I had an opportunity for a drive through swab test a couple of weeks ago so took it. It was no big deal; the swab went up my nose but didn’t U-turn down into my throat. Brief discomfort.
They could believe that a person is not infectious before they test positive. So, just by way of example, the President could have been infected by his valet, but not yet have built up enough of a viral load to be infectious. By the time he could infect other people, this theory would hold, he would also test positive.
I’ve heard that. Any idea when it is going to be ready? And, as another poster asked, will it be a rapid test?
I’m with you @anomander
i still find myself sometimes bowing to people here out of habit even after a few decades being back living here and not there because I was there long enough at a key time in my life. Not a full bow, just with my head mostly.
One of my students I had last year and again this year told us her mother is now hospitalized. Her father had it recently. I hope that family will be OK. They are sweet and innocent. I’m disturbed thinking of their situation.
In your opinion.
They will open up as soon as their regions reach the benchmarks. So far none of them have.
In rural Madison County there is now an outbreak at a large vegetable greenhouse operation.
No one is immune - even those in rural counties.
I went to the dentist today and the whole experience was fine. They called last night with a checklist of symptoms. When I got to the office today, I called them and waited in the car until they were ready for me.
Before I entered the office, they also took my temperature. I kept my mask on until the dentist started working.
The whole process was super easy
Ha! I still use both hands to pass on an object with value like credit card, money, food, gift…But I don’t have any problem using 1 hand to pass on a book or something similar, it’s very strange I can’t explain it.
As for me today, we got our meat order (every other week contact-free pickup). We were later getting there today than before and there were other people there at the same time. All had masks and gloves. DH didn’t want to wear a mask and was in too much of a rush. He wanted to ‘just go see quickly’ if the order as on the table by dashing out of the car. There were others standing around. he didn’t know how to put on a mask, didn’t want to wear it but did, then couldn’t breath well in it so took it off wrong and touched the front and all that. He is one of those people that people here talk about wearing masks all wrong and doing things wrong!! I was so surprised. I didn’t realize but should have thought as usual he didn’t read up on the tiny details, just the bigger picture things.
Anyway, we have to figure out other masks he can wear. He has asthma and decreased lung capacity from it so needs something he can breath in. I hope the masks I’m going to make with the soup cups will work better for him. Otherwise he will wear the less effective types because at least he will be able to breath in them.
We also got a big box of fruit, thank goodness! We were very low on that. I got the last things I need to make the soup cup masks and will try that out.
I also had a meeting and classes by zoom including one super fun one where we played a review game. The students loved it and I will use that idea again in the future.
Original article in the Military Times:
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/06/coronavirus-survivors-banned-from-joining-the-military/
However, there is an update:
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/05/07/updated-guidance-allows-unhospitalized-covid-19-survivors-to-join-the-military/
The update says that “Military Entrance Processing Command will now accept recruits who have previously tested positive for coronavirus as long as they haven’t been hospitalized, the official confirmed, a clarifying update of what is still interim guidance.” It also says that “While a COVID-19 diagnoses might prevent someone from joining the military, it won’t have an affect on currently serving troops”.
Both articles mention that there is concern about the longer term lung damage after recovery from COVID-19, “which could affect fitness for combat in a service member”.
That’s why contact tracing is do vitally important and needs to be ramped up, big time.
Compares US and Europe.
Europe (parts) - scary rise in lots of cases, but then big drop down.
USA - scary rise in lots of cases and now plateau
Europe - strict lock down
USA - way more lax lock down than in Europe so less effective.
'“States in America that went into very restrictive lockdown were able to bend the curve down and reduce cases. ’
Cases not going down could be in part due to more testing as well as cases truly not going down.
‘No matter what, though, we have not documented a reliable decline in new cases, and that is still the threshold for a responsible reopening.’
South Korea and Germany - quick action and widespread testing = kept cases low.
China - severe but belated response = got things under control
****** (next part is most important part)*******
'The big picture: “It seems that this is a controllable pandemic without it having to run its natural course,” says Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs.
"About 1.7 billion people live in countries where this is under control at least provisionally,” he notes, mostly in East Asia and the Pacific. That club appears to be growing.
The bottom line: The U.S. is not currently on track to join it, even as states attempt to leave lockdown behind.’
Too funny! I do that, too! Especially when I pay someone for something and the person is very important to us. (music teacher, etc). I still say, ‘atta’ when I find things. No good replacement in English.
Crowded Japanese trains can be packed at super-crush-loads, where there are train employees whose job it is to push people more tightly into the train so that the doors can close.
In terms of riskiness, the above Cs seem to be consistent with what is said elsewhere. But also, time of exposure matters. Sitting inside a restaurant for an hour where someone else who is infected is also there (even if much more than six feet away) is higher risk than walking by someone outside. That could be similar to sitting in a theater or a classroom for an hour.
But then also, it appears that sneezing > coughing > singing > speaking > breathing in terms of how much virus an infected person exhales and how far.
"In Japan, experts talk about the danger of the three C’s:
Closed places with poor ventilation
Crowded with people
Conversations, talking (and presumably singing) that cause people to expel air more forcefully than they would if they were silent
A person on Twitter (this is just supposition) hypothesized that Japanese people on crowded trains didn’t spread covid-19 because (this is a claim and I don’t even know if it’s true) Japanese people are socialized to sit quietly on trains."
I don’t know who the experts are, but I agreed with the person on Twitter about people being quiet.
Yes there are a lot of people on the train, but most are extremely quiet, most don’t talk on the train. If they travel with company they would almost whisper to each other. I have no opinion on the virus spreading. They have around 15K + confirmed cases compared to S Korea around 11K, but their population is double Korea.
After that map in today’s NYT showing how the virus was spread from NYC, I am pretty sure the first step many governors will take in a second wave or any other pandemic will be stopping all travel from NY to their state.
This might be the Illinois’ governor’s strategy too!
When testing becomes available, I absolutely will be in line to have it done. And the antibody test as well. I will do this whether I eventually become symptomatic…or not. And so will everyone in my immediate family.
A friend is having elective surgery (same one I have scheduled for October) in mid June. They will be doing a Covid test as part of her Pre-op stuff.
I read a couple of days ago that our town was looking for vendors to offer a test free/heavily discounted and I thought, ‘great. I’ll sign up’. But the more I thought about it, I second-guessed why? No symptoms. Retired, so can restrict movement. Our town is great in that everyone in the grocery store wears masks. Social distancing has a high compliance in our town.
And while the antibody test may be a a nice-to-have, it means bupkis until we have data on whether immunity is even a thing. (And that’s ignoring the false positives/negatives.) Heck, I could just as likely get exposed on the way home from the test.
Of course, once research on immunity is clear, AND testing quality improves, then the antibody test makes a lot more sense.
So, I’ll pass for now.
Just noticed that MA reports age distribution by count and by rate per 100,000. So, for case count, for example, the 50-59 age group has the highest # but that has to do with the age distribution of the general population. The rate per 100,000 is much higher over 80, simply because there are fewer people in that age range in MA.
0-19 2,569 cases, 160 per 100,000
20-29 9,206 cases, 889 per 100,000
30-39 10,859 cases, 1,197 per 100,000
40-49 10,623 cases, 1,248 per 100,000
50-59 12,088 cases, 1,245 per 100,000
60-69 9,902 cases, 1,196 per 100,000
70-79 7,002 cases, 1,459 per 100,000
80+ 11,197 cases, 3,842 per 100,000
(hard to get alignment to work, sorry)
So, for those that noted age distributions for their area, earlier in this thread, have you looked at it relative to the size of the population in those age ranges?
https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-dashboard-may-7-2020/download