Thanks for the thought about Face shields in lieu of masks @“Cardinal Fang”. It should protect others from the wearer’s exhalations, coughs, sneezes (even more than cloth masks), but I’m not sure whether the wearers would be hassled by folks for not wearing masks because most places order masks, not masks OR shields. Folks with breathing problems don’t have the energy and breath to fight about why they aren’t wearing a mask and probably will just become hermits/recluses.
Two of mine are back in school as of today. Groups of ten, same classroom all day, spaced desks, arrows in hallways and bathrooms, lots of ventilating of shared spaces.
They were happy to go, and excited about their new masks, trying them one adjusting the loops, putting their names on them, showing them to the grandparents on FaceTime. They are just white. I’m sure I will be hearing about other kids having much cooler masks this afternoon.
Due to the low prevalence of Covid in our community (on the maps, we are an island of pale link in a sea of red I am not really worried about them falling ill or bringing anything home. I’m just…uneasy to have them out of the house. Not under my or H’s sight. It still feels as if nothing is “normal” out there, and everything unsafe.
(I am not hiding in fear. I am an essential worker and get on the train to go to work every other day. I am uneasy doing it but do it because some ones got to do the job and it happens to be me.)
I’m supposed to work at home today and can’t focus with 3 out of 5 family members “out there”. I think the mental health toll of this is subtle, but pervasive.
Well, I know two people in NYC and one of them, our nephew’s wife, tested positive. She was very sick but OK now.
In my mother’s assisted living facility, 10 residents, 6 staff. Four of the residents died.
Amazingly, no new cases for more than 3 weeks.
No visitors, just window visits. Meals were in rooms for a couple of weeks but have resumed in the dining room, with two seatings so that residents can be two at a table, 6 feet apart.
Rotating staff was, I believe, a factor, as was the policy allowing family to still take residents out, even when family could not visit inside. Assisted living residents are tenants, not patients, so have certain rights.
They can still go out with family but in recent weeks, that would result in a 14 day quarantine, so residents are not actually leaving the facility. And staff are not dedicated to particular floors, in theory if not 100% in practice.
I think this article has pretty sane and doable advice about how to get out and maybe see a few people safely:
I have visited a few people with distance and masks outside. My H’s aunt, for instance, just lost her husband. She’s elderly, alone, and faced with a mountain of financial and life issues. We can’t go through her paperwork for her, but we can listen and give suggestions. She had no funeral for him,and has been hugged by no one (except the visiting hospice nurse! Yikes). So yeah, we sit out with her on nice days, carefully.
We have, for now, enlarged our bubble to my D’s family, who are scrupulously careful. But for now, outside only. This arrangement is subject to change if anyone needs to do a riskier errand. We’re reviewing it regularly.
I live in the summer in a beach town, and will go in off hours, mostly to walk, not sit. Not going near the boardwalks. Mostly want to go out on my kayak if the weather ever stays warm!
I’m going to meet a friend Thursday at the Audubon Preserve to go for a walk. It will be the first time I’ve seen her in quite a few months, since I was in Texas so much. Of course we will wear masks and distance.
@Catahoula–that quote showed how stats work so well! My H who was a doc through the AIDS crisis is always trying to explain how testing statistics do not work the way people usually read them, exactly saying what that quote says. Can you give the source of it? TIA.
Finally, gyms are open here in Palm Beach County, at least my gym. I went to the gym on the very last day it was open back in March, and I will be back today, the first day it opens.
Here is an excerpt from the email I got this morning: “No Touch Temperature Check - Proper Social Distancing - Must Clean Equipment Before & After Use - 50% Occupancy - Let’s Do This!”
It is very much a “meathead/gym rat” sort of place, so it will be interesting to see how social distancing measures are actually followed.
Beaches are opening today as well.
Wow, maybe besides large public gatherings, the gym is one of the last places I will feel comfortable in.
Planning a nice relaxing day here at home personally. I’ll probably finish mowing the field I started last week since I took the last few days off to enjoy med school lad before he went back to school. Tonight the four of us left have another game night planned. In the meantime, two others are still working from home and farming lad will be farming.
garland:
I’ve posted as to the Roche antibody test twice before, after reading of it in the WSJ print edition. This last one was from a msn sponsored piece which you could probably find by googling a block of the quoted body.
The message was Roche’s claim of 100% and 98%, respectively, for their test and none other and if what caught your eye was the math as to relative error between different tests, I’m responsible for that only in that I didn’t snip it out of the text body I quoted.
Won’t hurt my feelings at all if you find an error in their math, since it isn’t mine.
Here’s the list of the 13 FDA approved antibody tests, they are highly accurate…it’s best to make sure that the test you are getting is on the list.
From the NHTSA
So after auto manufacturers have all been required to make seat belts readily available to all drivers and passengers, and after decades of public education and laws requiring seat belt use 9%+ of Americans still aren’t using them.
Change is hard, and rapid change requiring voluntary compliance is harder. When all the bored celebrities sending out videos from their homes because they can’t work and need to stay visible to have a hope at future work start telling people to wear masks, maybe that will help. Or have they started that already?
@Catahoula – no, you misunderstand me–I think it explains it quite well, which is why we are leery of the tests right now. I can’t access WSJ, but I like the simplicity of that stats explanation. Thanks!
Correction to my post above:
Roche claims 100% and 99.8%, not 100% and 98%.
Florida from what I understand has fared comparatively well as regards deaths in nursing homes from COVID-19.
Still, a huge percentage of deaths have been in nursing homes. In my county of Palm Beach, the latest numbers available show that 35% of the deaths have been in nursing homes, with practically no staff deaths. Backing out those deaths from the overall numbers, the death rate for the general population of Palm Beach over the past three months has been approximately 0.013%.
If even as few as 5% of the county population has been exposed to COVID-19 (and I would guess it is somewhat more, given that places like NYC saw ~25% exposure rates), that would place the IFR for these local Florida conditions at approximately 0.25%. In the real world, of course, even in an uncontrolled virus sweep, we probably wouldn’t see overall death rates anywhere near that high, as not everyone would be exposed before the virus burnt out on its own and/or substantial herd immunity developed.
At the very start of this crisis, I estimated my chance of death at less than 0.1%, http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22663387/#Comment_22663387. That was probably an overestimate.
my coworker’s elderly mother with COPD was admitted to the hospital late last week with a “hypertensive emergency.” She was discharged over the weekend and my coworker later learned she also has double pneumonia. She asked if she was tested for Covid-19 and was told she did not meet the criteria. Ummm… Massive heart issues/pnuemonia? I thought we were past the point of meeting strict criteria in order to get a test. Apparently not. They sent her home with two antibiotics and she is not doing well. I am frustrated on her behalf.
That frustrates me too. Seems ridiculous to not test her.
Wouldn’t it be easy to maintain plenty of social distance on the water? The main issue may be if the dock, beach, or boat ramp is crowded where you want to launch.
My county of 272K residents has had two deaths. One with sever underlying medical conditions - end stage cancer and CHF.
My very good friend who’d traveled to France, returning March 12th probably had COVID. Her test was negative but it was one of the ones with a 35% false negative potential. She still has a cough but other than that is back to normal.
Our local hospital has not been overwhelmed, in fact, from some front line reports, it empty.
H has had to go into urgent care twice since this started. Both times for injuries sustained while doing home improvement projects. Both times he was the only patient at the urgent care facility. Last night his turn around time from home and back was about 30 minutes. And that included the 10 minute round trip drive to the clinic.
It’s surreal to read the personal stories of those who have been closely affected by this virus. That is just so not what is happening in my community. Time will tell why this is the case.
I’m not panicked anymore when running errands. In fact, I’m running more these days.
We are a big country, our experiences are different. I’m waiting to see what happens with Florida and Georgia.
We’ve been taking an oral zinc supplement since this started. We’ve upped our vit D. I’ve added a few other smatterings of supplements that are generally known as harmless, but might help. Hey, I’m not spending the $$ on shoes or clothing or travel, why not on expensive pee…
As for the gym…it will be one of the last places to which I return. I’m looking for an outdoor bootcamp style program - I do need to get a routine back into my life.
I’m seriously researching concierge medical practices. As more HC facilities are struggling with financial issues I think we are heading toward a supply issue. It will be important to have a system in place where we have - if not immediate - but very rapid responses from our medical providers. And that those providers will be full case managers - able to work the remaining system with some backdoor info and contacts.