DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Covid-19: Cases Continue

Flashback to my school daYS

Here I thought that you were the kid sneaking in behind the kid doing all of that writing, and sneaking in a lot of "nots".

If I could get to Thailand and stay until this is over I would. I’d be far safer in that country than here. Check their COVID numbers. Plus, If I did get sick the cost would be nothing compared to this country.

I can’t wait till I can travel again. Our feckless leadership now has us banned. Likely until a vaccine.

So it's ok to gather in large groups for protests and riots but not ok to gather for anything else? I think thats part of the problem here. People see other large groups gathering and probably say "screw it, they aren't social distancing so why should I?"

May I ask where TTT said it was okay to gather in large groups for protests and riots?

I think he is implying the media has not said squat about social distancing with regards to the protests. But I could be wrong.

I would agree w/that. I was just defending TTT because he didn't say anything of the sort.

Per Johns Hopkins-52,898 new cases today.

Not a good time for a holiday weekend

I know several people (including family members) who are planning on going to parties this weekend or hosting parties of their own. (I live in LA County, the place with 2000 new cases per day.)

People just don't get it and are not capable of putting others first.

It's the latter. Lots of Karens and Kens out there, unfortunately.

Your constant endorsement of the insane Swedish model is asinine.

I'd imagine you've read about how a large majority of people are stuck with lung damage, regardless of if people have a moderate or sever case, for months with uncertainty if quality of life will get back to normal?

Please educate yourself, Prp. This is dangerous thinking.

j/c:

I’ve posted other article elsewhere with similar info.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus...the-coronavirus
Parties — Not Protests — Are Causing Spikes In Coronavirus

As the U.S. begins to open back up, coronavirus clusters — where multiple people contract COVID-19 at the same event or location — are popping up all over the country. And despite drawing massive crowds, protests against police violence and racial injustice in Washington state weren't among those clusters.

"We did have a rally in Bellingham, which is our county seat, and there was also a protest, and we have not been able to connect a single case to that rally or to the protest, and what we're finding is in large part that's due to the use of masks," Erika Lautenbach, the director of the Whatcom County Health Department in Washington State, tells NPR's All Things Considered. "Almost everyone at the rally was wearing a mask, and it's really a testament to how effective masks are in preventing the spread of this disease."

For the clusters that have popped up, Lautenbach says the state has been using contact tracing to learn more about how they're contributing to the spread of the virus. For instance, it found that 14 cases were associated with a party of 100 to 150 people in early June. Subsequently, 15 more cases were associated with the original 14.

"So that one event spread to 29 people and 31 related employers," Lautenbach says. "Our challenge is to continue to trace as it moves through families, as it moves through workplaces and as it moves through social events as well."

But protests just aren't spreading the disease in the same way, Lautenbach says.

"We're finding that the social events and gatherings, these parties where people aren't wearing masks, are our primary source of infection," Lautenbach says. "And then the secondary source of infection is workplace settings. There were 31 related employers just associated with that one party because of the number of people that brought that to their workplace. So for us, for a community our size, that's a pretty massive spread."

And much of that spread, Lautenbach says, is affecting young people.

"We have seen almost a near flip in the cases that we're experiencing," Lautenbach says. "So in April of this year, we were really struggling with long-term-care outbreaks. And so about 3 out of 4 people were over the age of 30 and really pretty heavily skewed to 60-plus. And by contrast, in June, we're seeing that now 2 out of 3 people that have contracted this disease are under 29."

That trend is mirrored in Florida, where the median age for COVID-19 patients dropped from 65 years old in March to 37 in late June. Dr. Cheryl Holder, an associate professor at Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, says that's partly because young people are getting exposed more.

"It's really basically who gets exposed," Holder tells Morning Edition. "If you look who is staying in and following the guidelines, [it's] older people who are at risk. The older folks got [the message]; the young people, not so much."

That's Lautenbach's worry too.

"The concern is that because these younger people are having more mild symptoms, they are going to work sick, they are visiting with their parents and grandparents sick and they're continuing to go to social events where they expose more and more people," Lautenbach says. "So when we think about that web of spread, that web just grows and grows and grows."

Andrea Hsu, Dave Blanchard, Christopher Intagliata and Art Silverman produced and edited the audio version of this story.

To add...

Welcome to the generation that will run this nation when we are all old and gray. (er)

This is what happens when you hand out participation trophies.

j/c...

Arizona still climbing...

In a report from last night Houston's ICU's are beyond capacity and they are sending patients up to 50 miles away for treatment.

j/c...

Why 3rd grade and up?

Cited recommendations by American Pediatrics Assoc.

What a time to be alive.....!

Alabama students are throwing COVID-19 parties, with prize for 1st infection.
by: CNN Wire

Some students in Alabama are throwing Covid-19 parties, a disturbing competition where people who have coronavirus attend and the first person to get infected receives a payout, local officials said.

The parties are being held in Tuscaloosa, and infected people are urged to attend so others can intentionally contract the virus, City Council member Sonya McKinstry told CNN. She said she heard about the trend from fire officials.

“We thought that was kind of a rumors at first. We did some research, not only do the doctors’ offices confirm it, but the state confirmed they also had the same information,” she said.

Gatherings in homes may fuel coronavirus spread in California as more young people get sick
As case numbers rise in nearly half of states, young people in West and South increasingly getting coronavirus
Hundreds of Texas teens at ‘pong fest’ party were exposed to coronavirus, officials say
During a presentation to the City Council this week, Fire Chief Randy Smith also said young people in the city are throwing parties with a payout if they catch coronavirus, McKinstry said.

The first person confirmed by a doctor to have coronavirus after the exposure wins the money made off the ticket sales, she said. Over the past few weeks, there have been several parties in the city and surrounding areas, and probably more that officials don’t know about, she added.

“It makes me furious,” McKinstry said. “Furious to the fact that something that is so serious and deadly is being taken for granted. Not only is it irresponsible, but you could contract the virus and take it home to your parents or grandparents.”

The city is working on getting the word out and breaking up such parties. It also passed a mask ordinance this week that goes into effect Monday.

“This is not political. This is a public health issue. People are dying and there is no cure. We have to do whatever we can to save as many lives as possible, McKinstry said.

CNN has reached out to the Alabama Health Department for comment. The state has reported about 39,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 1,000 deaths.

https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/young-...ction-official/

I have a minor surgical procedure coming up, and I had to go have the COVID-19 screen done. Ugh, It felt like they shoved the thing into my brain through my nose. Bleh! Now I await the results .....

No. This is what happens when you defund schools and have a populace that doesn’t understand science. This is what happens when our ‘leadership’ acts like petulant children and refuse to acknowledge the severity of the situation. When said leader still refuses to set an example and wear a mask. When said leader still blathers on that it’ll miraculously go away.
This isn’t participation trophy stuff. This is stupidity. From the top down.

Hence, the nose knows.

j/c...

I suggest jail time for anybody who attended those parties. Lock em up at Elkton Federal Prison if they want covid that bad.

He didn't do anything wrong. You have to open up at some point. You can't keep paying stimulus checks with no tax dollars rolling in.

The people are the ones doing things wrong. You have to wear masks. You can't think everything is cool and go back to doing what you were doing before all of this.

Stupid people is what is wrong.

Well we finally agree on something.

I agree with you more often that you might think.

It is stupid people, and I am not talking about politics. I am talking about everyday Jane and Joe.

Like I said, we have to open up, but people still need to maintain distancing and sanitizing procedures..

Ballpeen, while you answered it correctly, you didn't give the answer Mac wanted. So he had to give his Trump answer himself. You put Mac to extra work.

Hospitals face 'an explosion of Covid' and signs of another surge as coronavirus case numbers climb
By Christina Maxouris, CNN
Updated 9:05 AM EDT, Thu July 02, 2020

(CNN)Inside a Houston hospital partly transformed into a coronavirus specialty unit, one doctor says he expects to reach capacity in the next 14 days.

"In the last three weeks, I have seen more admissions and sicker patients than on the previous 10 weeks," says Dr. Joseph Varon, the chief medical officer at United Memorial Medical Center. "It's been an exponential increase on the severity of illness and on the number of cases that we admit."

In other hospitals across America, similar scenes of crisis.

At least 12 states are seeing a rise in daily hospitalizations, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week.

The trend is worrying: A sharp increase in patients can once again overwhelm hospitals, putting critical resources including staffing, beds and ventilators in short supply.

Already, some hospitals are so swamped they've transferred patients elsewhere. Doctors in parts of Texas report waiting lists for their ICU beds, while others have had to decide which patients to admit, incapable of treating all those seeking help. In other parts of the US, health care professionals are seeing younger and sicker patients and making a simple plea: Wear a mask and stay at home.

The increasing infections come weeks after many states began reopening their economies after extended closures intended to stem the spread of coronavirus.

"I live close to a beach, and you can see it's like a party every single day," says Dr. David De La Zerda, the ICU medical director and a pulmonologist at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

Among the states seeing an increase are Florida and Texas, which are expected to see nearly 2,000 new hospitalizations per day by mid-July, according to forecasts published by the CDC. In Arizona and California, the forecasts project about 1,500 new patients each day in the next two weeks.

Houston hospitals transfer patients out
In Harris County, which encompasses Houston and is the most populous county in Texas, at least two hospitals are "pretty much at maximum capacity," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday.

"The threat ... Covid-19 poses to our community right now is higher than it has been. There is a severe and uncontrolled spread between our families, friends, and communities," Turner said. "And we need to slow it down, so that it doesn't overwhelm our health care delivery system."

Several hospitals across Houston are still within capacity limits, he said.

Among them, United Memorial Medical Center is hovering at about 80% capacity.

Parts of the hospital are quickly transitioning into coronavirus units, with airtight zones around sections where infected patients are stationed. And doctors like Varon, who's worked more than 100 consecutive days now, are turning into semi-specialists in the virus.

"These patients are very sick. These are patients that are about to die. So, we have to admit them and once they are here, despite of everything that we do, they have to stay in the hospital anywhere between 5 to 10 days at a minimum," Varon said. "So sooner or later, within the next two weeks, we're going to be at full house."

Two facilities within the Harris Health System have had to spread their "load" of patients around, the mayor said.

"It really has intensified in the last month or so," Charlie McMurray-Horton, the associate administrator for Clinical Integration and Transformation at the Harris Health System told CNN affiliate KTRK.

"We are actively trying to transfer out ICU and surge patients that are COVID positive and under investigation, just because we don't have the capacity to treat those patients," McMurray-Horton said.

On July 1, Texas reported 6,904 total hospitalizations -- a staggering record high and an increase of more than 2,500 patients in a week. The state's peak of hospitalizations in May was 1,888.

"The numbers today, this week, over the last several weeks are far worse than the numbers in March, and April, and May. So if we stay on the current trajectory, we are going to run into problems with capacity," Turner said.


'We are having an explosion of Covid'
Some local officials and public health administrators are already reporting strained hospital capacity with the latest influx of patients.

In Bexar County, home to San Antonio, officials reported this week the number of hospitalizations continues to rise while hospital capacity has shrunk to a little more than 20%, CNN affiliate KSAT reported.

"We are having an explosion of Covid," says Adam Sahyouni, a Covid ICU nurse manager at San Antonio's Methodist Hospital. "We aren't overrun yet, but it's overwhelming."

According to data published by the city of San Antonio, at the beginning of June there were 39 coronavirus patients in the ICU and 20 on ventilators. By June 30, 288 coronavirus patients were in ICUs and 158 on ventilators.

Across the country, one southern California county reported a 99% intensive care unit capacity over the weekend, after taking in overflowing patients from neighboring Imperial County.

"Since mid-June, there has been a growing health crisis with rising coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and ICU bed usage throughout our nation, the state of California and here in Riverside County," Supervisor Victor Manuel Perez said.

The county announced Monday 96% of all ICU beds were in use -- down 3 percentage points from the weekend.

In Florida, the Jackson Health System reported a 108% increase in patients in a little more than two weeks in June, data shows.

As cases across the state continue climbing, President and CEO of Jackson Health System Carlos Migoya told CNN affiliate WPLG hospitals may be in trouble.

"If we continue at the rate we are today, there will be a very high climb, and I don't know about not having enough beds, but it is already tight."

At the rate cases are increasing, Miami-Dade hospitals will max out in about a month, the affiliate reported.

Patients are younger and sicker
More young people are testing positive for the virus in recent weeks than in the early days of the outbreak, local and state leaders have said, warning that they can spread the virus even though they may not become severely ill.

In Florida, De La Zerda says the incoming patients in his Miami hospital are younger and sicker than the first time the state saw a rise in cases.

Hundreds of teens at 'pong fest' party exposed to coronavirus, officials say
Hundreds of teens at 'pong fest' party exposed to coronavirus, officials say
"That's really our major concern," he told CNN, adding the hospitalized patients they're receiving on average are between 25 to 45 years of age. In previous months, that average was above 65, he said.

One San Antonio doctor says his patients are getting "younger and ... more sick."

"The last few weeks have just been overwhelming," Dr. Jeffrey Dellavolpe at San Antonio's Methodist Hospital said. Patients are "going from probably 50s and 60s for the first wave to -- I've lost track of how many people in their 20s."

In Tucson, Arizona, one doctor says he's noticed a "dramatic shift" in the ages of coronavirus patients.

"Over this past weekend, the ages of my most seriously ill Covid-19 patients (requiring supplemental oxygen and aggressive respiratory support -- none were on ventilators thankfully) were 27, 45, 24 and 32 years," Dr. Matt Heinz wrote on Facebook.

Health officials in Los Angeles County said this week some of the county's outbreaks can be traced back to parties and gatherings.

"Unfortunately, many of these celebrations resulted in the spread of COVID-19, and for some, serious illness that required hospitalization," Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said, according to CNN affiliate KTLA.

While many of the hospitalized patients continue to be older, the county's health services director, Dr. Christina Ghaly, said they're beginning to see "a slight shift toward a younger demographic."

An ICU unit with a waiting list
Ghaly said this week as cases in the county climb, there soon may not be enough beds for the patients who will need hospitalization.

"The number of hospital beds could become inadequate in the next few weeks," Ghaly said. There are only enough ventilators in the county to last four weeks, and Ghaly says the county's projections show a marked increase in mortality rates.

The hospital system could increase capacity by once again canceling all elective surgeries and adding beds in non-traditional areas like emergency rooms.

People with coronavirus are crossing the US-Mexico border for medical care
People with coronavirus are crossing the US-Mexico border for medical care
The Jackson Health System in Miami opted to pause all elective and non-emergency surgeries as a result of a steady increase of patients being admitted in recent weeks. And in Texas, a similar move: the governor issued a proclamation suspending elective surgeries in at least four counties to ensure there are enough hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

At Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, ICU rooms are packed -- and some patients are on a waiting list.

"Yesterday was probably one of my worst days that I've ever had," Dellavolpe said. "I got 10 calls, all of whom (were) young people who otherwise would be excellent candidates to be able to put on ECMO (life support). They're so sick that if they don't get put on, they don't get that support, they're probably going to die. I had three beds."

"It's a level of decision-making that I don't think a lot of us are prepared for."

In Arizona, too -- where ICU bed capacity is at nearly 90%, according to CNN affiliate KNXV -- many hospitals may have to use crisis care standards if they become overwhelmed to prioritize patients with higher chances of survival, the affiliate reported.

Making that decision would come down to one question, Dr. Matthew Wynia, an infectious disease and public health expert at the University of Colorado, told the news station.

"What's the likelihood that you will survive this acute illness and still be alive six months or a year from now," Wynia explained.

CNN's Miguel Marquez, Jessica Jordan, Cheri Mossburg, Alexandra Meeks, Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/07/02/health/coronavirus-hospitalizations-rates-rise/index.html

I think this weeks go to line will be, "You'll just have to learn to live with it."

That will be our federal government answer to a virus most of the rest of the globe seems to have a pretty good handle on. Most of Europe gave us a pretty good playbook on how to gain control on it and we ignore it.