COVID-19

[Randy]

Darn Billy you had me scared for a brief moment. I'm glad you're feeling better.

[billy rubin]

well, i feel okay, but i had an attack of common sense and decided to get a covid test before i go back to work.

turns out theres a free test marathon in the next county south tomorrow, so i called in and told my dispatcher id take one more day off.

then my companys safety guy called be back and asked me to get an all clear on paper before i came back to work.

so im still on vacation until that happenz and not sad at all. weve got food in the house and the farm is paid for.

[Randy]

I know what you mean. I'm quarantined by my on volition. When I do go out I'm going to medical clinics and everyone wears a mask including the patients, me as well. I don't step out the door without one. This COVID-19 stuff is bad, even if one survives it there is sometimes lasting damage.

[billy rubin]

yes. pulmonary function can be pernanently reduced, you can end up with stroke because of the blood clots, and brain damage due to prolonged oxygen deficit, as i understand it.

no joke. this is not the flu. its a new disaese that has never had the opportunity to co-evolve with th ehost, because it leapfrogged in from other species. as a result, it has no mechaqnism to trweat th ehost benignly. we're in the stage where those individuals in th epopulation who have severe reactions to the virus die and fail to reproduce, and so in subsequent generations the effects of the virus will be somewhat less lethal.\

natural selection in action. routine stuff.

still, its not nice to piss off mother nature.

[Dark Lightning]

It's really starting to hit the fan, in Texas-

McALLEN, Texas— In a stunning admission of how dire the COVID-19 situation is in South Texas, the health authority for one border county on Tuesday announced the formation of an ethics committee that will screen all patients for survival potential and will send home those with low probabilities.

Starr County Health Authority Dr. Jose Vazquez said Starr County Memorial Hospital, the county's only hospital, on Tuesday implemented an ethics committee and a triage committee to review all coronavirus patients as they come in to determine what type of life-saving equipment and treatment they would likely require and whether they would likely survive. Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

"There is nowhere to put these patients. The whole state of Texas and neighboring states have no ICU beds to spare for us," Vazquez said Tuesday afternoon during a video conference call with media.

[Randy]

It's getting bad. I wonder how many other states will follow suit? I'm expecting Florida to do the same thing, maybe California a little later down the road.

[Dark Lightning]

A scheduler from my health care provider called today to schedule a phone interview with my primary care physician. I have arthritis in my hands, feet and back, the worst of which is in my feet. I can barely walk, and that only with orthotics and shoes with really soft soles (Hokaoneone) which really help. The surgery I had last year didn't help, and I was in a CAM boot for 5 weeks, and limping still. I could be more aggressive about getting another surgery which should do the trick (bone fusion) but I'm averse to that because of the possibility of drawing medical professionals away from life-threatening things like Covid for "simple" foot pain...and potentially getting it myself. That's something I'll address in my interview. I'm in California, and our governor is doing a great job, but too many people are just being stupid by not wearing masks. One of my sons has a friend who's dad is on the local PD. They will not issue citations to people not wearing masks, unless it's an additional charge for whatever stupidity the person is engaged in, in the first place.

[billy rubin]

Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

wow.

we're there.

[Dark Lightning]

Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

wow.

we're there.

We used to get the flu and many people died, but not a pandemic's worth except for a few cases, like the Spanish Flu way back in the early 191Xs. It just flabbergasts me that that one ignorant, senile, doddering old fool in the White House has that kind of power. Change is needed so that that doesn't happen ever again. I don't know exactly what, or how to effectuate it, but change is needed.

[Magdalena]

Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

wow.

we're there.

We used to get the flu and many people died, but not a pandemic's worth except for a few cases, like the Spanish Flu way back in the early 191Xs. It just flabbergasts me that that one ignorant, senile, doddering old fool in the White House has that kind of power. Change is needed so that that doesn't happen ever again. I don't know exactly what, or how to effectuate it, but change is needed.

[Dark Lightning]

Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

wow.

we're there.

We used to get the flu and many people died, but not a pandemic's worth except for a few cases, like the Spanish Flu way back in the early 191Xs. It just flabbergasts me that that one ignorant, senile, doddering old fool in the White House has that kind of power. Change is needed so that that doesn't happen ever again. I don't know exactly what, or how to effectuate it, but change is needed.

Saw that earlier, elsewhere. Shameful doesn't even begin to cover it.

[Randy]

Those deemed too fragile or sick or elderly will be advised to go home to loved ones, he said.

wow.

we're there.

Will they have hospice or palliative care to help ease the suffering at home? This thing is playing out like a nightmare.

[Dark Lightning]

I'll try to check. These days seem more like a really bad SF movie.

[Randy]

Yeah, DL, I was thinking the same thing. I was viewing this whole thing in an old 1950's B/W film in my head. It's so bad I want to walk out of the theater.

[Recusant]

Progress on vaccines looks rather hopeful. Perhaps the Russians and/or the Chinese with their apparent disregard for development safety protocols will achieve something early.

Meanwhile, I haven't posted anything by Ed Yong lately. I highly recommend what he's written so far on the pandemic, which I expect will be turned into a book in the near future. This piece focuses on the US response, which if nothing else provides multiple examples of what to avoid if possible. Spoiler: It's not all Trump's fault. Yong describes his part in it as a "comorbidity." Just as any number of other diseases can (in combination with this coronavirus as a comorbidity) tend to make the effects of this virus much worse when it infects a human being, Trump has had a similar influence on a country that was already ill-prepared for a pandemic.

"How the Pandemic Defeated America" | The Atlantic

How did it come to this? A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet's most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom.

In the first half of 2020, SARS‑CoV‑2—the new coronavirus behind the disease COVID‑19—infected 10 million people around the world and killed about half a million. But few countries have been as severely hit as the United States, which has just 4 percent of the world's population but a quarter of its confirmed COVID‑19 cases and deaths. These numbers are estimates. The actual toll, though undoubtedly higher, is unknown, because the richest country in the world still lacks sufficient testing to accurately count its sick citizens.

Despite ample warning, the U.S. squandered every possible opportunity to control the coronavirus. And despite its considerable advantages—immense resources, biomedical might, scientific expertise—it floundered. While countries as different as South Korea, Thailand, Iceland, Slovakia, and Australia acted decisively to bend the curve of infections downward, the U.S. achieved merely a plateau in the spring, which changed to an appalling upward slope in the summer. "The U.S. fundamentally failed in ways that were worse than I ever could have imagined," Julia Marcus, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, told me.

[Continues . . .]