January 27, 20214 yr 11 minutes ago, Toastrel said: So, the more PPE you wear, the less risk there is of catching the disease? Golly! Toaster over here with a box of masks willing to strap as many to his face and body as Fauci tells him to at a moment's notice.
January 27, 20214 yr How is this even feasible? You generally can't get a test unless you have symptoms, and if you DO get a test, the turnaround time seems to be around a week. So, if you're travelling, I guess you just have to hope you can schedule a test about 10 days beforehand and hope you get the results in time? Also, hasn't the data shown that transmission on airplanes is virtually nil? Quote US 'actively looking' at requiring COVID testing before domestic flightsWASHINGTON -- The Biden administration is "actively looking" at requiring COVID-19 tests before domestic flights, a senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said on Tuesday."These are conversations that are ongoing," CDC Director for the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine Marty Cetron told reporters, "and looking at what the types and locations of testing might be. We're actively looking at it."This would be an expansion of the administration's mandatory testing requirement for U.S.-bound travelers that took effect on Tuesday. All travelers flying into the U.S. must now provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, taken no more than three days before their flight, or they will be denied boarding.https://6abc.com/health/us-actively-looking-at-requiring-covid-testing-before-domestic-flights/10067906/?fbclid=IwAR0zvtDNgB5sCGrWJAGBTZQUYRxGqIMz5nVhorMfSvj-zx3TjD2UFsCA6q8
January 27, 20214 yr 8 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: How is this even feasible? You generally can't get a test unless you have symptoms, and if you DO get a test, the turnaround time seems to be around a week. So, if you're travelling, I guess you just have to hope you can schedule a test about 10 days beforehand and hope you get the results in time? Also, hasn't the data shown that transmission on airplanes is virtually nil? You expect Grand pop pop to come up with sane ideas? "I remember my first flight. I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. So anyway, to take these flights we just take a test to make sure you aren’t sick” -Joe Biden
January 27, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, paco said: You expect Grand pop pop to come up with sane ideas? "I remember my first flight. I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say. So anyway, to take these flights we just take a test to make sure you aren’t sick” Great epsiode. IMO the only reasonable option would be rapid testing on-site at airports.
January 27, 20214 yr 5 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: How is this even feasible? You generally can't get a test unless you have symptoms, and if you DO get a test, the turnaround time seems to be around a week. So, if you're travelling, I guess you just have to hope you can schedule a test about 10 days beforehand and hope you get the results in time? Also, hasn't the data shown that transmission on airplanes is virtually nil? Turn around should be much quicker than a week unless the system is totally overwhelmed where you are. But still 72 hours ain't easy either. I guess you could try a rapid test which would be better than nothing, but still a logistical nightmare given their "meh" accuracy and the inevitable twats who will refuse and throw a hissy fit. I do think there should be significant punishment for people who lie in the screening questions about symptoms or recent exposure though. But that's obviously more retroactive than proactive.
January 27, 20214 yr Given that we may need to fly to Florida at the drop of a hat in May, Biden can take that plan and shove it.
January 27, 20214 yr 9 minutes ago, paco said: Given that we may need to fly to Florida at the drop of a hat in May, Biden can take that plan and shove it. We literally just bought tickets to Hawaii for June, then this comes out. I will follow all protocols without complaint, just make it possible for me to do so is all I'm saying.
January 27, 20214 yr 3 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: We literally just bought tickets to Hawaii for June, then this comes out. I will follow all protocols without complaint, just make it possible for me to do so is all I'm saying. You need a negative test to fly to Hawaii. Within 72 hours I believe.
January 27, 20214 yr 13 minutes ago, vikas83 said: You need a negative test to fly to Hawaii. Within 72 hours I believe. Well, I can modify the flight itinerary for free if I need to. I thought that was for international travel, but you appear to be correct. 🙃 Thanks for the heads up. As a school employee, hopefully I can be vaccinated by then.
January 27, 20214 yr 34 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: Well, I can modify the flight itinerary for free if I need to. I thought that was for international travel, but you appear to be correct. 🙃 Thanks for the heads up. As a school employee, hopefully I can be vaccinated by then. CVS tests regardless of symptoms or lack there of - $139. I got my results in less than 48 hours. Drive thru - by appt only.
January 27, 20214 yr 54 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said: We literally just bought tickets to Hawaii for June, then this comes out. I will follow all protocols without complaint, just make it possible for me to do so is all I'm saying. We wont have the luxury of waiting for a test
January 27, 20214 yr Just now, paco said: We wont have the luxury of waiting for a test Oh, I got that. I hope it doesn't come to that for you.
January 28, 20214 yr 5 hours ago, EaglesRocker97 said: How is this even feasible? You generally can't get a test unless you have symptoms, and if you DO get a test, the turnaround time seems to be around a week. So, if you're travelling, I guess you just have to hope you can schedule a test about 10 days beforehand and hope you get the results in time? Also, hasn't the data shown that transmission on airplanes is virtually nil? well that explains why my airline stocks dipped today. if they dip more I'm buying in more. no way the gub'mint lets Delta and United flop, so long-term should be good.
January 28, 20214 yr I have tickets to the US 1st of May. I'm now working under the assumption that there won't really be any travel until the fall at best. The restrictions are going to pile up further as we move into the vaccination period. That is likely the right thing to do as the vaccines are actually entering more virus into the environment. We need to get over the herd immunity level now before we loosen up again and that is going to take some time given the supply and distribution issues.
January 28, 20214 yr 8 minutes ago, DrPhilly said: I have tickets to the US 1st of May. I'm now working under the assumption that there won't really be any travel until the fall at best. The restrictions are going to pile up further as we move into the vaccination period. That is likely the right thing to do as the vaccines are actually entering more virus into the environment. We need to get over the herd immunity level now before we loosen up again and that is going to take some time given the supply and distribution issues. Yeah I was hoping to get across to Chicago to see my brother in the summer but I suspect it's going to be more like September / October at best.
January 28, 20214 yr 5 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said: Yeah I was hoping to get across to Chicago to see my brother in the summer but I suspect it's going to be more like September / October at best. Indeed. I've been talking about this rise in restrictions/lockdowns/etc. that would be necessary once the vaccine got underway. That has started now. One small example in my country is that Sweden has banned any travel from Norway due to the spread of the mutated versions in Norway. Norway has also just today (or was it yesterday) now banned any travel from Sweden. There are some super limited exceptions in both directions. I expect to see more of this type of thing.
January 28, 20214 yr 8 minutes ago, DrPhilly said: Indeed. I've been talking about this rise in restrictions/lockdowns/etc. that would be necessary once the vaccine got underway. That has started now. One small example in my country is that Sweden has banned any travel from Norway due to the spread of the mutated versions in Norway. Norway has also just today (or was it yesterday) now banned any travel from Sweden. There are some super limited exceptions in both directions. I expect to see more of this type of thing. I think it's the way that all countries should go until everyone has been vaccinated and until we can sort some kind of annual booster. At this point if you told me we need to lock down the UK for 9-12 months but that within 3 months we could all have our normal lives back (albeit not being able to travel abroad) then I'd take that in a heart beat.
January 28, 20214 yr 20 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said: I think it's the way that all countries should go until everyone has been vaccinated and until we can sort some kind of annual booster. At this point if you told me we need to lock down the UK for 9-12 months but that within 3 months we could all have our normal lives back (albeit not being able to travel abroad) then I'd take that in a heart beat. Some sort of plan like that would be very useful for everyone. Going to be quite tricky though given that there are many params that play into this and very hard to nail a timeline. Get it wrong and there is a real risk of public distrust, etc. The bottom line is that there is no easy answer. There never has been with COVID despite what some in here and elsewhere like to assert.
January 28, 20214 yr 35 minutes ago, DrPhilly said: Some sort of plan like that would be very useful for everyone. Going to be quite tricky though given that there are many params that play into this and very hard to nail a timeline. Get it wrong and there is a real risk of public distrust, etc. The bottom line is that there is no easy answer. There never has been with COVID despite what some in here and elsewhere like to assert. Some countries have executed this plan and it has worked though. The UK should have followed the New Zealand model! They are back to normal life even holding music festivals etc.
January 28, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, DrPhilly said: Some sort of plan like that would be very useful for everyone. Going to be quite tricky though given that there are many params that play into this and very hard to nail a timeline. Get it wrong and there is a real risk of public distrust, etc. The bottom line is that there is no easy answer. There never has been with COVID despite what some in here and elsewhere like to assert. This is not true. There is an easy answer to the pandemic. What worked in the Black Death and the 1918 flu still works. It is the same basic stuff used in hospitals and medical practices all over the world. People pretend it is impossible. People here and in Sweden (and other places) prefer not to be bothered. They prefer to NOT follow simple hygienic precautions. It is too much work. Too limiting. Too harsh on your ability to socialize. The flu season this year proves the point. Because of even the few people who seem to be onboard with following guidelines for masking and social distancing are lowering the spread of the flu. Vaccinations are up. Sadly, COVID is worse than the flu, easier to catch, easier to spread and more deadly. The reason some countries do poorly is pretty clear. The people are self-entitled scumbags too stupid to come in out of the COVID rain.
January 28, 20214 yr It amazes me that people continue to claim that masks do not work and infringe on their basic rights somehow... My SIL works in a resident mental health facility. She wears full PPE at work while dealing with patients all day every day. Covid has been running through her facility recently but she, and most of the workers, have remained healthy by wearing their N95 masks, face shields, gloves, etc. A couple of weeks ago she was sitting in her office with door closed eating her lunch when one of her residents had an episode and burst through the door and came into direct contact with her. He was Covid positive and, she is now too. At the time she did not know he was Covid positive and visited her parents who are both over 70. She wore her full PPE in their house and kept her distance, and so far they are both fully healthy and have had negative tests (I think they are outside the 10-day window at this point). Masks work if worn properly. Protect yourselves and those around you, people.
January 28, 20214 yr 1/24/21 COVID-19 Update It is embarrassing that the US, with only 4% of the World's population accounts for 20% of the World's Covid Deaths. It may surprise some to learn that the US ranks 27th in the World in the Quality of Health Care Delivered, despite spending at least twice as much per capita as any other Country. There has been a tragic disconnect between those in the healthcare system attempting to save lives and many other segments of society who choose to the deny the ravages of the virus. Some would suggest that the pandemic has made glaringly clear, that inadequacies in the public health infrastructure were somehow responsible for our poor outcome. I could not disagree more!! The irrational messages from government leadership, rampant denial of science at all levels of society (even in healthcare where physicians {some times noted} touted Vitamin D and hydroxychloroquine as effective treatments, and the new head of the CDC routinely used Remdisivir) and where personal freedoms were deemed more important than life itself, the Public Health Care System never had a chance. EMERGENCE OF SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 LINEAGE - UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 21,2020 - JANUARY 12-2021 Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report Summer Galloway, PhD On 12-14-20 the UK reported a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (B.1.1.7) This variant (a virus that has several mutations from its ancestor) most likely emerged in September and has quickly become the dominant variant in England. It is not unusual for a delay in recognition to occur. There must be enough reproduction to increase prevalence and it must then "look" different. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 existed in both China and the US for months before they were recognized in late 2019 early 2020. As of January 13, 2021, approximately 76 cases of B.1.1.7 have been detected in 10 US states. Since the US sequences only 0.5% of its samples, this most likely represent an underestimation of its true prevalence at this time. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that B.1.1.7 is more efficiently transmitted than other SARS-CoV-2 variants. Modelling by the CDC suggests that the B.1.1.7 variant will become the dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 by some time in March. Increased efficiency of transmission will increase the population immunity needed for pandemic control. If the increase in new cases in the US caused by this new variant mirrors that seen in the UK, many healthcare systems will be overwhelmed. Enhanced genomic surveillance, better compliance with mitigation protocols and increased vaccination are going to be essential to controlling the spread of B.1.1.7. There have been several new variants that have also been recognized in Brazil, South Africa and the Netherlands. The B.1.1.7 variant contains a mutation in the S protein (part of the spike protein) which effects the shape of the receptor binding domain. Currently there is NO evidence that more efficient transmission is also associated with increased lethality or that the variant is resistant to our current antibody response. It must be evident to most, that the longer this virus remains in play, the greater the likelihood that other variants will appear. This should not cause panic but it should neither be comforting. Stricter compliance with masking, distancing and hand hygiene has never been more important. There is no doubt in my mind that our new President will have a more rational message. I hope that he is persuasive and tenacious in his effort to get this virus under control. If he must be stern let it begin immediately on January 21, 2021. COVID 19 TRANSMISSABILITY Dr. Ben Neuma Professor of Biology Texas A&M Chief Virologist at Global Health Research 1-18-21 1. The initial amount of virus inoculum will determine the course of clinical disease to some extent 2. In animals 10,000 to 100,000 virus per animal are needed to produce infection in each animal. He believes that masks are effective because they decrease the viral load entering the body 3. The author believes that B.1.1.7 is the 11th or 12th variant to come through the US, the first two being in 2019. The older variants just become extinct 4. He believes that the advantage that B.1.1.7 has over its ancestor is its ability to latch onto the human cell better. We know that it takes several days from the initial inoculation until we reach a state of infectiousness. During that time the virus is building up numerically in the body. There must be enough virus in the respiratory secretions to exceed a critical threshold to transmit the disease from an infected person to a susceptible host. If it is true that disease severity is related initially to the viral load and vaccine prevents clinical disease progression either by prohibiting viral entry into the body or severely limiting viral entry thus keeping viral replication below a level that would cause clinical disease, then I assume (and feel confident) that individuals who seroconvert (about 95% who receive two shots of the vaccine seroconvert and have both humoral and cellular immunity) will not be infectious. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN HEARING A VERY GOOD DEBATE OVER WHETHER WE SHOULD GET ONE OR TWO SHOTS OF THE mRNA VACCINE YOU CAN PROBABLY GOOGLE OR GO TO YOU TUBE AND FIND "Coronavirus Vaccine Update", Conversations with Dr. Howard Bauchner Guests Dr. Robert Wachter - father of Hospital Medicine at UCSF and Dr. Paul Offit , world famous virologist from Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. I highly recommend investing the time. Extremely briefly, Dr. Offit points out that cellular immunity is only obtained with two shots (which is responsible for long term immunity) and that the second shots boosts the humoral antibody response significantly, he worries that lower titers may invite adaptive mutation by the virus. They both agree that delaying the second shot a week or two probably would not hurt. BOTH DR. OFFIT AND DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY (NEW HEAD OF THE CDC) BELIEVE THAT THE CURRENT VACCINES FROM PFIZER AND MODERNA WILL BE EFFECTIVE AGAINST THE B.1.1.7 VARIANT. NUMBERS VACCINES - there have now been 21.1 million US citizens vaccinated. Over the last seven days we have vaccinated 982,739 per day and we are just getting warmed up. 3.14 million have received two vaccinations. Somebody knows about how many vaccines we have or can expect to get soon, but they are not talking, at least not to me. I don't expect any new entries into the vaccine market soon but both Moderna and Pfizer are producing vaccines weekly. China and Russia are using their own vaccines, that still leaves lots of folks who will need help in the world. Both China and Russia are attempting to market their untested vaccines but there are few takers. I am not sure why the news media is making such a fuss about the insufficient supply of vaccines! Did they or anyone really think that companies would manufacture 500 million doses of a drug that had no proven efficacy? Does anyone think that you can manufacture 6 billion doses of a vaccine (something that has NEVER been done before) in a matter of weeks since their approval? I am certain that many clamoring for a vaccine now are the same folks who did not care to wear masks or distance. Deaths - 417,337 (18,213 this week, down from 23,241 last week) Hospital bed utilization - 113,609 (down from 126,399 the week before) New Weekly Cases - up 5.2% (down from 7% last week, 8.3% the week before that) Case fatality rate - calculated from 10/15/20 - 1.18 Have a great day Live Safer Be Well
January 28, 20214 yr 1 hour ago, Toastrel said: This is not true. There is an easy answer to the pandemic. What worked in the Black Death and the 1918 flu still works. It is the same basic stuff used in hospitals and medical practices all over the world. People pretend it is impossible. People here and in Sweden (and other places) prefer not to be bothered. They prefer to NOT follow simple hygienic precautions. It is too much work. Too limiting. Too harsh on your ability to socialize. Just because something worked in 1918 doesn't mean it is easy. The first step is to frame the problem and we don't all agree on that. Some people want to focus on deaths only while others want to consider overall well being in society with deaths a central topic but also including other things like mental health, jobs and overall economy, education of young people, equity with regard to marginalized groups, etc. In my mind it is a very complex topic in terms of how to build a cocktail of measures. Wanting to reduce deaths is key no matter what but there are other things to look at. That's my opinon anyway. Regarding Sweden, you are basically ignorant as to what has been done here (and not done). You simply go by a headline and leave it at that. I'm going to provide you some indexing of restrictions, etc. that have been put in place country by country. I hope you will take some time to actually read it.
January 28, 20214 yr 26 minutes ago, Imp81318 said: It amazes me that people continue to claim that masks do not work and infringe on their basic rights somehow. This is so annoying. They say this without any proof, then you present evidence and they'll just start ranting about "tyranny."
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