally have no idea how things will play out, either.
 
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