Coronavirus All-Purpose Thread: The Second Wave

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by #-3

Where was her test?

I've heard at work that the AHS drive-thru / greyhound special testing locations are very fast, and pharmacy locations have been taking 5+ days.

When my son needed a test we made sure we went to Greyhound because of what I had heard, and it was pretty much exactly 1 day for results.

You could only do pharmacy testing if you were asymptomatic. So, at one time, school staff was going there. I'm not sure if they are even doing testing at pharmacies anymore, since they have done away with asymptomatic testing.

[darockwilder]

Originally Posted by kirant

I'm curious at what cost those 100 beds would come at. "Converting" ICU beds to open them for Covid patients would mean taking away from other roles. Similar sacrifices would occur to transfer staff to care for the ICU Covid patients.

Would it be another cut into elective surgeries (like Edmonton Zone is seeing)? That seems like AHS' primary target for reductions when the Covid situation has gotten dangerous.

That's what will happen. The converted beds used will be removed from their regular service (surgery recovery, etc), and there will be a domino effect where the surgeries will no longer happen because the recovery bed is unavailable. At the Rockyview anyway.

[Ozy_Flame]

Edmonton docs describe hospital horrors — and Calgary counterpart says city is next

Even for Albertans who recover, being hospitalized with COVID-19 is a lengthy ordeal that can potentially result in long-lasting physical and mental symptoms.

According to Alberta Health, of the 1,544 Albertans who have been hospitalized with the virus since the pandemic began in March, the average patient was admitted for seven days.

For the 283 Albertans overall who have been in ICU, that average stay extends to 10 days. Among all detected cases, 3.5 per cent end up in hospital, and 0.7 are brought to ICU.

These rates are highest in Albertans aged 70–79 and with at least one existing health condition, but about a sixth of ICU admissions have been patients without any comorbidities.

“These patients are not in ICU for short periods of time. I would say about half of what we have now have been with us for 18 days,” Mary said. “And they’re going to be here for way longer. They’re not even close to being ready to leave.

“In my 15 years as a nurse, I have never cared for patients who are so sick and so unstable as these COVID patients we get.”

[GGG]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

My response is that it’s pretty easy to not get COVID if you are high risk. As a 30 year old, you probably can live a pretty much guaranteed COVID free life if you stay home and take precautions.

This isn’t really the case though. We saw what this has done throughout the world. No one has been able to protect the vulnerable. No one has stopped it without significant restriction of movement.

We know what the do nothing outcome looks like. We hit 4000 cases a day by Christmas and 40 deaths per day and approach killing .25% of the population then we lock down to stop the whole system from collapsing.

The death toll for each age group will look something like this

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...new-york-city/

People who are careful will die, people who are young with unknown health issues will die, some random healthy people will die. Then we lock down anyways because no one has the stomach for the number of people dying and lack of other hospital services.

So if we know this ends in a lockdown anyways. Why not do it now.

[Ryan Coke]

Originally Posted by #-3

Where was her test?

I've heard at work that the AHS drive-thru / greyhound special testing locations are very fast, and pharmacy locations have been taking 5+ days.

When my son needed a test we made sure we went to Greyhound because of what I had heard, and it was pretty much exactly 1 day for results.

Cochrane. I would imagine some locations may get results faster than others.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by GGG

This isn’t really the case though. We saw what this has done throughout the world. No one has been able to protect the vulnerable. No one has stopped it without significant restriction of movement.

We know what the do nothing outcome looks like. We hit 4000 cases a day by Christmas and 40 deaths per day and approach killing .25% of the population then we lock down to stop the whole system from collapsing.

The death toll for each age group will look something like this

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...new-york-city/

People who are careful will die, people who are young with unknown health issues will die, some random healthy people will die. Then we lock down anyways because no one has the stomach for the number of people dying and lack of other hospital services.

So if we know this ends in a lockdown anyways. Why not do it now.

I have no idea how you could argue with this logic. Wife is getting prepared to have her clinical job shelved for time being and reassigned as a nurse for COVID, expects it pretty soon. Meanwhile, not like people aren’t still getting other ailments too... what a mess.

[Wormius]

Incredibly young case.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1330280665594667008

[GGG]

Originally Posted by peter12

There isn’t much beyond anecdotes for “Covid long haulers.”

The most worrying evidence is outcomes from the Spanish Flu. For example the entire cohort of babies in utero during the pandemic at worse outcomes compared to those born just before or just after.

There is some link between dementia and other brain related illnesses that were more prevalent post Spanish flu. West Nile and Spanish flu both lead to higher probabilities of later life Parkinson’s

We don’t know the extent or nature of what Covid will look like but given the history of other Severe viral infections there should be some consideration from a policy stand point that their are likely consequences beyond just death. We do not know their magnitude yet.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by peter12

I have had one friend kill himself and another one try so don’t explain this away. It’s slimy.

I really don’t think we should need to go find studies to understand that major changes to the way we live will have significant jarring impacts to happiness, and would lead to higher depression. What there is, however, to fully debate, is the level or extent of such an impact. Fully open to debating that, but how can we understand that?

I’m very sorry to hear about your friends, that’s awful. If you can’t see people, even family and friends- yeah- that’s going to impact relationships. We are social creatures (most of us...) and thus COVID is certainly doing huge damage to mental health and well being. I don’t even know how people could debate that without looking like an idiot. You’d have to start with arguing the extent of that impact and that’s completely fair.

[Boblobla]

According to the Calgary Herald Alberta confirmed 1,336 new cases on Saturday, with 9 new deaths.

Haven't seen these numbers anywhere else yet.

[Julio]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

According to the Calgary Herald Alberta confirmed 1,336 new cases on Saturday, with 9 new deaths.

Haven't seen these numbers anywhere else yet.

From AHS:


Cases in Alberta

• 45,288 Total cases
• 1,336 Cases on Nov. 20
• 33,543 Recovered cases
• 471 Deaths

• 11,274 Active cases*
• 320 In hospital
• 56 In intensive care**

• 2,088,614 Total tests completed
  (19,239 on Nov. 20)
• 1,403,302 People tested

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Then they stay home and collect the government support. Are they not supposed to take the financial hit that each and every one of us has just because they are high risk? I’m a business owner that has not been able to pay myself since March and it’s because of higher capacity reductions to my fitness business and additional closures to protect the high risk. Shouldn’t they be protecting themselves too?

My dad is 74 and has pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension and is on home oxygen. He goes to multiple appointments each week. He masks up, he makes sure to sanitize consistently, and he goes about his life carefully. He is quite literally amongst the highest of risks.

Again it's just more complex than saying "then stay home and collect government support". Maybe that's not enough money. Maybe they can't quit their job. Maybe they support others with their income.

I'm sorry your business is impacted. That's real too. All of this real.

[Hockeyguy15]

Don’t feel bad Rasta man, more will get locked down this week.

I don’t think I’ll be getting a massage Thursday.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Again it's just more complex than saying "then stay home and collect government support". Maybe that's not enough money. Maybe they can't quit their job. Maybe they support others with their income.

I'm sorry your business is impacted. That's real too. All of this real.

The idea of CERB and how the public interprets it is muddled. A LOT of people do not qualify for CERB or other supports at this time, and A LOT of people erroneously qualified for certain programs like CERB and will need to pay it back.

I don't qualify for any support program and have been trying desperately to find work for 8 months. My savings are depleted, and I am living on increasing debt.

I am under 40 and relatively healthy, but "stay at home" isn't an option. Due to my situation I also had to move back in with older relatives at high-risk, so when I do get work I get the gift of worrying about another dark reality.

Maybe this provides a bit more perspective for people oversimplifying things a bit too much.

[Jiri Hrdina]

^Sorry to hear about all that. But exactly the type of personal situation that we talk past when we generalize things.

[Bunk]

I am surprised having bars stop serving drinks at 10pm instead of 1am was not enough to stop the tidal wave of new cases. Also, why isn’t freedom stopping the death toll from mounting?

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Bunk

I am surprised having bars stop serving drinks at 10pm instead of 1am was not enough to stop the tidal wave of new cases. Also, why isn’t freedom stopping the death toll from mounting?

I know it's fun to be smug about how halfassed the restrictions here are, but I don't thing we should say they did nothing 1 week in. Be know these things take time, and it is very likely the process of putting some restrictions back in place will have some social impact that will effect the infection rate.

Not saying these measures will reverse the trend, they are far to weak for that.
But I'm sure they will have at least a marginal impact on slowing.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by GGG

This isn’t really the case though. We saw what this has done throughout the world. No one has been able to protect the vulnerable. No one has stopped it without significant restriction of movement.

We know what the do nothing outcome looks like. We hit 4000 cases a day by Christmas and 40 deaths per day and approach killing .25% of the population then we lock down to stop the whole system from collapsing.

The death toll for each age group will look something like this

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...new-york-city/

People who are careful will die, people who are young with unknown health issues will die, some random healthy people will die. Then we lock down anyways because no one has the stomach for the number of people dying and lack of other hospital services.

So if we know this ends in a lockdown anyways. Why not do it now.

Grim, but entirely possible.

I desperately needed a haircut so got it yesterday in the event of a lockdown next week.

[stazzy33]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Incredibly young case.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1330280665594667008

She probably had multiple comorbidities and if you are a regular 20 year old you have nothing to worry about. Stop fear mongering.

Did I do that right?

[agulati]

To be fair, she did have co-morbidity(ies) as per the article, but that is such a broad stroke. High blood pressure falls under this. Asthma probably does as well. It is a capture all, which people don’t realize many will fall under.