Which right now we stand at fiddling while everything burns
And yes, Trump actually (re)tweeted this.
I know that is what made me think of it. And I am not advocating for great government action. Quite the contrary, I was just making a contrast point of extremes. Our current leader can be a savant or an idiot, viruses are unconcerned either way and it is up to us at the ground level to take care of ourselves. Government and money are not going to save us especially if we keep wasting our time and energy dwelling on political solutions or criticisms. Wash your hands, avoid public contact as much as you can and take care of the logistics of your elderly so they can ride it out in isolation. We must do our part to put as little strain on the medical systems as possible. That's it.
From Italy. Reputable sources (friends) working in Lombardy hospitals say me that the situation is critical. Remember that (at least in Italy) ~10% of symptomatic people requires hospitalization _to survive_ and a significant percentage of those _require_ ICU to survive. To be clear: they are not able to breathe autonomously: no hospital -> death. AND they need to stay in hospital for 4 to 8 _weeks_. This disease is not the Black Death, but definitely it's not a _simple flu_. The point is to delay propagation to avoid to fill hospitals (and ICUs). YMMV, may be we're just very unlucky (but I don't think so).
haresfur wrote:
Steely_D wrote:
cc_rider wrote:
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected.
The reality is that there arenât that many COVID cases that need to be seen. Fatality is related to old age, significant underlying illness, and a high d-dimer (according to a recent Lancet article). So all the other, younger, healthier folks who come down with the illness donât need to go to the ED or any other medical facility. They need to drink fluids, take Tylenol, stay away from others, and get over it.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR GOING TO THE ED OR CLINIC; it canât be treated.
So all this frenetic hype about the illness has been framed completely wrong: OMG we canât get tested and I want it! The media should be thinking clearly and saying: treat it like influenza - it hurts the old and frail, and is transmissible so donât go out in public places if you donât want it/donât want to pass it around. And really, thatâs all. Insinuating that everyone - EVERYONE - would benefit if the government would just allow them to be tested is creating an unnecessary strain on the medical system.
Unnecessary, and itâs obstructing real health care for those who need it - as well as teaching people the wrong things about what medical care they need. Teaching them to wrongly âneedâ the system is just gonna sink the boat for everyone.
Hmm, so you don't need to treat secondary infections or to make sure that severely ill people are getting the right fever-reducing meds, cough inhibitors, and nutrition to give them the best chance of surviving?
If you look at the Johns-Hopkins website data, Italy has a death rate of about 5% while most other countries are around 1-2%. About 35% of the cases in intensive care in Italy are under 65, which is pretty high, although it doesn't necessarily mean they are the ones dying. I would guess they wouldn't be in intensive care in an overloaded system unless they were life-threatening cases.
I think there is still a lot to be learned about this disease.
Hoping for the best for your friends and your country.
From Italy. Reputable sources (friends) working in Lombardy hospitals say me that the situation is critical. Remember that (at least in Italy) ~10% of symptomatic people requires hospitalization _to survive_ and a significant percentage of those _require_ ICU to survive. To be clear: they are not able to breathe autonomously: no hospital -> death. AND they need to stay in hospital for 4 to 8 _weeks_. This disease is not the Black Death, but definitely it's not a _simple flu_. The point is to delay propagation to avoid to fill hospitals (and ICUs). YMMV, may be we're just very unlucky (but I don't think so).
haresfur wrote:
Steely_D wrote:
cc_rider wrote:
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected.
The reality is that there arenât that many COVID cases that need to be seen. Fatality is related to old age, significant underlying illness, and a high d-dimer (according to a recent Lancet article). So all the other, younger, healthier folks who come down with the illness donât need to go to the ED or any other medical facility. They need to drink fluids, take Tylenol, stay away from others, and get over it.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR GOING TO THE ED OR CLINIC; it canât be treated.
So all this frenetic hype about the illness has been framed completely wrong: OMG we canât get tested and I want it! The media should be thinking clearly and saying: treat it like influenza - it hurts the old and frail, and is transmissible so donât go out in public places if you donât want it/donât want to pass it around. And really, thatâs all. Insinuating that everyone - EVERYONE - would benefit if the government would just allow them to be tested is creating an unnecessary strain on the medical system.
Unnecessary, and itâs obstructing real health care for those who need it - as well as teaching people the wrong things about what medical care they need. Teaching them to wrongly âneedâ the system is just gonna sink the boat for everyone.
Hmm, so you don't need to treat secondary infections or to make sure that severely ill people are getting the right fever-reducing meds, cough inhibitors, and nutrition to give them the best chance of surviving?
If you look at the Johns-Hopkins website data, Italy has a death rate of about 5% while most other countries are around 1-2%. About 35% of the cases in intensive care in Italy are under 65, which is pretty high, although it doesn't necessarily mean they are the ones dying. I would guess they wouldn't be in intensive care in an overloaded system unless they were life-threatening cases.
I think there is still a lot to be learned about this disease.
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected.
The reality is that there arenât that many COVID cases that need to be seen. Fatality is related to old age, significant underlying illness, and a high d-dimer (according to a recent Lancet article). So all the other, younger, healthier folks who come down with the illness donât need to go to the ED or any other medical facility. They need to drink fluids, take Tylenol, stay away from others, and get over it.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR GOING TO THE ED OR CLINIC; it canât be treated.
So all this frenetic hype about the illness has been framed completely wrong: OMG we canât get tested and I want it! The media should be thinking clearly and saying: treat it like influenza - it hurts the old and frail, and is transmissible so donât go out in public places if you donât want it/donât want to pass it around. And really, thatâs all. Insinuating that everyone - EVERYONE - would benefit if the government would just allow them to be tested is creating an unnecessary strain on the medical system.
Unnecessary, and itâs obstructing real health care for those who need it - as well as teaching people the wrong things about what medical care they need. Teaching them to wrongly âneedâ the system is just gonna sink the boat for everyone.
Hmm, so you don't need to treat secondary infections or to make sure that severely ill people are getting the right fever-reducing meds, cough inhibitors, and nutrition to give them the best chance of surviving?
If you look at the Johns-Hopkins website data, Italy has a death rate of about 5% while most other countries are around 1-2%. About 35% of the cases in intensive care in Italy are under 65, which is pretty high, although it doesn't necessarily mean they are the ones dying. I would guess they wouldn't be in intensive care in an overloaded system unless they were life-threatening cases.
I think there is still a lot to be learned about this disease.
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected.
The reality is that there arenât that many COVID cases that need to be seen. Fatality is related to old age, significant underlying illness, and a high d-dimer (according to a recent Lancet article). So all the other, younger, healthier folks who come down with the illness donât need to go to the ED or any other medical facility. They need to drink fluids, take Tylenol, stay away from others, and get over it.
THERE IS NO NEED FOR GOING TO THE ED OR CLINIC; it canât be treated.
So all this frenetic hype about the illness has been framed completely wrong: OMG we canât get tested and I want it! The media should be thinking clearly and saying: treat it like influenza - it hurts the old and frail, and is transmissible so donât go out in public places if you donât want it/donât want to pass it around. And really, thatâs all. Insinuating that everyone - EVERYONE - would benefit if the government would just allow them to be tested is creating an unnecessary strain on the medical system.
Unnecessary, and itâs obstructing real health care for those who need it - as well as teaching people the wrong things about what medical care they need. Teaching them to wrongly âneedâ the system is just gonna sink the boat for everyone.
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected.
Definitely. Any healthcare system will staff and resource for baseline population needs (with or without additional extra/private options). An epidemic or pandemic is not part of that.
Overheard one (COVID) screener at the McGill Dental Faculty say it's time flights from the US are blocked. Having no public healthcare and all that...
Makes a good point, actually.
If you're sick, but cannot afford to pay for treatment, you go to the emergency room, right? Which everyone knows is the best place to get prompt care. Sure, you'll have to wait until they clear the crash victims, gunshot/stabbing victims, ODs, and REALLY sick COVID-19 patients, but you'll be first on the list after them.
If you're sick, but do not have 'papers', you don't even go to the emergency room, for fear of being detained (or worse).
To the larger point, there is NO country with the medical resources to handle the number of COVID-19 cases expected. By 10X or more. In China, patients with serious treatable conditions have died, because there are not enough resources to care for COVID-19 patients AND the normal number of critical patients. Dialysis, chemo, blood tests, etc. etc. are all set aside in favor of COVID-19 management.
It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. c.
Donald Trump is revealing how âdeeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he canât bluff his way through,â according to an editorial published Sunday in the Washington Examiner, a conservative political news site and weekly magazine that often has the presidentâs back. This time, the Examiner had a serious problem with the presidentâs deceitful approach to the coronavirus threat."Itâs one thing for Trump to insist he had a âperfectâ phone call and have all his Republican minions fall in line. Itâs another thing to downplay a growing epidemic as more and more Americans get sick,â wrote the Examinerâs executive editor Philip Klein.
For a president who lives in the moment, rarely planning too far ahead, the coronavirus has proved to be a leadership challenge he was not prepared for either. The outbreak that has rattled the nation does not respond to Mr. Trumpâs favorite instruments of power: It cannot be cowed by Twitter posts, it cannot be shot down by drones, it cannot be overcome by party solidarity, it cannot be overpowered by campaign rally chants.
Mr. Trump, who is at his strongest politically when he has a human enemy to attack, has seemed less certain of how to take on an invisible killer. The role of calming natural leader is not one that has come easily as he struggles to find the balance between public reassurance and Panglossian dismissiveness. He has predicted that the virus will âmiraculouslyâ disappear on its own with warmer weather, suggested a vaccine will be available soon and insisted anyone who wants to be tested can be â all overstated or inaccurate.
Donald Trump is revealing how âdeeply unsuited he is to deal with a genuine crisis that he canât bluff his way through,â according to an editorial published Sunday in the Washington Examiner, a conservative political news site and weekly magazine that often has the presidentâs back. This time, the Examiner had a serious problem with the presidentâs deceitful approach to the coronavirus threat.
"Itâs one thing for Trump to insist he had a âperfectâ phone call and have all his Republican minions fall in line. Itâs another thing to downplay a growing epidemic as more and more Americans get sick,â wrote the Examinerâs executive editor Philip Klein.
It is rather curious that the COVID-19 virus hits at the same time the US adult obesity rates attains 40% and is forecast to hit 50% in the near future.
God wanted to reward Americans for being 'exceptional' and pursuing the cheap energy entitlement at any cost. Mission accomplished.
Well carp. That sucks, but let's hope it's just a precautionary measure. It makes sense to limit medically frail folks' exposure, it doesn't seem like an over-reaction. Regardless, not being able to see your Dad adds worry to everyone. Can he Skype, text, email, send smoke signals?*
*thinly-veiled Oklahoma joke
Best wishes, c.
It's precautionary - no suspected cases. Sadly, communicating with him at this point must be done face to face, and even then it's minimal.
The nursing home were my father lives is now closed to visitors until further notice.
Well carp. That sucks, but let's hope it's just a precautionary measure. It makes sense to limit medically frail folks' exposure, it doesn't seem like an over-reaction. Regardless, not being able to see your Dad adds worry to everyone. Can he Skype, text, email, send smoke signals?*
