Coronavirus 4

[GreyhoundFan]

Continued from here:

 

 

UNC tried to hold in person classes, but had to revert to online after multiple Covid outbreaks in less than a week. Their newspaper sums it up nicely:

[47of74]

By the way my most recent unhinged rantings letter got published yesterday;

Quote

Kudos to Dubuque for finally standing up to our rather useless governor and Republicans who think they can ignore the pandemic away. I’m not exactly pleased about having to wear a mask either, but the sooner we start taking this thing seriously and doing things like wearing masks, the sooner we can put this behind us.

Do you all want a 2021 where we can all get together with family, take trips, go to sporting events, participate in graduation ceremonies (like mine that was delayed), go out to eat again, or other activities we all took for granted before? Do you all want our economy to start to recover and jobs to come back? Then grow the hell up and wear the masks already.

Of course these goddamn pearl clutchers edited all my fornicates out of the letter.

I was brave and went down to look at the FB comments.  Surprisingly there were only a couple positive comments.  I thought the town Branch Covidian contingent would have been all over me for this.  Of course I have a fair number of them blocked on FB so I'm probably not seeing their love letters to me in the comments.  In any case fuck them.  Fuck them all. 

[CTRLZero]

Even though the college my daughter works for is doing on-line instruction only, apparently they are allowing 700 students to live on campus.  I was surprised, because I figured on-line meant students were staying home.  Today is day one of classes.  Four COVID-19 tests are positive with 30 possible exposures.  On.day.one.  Most of my daughter’s students are off campus, and she worked hard to put together supply packets to mail for various hands on assignments.  It’s going to be a tough, uncertain year. 

[Becky]

I hope your daughter's year goes as smoothly as possible, @CTRLZero,and that she is safe and well.  Colleges and universities are going to have a lot of community spread, IMO.  Campuses are giant petri dishes and students live for social events of the sort that will multiply any infections.  

[PsyD2013]

The My Pillow Guy is now touting a Covid cure.  He can't cite any data or studies.  Other than "they exist".  Sure Jan.

 

[47of74]

Drake University is showing how it's done

Quote

Drake University issued a warning after it temporarily removed 14 students from campus for violating COVID-19 guidelines.

Drake University Dean of Students Jerry Parker said in an update that the students were asked to leave campus for two weeks after violating guidelines regarding on- and off-campus gatherings.

Drake University asks each of its undergrad students to sign a "Drake Together Compact,” in which students agree to social distance, self-monitor for symptoms and wear face coverings in campus buildings.

My sister went to school there.  Good school.  I applied to law school there but by the time they got around to rejecting me I had already decided on going to school up in Minnesota where they had accepted me already.

Glad to see that Drake is requiring students to be responsible here. 

[Ozlsn]

8 hours ago, PsyD2013 said:

The My Pillow Guy is now touting a Covid cure.  He can't cite any data or studies.  Other than "they exist".  Sure Jan.

 

Bigfoot "exists". Evidence that aliens built the pyramid "exists". 

Replicable peer reviewed studies with good data or it didn't happen.

Edited August 19, 2020 by Ozlsn

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

Replicable peer reviewed studies with good data or it didn't happen.

Anyone who had a drinking game going for every time Anderson Cooper mentioned that is still passed out on the floor.

And the interview was a day and a half ago  . . .

[Ozlsn]

4 hours ago, thoughtful said:

Anyone who had a drinking game going for every time Anderson Cooper mentioned that is still passed out on the floor.

And the interview was a day and a half ago  . . .

If I was 20 years younger and didn't have a child who is likely to wake me at 6am or earlier every single day I would be all over that drinking game. Sounds awesome!

(Also it would only increase my enjoyment of that interview. Might have to do wine sips or something instead.)

Edited August 20, 2020 by Ozlsn

[Knight of Ni]

There is already at least one confirmed case of Covid at the Sturgis motorcycle rally. This person was reported to be inside of a very crowded saloon for for at least five hours. If that's not a recipe for a massive outbreak I don't know what is. Now all those that traveled for the event are going to take it back to their home towns. 

[47of74]

Fuck

Quote

American Airlines will drop flights to Dubuque and 14 other U.S. cities in October when a federal requirement to serve those communities ends.

The airline blamed low demand during the coronavirus pandemic, which has triggered a massive slump in air travel. Airlines and their labor unions are seeking billions in taxpayer relief.

American said its schedule covering Oct. 7 through Nov. 3 will drop flights to cities including Dubuque and Sioux City, Iowa; New Haven, Conn.; and Springfield, Ill.

American said in a press release that it “will continue to reassess plans for these and other markets as an extension of the Payroll Support Program remains under deliberation.”

I hope they plan on coming back some day or if not the city tries to get someone else to come in. 

[JMarie]

On 8/19/2020 at 9:22 AM, PsyD2013 said:

The My Pillow Guy is now touting a Covid cure.  He can't cite any data or studies.  Other than "they exist".  Sure Jan.

 

Within the interview, Anderson quoted a doctor from Vanderbilt University on the uselessness of the supplement. I've been seeing comments discrediting the doctor, since he's connected to VU and Anderson is a Vanderbilt.

[Smash!]

Good news for me: Due to increasing numbers my university finally requires anyone to wear a mask when they enter any of their buildings. I‘m so so relieved going back to work on site next Monday. Whereas Switzerlands government keeps listening to various interest groups and doesn‘t even bother to take experts from their own covid-taskforce to their press conference. [emoji35]

[47of74]

Who could've seen that coming?  Oh yeah, half the fucking planet.

Quote

South Dakota health officials warned today that a number of people who attended the 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally this month, including some who came from out of state, have come down with COVID-19.

Department of Health officials did not give an exact number of rallygoers who tested positive, but they said it was under 25. The rally, which ended Sunday, brought hundreds of thousands of people from far and wide to the city in the western part of the state. Even before it kicked off, some locals and officials expressed concern that COVID-19 could spread rapidly at the rally and that it would be hard to track rallygoers who got infected before heading home.

The state's health department has received reports from other states that people who traveled from the rally have tested positive, state epidemiologist Josh Clayton said. Contact tracers have been able to work with most people to determine who they were around and may have infected. But the health department has issued public warnings for two bars in the region because they were not able to track all of the people at the bars who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

Sturgis is planning to conduct mass testing of its residents next week in an attempt to stem a possible outbreak of infections from the rally.

 

[Ozlsn]

15 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Sturgis is planning to conduct mass testing of its residents next week in an attempt to stem a possible outbreak of infections from the rally.

I'm going with "OMG, the horse has bolted! Shut the door, quick!!"

The ones testing positive now were infected and infectious for most of the time during the event. The ones they infected will start feeling sick in the next fortnight, after being infectious for a large part of that time. They'd be better off instituting a mandatory full lockdown in Sturgis for the next month at least if they want to stop spread at this point. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Ozlsn

[47of74]

11 minutes ago, Ozlsn said:

I'm going with "OMG, the horse has bolted! Shut the door, quick!!"

More like no wait, let's wait and see if the horse comes back on his own first.  At least that's the approach #CovidKim and #CovidKristi want to take in dealing with the pandemic.

[Ozlsn]

33 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Department of Health officials did not give an exact number of rallygoers who tested positive, but they said it was under 25.

So they have "under 25" known cases. The numbers that each person spreads to on average vary a bit based on individual makeup and a couple of other factors, so let's go with the low estimate of each one of those only infected 2 other people. So that's another about 48 unknown cases out there already who are likely to pop up in the next two weeks. They of course have infected another 2 people each, so we're up to another 84 cases who will start appearing after that. And without fast and good contact tracing, and people complying with isolation, they will cause another 168 cases, and so on and so forth. And that is the best case scenario - it doesn't take into account people who are asymptomatic, or whose symptoms are mild and who don't get tested (but keep spreading), the superspreader events where many people are infected in one hit, the likelihood that some people who are stupid enough to go to a mass event in the middle of a pandemic will probably not comply with quarantine requirement, the likelihood that some of these people live in crowded housing, the possibility that some work in settings with people at high risk. Awesome job Sturgis, hope the economy turns out to have been worth it.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Ozlsn

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, Ozlsn said:

So they have "under 25" known cases. The numbers that each person spreads to on average vary a bit based on individual makeup and a couple of other factors, so let's go with the low estimate of each one of those only infected 2 other people. So that's another about 48 unknown cases out there already who are likely to pop up in the next two weeks. They of course have infected another 2 people each, so we're up to another 84 cases who will start appearing after that. And without fast and good contact tracing, and people complying with isolation, they will cause another 168 cases, and so on and so forth.

Wisdom from Heather Locklear:

 

[Ozlsn]

NSW example of how clusters spread.

Just one cluster example:

"This cluster began at a funeral service in a Western Sydney church and spread across multiple locations, including a farm on the Central Coast.

Late last month, a woman in her 40s from Fairfield attended a funeral service at St Brendan's Catholic Church in Bankstown, not knowing she was infectious with the novel coronavirus.

Authorities have not been able to determine where she caught the virus but it has since spread to at least 72 people.

Enquiries revealed another person caught the virus after attending the funeral service, before visiting the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard on multiple occasions, unknowingly spreading it to others.

A patron at the club then became infected before spreading it further after driving several workers to a farm at Peats Ridge on the Central Coast.

In the week ending August 15, a total of seven farm workers and a number of other related contacts were infected, making up the 72 cases in this cluster."

This is part of why I'm looking at Sturgis and just going... Awesome.

Also a link to an analysis of the US outbreak and predictions for Fall/Winter. Yes it's on Facebook, but the analysis is still interesting. 

[clueliss]

Well - in July when my county had a dramatic (for us) increase in daily case counts - the city I live in mandated masks.  And the daily numbers came down (I  know, shocking, right).  But here we are in Mid-August and we Tuesday was a record matching daily case number and yesterday was a record setting daily number.  Guess what age range half (!!!) of yesterday's cases were in?  If you guess 20-24 year-olds (in a city with a University, two colleges and satellite location for a Community College and other smaller colleges etc) - you would be right.  Because hey - just over two weeks after those who live off campus moved back for the semester/year would be right in line with the dramatic rise in our daily cases.  

My boss is on vacay until late next week and then I'm on two days vacay so I won't see him until the last day of the month.  By then I should have a feel for what the hell is going on in this town.  And if it goes the direction I think it's going?  yeah - I'm returning to mostly work from home with the 'in person as needed' (meaning a day or so a week for printing/scanning/touching base).  

 

[Ozlsn]

536 the worst year in (recorded human) history

I have say I read this and just thought "please don't let us have a major volcanic event!"

[Howl]

On 8/19/2020 at 5:19 PM, Ozlsn said:

Replicable peer reviewed studies with good data or it didn't happen.

A bit of background on oleandrin.   There have been studies of oleandrin and that did show  “phytomedical compounds, such as the cardenolide oleandrin, may one day represent a cost-effective therapeutic strategy to help combat enveloped virus infections (such as HTLV-1) in developing countries with limited access to modern antivirals.”

New Research Study Points to Potential of Oleandrin as Therapeutic Strategy for Treatment of HTLV-1, Which Affects Between 10 Million to 15 Million Worldwide

Quote

The study is the latest in a string of published research papers which speak to various potential uses of oleandrin, an extract from the common Nerium oleander plant, in disease treatments. Oleandrin is the key bioactive component of PBI-05204, a drug developed by Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc. (www.phoenixbiotechnology.com), of San Antonio, TX.

and this

Quote

HTLV-1 is a retroviral infection that affects T cells (a type of white blood cell). There is no cure or treatment for HTLV-1 and it is considered a lifelong condition. Some 10 million to 15 million people worldwide are infected with HTLV-1. Areas of the world that are endemic to the HTLV-1 virus are the Caribbean, southern Japan, equatorial Africa, Middle East, South America and Melanesia. Women are twice as likely to be infected as men.

And it does have potential efficacy to treat viral illnesses, possibly HIV, possibly cancer. However, there is zip hard evidence that it will work on COVID 19.  One study did show some potential in treating coronaviruses using monkey kidney cells. 

4 facts about oleandrin, an unproven coronavirus treatment reportedly pitched to Trump

Disclaimer: I'm not a research scientist and I don't play one on TV. Here's my impression from casual reading over the last four months.  Scientists working on viruses understand their mechanisms of infection and spread, and meta studies have been done searching for existing medications that will work on COVID 19.  If there is potential for oleandrin to be truly effective in the treatment of COVID 19, scientists are already on it and know how to assess it's likelihood to be a potential treatment. 

What Phoenix BioTechnology is into right now is the potential for wealth beyond their wildest dreams of avarice. 

[ADoyle90815]

The issue with oleander is that the plant is toxic to humans and animals. In fact, I seem to remember a news story several years ago where people camping were poisoned because they decided to use oleander sticks to roast marshmallows over a campfire. They might even have been Boy Scouts, but it was so long ago that I don't remember exactly, just that they nearly died from that incident.

[Howl]

Based on the deaths of several people trying to use a variation of a previous unproven treatment (was it hydroxychloroquine?), *some* people may think that making tea from oleander leaves is a good idea.  

Edited August 23, 2020 by Howl

[Coconut Flan]

We seem to have no bottom on COVID stupidity.  

I take weekly within two pills of the "standard" hydroxychloroquine regimen recommended for COVID 19.  It's more eye toxic than a heart hazard in my experience as long as normal doses are maintained.  I'm sure some people thought if some is good, more is better.  It's definitely not a drug to be handed out like aspirin, ibuprofen, or acetaminophen.