Corona Virus: It's a Marathon, Not a Sprint

[Isgrimnur]

* Norovirus

[gilraen]

People forget that noro is actually very active in winter

[Smoove_B]

* Norovirus

That too!

People forget that noro is actually very active in winter

I still refer to it as winter vomiting sickness because it's one of the best names ever.

[malchior]

* Norovirus

That too!

People forget that noro is actually very active in winter

I still refer to it as winter vomiting sickness because it's one of the best names ever.

I was present when someone (a young boy) with norovirus lost it in a Cheeburger Cheeburger in the Princeton area. That was horrific 'Stand By Me' stuff and that only was the beginning of the horror as we all began the wait to see if it was going to happen to us.

[TheMix]

Novovirus!

</shudder>

Been there. Do not want.

[Smoove_B]

BREAKING: U.S. reports 899,441 new coronavirus cases in one day, setting world record

This is what giving up feels like.

EDIT: They actually just updated it;

UPDATE: Number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. rises to 901,369 with late-night report from D.C.

[malchior]

NJ.com. I have no words. Looks like my cynical guess was on mark.

Murphy on Monday asked the state Legislature — controlled by fellow Democrats — for a 90-day extension as the powers were set to expire Jan. 11, the final day of the current legislative session. He said the move is necessary because of the new spikes in numbers.

But, citing the lack of support among legislators from both parties, the state Senate and Assembly on Thursday began advancing a resolution that agrees only to grant a 45-day extension on orders, waivers, and directives that loosen guidelines for hospitals so they can more easily deal with a deluge of patients.

The resolution does not extend key pieces of Murphy’s request — including the authority to install federal health guidelines, such as masks in schools, and overseeing vaccinations and testing.

Outgoing state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media on Friday lawmakers aren’t granting the full extension because the state has to learn to live with the virus 22 months after the pandemic started here, especially with vaccines now readily available.

[Smoove_B]

For a (D), Sweeney sure does seem to use the talking points of the GOP.

Also, if its up to locals to decide masking? I predict...pain. I know there are lots of crazies where I live and in other red corners of the state, but I'm confident there are plenty of parents that aren't going to be sending kids into a mixed masking or no masking environment. One of them might even be posting on this board.

[Defiant]

[Smoove_B]

Feels like maybe releasing this on Friday afternoon after beating the drum all week that kids should be in school is problematic:

Kids who had COVID-19 were at substantially higher risk of developing diabetes after their infection than kids who didn't, or who had another non-COVID respiratory infection, the CDC said in a major new study released Friday.

Diabetes was already known to increase a person's risk for catching COVID, and COVID infection was known to make diabetes symptoms worse. But the new study demonstrates a clear link between non-diabetic kids catching the virus and subsequently developing the chronic disorder as a result.

"Persons aged <18 years with COVID-19 were more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis >30 days after infection than were those without COVID-19 and those with prepandemic acute respiratory infections," the authors wrote.

[Isgrimnur]

CDC

Increases in the number of type 1 diabetes diagnoses (1,2) and increased frequency and severity of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at the time of diabetes diagnosis (3) have been reported in European pediatric populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In adults, diabetes might be a long-term consequence of SARS-CoV-2 infection (4–7). To evaluate the risk for any new diabetes diagnosis (type 1, type 2, or other diabetes) >30 days† after acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), CDC estimated diabetes incidence among patients aged <18 years (patients) with diagnosed COVID-19 from retrospective cohorts constructed using IQVIA health care claims data from March 1, 2020, through February 26, 2021
...
The mechanism of how SARS-CoV-2 might lead to incident diabetes is likely complex and could differ by type 1 and type 2 diabetes
...
The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, the definition of diabetes might have low specificity because it used a single ICD-10-CM code, did not include laboratory data at the time of diagnosis, and could not reliably distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

[malchior]

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, as you can imagine that is causing Nate Silver levels of mockery in public health circles today. It unfortunately also reinforces the core idea that many elected officials have - prevention isn't something government should be involved in. Not health, not emergency management, not environmental protection.

[RunningMn9]

I feel like I just need to disconnect from the internet for like a year.

[malchior]

Unplanned vs. planned shutdowns - a national case study.

Ambulances in Kansas speed toward hospitals then suddenly change direction because hospitals are full. Employee shortages in New York City cause delays in trash and subway services and diminish the ranks of firefighters and emergency workers. Airport officials shut down security checkpoints at the biggest terminal in Phoenix and schools across the nation struggle to find teachers for their classrooms.

The current explosion of omicron-fueled coronavirus infections in the U.S. is causing a breakdown in basic functions and services — the latest illustration of how COVID-19 keeps upending life more than two years into the pandemic.

“This really does, I think, remind everyone of when COVID-19 first appeared and there were such major disruptions across every part of our normal life,” said Tom Cotter, director of emergency response and preparedness at the global health nonprofit Project HOPE. “And the unfortunate reality is, there’s no way of predicting what will happen next until we get our vaccination numbers — globally — up.”

First responders, hospitals, schools and government agencies have employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to keep the public safe, but they are worried how much longer they can keep it up.

In Kansas’ Johnson County, paramedics are working 80 hours a week. Ambulances have frequently been forced to alter their course when the hospitals they’re heading to tell them they’re too overwhelmed to help, confusing the patients’ already anxious family members driving behind them. When the ambulances arrive at hospitals, some of their emergency patients end up in waiting rooms because there are no beds.

Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer for the University of Kansas Hospital, said when the leader of a rural hospital had no place to send its dialysis patients this week, the hospital’s staff consulted a textbook and “tried to put in some catheters and figure out how to do it.”

Medical facilities have been hit by a “double whammy,” he said. The number of COVID-19 patients at the University of Kansas Hospital rose from 40 on Dec. 1 to 139 on Friday. At the same time, more than 900 employees have been sickened with COVID-19 or are awaiting test results — 7% of the hospital’s 13,500-person workforce.

“What my hope is and what we’re going to cross our fingers around is that as it peaks ... maybe it’ll have the same rapid fall we saw in South Africa,” Stites said, referring to the swiftness with which the number of cases fell in that country. “We don’t know that. That’s just hope.”

[Smoove_B]

But are the unplanned shutdowns happening because of COVID-19 or with COVID-19?

[YellowKing]

This is how dumb he thinks his base is. FTFY Heath Mayo.

[LordMortis]

Feels like maybe releasing this on Friday afternoon after beating the drum all week that kids should be in school is problematic:

Kids who had COVID-19 were at substantially higher risk of developing diabetes after their infection than kids who didn't, or who had another non-COVID respiratory infection, the CDC said in a major new study released Friday.

Diabetes was already known to increase a person's risk for catching COVID, and COVID infection was known to make diabetes symptoms worse. But the new study demonstrates a clear link between non-diabetic kids catching the virus and subsequently developing the chronic disorder as a result.

"Persons aged <18 years with COVID-19 were more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis >30 days after infection than were those without COVID-19 and those with prepandemic acute respiratory infections," the authors wrote.

My cousin went from nowhere into diabetes insanity but she's in her 50s. Her bother died right when they thought he was going to get better. Yeah, big weddings!

[Smoove_B]

Feels like maybe we should start considering that "let it rip" wasn't a good idea.

More than 135,000 Americans hospitalized with COVID-19, highest since the pandemic began

[YellowKing]

Don't worry, it's only mild hospitalizations.

[Isgrimnur]

If it were a real pandemic, the hospital system has ways of shutting that down.

[malchior]

American exceptionalism at its finest.

[Zaxxon]

[Freyland]

Don't worry, it's only mild hospitalizations.

And only "with" COVID.

[RunningMn9]

Out of curiosity, is there a running graph of total hospital admissions?

[Max Peck]

Feels like maybe we should start considering that "let it rip" wasn't a good idea.

Nah, it's fine. My newfeed insists that the US is able to stay open because your free market healthcare system provides more than enough beds for everyone, unlike the socialist hellcare here in Canada where we're once again forced to close things down because we don't have enough hospital beds.

Why Canada is shutting down during Omicron while the U.S. stays open: their health care systems

As Omicron sweeps through North America, the U.S. and Canadian responses couldn’t be more different. U.S. states are largely open for business, while Canada’s biggest provinces are shutting down.

The difference largely comes down to arithmetic: The U.S. health care system, which prioritizes free markets, provides more hospital beds per capita than the government-dominated Canadian system does.

[Defiant]

Out of curiosity, is there a running graph of total hospital admissions?

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/curr ... ountry=USA

[RunningMn9]

Those are the folks with COVID. I meant total admissions for everything. Similar to excess deaths, I’m curious to see the delta in overall hospitalizations over time.

[Defiant]

Maybe this (although it's for ICU beds).

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/hospit ... -day-trend

(BTW, couldn't you have picked something like "difference" instead of "delta"?

[RunningMn9]

I think “Inpatient Beds” is what I was looking for (the other tab). I’ll be honest, that looks like a fairly constant line of beds in use (with most beds not in use for COVID), no?

Of course, that data set starts in August 2020. Would love for it to have started in Jan 2020.

[malchior]

Good lord.

[gbasden]

Why the hell does someone working from home need a printer?

It's easier to mark up a print out of something than it is to do it all on a computer.

Pure insanity! Redline in Word or add comments as notes in PowerPoint or something. I don't want to waste time and resources printing and then going back and incorporating my edits electronically when I can just make my edits electronically in the first place.

Yes, a thousand times yes.

[Max Peck]

Apparently the portmanteau of the day is: Deltacron.

[Kraken]

Woe betide anyone with "flurona".

[Smoove_B]

Chuck Wendig gets it:

I feel like someone just told me 2 + 2 now equals 22, and a lot of people seem to agree with that, even though we all know math doesn’t work that fucking way.

I feel like I’m seeing and hearing how bad the pandemic is presently, how the systems are straining, how teachers and healthcare workers are quitting in droves and are pushed to their limits, how friends and family are seeing workplaces and schools hamstrung by all this shit, and then, at the same time… I’m seeing nobody do anything about it. Like, not a fucking thing. In fact, less is being done.

We’ve given up.

We’ve surrendered.

This is the Great Surrender.

Still not convinced?

We acknowledge, oh yeah it’s not good, and then we just keep doing what we were doing. No slow down. Only acceleration. We will violently shoulder our way through this pandemic, because we are so done with it, even as it is clearly, clearly not done with us. Schools are open because jobs are open because the economy must be fed. And people defend it. Like they’re people who know they’re in the Matrix and they defend it. Everybody’s Cipher from the first movie, YEAH I LIKE THE TASTE OF THE STEAK, FUCK YOU. Long Covid? Ennh, fuck it. Masks? Fuck it. Restrictions, lockdowns, any mitigation efforts? Fuckity fuck it all. We give up. Game over. Get COVID. Who cares. ISN’T IT TIME WE ALL GET IT, says Agent Smith as he coughs into your mouth.

[TheMix]

Smoove_B,

I just found your new theme song:


My current theme song is his other one:


Though I may have to adopt the first one as a backup/situational-substitute.

[Zaxxon]

Wendig's piece is great.

[Grifman]

BREAKING: U.S. reports 899,441 new coronavirus cases in one day, setting world record

This is what giving up feels like.

EDIT: They actually just updated it;

UPDATE: Number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. rises to 901,369 with late-night report from D.C.

Making America Great Again! We're number one!

[Smoove_B]

Smoove_B,
I just found your new theme song:

Those are great - hadn't seen them.

[malchior]

Cool story. We did it.