I took a look at the hospitalization page, the percent of hospital admissions that were for flu-like symptoms by age group. In mid to late March, those admissions are pretty obviously covid, and not the flu.
What struck me was that the biggest age group for admissions was people aged 40-59 and that age 20-39 was not near zero. When I’ve heard medical people say they’re seeing people of all ages, I was thinking, yeah, they’re seeing a few people in their 40s and a zillion people in their 80s. Nope! They’re seeing a lot of people in their 40s and 50s, and more than a few younger people, as well as the older people at much higher risk of death.
It’s good that younger people typically have a better outcome than older people, but, speaking for myself, being hospitalized is a bad outcome. If I heard that my son was hospitalized for covid, I would not think, no problem, he probably won’t die. Being hospitalized is very bad and an outcome we want to prevent.
@suzyQ7 So you’re claiming that new hospitalizations for covid patients (diagnosed or undiagnosed) were higher on, say, March 1 than they are now? But nobody noticed all these people gasping for breath? This doesn’t seem plausible to me. Do you have any data to support this contention?
MA: Sounds like people are having vastly different experiences. In MA,we’ve been in SIP for a long while ( more than a month). It’s getting worse. Every day. When I see how angry people are for not wearing masks and then drive by the home depot and groceries stores which are full, I’m perplexed but realize how bad this plan is. If I were not high risk, I’d be out too. It’s obvious people are not going shopping once per week. My spouse went to the grocery store and bought $600 of food. Said everyone was buying one or two things. And the meat is sold out with limitations on how much you can buy.
I saw the recent numbers, it’s going to be a crazy Summer. It’s also very doubtful, the governor or anyone else can keep people off the Cape, Islands and just plain parks and beaches.
I think of situations like Wuhan, where that area and those nearby were under very strong lockdown the longest. Other places also had stay home but were not as stringently locked down. The virus didn’t spread nearly as widely and as much there as it has here. I think the more widespread the virus and higher the numbers, the harder it is to open less impacted places.
I haven’t been inside a store, an office, other places of business since March 11th. I’m only “officially” high risk because of my age - but, I believe everyone is at risk. My only outside activity away from my home is walking the dogs in my very quiet neighborhood.
I’m also staying home because it’s necessary to do so, not only for myself, but for the sake of those who cannot stay home, especially the essential employees.
My kid is in Boston and he goes to the market once every three weeks. - with his mask on. He is very organized. He spends around $300 each trip. He has been working from home since the 2nd week of March. He is not going anywhere, except for walks around his neighborhood, because he is not foolish.
My understanding is that we do, at least to some degree. But the viruses that cause the common cold are so numerous that we aren’t exposed to all of them, thus we are not immune to all of them.
There is no evidence that getting and recovering from COVID-19 confers immunity. That is simply because it hasn’t been around long enough to gather data on that. That does not mean that it is likely that we don’t become immune after illness, it just means we don’t know. It’s very possible that we might get an immunity lasting many months, a year, or even more in terms of years. It’s also possible that we will get enough immunity such that future re-infections will only be very mild.
Time will tell.
I think it goes without saying that most of us prefer NOT to get it regardless of any of that. At least that’s how I feel about it!
Today, Gov. Tony Evers announced a plan to make Wisconsin one of the best-performing states in terms of per-capita testing.
“The plan to increase testing includes four major goals: respond to every outbreak throughout the state, test every nursing home resident and staff member, establish community testing programs in target communities and make sure everyone who has COVID-19 symptoms gets a test.”
Some of the locations and targeted communities in northwestern Wisconsin scheduled to have community testing this week are Burnett, Polk, and Ashland Counties and the Bad River and St. Croix Tribes.
I’m especially gratified for the plan to test all nursing home residents and staff members.
With all the bad news about outbreaks in nursing homes, I was happy to see a report from one nursing home in RI. Thought we could use some good news…
“ To date we have no positive Covid-19 test results for any resident or staff member at . Should any of our residents test positive our first step will be to notify resident representative’s and begin contact tracing within the building. We recognize that this virus presents difficult times for both residents and loved ones. All staff continue to be vigilant in their own hand washing hygiene and that of the residents in their care. We continue to take all preventive measures per CDC guidelines to prevent the spread of germs. We have ample supply of PPE supplies for our staff members. Housekeeping staff cleans and disinfects high-touch surface areas frequently throughout each shift and all staff continue to be screened before and throughout their shift for temperatures and any other symptoms of the virus.”
Thank you, @momzilla2D . Your post reminds me of good news I heard from a friend this afternoon. Her daughter works as a physical therapy assistant at a nursing home in the Bay area; all residents and staff were tested and there were no positive test results.
Actually, if I could have anything I wanted, I would prefer to get the asymptomatic version along with immunity. Then I would be safe and I would be done. The PROBLEM is that there is no way to plan for that in advance. Perhaps, down the line, scientists will identify some sort of predisposing genotype and we’ll be able to figure out which folks are more susceptible by testing DNA… but until then, avoiding infection in the first place seems like the safest way to go.
There does seem to be some evidence that viral load can be a factor in the seriousness of the infection – that is, that multiple and repeat exposures can lead to a person getting a lot sicker than with casual, brief exposure. So it may be that there is value in social distancing simply because it the likelihood of my getting that asymptomatic/ very mild case I would hope for is much higher if I am reducing the overall opportunities for exposure.
I know that I am personally getting restless. Since I don’t have the advantage of working from home, it’s getting harder each day to find a ‘purpose’. Today I thought maybe I would drive to a different location to take a walk, but just gave in and walked around the neighborhood.
I’ve cleaned every inch of the house. This weekend I cleared out the outdoor living room and scrubbed all the cushions. It’s all ready to have friends over again, whenever that is. I really don’t like cleaning so that is not a good motivator to me. I made 100 masks and dropped them at friends and mailed some off. Ran out of fabric and don’t really need to make any more.
So, I may decide in the near future that I will branch out a bit and go hang out with some of my closest friends. Because I live alone, I will probably start opening life up a bit in very small increments.
I expect that many families will choose Mother’s Day weekend (which will be 8 weeks of isolation in my state) to go visit Mom if it is somewhat safe to do.
Exactly. Since we don’t know who will be asymptotic vs on a ventilator getting limbs amputated vs actually dying, putting oneself in jeopardy is like playing Russian Roulette.
What I proposed earlier for Hawaii is already happening in Austria. From the USA Today:
"Starting Monday, passengers who fly into Vienna International Airport can get a coronavirus test. If they test negative, they can skip the required 14-day quarantine. The coronavirus test takes three hours to process. There’s one catch: It costs 190 euros, or more than $200.
According to the airport’s website, people who test positive will be notified immediately by phone. The result will also be reported to public health authorities.
The tests are only given to people who are showing no symptoms or who have not come in contact with a potentially infected person.
Further, Austria is only admitting people who are European citizens into the country, with limited exceptions for diplomatic personnel, and seasonal, humanitarian and health care workers. "
I am in MA. I had to go grocery shopping today, and I am not liking the person that I am turning into. I snapped at a lady that I saw in 3 different one-way aisles, and she was going the wrong way on every.single.one. I snapped at her on the third one, asking her did she not see the 6 foot arrows on the ground? Then while at the check out, I was waiting at the line that marked the 6 feet from the person in front of me. I turned around, and there was a young guy, probably early 20’s literally standing 2 feet from me. At least he was wearing a mask, ON HIS CHIN! WTH? Without pausing a second, I said back up, in a voice that was demon worthy. He looked shocked and went to another register. Idiot.