Coronavirus

[raptor9k]

Yeah I'm not looking forward to it ramping up down here. Our governor is handling it better than the cheeto, but people aren't taking it seriously; they're doing what they've always done. I'm not too worried about myself or immediate family but I'll be surprised if we don't lose several in my extended family.

[Martin Blank]

I live in a ritzy neighborhood. The local major park is constantly filled with people who don't understand that "exercise" includes physical distancing.

I've bought some backyard play equipment for the kids. I hope it works over the next couple of months.

[Rorschach]

This is it. I sometimes wonder if we're smart enough to get through this.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... r-11971032

People aren't scared enough, really. It wasn't really real when it was happening on the other side of the world to some Chinese people. It's realler since we all got sent home from work, but still not real enough that people believe it completely.

Every death I've heard about so far - and that's only a few - has been several degrees separated from me. The NHS, whom I can't praise enough, are getting absolutely ass-pounded but we don't see that so we don't really think about it.

It's going to take people seeing their loved ones die before everyone takes this seriously.

[Seir]

One of the nursing homes I used to respond to and bring hospital discharges to made the news around here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/nyre ... eaths.html

I kinda feel sick to my stomach.

[Rorschach]

The women said the facility offered no way for them to communicate with their mother, who had dementia, and provided family members no information. Their mother was never tested for the coronavirus.

“Her death was inevitable,” said one daughter, Lee Repasch. “But she was a vulnerable woman with dementia. It was inevitable, but it didn’t need to be like this.”

That is utterly heart-breaking.

Seems like care homes on both sides of the pond have been written off as acceptable losses. The homes here are woefully under-equipped to deal with the virus, and there are mutterings at the moment that the unreported death rates from them could well double our claimed fatality figure.

My brother is a manager in a care home. I worry.

[Martin Blank]

The homes here are woefully under-equipped to deal with the virus, and there are mutterings at the moment that the unreported death rates from them could well double our claimed fatality figure.

Care homes in the US are often woefully under-equipped to deal with patients. :/

[Seir]

The stories I could tell you about nursing/care homes, but I don't want to remember.

[Rorschach]

I've just spoken to my mum (or 'mom', if you will). My brother is saying he government are using spare beds in care homes as auxiliary hospital beds.
I can understand from a financial point of view, but they're importing cases into a closed system, really. No wonder they're not reporting the death figures.

He also had said they had a lady in her 80s whose family they had brought in, fully kitted-out, to say their goodbyes. She went on to recover fully. So there's that.

What's all this about a stimulus cheque? Are you guys going to buy 100 cups of coffee?

[Rorschach]

Oh. And apparently that drug Trump can't pronounce is looking mildly promising. At least in the preliminary stages.
I know that you will know this. I'm mentioning because I'm hoping one of you can confirm or deny. I trust you guys more than the news outlets at the moment.

[raptor9k]

Yeah, bringing active patients into an environment full of people that fit the worst case scenario profile is pretty atrocious. If you need the space carry the equipment to a local gymnasium or something and isolate it.

The stimulus check is a one time payment at $1200 per person/$2400 per couple + $500 per dependent age 17 and under. It'll help some people that need it and a ton that don't and it will leave a large chunk of people that need it totally without help. In the US most college students are over 18 but still claimed as a dependent on taxes due to insurance requirements. As best I can tell they'll get nothing for either themselves or their parents. To get the stimulus for the people passed the democrats had to agree to let the republicans throw a bunch of stuff in for the airlines and other huge corporations that are constantly going bankrupt due to poor management. There was also a $500 billion small business package that has been completely soaked up in about 2 weeks. A large chunk of that seems to have gone to corporations that really shouldn't have been eligible.

As for drugs, the Jury is still out because when trump started touting hydroxychloroquine there had only been one or two studies with a sample size of 20 or fewer patients at the time. One study that I saw was pretty well tossed out as unusable by anyone from the scientific community. It looks like larger studies are being conducted but I haven't seen the results of any of the trials.

[Doc Giggles]

Brazil halted a study of chloroquine after 6 days because a quarter of those taking it developed potentially deadly changes to the system controlling the heartbeat. University of Michigan was seeing a similar issue with the people taking hydroxychloroquine. Studies in France, and China also have shown no change to the number of people being admitted to the hospital or in the length of time it took to recover between those taking it and those that are not. Fewer and fewer hospitals are willing to try them for most patients at this point because of the side effects unless it's an extreme case.

[Rorschach]

Not that one. This one. https://time.com/5823384/remdesivier-co ... y-results/

I realise now that 'the one Trump can't pronounce' didn't really narrow it down.

[Seir]

Not that one. This one. https://time.com/5823384/remdesivier-co ... y-results/

I realise now that 'the one Trump can't pronounce' didn't really narrow it down.

He can't even spell "coffee".

[Martin Blank]

Brazil halted a study of chloroquine after 6 days because a quarter of those taking it developed potentially deadly changes to the system controlling the heartbeat. University of Michigan was seeing a similar issue with the people taking hydroxychloroquine. Studies in France, and China also have shown no change to the number of people being admitted to the hospital or in the length of time it took to recover between those taking it and those that are not. Fewer and fewer hospitals are willing to try them for most patients at this point because of the side effects unless it's an extreme case.

Here's the pre-publish paper for the Brazil trial (I think it's the same one) looking at hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), where it was stopped after 11 of 81 patients (out of a planned 440 enrollments) died. To be fair, this was a high-dose trial, but it overlapped with the death rate of those receiving standard treatments.

Another analytic paper found that use of hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin (AZ), in COVID-19 patients treated in the VA system correlated with higher death rates than standard care. Of 368 patients evaluated, the death rates were 27.8% for HCQ, 22.1% for HCQ+AZ, and 11.4% for standard care. Because of the relatively small study size, the difference between HCQ+AZ and standard care were found to be statistically equivalent, but there was a marked increase in mortality for being treated with HCQ alone. Neither supplemental treatment meaningfully reduced the risk of ventilation. Given the risk of HCQ alone, and the lack of statistical improvement for HCQ+AZ, the paper's authors do not recommend giving HCQ with or without AZ.

What have you got to lose? Your life, possibly at double or higher the odds of dealing with COVID-19, and perhaps especially if you already have an underlying heart condition that HCQ can exacerbate, which is a huge proportion of the US population, especially those who are older and more likely to be severely affected anyway.

[Rorschach]

I don't know if you guys get Charlie Brooker over there but if you do, make sure and watch his Viral Wipe.
A great - and hilarious - chronological appraisal of the mishandling of this whole affair on both sides of the pond.