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

naturalgyrl5199

Well-Known Member
There have been several mutations. This latest most recent one is even more contagious and that is highly problematic. We haven’t been able to get ahead of the original C19 which is contagious enough so...

There have been more updates:

The good news is that the vaccine has a good chance of being effective on all strains.

The bad news is that with the new strain’s rate of speed of transmission combined with people resistant to common sense and who are just plain selfish and who insist on acting like this is not serious and the fact that it will take awhile for the majority to get vaccinated...well... let’s keep doing what we are doing to stay safe and healthy.
Just heard the strain popped up in FL yesterday. So that means thousands are likely already infected. I told DH that I'll be wearing my face shield regularly now. I'll look silly. But IDC. These folk continue to be reckless here.
 

naturalgyrl5199

Well-Known Member
Day 2 Update:

My arm was more sore last night but less sore today. I feel pretty good. I was gonna go for a run but its raining here. So i'll relax a bit and enjoy a traditional southern meal with black-eyed peas, greens, chicken, mac & cheese cooked today. I did a little tidying and we'll have a glass of wine.


Happy New Year Ladies!
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member

Covid-19 Likely in U.S. in Mid-December 2019, CDC Scientists Report

New analysis of blood donations finds virus was present on West Coast earlier than previously believed​



CDC scientists found evidence of infection in 106 of 7,389 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross.​

The new coronavirus infected people in the U.S. in mid-December 2019, a few weeks before it was officially identified in China and about a month earlier than public health authorities found the first U.S. case, according to a government study published Monday.

The findings significantly strengthen evidence suggesting the virus was spreading around the world well before public health authorities and researchers became aware, upending initial thinking about how early and quickly it emerged.

Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found evidence of infection in 106 of 7,389 blood donations collected by the American Red Cross from residents in nine states across the U.S., according to the study published online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The scientists based their study on blood samples that the American Red Cross collected between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17 and later sent to the CDC for testing to see if any had antibodies to the new coronavirus, which is named SARS-CoV-2.

“SARS-CoV-2 infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than previously recognized,” the authors wrote.

A person’s immune system develops antibodies when exposed to a pathogen like a virus to fight it off. Their presence suggests exposure to a virus.

In analyzing the blood samples, the CDC scientists found antibodies in 39 samples from California, Oregon and Washington state collected between Dec. 13 and Dec. 16.

The findings suggest there were isolated cases of coronavirus infection on the U.S. West Coast in mid-December, the scientists wrote.

They also found 67 samples with antibodies in Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin or Iowa, and Connecticut or Rhode Island collected between Dec. 30 and Jan. 17.

Those findings indicated that cases were more dispersed—yet still isolated—by early this year.

The scientists said they ruled out the possibility that the antibodies they found had developed to fight off other coronaviruses, which cause the common cold. They did that by looking for antibodies specific to the new coronavirus in 90 of the samples.

They said they found antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 in 84 of the samples, or nearly all of them.


The results add to growing evidence suggesting Covid-19 was present outside of China earlier than previously known. Researchers found the virus, for example, in a retrospective analysis of a specimen from a patient who was hospitalized in France on Dec. 27, 2019.

The first Covid-19 case in the U.S. was reported on Jan. 19, two days after testing for the virus began there, the CDC researchers said. A young man returning from China a few days earlier suspected he might have the disease and sought care for his symptoms.

Two other people who were subsequently diagnosed in the U.S. also developed symptoms in mid-January.

Earlier studies have also suggested that Covid-19 had moved beyond just isolated cases and was spreading in communities in the U.S. by mid- to late-January, though epidemiologists say that the virus likely didn’t circulate widely in communities until later in February.

The new study shows the value of screening routinely collected blood samples for evidence of viruses spreading in a population, the CDC authors said, adding that the agency is continuing to conduct surveillance for Covid-19 this way.

Not only did Covid-19 likely appear in the U.S. earlier than previously known, but researchers have found evidence that the virus is far more widespread in the U.S. than testing indicates.

Some 53 million people in the U.S. likely had contracted Covid-19 by the end of September, according to a modeling estimate published last week by CDC researchers. Roughly 6.9 million infections had been confirmed within that time period, suggesting that roughly one in every eight cases was identified.


Yet, the majority of the U.S. population hasn’t been infected. On Nov. 24, a CDC study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine estimated that fewer than 1% to 23% of people in the U.S. had antibodies, depending on the location.
 

Black Ambrosia

Well-Known Member
Citing incoming travelers, Turkey becomes the 33rd country to find the virus variant first identified in Britain.

Turkey slammed its doors to travelers from Britain on Friday, saying that it had found 15 infections with the new, more transmissible variant of the virus that first emerged in England. All were among recent arrivals from the United Kingdom.

Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, issued a statement saying that the 15 people infected with the variant were in isolation and that their contacts were being traced and placed under quarantine. In countrywide checks, the statement said, the virus had not been detected in anyone other than travelers who arrived from Britain.

The finding brings the number of countries that have detected the variant to at least 33 since Britain announced finding it on Dec. 8, and the number of countries barring travelers arriving from Britain to more than 40. Some countries are also imposing restrictions on travelers, including U.S. citizens, who in recent weeks visited the countries where the variant has been detected.

The Philippines expanded restrictions on travelers from Britain and 18 other countries, adding the United States after a third state, Florida, reported an infection involving the variant. Many countries have already restricted travel from the United States because of its staggering number of infections — the most in the world.

California and Colorado have also found cases involving the variant. None of those infected in the United States had traveled recently, so the new strain is clearly circulating, though at unknown levels.

The variant, known as B.1.1.7., has not been known to lead to more severe cases of Covid-19, but its circulation is likely to portend more infections and more hospitalizations at a time when many countries are already battling surges in caseloads and anticipating more from holiday gatherings and travel.

The list of countries that have identified infections with the variant has been growing rapidly, and as of Friday includes — besides the United States, Britain and Turkey — Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates.

In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has emerged, sharing one of the mutations seen in B.1.1.7., according to scientists who detected it. That variant, known as 501.V2, has been found in up to 90 percent of the samples whose genetic sequences have been analyzed in South Africa since mid-November.

The British authorities said they have detected two cases of the variant identified in South Africa. In both cases, the infected people had been in contact with people who had traveled to Britain from South Africa in recent weeks. Switzerland, Finland, Australia, Zambia and France have also detected the variant.

And on Dec. 24, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, announced the discovery of yet another variant, this one in Nigeria, called B.1.207.
 

vevster

Well-Known Member

For the better part of a year, doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals have held out hope for a means to beat the COVID-19 pandemic -- but now that the solution is here, some of those frontline fighters are as afraid of the cure as they are the disease.
Doses of coronavirus vaccine are “literally sitting in freezers” in parts of rural Georgia because health care workers there are refusing to take it, the state’s public health director Kathleen Toomey said during a Thursday news conference, 11Alive reported.
“That’s unacceptable,” Toomey said. “We have lives to save.”

Wednesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine decried vaccine fears in his state, saying that 60% of nursing home staff had opted not to get inoculated against the coronavirus, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Similar scenarios are playing out in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Less than half of the 700 eligible workers at a hospital in Tehama County took the vaccine when it became available, and a fifth of the medical staff at a hospital in the LA suburb of Mission Hills turned it down as well, the LA Times reported.​

The reluctance to be among the first to take either Moderna or Pfizer’s COVID vaccine -- both of which were created, tested, and shipped out at unprecedented speed -- comes despite repeated reassurance from experts that they are safe and effective.
“We need to put to rest any concept that this was rushed in an inappropriate way,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a November press conference of the coronavirus task force, McClatchy News previously reported.
The two vaccines proved roughly 95% efficacious in human trials.
“Help is on the way,” Fauci said.

Officials have known for months that some of the general public was hesitant toward the vaccine, McClatchy reported. Where health care workers stood on the issue was foggier.​

Not everyone is surprised to see that some in the medical profession are distrustful of the rapidly produced vaccine -- even in the face of evidence that it’s safe.
“I feel like the perception of the public with health care workers is incorrect. They might think we’re all informed of all of this. They might think that because we work in this environment,” Nicholas Ruiz, an office assistant at a Salinas, CA medical center told the LA Times. “But I know there’s a lot of people that have the same mentality as the public where they’re still afraid of getting it.”
April Lu, a 31-year-old nurse, who is six months pregnant, opted out.
“I’m choosing the risk — the risk of having COVID, or the risk of the unknown of the vaccine,” Lu told the LA Times. “I think I’m choosing the risk of COVID. I can control that and prevent it a little by wearing masks, although not 100% for sure.”

Dr. Fauci took the vaccine on camera earlier this week, one of several public figures to do so, in an effort to build trust.
He described the side effects as “nothing serious at all,” and “even as good or better than an influenza vaccine,” McClatchy reported.
Most of the country is further behind on coronavirus vaccine distribution than expected; the rollout process has been slow going, McClatchy reported. Fewer doses have been administered than hoped, as well.
So far, 2 million doses have been used out of the 14 million shipped to states in the U.S.
“That number is lower than what we had hoped for,” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser on the government’s vaccine rollout said. “We know it should be better, and we are working hard to make it better.”

 
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BonBon

Well-Known Member

England health officials defend contingency plan to mix Covid vaccines​

PHE says it is reasonable to mix the two approved vaccines in exceptional circumstances


A researcher working on the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
A researcher working on the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. Photograph: John Cairns/University of Oxford/PA

Officials have defended England’s vaccine regimen after details of a contingency plan to mix the two approved jabs in a small number of cases emerged.
Public Health England’s Covid “green book” recommends that “it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule” if the same vaccine used for the first dose is not available. But it adds: “There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the Covid-19 vaccines although studies are under way.”
Criticism erupted following the publication of a New York Times report which quoted the virologist Prof John Moore from Cornell University in the US, who said “there are no data on this idea whatsoever” and that British officials “seem to have abandoned science completely now and are just trying to guess their way out of a mess”.
 

naturalgyrl5199

Well-Known Member
I can’t see out of my face shield.. I ended up throwing it away.
Sometimes there is a film on either side. When I got the 1st one at work, I pulled one side off then complained. My staff kinda giggled and showed me where I am supposed to pull off the other side as well.
I just so happened to be in Target yesterday and a sister had one on her and then some cute ones on her son and daughter. I went to Sams club and saw some cute character ones (3 pack for $7.99) and bought them. The top has a little unicorn head and the other was a lamb. They loved it and had no problems. Of course I thought of this thread.

Ya'll the only ones who don't make me feel crazy.
 

Evolving78

Well-Known Member
Sometimes there is a film on either side. When I got the 1st one at work, I pulled one side off then complained. My staff kinda giggled and showed me where I am supposed to pull off the other side as well.
I just so happened to be in Target yesterday and a sister had one on her and then some cute ones on her son and daughter. I went to Sams club and saw some cute character ones (3 pack for $7.99) and bought them. The top has a little unicorn head and the other was a lamb. They loved it and had no problems. Of course I thought of this thread.

Ya'll the only ones who don't make me feel crazy.
I can’t see because of my glasses. It’s the glare it causes. But I’m getting a new script, so I will try them out again.
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
I took the vaccine this morning and other than mild soreness...I feel fine. I took it with Healthcare workers and other EMT, Fire, Paramedic and Health Department employees. For the 65+ crowd, it was pandemonium. Police had to be called to remove those who were attempting to jump the line and even come into where health care workers were. Our local paper put out misinformation, my coworkers who take appointment calls have been cursed out by these older folk or their kin, and have had their lives threatened. Yesterday I consoled a 66 year old woman who takes the calls and was stressed. I check in with the CDC with V-safe for a symptom check.

This afternoon, Dr. Bernard Ashby and about 20 other black docs invited me to a Clubhouse meeting to discuss the vaccine. There were 200 attendees. He wants me to speak next time. Its an open forum...all black folk-led. Straight no chaser. They had one dude come in asking about aborted fetal cells. They let the sister who studied cell biology and vaccines gently educate the brother. I loved hearing so many black women docs. There were plenty of black male docs and they all just vibed together so well. They deferred to whomever was the professional on the subject. Many black women docs were also PhDs who were like Microbiologists, Virologists, Lab clinicians IN ADDITION to having medical degrees. I was supposed to be doing my own coursework but let it go by the wayside bathing in all that Black Woman Magic and Black Male Excellence! They discussed the Bells Palsy and the forum was wild. Some docs had even opted out of the vaccine because they too had concerns. Everyone thought it was good they waited, while others were congratulated for taking the jump. No judgement...all love, down to earth. It was great. This is what's needed.

Majority of the physicians got the vaccine. One had fever the next day. I loved the brother who explained what all our symptoms were (the immune response starts at the injection site, hence the soreness), and the fevers are normal since, fever is the immune system doing its thing. Dr. Ashby says he did an antibody test and was antibody positive 6 days after the vaccine. We both got Moderna. We are hearing its 80% effective after dose 1. The next dose is 28 days later.
Thanks for sharing this xxx
 

Ganjababy

Well-Known Member
The infection control nurse continued putting the covid swabs in the patient’s medication fridge. I had to email the director of our department again and threatened to report us to the health department. He got a fridge for the covid specimens the same day. Within 2 hours!

I realized the icn was using the medication fridge because there was no space in our regular specimen fridge. But still. I had to send a gangsta email to my own boss. I hate doing that but will do stuff like that if pushed.
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
Just heard the strain popped up in FL yesterday. So that means thousands are likely already infected. I told DH that I'll be wearing my face shield regularly now. I'll look silly. But IDC. These folk continue to be reckless here.
I have been wearing a face shield with mask since after Thanksgiving weekend. We had so many people test positive or come in close contact that we just shut everything down the last 2 weeks of the year. The only thing is that my face shield has the insert to cover my glasses but I really want one with that head band thing to seal off anything dropping between my face and the mask. Unfortunately I think wearing contacts might have me more likely to rub my eyes during the day and that's a no no.
 

brg240

Well-Known Member
People are so dumb. :I someone was arguing that lockdowns don't work, but, East Asia and Australia/NZ are doing okay comparatively. :/

Anyway.

I work in an office, but because of my dept I work in the office 4 to 5 days a week (have been this whole time.) Well, we brought people back in Sept - to Nov but covid spiked and most people went back home. But, now once again we're bringing them back as cases rise here and while a coworker is burying his brother bc of covid.

Why?

I know I'm going to be so stressed when they're back:( I have to cover for our receptionist I'm not looking forward to being out in the open
 
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