SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

I prefer to mask up with a mask like they hand out in many health care places when I'm doing dusty work like blowing the soot out of an EGR cooler. Even so, when I'm done, I have black boogers for the rest of the day. The mask reduced but didn't stop the soot, so guess how well it works with finer particles. I'm sure they help a little, but they are far from a panacea.

 

Those masks are more about spreading disease than contracting it.
That’s why they recommend n95 and a tight fit

 

I wish someone would tell the people at the assisted care place where my mother-in-law is now residing. No masks required ... unless a resident contracts COVID. Then all the healthy visitors, residents, and staff have to mask up when in common areas. Once the sick resident tests negative, no more masks.

AFAIK, that's pretty much SOP most anywhere.

 

How quickly we forget. That’s why the next outbreak will be as bad or worse than this one.
I hope it isn’t for another hundred years, but I doubt it

 

you got to give Obama credit for at least trying to prohibit gain of function research. Don't know how that one slipped through the cracks.
.

 

I know Alabama, even Huntsville, has problems with public health but:

• 97.5% ICU beds - 15.6 of 16.0, Crestwood Medical Center
• 90.2% ICU beds - 88.0 of 97.6, Huntsville Hospital

Since my cardio conversion is still working, we'll wait on my cardio ablation until there are more beds available.

Bob Wilson

 

fortunately, there was a transcript.
the new mantra running through the medical community around here: cdc got it wrong and over reacted.
how quickly they have forgotten the overflowing hospitals, field tents and morgues.
it's as if trump has mesmerized them.

i can tell you from personal experience that massachusetts does not have a good public healthcare system.

the hospitals are now all for profit. the insurance companies rule everything, and the healthcare workers are overburdened, stressed and burned out.
many have retired or left the industry, placing a greater burden on those remaining, and obamacare never came through with the promise of more doctors by increasing medical school seats and fast tracking interested high school students.

rachael wallensky: 'indian country'?

i don't see anything that has changed, or anything on the horizon that will make our next response better than our last.

states-trashing-troves-masks-pandemic-gear-huge-costly-105798738

 

Funny thing, briefly listening to a right-wing radio program, they had a “supplement doctor” rambling about spike proteins, vaccinations causing the spikes and his herbal remedies getting rid of them. A fool for a huckster becomes bait for others and right-wing radio is perfect ‘fish’ trap.

Bob Wilson

 

Agreed!

I would only add that digestion pre-processing is not going to be kind to any anti-viral (or other medical) nostrums. That does not mean I'm willing to be a pincushion, test subject. Rather, first show evidence in a Petrie dish and animal studies. Then we'll negotiate a good double-blind study.

Bob Wilson

 

Called my favorite bar and grill to find out what specials the have only to this recorded message:

Due to COVID, we are closing a 8 PM instead of midnight.​

Their staff was nuked so everyone was sitting in the bar area. Earlier, I shared with one of doctors that the two main hospitals are at +90% ICU occupancy. His nurse asked about pneumonia and flu vaccinations and I volunteered my COVID state. She said they were not allowed to ask about COVID vaccinations. I joked with the doctor that it was probably something dreamed up in Montgomery AL but thought it might be Federal ... and we both nodded and grinned about it.

So when I bought some stuff at COSTCO, I fitted and put on my N95 masks that I carry in the car. Got some 'looks' in the parking lot but I DON'T CARE.

Had a nice chat at the bar and grill with a Ford pickup enthusiast. Hopefully, I was able to deflate some of the anti-EV lies floating around.

Bob Wilson

 

Just got an email from the Boston medical conglomerate stating that masks are not required, but they will allow you to wear one if you want.
It sounds like business is bad, and they are trying to promote infections

 

New York Times on latest variant. There may be a paywall.

. . . Covid-19 cases start to pick up, a variant called JN.1 has now become the most common strain of the virus spreading across the United States.

JN.1, which emerged from the variant BA.2.86 and was first detected in the United States in September, accounted for 44 percent of Covid cases nationwide by mid-December, up from about 7 percent in late November, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
. . .
Preliminary research shows that the updated Covid vaccines released in September produce antibodies effective against JN.1, which is distantly related to the XBB.1.5 variant that the vaccines were designed to target. People may not build up as many antibodies to JN.1 as they would to XBB.1.5, but the levels should still decrease the risk.
. . .​

Bob Wilson

 

I'm recovering now from my first ever bout with covid. Still a tickle in chest and a little tired. It wasn't too bad at all considering some of the horror stories.

 

My second bout, with a Paxlovid scrip, was much more comfortable than my first, without one.

 

This being my first rodeo, I can't compare. But that stuff sure gave me a terrible taste in my mouth.

 

it's spreading like wildfire around here. fortunately, most people don't have to be hospitalized.

 

Not only not hospitalized, but having taken several tests due to the better ½ having it & fully recovered as of a couple days ago .... none of the 3 tests i took rendered a positive but the Urgent Care said it was a positive. She give to me? Me give it to her? We'll never know as i got no sym0toms