Coronavirus

General Discussion
181

I started this thread almost a month ago, in a different world, but I was beginning to understand that the COVIC-19 was being spread stealthily and massively by asymptomatic carriers. Understanding that our hope lies in science, I recognized the need for data. (Specifically, the need for populations to be tested for the presence of the disease.) OTHERWISE the population and researchers and health providers and everyone is BLIND to where the disease is.

Somehow, that understanding of the need for testing, has been blocked over and over, such that even now, the needed testing is not being done. And, now, we are too late to worry much about that because (and here is something else that people need to understand) the rate of infections of this 1st wave of COVID-19 is, I think, starting to peak in Italy. The peak is the most deadly and dangerous part of the disease cycle, because too many people are severely ill at the same time for the healthcare resources of an area to deal with. So, many will be triaged (sorry, you die, cause the next guy has a better chance to survive).

But the taxing of the healthcare system will burden the entire healthcare system, so more people will die from other causes, as well.

Many other areas and countries are experiencing the first wave, but are not, yet, as close to the peak rate of simultaneous infections. They will be. And will their medical care system manage? We don’t yet know.

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Testing is necessary and we shouldn’t overlook the mild cases either because they are unknowingly spreading it too. We have to test and we need to know. We can’t be just blown off and told “oh you’re just having panic attacks and the muscle [in your chest] just remains a little sore afterwards” and “you need to stop worrying about it so much”. We need to know for sure. It could be mild and in the bronchials and not sound like broken glass for all we know. Still, she did have me stay home until Wednesday, if nothing else than to recover from the runs and upset stomach. Not testing to find out why my chest has been hurting on the right for almost 3 weeks now. It is possible to have 2 viruses at the same time and they both be mild, but you can understand my comments in the other thread better and why she said she didn’t believe it was COVID-19. She acknowledged the one virus, but blew off my chest for a third time. No serious cough (just my small allergy like cough), no fever, no shortness of breath unless I’m rushing, which isn’t normal to/for me, but OK, if she insists that if I had it I’d have a temp of 104. Maybe she’s ignoring mild cases because the CDC or other people higher than she is told her to or she hasn’t heard about mild cases? I don’t know, but the more I read about the mild cases, not just this article but there’s been a couple others, I wonder. At least I’m away from work for 5 days, mostly resting and so far I’m fine fever wise and hope to stay that way, because if she’s right then I don’t want it, but if she’s wrong, I hope it gets better and not worse, with these few days away from work helping to stop the spread. Personally, I really don’t want it, but there’s some reason it’s been aching to hurting and then back to aching, which I don’t think should be blown off/dismissed during this time. We need to be sure and that’s where testing come into play, even and especially for possible/questionable mild cases and not just send me back to work calling it a panic attack over the virus. If it’s negative then dismiss it as panic, but at least we’d know for sure and I could rest easier.

183

Mriana, spooky stuff, but no temp? That good, very good, isn’t it? Are you able to get out side and some fresh air? Take care of yourself !

I’ll admit I’m not going out of my way to inform myself about the disease itself, I understand cleanliness, distancing, being sure to eat well, gobbling vitamin C like I’ve never done before. Then when it hits we’ll see. But there’s only so much time in the day and if I spent time looking at the misery unfolding out there I wouldn’t be able to find the will to continue keeping up website, hell actually need to get back to building a successor (under expert tutelage mind you), though that’s gone through a week long unexpected hold while I was catching with our new reality.

184

I live in a county that’s been proud not to have a single case reported.

Just don’t ask now many tests have been given.

Oh you guessed zero? Correct.

185

Well, next Wednesday I’ll go back to work and people will smother me again at the cash register, so no. Sort of difficult to get out when you’re on leave of absence for 5 days due to an intestinal virus. I don’t get to follow stay at home order because I work for Hellmart and they are deemed as “essential businesses”. IF they really cared about their employees, they go to exclusively OGP (online grocery pickup) giving us less contact with the public, but they don’t care. All they care about is money. I hate greedy corporations.

186

My heart goes out to you. I’m blessedly offsides, with a huge yard surrounded with a world of fresh air. Even have water flowing through the ditch right now, so it’s a reminder that nature and life goes on. Our water well went dry, but it turned out to be a relatively simple fix and there’s still plenty of water in the ground, so that scare came and went.

These past days thinking of loved ones stuck in cities and those huge apartments blocks, tons of people, no space, no easily accessible fresh air, (although I hear air quality is improving markedly in a lot of places), if I think on it too much, a wave of panic goes through me. Then I need to refocus. At least the fever scare during my wife’s escape from the Bay Area, seems to have been more stress than real fever. That was a reality-check rattler. Now we’re back into wait and see. We’re back to thinking, planning, hoping on me driving down to get her - how it will actually turn out, we’ll see in due course. Our near by neighbors, wife a newly retired, husband long time paramedic also returned a few years back, don’t think I should drive down, but if the call comes I’m going.

As for your last lines, yes I despise the greed blinded sociopath’s running our major businesses too. Those who managed to highjack our government because we the people were too damned lazy and greedy in our own individual ways, so we enabled them, they enabled us, and Mother Earth, got raped int0 a battered mess, and she’s no longer capable of supporting all of us.

Considering that our founding father’s created a Democracy and they even warned everybody who was paying attention that it was ours to keep, because special interests would certainly try to steal it and destroy our freedoms for personal gain.

The scene in Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island, where the little brats stuff their faces, an turn into donkeys destined for misery in the mines, comes to mind with greater clarity all the time. Too bad no one’s seems to have made a YouTube clip of that scene or I’d be plastering it all over.

As I remember Spirited Away included an equally appropriate scene of parents gluttony turning them into pigs. No one has bothered to clip that scene into a YouTube video, too bad, since as I remember it’s equally appropriate. Mriana, I wish you the best along with lots of strength.

 

 

187

Yeah, I’m wishing for the place in the Ozarks my grandparents bought after they retired. Dirt roads, nearest neighbour was a ways away, and the worst thing you might run into was a copperhead. Never got bit by one my whole childhood thanks to my grandparents’ watchful eyes. Right now, it seems safer. As I said, my doctor is calling my chest pain panic attacks and my intestinal upset a different virus. So I feel for your wife.

188

I have my little 3 acres, but I don’t grow my own food. We had a zoom meeting with some friends last night and another is doing facebook concerts. I’m trying to keep track in my head where I’ve been over the last couple weeks. We had our first confirmed case in a nearby county. Get better soon Mriana.

Thanks for that movie recommendation CC. I don’t think I’ve seen it. A lighter version of that is the quest for the “most amazing object in the universe” in “Time Bandits”, produced by the Monty Python gang. It turns out to be a washer and dryer. The parents are about to touch it, but the boy who has traveled through time and has finally found his family again yells, “don’t touch it, it’s evil”. Of course they do touch it.

189

Jobs as cashiers in grocery stores and pharmacies, should get combat pay. You are forced per your task, to interact with LOTS of people. Some of those people are eventually going to include carriers (probably already has included carriers) and more and more will be carriers as time passes over the coming weeks.

Rand Paul got tested simply because he has travelled about the country and interacted with LOTS of people. He had ZERO symptoms. He tested positive.

190

I agree and I know. My doctor has said given where I work, she knows I’ve been exposed, yet she won’t test me. She admits she knows, so why not test me? I don’t want my job anymore, but I have to help my husband pay the bills and getting a new job now with a recession or worse… It’s horrible.

Rand Paul has money, so he will be tested no matter what.

191

Harvey Weinstein has tested positive. https://deadline.com/tag/harvey-weinstein/

Its been a rough year for him.

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Well, next Wednesday I’ll go back to work and people will smother me again at the cash register, so no. Sort of difficult to get out when you’re on leave of absence for 5 days due to an intestinal virus. I don’t get to follow stay at home order because I work for Hellmart and they are deemed as “essential businesses”. IF they really cared about their employees, they go to exclusively OGP (online grocery pickup) giving us less contact with the public, but they don’t care. All they care about is money. I hate greedy corporations.
How are the benefits at "Hellmart"?
193

They suck. As one who works 32 to 34 hours per week, I get dental, vision, life, and 10% discount on non-food items. My husband who works there full-time get medical for me. The pay out for medical, dental, and vision isn’t great at all. I was charged the whole price for that annual colon exam, when it’s preventive medicine. I don’t get it, but when I called to find out why they said it was due to my deductible. Made no sense it was almost the end of the year and I have to see my doctor for my thyroid and get thyroid meds and alike. It was really stupid. The patient gets charged full price for preventive medicine? Either they didn’t want to pay or the dotard really screwed around with the ACA.

194

Maybe we need Medicare for all, with no for-profit involvement by anyone. Just universal and fully funded healthcare. Where’s Bernie Sanders when you need him?

The $4 trillion stopgap bill that the Trumpublicans are, right now, trying to bum-rush thru the Congress would be the perfect down payment for universal, fully funded, medicare healthcare. If only.

And no one is asking who’s going to pay for the $4 trillion. Hey, Bernie, who is going to repay that $4 trillion? (If the repugs do their usual dastardliness, they will use the trillions of dollars debt that they will have created, as the excuse to cut social security and Medicare and Medicaid, etc. So the people in the safety nets will pay.)

195

Did anyone else read about the healthy 17 yr old boy in S Korea who tested negative initially with the COVID-19 test, but later developed symptoms, and the disease shut down all of his organs, and killed him?

I suppose he is a outlier, in terms of COVID-19 fatalities in the young. Unless the virus is mutating…

cue ominous jaws music

We’re gonna need a bigger boat-

load of COVID-19 tests.

196

My son (age 31) said he read a study from Taiwan or some Asian country, which stated there are 5 strands of COVID-19 one more virulent than the others and it shuts down organs. It also said, that all 5 started here in the U.S. and are currently in the U.S. I told him that doesn’t make sense, because 1. WHO stated that it started at a meat market, specifically a bat, in Wuhan China. 2. It started in Wuhan at the end of Dec. 3. 5 different strands of the same virus would make it even more difficult to create a vaccine 4. Russia is pumping out a lot of propaganda in relationship to this virus. 5. Why would WHO say it started from a bat in Wuhan China if it actually started here? Therefore, what he said doesn’t make any sense, even though the study documented all it’s sources. I added maybe if I read the article it would make more sense and then asked if he’d send me the link.

@timb Thus, what your saying matches with what my son was trying to say about one of the strands, even though I’ve not read about the 17 yr old boy or my son’s article yet. It is either mutating or the article my son was talking about is right, at least on how many strands of the COVID-19 there are. And yes, we’re going to need a whole heck of a lot more tests, especially if we’re suppose to test negative before we leave quarantine to go back to normal life.

That said, another study I read stated it is possible that we can’t get again, at least for a while, (temporary immunity) after we recover from it and that it is most likely not possible to get it again as fast as we recover. If my son’s article is true, then what I read is is null and void. Five different strands means it is possible to get it again as fast as we recover, I think.

When he sends me that link, I’ll share it here for anyone interested in reading it too.

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They suck. As one who works 32 to 34 hours per week, I get dental, vision, life, and 10% discount on non-food items. My husband who works there full-time get medical for me. The pay out for medical, dental, and vision isn’t great at all. I was charged the whole price for that annual colon exam, when it’s preventive medicine. I don’t get it, but when I called to find out why they said it was due to my deductible. Made no sense it was almost the end of the year and I have to see my doctor for my thyroid and get thyroid meds and alike. It was really stupid. The patient gets charged full price for preventive medicine? Either they didn’t want to pay or the dotard really screwed around with the ACA.
Sorry to hear that. Insurance policies seem to classify procedures like colonoscopies in some grey area where it's hard to define it as essential or non-essential for the providers own benefit. They need to be regulated to the point where people know exactly what they're getting, and if it's not good enough you have other options.
198

Yes, it’s crazy when it comes to colonoscopies. My husband pays for the insurance, but I would like to find a better one we can afford. We can’t afford $300/mo for insurance though and Hellmart gives it cheap… I guess we get what we pay for and if you get Hellmart Special, it’s going to suck whether it’s clothes, food, or insurance.

199

On the plus side Hellmart and several other retailers are giving well deserved raises.

200

No, their not. At least Hellmart isn’t. I don’t know where USA Today got it’s info, but that’s totally not true. Hellmart isn’t raising pay from $11/hour to $15 or $19/hour.