I’m in eastern central MD.
To respond to your query, @Nrdsb4, I really do not know. There should have been several factors exacerbating the contagion-a large undocumented and uninsured population hesistant to seek medical help, and needing to stay at work, as well as some multigenerational living situations more common in certain ethnicities.
On the other hand, it is a younger population, and the stats I have seen indicate that contagion was and is most present in the 20-50 age group, not older. Maybe the state’s health care SWAT teams deployed to care homes made a difference? The state was unusually aggressive in sequestering and testing nursing homes early on. Police had surrounded facilities here.
Texas medical center also identified early on that ventilators may cause more harm for certain patients, and had alternative protocols quite early. Maybe that helped. There are a lot of hospital beds per capita, so that may have contributed positively. Or maybe it was just luck. hopefully public health authorities figure it out.
This is the evidence that my husband tells people when they talk about wearing masks
Yesterday, I played golf with 2 ladies that told me that there are studies out there that say that wearing masks is not that effective. Even today, they aren’t sure about the efficacy of mask wearing. The news I read and watch isn’t saying that, but the news they watch may be saying the opposite? I’m not sure.
I told my husband that I am happy to retire in this area as long as I have him with me. But if I were to be alone, I really thought that I would relocate. The past 3+ years plus a pandemic is showing me how much I diverge in thought from most of the people in this community. He sadly agreed with me.
My friends are older and one has many co-morbidies. They said that they are staying in and still wearing masks out. I know they are. We have less than 20 cases in our county. But I think that rate is going to rise because most people are not wearing masks. It’s sad.
@scout59 so sorry for knowing another person to pass from this. I was talking with a person and she was talking about how fast a friend of hers passed after entering the hospital. This is tough.
Can people please say what state you’re in when you post about what things are like in your area or your county. I know you’ve probably posted it many times before and you think everyone knows, but I cant remember where all of you live.
For example, I read the post from @deb922 and wonder where in the country she is talking about.
People in Asians countries have no trouble wearing masks for extended time periods. The kids wear masks, too. The notion that Americans cannot do that because “reasons” is just an excuse.
The fact is that people here don’t want to wear masks, not because they can’t handle it, but because we are a selfish people. We are incapable of doing anything anymore for the greater good.
And it’s gotten us to the point where we have more cases (and deaths) than anyone else in the world and cases growing exponentially every day because, “I don’t want to wear a mask because it’s too hard.”
Does anyone know the latest in the antibody tests? Some brands are more accurate?
Sorry! Northern lower peninsula of Michigan. I feel like it’s very separate from the southern part of Michigan. I think that people here think that the coronavirus is only something that is happening in the big cities of Michigan. Any where else than here.
I’m not sure. Looks as if CDC has several pages up about antibody tests.
One example:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/antibody-tests-guidelines.html
My medical group (in Westchester County, NY) emailed all patients that corona virus antibody testing is available with a doctor’s order. They specified that they are using the Abbott serological test that will be processed by LapCorp. Abbott’s tests have been shown to have a high rate of specificity and sensitivity. I had a sore throat and intermittent chills/aches but no fever or cough for six weeks in April/May but didn’t end up getting tested for Covid. I may get an antibody test.
Welcome back to March!
‘Bars, Strip Clubs and Churches: U.S. Virus Outbreaks Enter Unwieldy Phase’
“It is in some ways a return to the earliest days of the virus in the United States, when the coronavirus was silently brewing, and when occasions like funerals, choir practices and birthday parties became events that led to widespread transmission.
Those kinds of group gatherings were always risks, but they became far less common during a period of months in which much of the country was shut down. The return to public life has brought those opportunities back, as more and more people go shopping, dining, visiting family and friends, and even hugging one another again.“
“It really is just all about contact,” Dr. Christofferson said.
“The virus is now hitting places that had once escaped the worst of the pandemic, reflecting how a disease that initially ravaged urban centers like New York City has grown more widespread. Known cases now have been on the rise near places like McAllen, Texas; Charleston, S.C.; and Nogales, Ariz…”
Don’t waste your time and money on an antibody test for now. Most are inaccurate. We also have no confirmation that the presence of antibodies is effective in preventing reinfection. Moreover, one recent study shows antibodies last only 2-3 months in most people.
- Part of the problem with this study on the US data is looking at daily new confirmed cases in the US through May 9th. We know a lot of the increase in confirmed cases resulted from increased testing. Declining fatalities, hospital admissions, and positivity rates all indicate more testing increased the number of confirmed cases. To make matters worse, at least 11 states were mixing in antibody tests and PCR test results at one point. Garbage data in equals garbage out.
- The intra-NYC comparison is more interesting, but undermines the author's point. The author does a linear regression from the stay-at-home order through April 16th. Looking at the data, shows a skewed quasi-bell curve with a peak on April 6th. A linear regression is clearly an inappropriate modeling choice for this data set. If you did a linear regression it would be more appropriate to do so only over a short interval, starting at the peak on April 6th. The study's modeling choices under-estimate how fast the case infections in NYC were decreasing prior to NYC's April 17th mask order.
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The fact is that the US does not lead the world in deaths. We are #7 in the list of per-capita deaths.
No doubt we lead the world in cases as we have far outtested other countries. We are picking up many of the mild and asymptomatic cases they are not.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Maryland numbers as of this morning. Hospitalizations down another 41 to 561 (27th down day in a row). Covid ICU usage down another 20 to 212 Slight uptick in positivity rate (7 day) of 0.03% to 5.06%. Meanwhile a daily positivity rate of 4.89%.
All good numbers. More on Maryland’s trend in a bit…
https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/s/restore-illinois-phase-4
Illinois moves into “Phase 4” this Friday.
I live in San Diego and our numbers are up. We had more than 300 new cases for the past couple of days and had 10 community outbreaks in the past 7 days. The new community outbreaks I heard about today were at a construction company and a retail store. Mask wearing is 100% indoors here. The 20 - 39 year old category have the highest positive cases in our area. Probably because the younger crowd has been out more than those of us who are older.
Meanwhile, in the real world:
‘Coronavirus is spreading ‘very, very rapidly,’ warns Palm Beach County health director amid plan to require masks’
“Our numbers are going in the wrong direction,” Alina Alonso, Palm Beach County’s health department director, warned commissioners Tuesday morning as the discussion began.
“Although Broward County has more people, Palm Beach County’s rate of infection is “likely to surpass them in the near future.”
“Surge in coronavirus cases wasn’t caused just by an increase in testing »
The rates of infection have gone up “very, very rapidly” after reopening, she said. Seniors are remaining indoors, but the “less cautious” are venturing outside and getting higher rates of infections and “filling ICU beds and even dying.”
According to articles, testing is available to anyone who wants it in Maine currently.
Agreed. Plus, IMO the very act of going in for a test is a possible way to become infected. Until I know more in terms of accuracy guarantees and what having antibodies really proves, I’m not recommending it for any of my family members even the one who was living in Italy when Covid took off there. The only real positive to knowing, IMO, is if you could donate plasma to help others.
If you bought the fairy tale that we have more cases because we tested more than other countries, I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
So, I’ve been tracking Maryland’s daily numbers for over 8 weeks now and taking a screenshot so I can go back and reference them. This allows me to run my own data charts and compare easily week by week. It’s also important to keep in mind that Maryland started using it’s testing about the third week of May so it shows that in the data too.
Maryland, total population 6 million.
27 April, 19487 cases, 858 deaths, 1513 hospitalizations.
4 May, 26408 cases, 1216 deaths, 1649 hospitalizations.
11 May, 33373 cases, 1573 deaths, 1544 hospitalizations.
18 May, 39762 cases, 1903 deaths, 1447 hospitalizations.
25 May, 47152 cases, 2187 deaths, 1279 hospitalizations.
1 June, 53327 cases, 2431 deaths, 1174 hospitalizations.
8 June, 58404 cases, 2653 deaths, 979 hospitalizations.
15 June, 62032 cases, 2817 deaths, 752 hospitalizations.
22 June, 64603 cases, 2945 deaths, 602 hospitalizations.
Sorry to bore anyone. I just like to plug these in and look at statistics like the fact we’ve had an increase of 2571 cases in the last week which even with increased testing is way down from the increase of 6921 cases seen in the week of 27 April. We’ve come a long way. Hopefully we will continue on this road.