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🤮 Coronavirus (Community Thread)

General Discussion
#1603

NYC’s Covid numbers got to 3% requiring schools to close.

The schools will close even as indoor dining at restaurants and the city’s gyms, which experts say are at high risk for spreading virus, remain open at a reduced capacity.

De Blasio has said that the city would try to safely reopening the schools as soon as possible if they were closed due to the outbreak.

“The problem is not coming from the schools. It’s coming from the bars, the restaurants, the gyms and the living room family spread,” Gov. Cuomo said on a call with reporters on Friday.

The shuttering of the nation’s largest school system had been anticipated for days after de Blasio told parents on Friday to have a plan in place in case the city decided to close schools for in-person learning, NBC News New York reported. Remote learning will begin Thursday, the mayor said in breaking the news over Twitter.

“We’re in the middle of something really tough right now,” de Blasio said at a press briefing Monday. “We have put health and safety first, and we will put health and safety first.”

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#1604

The meat packers never had a chance with their jobs being considered essential workers, but also way beyond that…Tyson did NOTHING to protect them. And their supervisors wagered on the number who’d get sick.

R Senate also supported that companies would NOT be held liable for workplace conditions under Covid.

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/11/18/lawsuit-tyson-managers-bet-money-on-how-many-workers-would-contract-covid-19/

The lawsuit alleges that despite the uncontrolled spread of the virus at the plant, Tyson required its employees to work long hours in cramped conditions without providing the appropriate personal protective equipment and without ensuring workplace-safety measures were followed.

The lawsuit was recently amended and includes a number of new allegations against the company and plant officials. Among them:

In mid-April, around the time Black Hawk County Sherriff Tony Thompson visited the plant and reported the working conditions there “shook [him] to the core,” plant manager Tom Hart organized a cash-buy-in, winner-take-all, betting pool for supervisors and managers to wager how many plant employees would test positive for COVID-19.

John Casey, an upper-level manager at the plant, is alleged to have explicitly directed supervisors to ignore symptoms of COVID-19, telling them to show up to work even if they were exhibiting symptoms of the virus. Casey reportedly referred to COVID-19 as the “glorified flu” and told workers not to worry about it because “it’s not a big deal” and “everyone is going to get it.” On one occasion, Casey intercepted a sick supervisor who was on his way to be tested and ordered him to get back to work, saying, “We all have symptoms — you have a job to do.” After one employee vomited on the production line, managers reportedly allowed the man to continue working and then return to work the next day.

In late March or early April, as the pandemic spread across Iowa, managers at the Waterloo plant reportedly began avoiding the plant floor for fear of contracting the virus. As a result, they increasingly delegated managerial authority and responsibilities to low-level supervisors who had no management training or experience. The supervisors did not require truck drivers and subcontractors to have their temperatures checked before entering the plant.

In March and April, plant supervisors falsely denied the existence of any confirmed cases or positive tests for COVID-19 within the plant, and allegedly told workers they had a responsibility to keep working to ensure Americans didn’t go hungry as the result of a shutdown.

Tyson paid out $500 “thank you bonuses” to employees who turned up for every scheduled shift for three months — a policy decision that allegedly incentivized sick workers to continue reporting for work.

Tyson executives allegedly lobbied Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for COVID-19 liability protections that would shield the company from lawsuits, and successfully lobbied the governor to declare that only the state government, not local governments, had the authority to close businesses in response to the pandemic.

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#1605

Dire situation with nursing shortages now…and the numbers ramping up.

The American Hospital Association’s vice president of quality and patient safety, Nancy Foster, said she’s heard from two dozen hospital leaders over the past two weeks, warning her of staffing shortages in states including Texas, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. Health care providers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, and Utah said they’re facing the same problem, as do local reports from New Mexico, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Indiana, Montana, California, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

The shortages are primarily caused by overwhelming numbers of patients as coronavirus spreads, combined with decreasing staff levels as nurses and doctors themselves fall sick or have to quarantine after being exposed to infected people. Covid-19 is also prevalent in rural areas that have been struggling with a shortage of health professionals for years; hospitals in more remote regions don’t have equipment such as ventilators, and so must transfer severely ill patients to already-overwhelmed urban health care systems. The scale of the problem makes it harder to address: Systems designed to offset shortages by bringing in backup from other areas don’t work when so many states are affected simultaneously.

…

The lack of staff reflects the dramatic increase in patients. There has been an average of 157,318 new cases per day over the past week, according to the STAT Covid-19 Tracker — 74% more than two weeks ago — and there simply aren’t enough ICU nurses, in particular, to meet the need. Hospitals currently have 2,000 ICU nurse jobs open on Trusted Health, a company that connects travel nurses, who hop from job to job around the country, with hospitals.

The situation is exacerbated as staff get sick with coronavirus themselves, or else have to quarantine after exposure. The staffing need is so dire, hospital workers who have tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic have been told to continue working in North Dakota.

One rural hospital in Texas is struggling with 30% of staff nurses out of commission because of infection with or exposure to Covid-19, said TORCH’s Henderson. At one point earlier this month, more than 1,000 staff from the Mayo Clinic were out of work because of Covid-19, said Amy Williams, executive dean of Mayo Clinic Practice.

“It could be caring for a family member who has Covid, it could be on quarantine because of being exposed in the community, or it could be because the staff member actually has Covid,” Williams said. More than 90% of possible exposures occurred in the community as transmission picked up, she said, not in the hospital.

As health care systems compete for additional staff, salaries skyrocket. ICU nurses are a “hot commodity,” said Dan Weberg, a former emergency room nurse and head of clinical innovation at Trusted Health, and their fees are currently twice as much as pre-Covid rates, at around $5,000 to $6,000 per week.

“This is how PPE was in the beginning of the pandemic. When you’re competing with everyone else in town, and state, and the country, that creates a market that’s not sustainable,” said SSM Health’s Garza.

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#1606

Just abhorrent…8 months out and all red

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#1607

Junior got it.

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#1608

Sen Loeffler says she had tested Positive for Covid but now testing Negative.
Wonder which one you believe?

She is in a huge Georgia Runoff contest…so she may be playing it coy here.

Just know we are dealing with a slippery one.

Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s campaign says the Georgia Republican’s previously inconclusive Covid-19 test has come back negative, but that she will continue to undergo testing for the virus.

“Senator Loeffler’s previously inconclusive PCR results were retested overnight and the results thankfully came back negative,” campaign spokesperson Stephen Lawson said in a statement Sunday.

Lawson added that, "out of an abundance of caution, (Loeffler) will continue to self-isolate and be retested again to hopefully receive consecutive negative test results. We will share those results as they are made available. She will continue to confer with medical experts and follow CDC guidelines."

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#1609

Rapid Testing Is Less Accurate Than the Government Wants to Admit

The promise of antigen tests emerged like a miracle this summer. With repeated use, the theory went, these rapid and cheap coronavirus tests would identify highly infectious people while giving healthy Americans a green light to return to offices, schools and restaurants. The idea of on-the-spot tests with near-instant results was an appealing alternative to the slow, lab-based testing that couldn’t meet public demand.

By September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had purchased more than 150 million tests for nursing homes and schools, spending more than $760 million. But it soon became clear that antigen testing — named for the viral proteins, or antigens, that the test detects — posed a new set of problems. Unlike lab-based, molecular PCR tests, which detect snippets of the virus’s genetic material, antigen tests are less sensitive because they can only detect samples with a higher viral load. The tests were prone to more false negatives and false positives. As problems emerged, officials were slow to acknowledge the evidence.

With the benefit of hindsight, experts said the Trump administration should have released antigen tests primarily to communities with outbreaks instead of expecting them to work just as well in large groups of asymptomatic people. Understanding they can produce false results, the government could have ensured that clinics had enough for repeat testing to reduce false negatives and access to more precise PCR tests to weed out false positives. Government agencies, which were aware of the tests’ limitations, could have built up trust by being more transparent about them and how to interpret results, scientists said.

When health care workers in Nevada and Vermont reported false positives, HHS defended the tests and threatened Nevada with unspecified sanctions until state officials agreed to continue using them in nursing homes. It took several more weeks for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to issue an alert on Nov. 3 that confirmed what Nevada had experienced: Antigen tests were prone to giving false positives, the FDA warned.

“Part of the problem is this administration has continuously played catch-up,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School. It was criticized for not ensuring enough PCR tests at the beginning, and when antigen tests became available, it shoved them at the states without a coordinated plan, he said.

If you tested the same group of people once a week without fail, with adequate double-checking, then a positive test could be the canary in the coal mine, said Dr. Mark Levine, commissioner of Vermont’s Health Department. “Unfortunately the government didn’t really advertise it that way or prescribe it” with much clarity, so some people lost faith.

HHS and the FDA did not respond to requests for comment.

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#1610

Given that we’re in unprecedented Covid numbers, here’s some helpful information on where you can get testing.

Across the U.S. many people are seeking Covid-19 tests before traveling or attending Thanksgiving celebrations. Primary, urgent-care and public-testing facilities have reported long lines for tests and a paucity of appointments in the lead-up to the holiday, and turnaround times for test results are on the rise.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving, which has coincided with the worst phase of the pandemic to date.

The U.S. reported 142,732 new coronavirus cases on Sunday. Case surges also typically lead to more testing demand as people learn that they have been exposed to an infected person or start developing symptoms after becoming infected.

Doctors and public-health officials encourage those with symptoms or known contact with an infected individual to get tested. They warn that people interested in getting tested before seeing family should continue to take other measures like wearing a mask, social distancing and washing hands.

Here’s some advice from public-health officials and doctors on where to get tested before Thanksgiving and what to expect.

Where can I get a test before Thanksgiving?

Many urgent- and primary-care facilities offer testing appointments in addition to the mobile and other clinics run by state and county health departments across the country. Some doctors also offer testing in their offices. Many states publish maps and testing site information on their public-health department websites.

The federal government has also set up surge testing sites in states including Pennsylvania, Utah, New Mexico and Kentucky. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a website that lists no-cost testing centers by state and health benefits company Castlight Health Inc. offers a test site finding website.

Finding an available appointment given the recent increase in demand may be challenging, and some clinics offer walk-in appointments only—and some test sites have age limits and won’t test children. Lines for testing stretched around city blocks in New York the weekend before Thanksgiving. Some facilities across the country are now giving priority for those with symptoms or known contact with someone who is infected, so be sure to check test sites’ eligibility criteria before waiting in line.

Finding an available appointment may require a mix of online research and phone calls to facilities to learn about testing availability.

What’s the turnaround time going to be?

If you receive a PCR test that is processed in a lab, you should expect to wait two to four days or more. Turnaround times for results from PCR tests—those sent to labs for processing—have crept up in recent days amid a surge in demand. Laboratory Corp. of America said on Friday that the time to get a result once they receive the sample “remains strong,” at about one to two days, up slightly from earlier in the fall. Rival Quest Diagnostics Inc. said last week that its Covid-19 test-turnaround time was more than two days, after hovering at two days since late August.

If you receive a rapid antigen test, which trades some accuracy for speed, you will receive results in minutes or later the same day, depending on how the testing facility operates.

How much will it cost?

Covid-19 testing is often free, especially when tests are administered at a publicly run site. Many insurers cover the costs of testing, particularly if the person has symptoms or a known exposure to an infected person. The advertised price of lab-based PCR tests ranges from about $60 to $200 or more depending on the facility. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or Cares Act, requires testing providers to publish the cash price of Covid-19 tests on their public website.

Rapid tests can cost $100 to $200 or more depending on the facility.

links
No-cost testing by State

Where to find a Covid-19 Test Site
https://my.castlighthealth.com/corona-virus-testing-sites/

@MissJava Can you please move this to Coronavirus section please and maybe add one of your own entries in there too. I reached my max number of entries on that one? Thanks!

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#1611

Keep on archivin’! Thanks for your hard work on all this.

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#1612

Thx - you too!

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#1613

A rough thread to read.

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#1614
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#1615

SmartSelect_20201130-090340_Twitter
SmartSelect_20201130-090340_Twitter1022×668 422 KB

:unamused:

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#1616


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#1617

We are facing unprecedented amount of Covid infections, and once Biden takes power, the increasing numbers seem beyond daunting. Some strategies that they might employ involve getting help from the Right - former Senator Dr. Frist who is also a doctor, and a Republican to set up a straight narrative (from that Right.) Perhaps they might also get Hannity or Carlson’s help, but someone like Lebron James may be able to help as well.

Long, well-researched article in NYT…on where we are with the pandemic, how to plan for large numbers, what the vaccine can do and where Biden must act.

Mr. Biden has said he supports a national mask mandate, although his plan calls on governors to impose state ones.

Among the suggested names with those skills were Heidi J. Larson of the Vaccine Confidence Project in London, Carl T. Bergstrom of the University of Washington and Zeynep Tufekci of the University of North Carolina.

Others said the panel had too many members tied to the Obama-Biden administration. Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, for example, was an architect of the Affordable Care Act and Dr. Eric Goosby was Mr. Obama’s global AIDS coordinator. To reach Mr. Trump’s base, they said, the panel needs credible Republican experts.

“Otherwise,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner, “there will be even more of a mistaken perception that this is Democrats and doctors trying to shut down the economy, when actually controlling the virus is key to economic recovery.”

Experts suggested adding Dr. Bill Frist, a transplant surgeon and former Republican senator, or Dr. Marc K. Siegel, an internist and Fox News opinion writer.

Mr. Warren suggested consulting marketing experts and recruiting “everyone from Santa Claus to LeBron James” as trusted spokesmen.

Another expert suggested adding Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, a heart surgeon and television personality who was criticized for promoting hydroxychloroquine on Fox News (he later relented), and possibly even asking Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson to join, because they are popular with Mr. Trump’s base and might be persuaded to accept science that would save the lives of their own viewers.
…

All the experts interviewed by The Times praised the plan, but several felt it was not aggressive enough. The pandemic is raging so far beyond control, they argued, that it can be contained only with deeply unpopular but necessary measures, such as rigorously enforced mask laws, closing bars and restaurants, requiring regular testing in schools and workplaces, isolating the infected away from their families, prohibiting travel from high-prevalence areas to low ones, and imposing quarantines that are enforced rather than merely requested.

Many other countries have imposed such measures despite fierce opposition from some citizens, they said, and they have helped.

“Colleges are the Wuhans of this fall surge,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan’s medical school. Universities, he and other experts said, must stop students from going back and forth between their hometowns and college towns, both of which have many vulnerable residents.

…

The next dozen weeks will be long and painful. But spring is likely to bring highly effective vaccines and a renewed commitment to medical leadership, something that has been missing under Mr. Trump.

“The C.D.C. will have to be rebuilt, and its guidelines and the F.D.A.’s have to be promptly re-evaluated,” said Dr. Robert L. Murphy, director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s medical school. “The Biden team will move quickly. It’s not like they don’t know what to do.”

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#1618

Honestly, I wish he could be prosecuted!
He’s done damage that is still lingering! :rage:

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#1619
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#1620

SCOTUS seems to side with all religious freedoms…that’s what is to come. No concern for health issues which are glaring.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s pandemic-related ban on indoor religious services, siding with a church that defied the policy and challenged it as unconstitutional religious discrimination.

The decision followed a similar action by the justices on Nov. 25 that backed Christian and Jewish houses of worship that challenged New York state restrictions in coronavirus hot spots.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a blow to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s pandemic-related ban on indoor religious services, siding with a church that defied the policy and challenged it as unconstitutional religious discrimination.

The decision followed a similar action by the justices on Nov. 25 that backed Christian and Jewish houses of worship that challenged New York state restrictions in coronavirus hot spots.

The justices, with no noted dissents, set aside a lower court ruling that rejected a challenge to Newsom’s policy by Harvest Rock Church Inc, which has several campuses in the state, and Harvest International Ministries Inc, an association of churches. Both are based in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles County.

The justices directed the lower court to reconsider the case in light of their ruling in the New York case.

#1621

Gov Newsom is taking the next step and putting 5 regions of California under Stay-at-Home orders because the Covid numbers are so high - !9K deaths to date, and 2500 + new cases per day - 12% infection rate and ICU’s are at near capacity.

OAKLAND, Calif. — California regions will face stay-at-home orders when their hospital capacity shrinks to an alarmingly low level under a new plan Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health chief announced Thursday.

In a region where rising cases threaten to overwhelm limited intensive care units, pushing available units to below 15 percent of capacity, residents will be directed to remain in their homes unless they are conducting essential activities.

While no area of California currently faces a severe enough ICU shortage to meet those requirements, health officials said some regions could hit the threshold and come under stay-at-home requirements as soon as this week.

“If we don’t act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed,” Newsom said Thursday.

Newsom is dividing the state into five geographic regions and lockdowns would last for three weeks minimum. Residents would be unable to gather, while playgrounds, salons and restaurant dining would have to close. Food takeout would still be allowed, while hotels could only open for critical infrastructure support. Religious institutions would be limited to outdoor services.

Schools that are already open can remain so even if they are in counties that come under the new orders. Retailers would be able to continue operating indoors but would need to sharply curtail their operations so they only allow 20 percent of their capacity. People could still seek non-urgent medical and dental care.

The governor said the order is "fundamentally predicated on the need to stop gathering with people outside your household."

The five regions are the Bay Area; Southern California; Greater Sacramento; San Joaquin Valley; and Northern California. Regions would have 48 hours to adopt a stay-home order once the state imposes one.

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#1622

:sob:

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