Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Whitley]

Those exposed who had nothing more than a common cold (remember that's at least 80% of all cases, probably more when you age stratify and remove all the old folks), can go back to the front lines and do their jobs. I'm not seeing much about this despite the huge potential to provide needed front line people and maybe more importantly to boost optimism. What I do see is lots of body bags stacked up like fire wood on wagons outside hospitals in Italy.

Well you need to test everyone (not just in a triage like they are doing now)---the more tests the more you are going to be able to see the nuances of this virus. But that is going to take the political will (questionable) and time. In any case you are not going to see a reliable vaccine for several months at the earliest unless there is some miracle drug that is being used for something else.

[Jeff Buchanan]

This unprecedented, UK is going to pay workers meeting certain criteria up to L2500 per month ...........

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51982005

[froot loops]

Update from the COVID front Metro Detroit edition. The testing car line was not as long today. My wife wasn't sure what the reason was, but if may have something to do with the screening website the hospital system set up.

They didn't have to open a second COVID unit yet thankfully, but the unit itself is rather dire. Either they are treating the patients effectively enough and sending them home or the patients are in very critical condition. She had to clear a lot of her schedule next week to cross train more nurses in case the ICU expands.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Lou Dobbs in self-quarantine after one of his team members tested positive.

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/488758-fox-business-host-lou-dobbs-in-self-quarantine-after-staffer-tests-positive

[Jeff Buchanan]

........And there's some very good people in the admin, mostly the pros and not the politicos.

This didn't go unnoticed. A month ago you and Froot, among other woke progressives berated posts I made where I pointed this exact thing out.

I did move from not wanting to take down the "chief" out of baked in respect for the CINC title as he did shit that simply made it clear he was mostly incompetent in that roll. But I've held there are some very smart people in his administration that know exactly how to get the right thing done without any bootlicking. I'd call Fauci among others such as the current Surgeon General and Deborah Brix as examples. I'd also call Muchin pretty solid at Sec Treas. You could make a case for everyone but Navarro in the Dpertment of Commerce inovlved in trade stuff pretty good too.

[froot loops]

What post.a month ago?

[Whitley]

So some details emerging what the Senate Republicans proposal. For the working Americans.

There is will be one check of $1200 ($2400 for couples) not two checks like Trump said. This will be means tested by what your 2018 income tax was (because no one's job would ever change for good or nil in a year). It starts phasing out at 75k and ends at 99k for individuals ($198k for join filings). If you did not make enough to file income tax (less than $2500) or did not file your 2018 federal income tax you get nothing.

Trump had said that no one would be evicted from their homes during this crisis. This is not true. They will be stopped at single family homes that HUD has and only if you had a loan through FHA. This will cover 8 million households (there are 43 million households that rent).

[Jeff Buchanan]

What post.a month ago?

I dunno ...... a couple of months ,maybe longer. My post directly above was dumb. Shouldn't have posted that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

I pulled these figures as of 03/21, 12:06 GMT off the web site I'm following (WorldOMeter- link below):

GR (<1 = declining; >1 = increasing):

3/18 1.31
3/1 9 1.27
3/20 1.17*

* This may or may not be a trend. Nevertheless, it is what it is right now.

Total Active Cases*: 179,279
Mild SX: 171,170 (95%)
Serious/Crit: 8109 (5%)

* Note there's a difference between total cases and active cases. Not gonna explain, you have to keep up.

Relative New Deaths in 24h* (in order of highest to lowest-you can see the numbers at the link. This isn't a bad indicator of which countries are doing a decent job in protecting the most vulnerable)

Italy
Spain
Norway

Relative new deaths EU countries + Iran v. US, UK

Iran
Germany
France
US/UK

* NOT total deaths but rather new deaths - what you'd be looking for is these numbers declining over time. In the countries I picked, they are all accelerating but at different rates. You have to be careful about drawing conclusions - I did by displaying them as I did. TIFWIW.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[Ghengis Jon]

Capture.JPG

[froot loops]

The numbers will be more illustrative over time. We'll need to get random sampling tests as soon as they can stem the initial wave. I can only watch so many Monk reruns.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Speaking of random sampling tests ........ I'm hearing this and on f/u with people I know with boots on the ground learning this:

My daughter is OB/GYN NP that works in a specialty clinic in Willmington, NC that sees high risk pregnant patients and does genetic testing (Haniford Co. has 40 confirmed cases and 70 pending as of Friday). Her clinic is attached to but not a part of the hospital system there ("attached to" means that the hospital oversees their operations, does JACO inspections, imposes protocols but doesn't directly manage the practice). The hospital has published screening protocols (a check list) for patient's presenting to any of their attached clinics for COVID-19. You can be prevented from entering a clinic (the exam and treatment areas) if you check certain boxes in the screen. Medical Assistant (MA) conduct the screen.

My daughter saw two patient's on Friday that should not have been placed in an exam room because they should not have passed the screen but were judged by the MA to have passed it. Lots of potential for human error in screens that are intended to separate potential COVID-19 infected patients from HC providers..... or screening protocols are not properly constructed.

She has one N95 mask in her desk. The clinic has none but more are supposed to arrive on Tuesday. The Hanover Hospital has advised clinics that for them the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) is limited or non-existent. There just isn't enough so, it's being rationed. Hospital gets them first.

Local health authorities in Hanover Co. have continued to insist on using CDC screening protocols on who should be tested for COVID-19. It's not up to the providers and providers in my daughter's circle believe the screening criteria are inappropriate. Moreover, if a patient entering the clinic is screened, has risk factors, the protocol to have the testing done is time consuming and difficult. There are no mobile testing sites .... yet but they are planned. No one she talks to in the hospital chain know anything about obtaining test kits. They know how to draw and prepare the blood samples but it's not altogether clear where to send them and which local or health department facilities are capable of testing.

Willmington is a rural city, pop. around 120K. If you made it this far, I don't need to recap the implications here.

Lot's of talk of "massive testing" being ramped up started last week from the national level. Lots of talk about the shortage of PPE being rapidly addressed. This is fine and I won't criticize or point fingers. But, the reality of how slow testing, contact tracing and protecting front line HCPs - from boots on the ground inputs - indicates this is going to be a long slog. Sure, it's regional. But we lack the means currently to do anything but use big, blunt knives working to carve up the COVID-19 problem. We need scalpels if the US is going to preserve some semblance of an economy. The US cannot keep sectors of it's economy shelted in place for a long period and expect the businesses they formerly worked for to just turn on the lights and get back to work.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Subject change ....... I read an article in the Guardian this am that posed the question: will the COVID-19 pandemic in the US change the speed of the March to a national HC system. Bernie already mentioned this during the debate and Biden responded that the Italian HC system, about as national as they get, did't help them. He's right but there is more ......

Biden has been talking about a combo system of private and national systems. Without listing the positives of the US HC delivery system - and there are some - there are also negatives.

In the current circumstance it can be argued that where the US has shot itself in the foot is by scaling down our Public Health System (PHS) - ongoing since the Reagan administration. Because it has been gutted to the extent it has, the US had to scramble to initiate testing and tracing when experts had been warning for a DECADE of the potential disaster awaiting the US should it have to deal with a viral pandemic.

A viable PHS focused on dealing with this sort of thing would have gone a long way in both preparation for a viral pandemic (and in fact, there were plans just terribly underfunded and, in realty, way beyond the actual capability of the PHS to execute them) and in dealing with it better than it appears we are dealing with it.

So, when AOC, Pocahontas and the rest of the Bernie Bros starting screaming NHS in the US, NHS.....NHS.....NHS, turning the current system on it's end, building an NHS, essentially nationalizing what's out there now, would be stupid and incredibly expensive ..... after the debt that will be taken out by the US government to get us through this it is double stupid. The solution is a public private option that public option based on an expanding PHS. The skeleton is there and, really, that's all it is. A skeleton. It just needs to be built back up to what it was like in the 60s. Threat of the next pandemic .... and it will come .... blunted.

[iam416]

[Dr. Strangelove]

How long has it been since Italy imposed serious shutdown measures? Hopefully we started moving that way early enough