2020 Corona Virus

[Midnightmom]

2 minutes ago, Mt_Rider said:

a ‘freedom bracelet’, a

How ironic! 

[Ambergris]

F.B.I. Investigating Whether Cuomo Aides Gave False Data on Nursing Homes
The inquiry has added to the legal pressure faced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his aides over the deaths of nursing home residents from Covid-19.
By J. David Goodman, Nicole Hong and Luis Ferré-Sadurní  March 19, 2021  Updated 3:33 p.m. ET
A federal investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic has focused in recent weeks on whether the governor and his senior aides provided false data on resident deaths to the Justice Department, according to four people with knowledge of the investigation.  Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have contacted lawyers for Mr. Cuomo’s aides, interviewed senior officials from the state Health Department and subpoenaed Mr. Cuomo’s office for documents related to the disclosure of data last year, the people said.

The interviews have included questions about information New York State submitted last year to the Justice Department, which had asked the state for data on Covid-19 cases and deaths in nursing homes, according to the people. False statements in such a submission could constitute a crime. In some cases, agents traveled to the homes of state health officials to interview them about the data. In others, they spoke to officials by phone, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss the active investigation.  The actions, which came in recent weeks, appeared to add to the legal pressure faced by Mr. Cuomo, as well as by his most senior aides, who may have played a role in withholding the true count of nursing home deaths from the public for months.
A spokesman for the Eastern District of New York, which is overseeing the investigation, declined to comment.  Elkan Abramowitz, an outside lawyer hired by the state to represent the governor’s office in the federal inquiry, said in a statement that “the submission in response to D.O.J.’s August request was truthful and accurate and any suggestion otherwise is demonstrably false.”

Mr. Cuomo has faced scrutiny for months over his policies related to nursing homes. The question of how many nursing home residents had died — both in the facilities and after being treated at hospitals — became a political issue for Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, as he came under criticism from both Democrats in Albany and from national Republicans, including former President Donald J. Trump.

The state initially publicized only the number of residents who died of Covid-19 inside nursing homes, even after it became aware that thousands more residents had died after being transferred to hospitals.  Aides to the governor said they had not revealed data on residents who died in hospitals because the information was incomplete and needed to be vetted.  The state revealed the full count — which added thousands of additional deaths — only in January, after a report by the state attorney general suggested an undercount, and after a state court ordered the data be made public in response to a lawsuit filed by the Empire Center, a conservative think tank. As of this month, New York has recorded the deaths of more than 15,000 nursing home residents with Covid-19.

Melissa DeRosa, Mr. Cuomo’s top aide, tried to explain why the administration had withheld the data last year to state lawmakers in a conference call, saying she and others “froze” because of the federal request for data, which came in late August as the governor faced criticism over nursing homes.  But more than two months earlier, in June, Ms. DeRosa and other aides removed such data from a report prepared by the Health Department, an investigation by The New York Times found.  A chart included in an early draft of the report, which was reviewed by The Times, showed that the number of total deaths of nursing home residents would have been roughly 9,200 at the time, or 50 percent higher than what Mr. Cuomo’s administration had publicly acknowledged.  The governor’s aides have denied altering the report to withhold the data, arguing that they did not release the figures until they could be properly audited.

In her conference call with legislators, which took place last month, Ms. DeRosa also said that the Cuomo administration had fully cooperated with the Justice Department investigation last year. “They sent a letter asking a number of questions and then we satisfied those questions,” she said, according to a transcript of the conversation released by the governor’s office.

Federal investigators also started questioning state officials this month about a provision in last year’s state budget that gave legal protections to hospitals and nursing homes during the pandemic, one of the people said. Investigators’ questions about the nursing home provision were first reported by The City, a local nonprofit newsroom.

The change made it difficult for families of residents who died or were infected by the coronavirus to sue nursing home operators or hospitals. The provision had been lobbied for by industry representatives.
The Cuomo administration is also under fire for undercounting the number of nursing-home deaths caused by Covid-19 in the first half of 2020, a scandal that deepened after a recent Times investigation found that aides rewrote a health department report to hide the real number. Several senior health officials resigned recently in response to the governor’s overall handling of the pandemic, including the vaccine rollout.

[etc.]

 

++++++

So this is what was going on with those NY counts that kept changing.

[Ambergris]

[Ambergris]

Finally got that picture to paste.  This is the US reported infections. That single highest day is at January 11, but I call it mid-January.  You could more accurately say right past the one-third mark of January, but not too many people mentally break months into thirds. Besides, see the after-peaks?

 

Where would we be if we were in India's shoes?  Picture the last bit of the line swinging up to December levels.  If this doesn't happen in the next couple of months, it will be because we have better medicine (including more vaccines per capita) and less crowding than India.  

Edited March 20, 2021 by Ambergris

[Homesteader]

42 minutes ago, Ambergris said:

Mr. Cuomo has faced scrutiny for months over his policies related to nursing homes. The question of how many nursing home residents had died — both in the facilities and after being treated at hospitals — became a political issue for Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, as he came under criticism from both Democrats in Albany and from national Republicans, including former President Donald J. Trump.

And, according to CNN, The USNS Comfort was deployed to New York, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the United States, to free up capacity in the city's civilian hospitals so that they can focus on treating coronavirus patients. They had 22 patients with a capacity of 1,000 on the military ship.   

[Ambergris]

The ship was finally sent where it would be more widely used.  182 patients overall, with 22 Covid patients being in ICU and 10 or so Covid patients being hospitalized onboard but not in ICU when the president pulled the ship out.  The ship was crewed for trauma work, not plague work, and it showed.  Part of the problem with Covid is that care of patients is universally reported by nurses to be utterly exhausting--much, much worse than care of flu patients and even worse than dying cancer patients.

 

Okay, last year New England got it in the spring, which is repeating now.  The south got it in the summer, which might happen again, and the midwest and west took their turn in the fall.  That's talking about infections.  But talking about infections is talking about soft data, reliant on how much testing happens and when the governors decide to do waves of testing.  We need to look at deaths.  A person is dead or not dead, although the question remains as to why.  We need also to look at hospitalizations, because it's pretty clear why people are hospitalized.  As of yesterday, the running average of the prior seven days' figures show just under 41,000 people per day being admitted to the hospital in the US for Covid.

 

(By the way, if you saw any scary news, think of this: Missouri didn't have a huge number of deaths in the week ending March 8.  They just used antigens to officially classify a lot of deaths, some months previously, that had been suspected to be Rona.  Expect a lot of those spikes as other states test their storage banks of blood samples.)

 

CDC | Updated: Mar 19 2021 8:27PM
Place    Deaths in Last 7 Days
Texas          971
California    904
Kentucky    583
Florida         558
New York City*    401
Georgia       303
Ohio             289
New Jersey    262
West Virginia    232
Pennsylvania    216
Massachusetts    208
Arizona           181
Illinois              165
New York*       165
North Carolina 161
Louisiana        146
Virginia           130
Michigan    121
Alabama    117
Arkansas   105
Indiana       105
Maryland   102
Nevada      77
Oklahoma  66
Mississippi    62
Connecticut  61
Missouri        61
Washington  61
Tennessee   58
Iowa    51
Wisconsin    48
Colorado      39
Minnesota    38
Oregon         37
Idaho    32
New Mexico     32
Rhode Island    31
South Carolina 30
Utah            26
Delaware    23
New Hampshire    16
Puerto Rico           16
Montana    15
South Dakota        14
Nebraska    9
District of Columbia    8
Vermont    6
Alaska       5
Maine        5
North Dakota    5
Hawaii               3
Wyoming           2
Guam                1

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Ambergris

[euphrasyne]

The Comfort was never intended to take care of covid patients.  They were supposed to take on the other traumas so the main hospitals would free up for covid.  The problem is that NO ONE will treat you for anything other than covid because you 'might have covid.'  People are dying and hurting over more mundane things because they cannot get treatment.  I'm experiencing this.  Littlesister experienced this.  

[Ambergris]

New Delhi (CNN)India on Thursday recorded 53,476 new Covid-19 cases, marking the highest single-day rise in cases since October 23, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.  The country has been reporting more than 35,000 new cases daily for over a week in a recent surge in cases after they fell in January and February this year.  Randeep Guleria, director at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told CNN on Wednesday that "it is the beginning of a second wave."
The rise in cases comes as the country's top researchers announced that there are nearly 800 variants of concern present in the country.  The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics -- which has been carrying out genome sequencing and analysis of coronavirus strains since December -- says 771 cases of variants of concern have been detected in India. Most of the cases are the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, according to a statement from the Indian Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
While the Health Ministry has not correlated these to the recent rise in cases, these variants have been primarily detected in states such as Punjab and Maharashtra, two states that the health ministry has called states of "grave concern," given that they are contributing to most of the nation's case load.  Guleria said the emergence of the more infectious UK variant in some states may be one of the factors contributing to the recent surge in case numbers.
The Health Ministry has said "such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity," while adding that further analysis is being conducted.  The country's first wave of infections started climbing last summer and peaked in September, with numbers slowly declining since then. By February, the number of daily cases had fallen by nearly 90%, to about 10,000 a day.  But by the start of March, it became clear that cases were slowly on the increase again -- and they have exploded in the past few weeks.
India has now reported a total of more than 11.7 million cases and 160,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Guleria said the second wave "is something that has already been seen in many European countries; we seem to be following them."  A number of factors are contributing to that rise, Guleria explained.  "One of the factors is that today it's been one year since India had the lockdown and there are people who seem to have gone into Covid fatigue," he said, adding that "you see that in the community, when you go out, wearing a mask has become less and less.  "We see crowds developing, partying, a lot of marriage ceremonies are happening in India," he added.
Variants and mutations
All viruses evolve over time, and sometimes make changes when they replicate, causing mutations. Some mutations have little effect -- but others could make the variant more easily transmissible, or cause infections with more severe symptoms.  From around 10,787 samples analyzed by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics from 18 states, 771 cases of variants of concern were detected, the majority of which were the UK strain, according to the Ministry of Health. Thirty-four were the variant first identified in South Africa and one was variant P.1 from Brazil.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also said it has found a variant with mutations that don't match previously identified variants of concern.
It's not unusual to see multiple mutations in one variant. "All of these viruses (variants) which we are dealing with are already mutants," said virologist T Jacob John. The strain that became globally prevalent was already different from the first strain that originated in Wuhan, China, he added.  The strain first found in the UK, the B.1.1.7 variant, has 23 mutations compared to the original strain found in Wuhan, according to the American Society of Microbiology.
The Brazil variant known as P.1 has 17 mutations, and the South Africa variant known as B.1.351 also has multiple mutations, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
How dangerous a mutation is depends on where in the virus it's happening. For instance, the South Africa variant has mutations that change the structure of the spike protein, which appear to affect the receptor binding domain -- the part of the spike protein most important for attaching to and infecting cells. Researchers are now investigating whether it could help the virus partly escape the effects of vaccines.
Guleria cautioned that a new variant was not necessarily cause for alarm, since researchers are still investigating the effect of the mutations.  "They are not clear as to what is the significance of this," he said. "Does it have clinical significance or is it just an observation? And that has to be linked to epidemiological data, which is what is being done."
One question is which variants -- and which mutations -- might be able to evade the effects of our existing vaccines. "If somebody was infected with coronavirus six months ago, that person is immune to the non-mutated coronavirus," John said. "But is the person still immune against the variants? (That has to be) studied."
India's vaccination drive
In the meantime, Indian authorities are working to control the spike by implementing new restrictions and stepping up the country's vaccine program.  India is administering two vaccines domestically. One is Covishield, a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and produced by the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker. The other is India's first homegrown coronavirus vaccine, Covaxin, developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
So far, India has administered more than 50 million doses of vaccines, with more than 8.1 million people fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Serum Institute of India not only produces most of the vaccines for India -- it is also responsible for many of the vaccines distributed to the rest of the world. In September last year, SII pledged to manufacture and deliver 200 million doses for COVAX -- a WHO vaccine alliance set up to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines.
But SII has had to halt or delay its exports several times in recent months as global and domestic demand surged.  India embarks on one of the world's most ambitious vaccine rollouts after emergency use approval
India embarks on one of the world's most ambitious vaccine rollouts after emergency use approval  On January 4, India restricted the export of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by SII until at least March. "We were given a restricted license only to give it and provide it to the government of India because they want to prioritize for the most vulnerable and needy segments first," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said at the time. "The only condition is that we can only supply to the government of India, we can't sell it in the private market, and we can't export it."
Thursday, Reuters reported that India would likely delay deliveries of AstraZeneca vaccines to COVAX, citing UNICEF. India had put a temporary hold on all major exports of AstraZeneca shots made by SII to meet domestic demand, according to Reuters. CNN has reached out to SII, UNICEF and the Ministry of External Affairs for comment, but has not yet received a response. The Ministry of Home Affairs also introduced new infection control guidelines Tuesday that will be in place until the end of April. Some of the measures include quickly isolating positive cases and tracing their contacts within 72 hours.  Several cities and states including Mumbai, Delhi and Odisha have banned gatherings during Holi, the upcoming festival of colors, on March 28.

[Ambergris]

From Reuters, mostly:

 

Brazil leads the world in the daily average number of new deaths reported, accounting for one in every 4 deaths reported worldwide each day
COVID-19 infections in Brazil are at their peak — the highest daily average reported — now at 77,049 new infections reported each day.

There have been 12,320,169 infections and 303,462 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.

 

There have been at least 24,160,000 reported infections and 758,000 reported deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in Latin America and the Caribbean so far.  

Countries reporting the most deaths each day over the last seven days, averaged:

BRAZIL    2,280

MEXICO      515

PERU           161

COLOMBIA     126

ARGENTINA    101

 

Countries reporting the most new infections over the last seven days, averaged:

BRAZIL     77,050

PERU            8,135

ARGENTINA 7,337

CHILE            6,185

COLOMBIA    5,807

 

This region accounts for 27% of the world's reported infections in the last 7 days and is currently reporting about a million infections every eight days.  Remember that death surges run about two weeks behind infection surges, if testing is evenly applied.  Big if.  Also, the death graph is flatter than the infection graph.  When reports of infection spike, death becomes a less common reported effect of it.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the BBC reported on March 17 that almost half the people tested in Papua New Guinea had Covid, and that there was a crisis brewing.  They asked for a million Astra Zenica (British) vaccine doses (for nine million people, if I recall correctly).  A week later, it's 70% per the Times, and the crisis is boiled over.    They are now relying more on Covax, which if I recall correctly is produced in India and is much cheaper and still can't get enough.  They have the field hospital in the stadium, so the medical people in their protective gear are drenched in sweat trying to work out there.  Meanwhile, the stupid memes on social media are have kept and are still keeping a lot of people from getting vaccinated, which is making the situation worse.  Before you click the button, think of keeping a team of miserable people out there sweating in the stadium because something you transferred, directly or indirectly, made the difference to someone who could have been immunized.  Also, this is tuberculosis territory, and ... guess what that means?

 

Following information per the CDC:

CDC | Updated: Mar 25 2021 1:47PM

 

State/Territory	Deaths in Last 7 Days
California	1,273
Texas	857
Kentucky	807
New York City*	390
Florida	346
Georgia	301
Ohio	274
Arizona	256
New Jersey	247
Massachusetts	233
Pennsylvania	187
New York*	161
Illinois	153
Michigan	140
North Carolina	137
Tennessee	134
Alabama	124
Louisiana	101
Maryland	101
Oklahoma	90
Indiana	82
Missouri	71
Wisconsin	62
Nevada	56
West Virginia	54
Arkansas	53
Mississippi	49
Connecticut	45
Utah	45
Kansas	44
Washington	44
Minnesota	42
New Mexico	37
Montana	35
Nebraska	35
South Carolina	35
Colorado	28
New Hampshire	26
Iowa	23
Delaware	19
Oregon	19
Puerto Rico	18
Rhode Island	18
Idaho	17
District of Columbia	9
South Dakota	9
Hawaii	6
North Dakota	6
Alaska	5
Vermont	5
Maine	4
Wyoming	2
American Samoa	0
Federated States of Micronesia	0
Guam	0
Northern Mariana Islands	0
Palau	0
Republic of Marshall Islands	0
Virginia	0
Virgin Islands	0

Look at Virginia, down there with the territories! Go Virginia, go! 

I hope that's not just someone's failure to send in the statistics.

 

CDC | Updated: Mar 25 2021 1:47PM

 

State/Territory	7-Day Death Rate per 100,000
Kentucky	18.1
New York City*	4.6
Arizona	3.5
Massachusetts	3.4
Montana	3.3
California	3.2
Texas	3
West Virginia	3
Georgia	2.8
New Jersey	2.8
Alabama	2.5
Ohio	2.3
Oklahoma	2.3
Louisiana	2.2
Delaware	2
Tennessee	2
New Hampshire	1.9
Arkansas	1.8
Nebraska	1.8
New Mexico	1.8
Nevada	1.8
Maryland	1.7
Mississippi	1.7
Rhode Island	1.7
Florida	1.6
Kansas	1.5
New York*	1.5
Pennsylvania	1.5
Michigan	1.4
Utah	1.4
Connecticut	1.3
District of Columbia	1.3
North Carolina	1.3
Illinois	1.2
Indiana	1.2
Missouri	1.2
Wisconsin	1.1
Idaho	1
South Dakota	1
North Dakota	0.8
Vermont	0.8
Alaska	0.7
Iowa	0.7
Minnesota	0.7
South Carolina	0.7
Puerto Rico	0.6
Washington	0.6
Colorado	0.5
Oregon	0.5
Hawaii	0.4
Wyoming	0.4
Maine	0.3

 

New hospital admissions on March 23, 5165.  7 day average March 17-23: 4707.

Per the CDC, that's up 1% from the prior seven day average.

I would like to see myself, preferably on a simple chart, but it's really difficult to keep up with.  As best I can tell, we're just about where we were in August.

 

 

[TheCG]

34 minutes ago, Ambergris said:

Meanwhile, the stupid memes on social media are have kept and are still keeping a lot of people from getting vaccinated, which is making the situation worse.  Before you click the button, think of keeping a team of miserable people out there sweating in the stadium because something you transferred, directly or indirectly, made the difference to someone who could have been immunized.

 

Or it could be that people don't always trust modern medicine and the government to have their best interests at heart, especially if they've seen the results from earlier mRNA vaccines. 

 

If you honestly think that memes are the thing keeping people from getting vaccinated, you have a very low opinion of other people.

[Ambergris]

The final straw is alive and well.

Dangerous information that is demonstrably false should not be thrown around even if it is amazingly funny.  Perhaps especially if it is amazingly funny, because that guarantees it will go further and be seen by more people, some of whom will believe it. 

Information that is demonstrably false, dangerous or not, should not be thrown around without good reason even if it is funny.  And I would want to know the reason.

Dangerous information of questionable veracity should be scrutinized and treated with respect.  Memes and jokes are not the way to convey this, because people will not understand that it needs to be chewed over and scrutinized.

I believe in spreading dangerous information when it is true.  

 

The safety of the vaccines appears to fall into the category of dangerous information of questionable veracity.  It is being withheld from children and from women of childbearing age so far.  I strongly question the wisdom of releasing it next month to young women, but that has been seen as a political necessity.  I hope the US will rethink that.  The US is being flooded with information that is demonstrably false but is dangerous if only because people are suggestible enough to raise the chance of adverse effects by ... was it 25%?  Something substantial.  There is no need to slather the demonstrably false stuff on top of the questionable information, which is itself circulating in conjunction with the dangerous but true information.

 

And we are talking about a different part of the world, a place where tuberculosis is endemic.  Tuberculosis will already kill you.  It is barely held in check in American prisons and homeless camps now because people who take the medication for a while and then don't for a while have bred resistant strains inside their bodies.  They have done the same all over New Guinea.  They will do the same with with this Covid.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Ambergris

[Jeepers]

I don't do any social media so I very very rarely see a meme. I haven't taken the vaccine because it's too new and has not had time to be thoroughly tested. And the virus is still mutating. I also don't trust politicians (both sides of the aisle), the government and big pharma at their word. They all lie for their own agenda and wallet. That's why I'm not taking it. I'm not saying I'll never take it. I'm just saying I'm not going to take it right now. That's just my opinion for the time being.

 

On the other hand, I've 'known' Ambergris for a number of years and I know she doesn't have a low opinion of others. She has shown herself to be nothing but kind,  considerate, helpful and sharing on this website. She has had to have some pretty thick skin lately too. 

 

Remember, opinions are like (certain body parts) we all have them. 

Lets try to respect others opinions even if we don't agree. Agree?

 

                                       

  

[David Austin]

Is purge mask is a type of general masks?

[Littlesister]

Haven't been keeping up on the corona virus much. Just to much going on.  I can't decide if things are getting better, the same or worse.  Still not getting the vaccine.   Haven't seen any memes either.  So not sure of what is going on from the post as I haven't read through them all. 

 

euphrasyne.  I hope and pray you don't go through what I went through with DH.  It was really bad. That has played on me for a few weeks just wondering was there anything different I could have done.  But with this corvid I knew I had done everything I could.  So I have finally let it all go. Time to heal from all this mess. 

I will be praying that you don't go through this.  

[Homesteader]

12 hours ago, Littlesister said:

Haven't been keeping up on the corona virus much. Just to much going on.

 

Me too. There is so much disinformation and politics wrapped up into it that I believe very little anymore.  I asked a few questions of my Dr. of Chiro yesterday and really got an earful.    His wife, also a Doctor, was voted onto the County Health Board. She was so frustrated and so were the local citizens. It's one of the larger counties in the State. My doctor mentioned that his friend, who owns a large testing lab in another state, received a letter from the CDC stating that they were to lower their testing threshold. The PCR process uses the extraction method. Then I got lost when he went medical terminology on me, but they spin the sample at 48-50 cycles to get the sample. Three weeks into January, the govt sent the lab owner a letter telling him to decrease the sample spin cycle to 28-29. That's where it should have been in the beginning for viruses, he said. It will be interesting to see how the 'positives' multiply in the weeks and months to come.  

 

I've heard that before but not from a doctor friend.

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Homesteader

[euphrasyne]

Local hospital DePaul is closing because they dont have enough patient volume.  I guess they aren't overwhelmed by covid.  

 

 

Bon Secours will close Norfolk’s DePaul hospital building in April - The Virginian-Pilot (pilotonline.com)

[Mother]

Years ago (1996), when I first contracted Lyme Disease I had a test through both the doctor's office and our County Department of Health.  The one from the doctor's office was positive, the one two days later was negative.  When I questioned it I was told that the CDC had 'changed' the criteria allowed to diagnose because of the criteria for studies being done.  Only certain ones were 'allowed' for the new studies.  The county nurse told me I was still positive, just wouldn't be part of the new study?????   Later, I had a test by Igenx Lab in Ca. which is considered the ultimate test for Lyme and it came back with two criteria, one for the CDC and one for their criteria.  Yup, positive for 'their' requirements complete with positive antibodies and negative for the CDC.   I guess that means I didn't get counted but it didn't stop the seriousness and continuing chronic effects of the positive ones I'd had.  

 

I guess what I'm saying is that when studies are being conducted the criteria for testing is often changed to zero in on only certain aspects of a disease.  That may be what is happening now with Covid.   Lyme disease and it's numbers and treatment is still a hotly debated subject, especially Chronic Lyme.  There is a vaccine for dogs but no longer for humans because if you had the disease the vaccine could be deadly.  Dogs are tested before being given the vaccine.  Obviously Veterinarians can agree better than MD's. 

[Midnightmom]

5 hours ago, Mother said:

..........because if you had the disease the vaccine could be deadly. 

 

 

I think that there's a lot of that going on with these CV19 vaccines and that is probably why some of the people getting it have died. Perhaps there should be a requirement to be tested for antibodies before getting injected - especially those who are young enough to have had such a "mild" form of it that they didn't know they've had it. I wonder if that is also the reason that the second dose is so hard on some people ie, it's affecting them as if they've HAD the disease............................

[Littlesister]

I think I am to the point where I don't trust the CDC nor Fauci.  He has changed his mind on things to many times and he is in with the CDC.  Don't trust politicians either. I don't care if they are Dems or Rep. They all have this one thing they can agree on and that is to lie to we the people.  Still not getting that vaccine as It has not been properly tested and I am not going to be a ginny pig for anyone.  I don't mind staying home and I can where a mask where I have to. That will be as far as I go with it. If I want to travel it will be by car anyway. So that should not be a problem. 

Guess I am just over the mess I see children going through not being able to go back to school and so many are failing because of this.  Also with our medical field being destroyed.   

euphrusyne,  I had not heard about DePaul closing it's doors.  And even worse, we need a new hospital in N. Suffolk and Maryview was going to build one and then changed their minds. So this place is growing like crazy around here and no hospital around here will be able to handle this.  Not even our schools, nor our country roads can handle what is happening around here. And it is getting worse. 

Right now I am stuck in a situation about moving as right now is a good time for selling but not for buying so I have heard. And I have no plans to move anywhere for at least a year or so.  Will have to see what happens then. 

[TheCG]

1 hour ago, Midnightmom said:

 

I think that there's a lot of that going on with these CV19 vaccines and that is probably why some of the people getting it have died. Perhaps there should be a requirement to be tested for antibodies before getting injected - especially those who are young enough to have had such a "mild" form of it that they didn't know they've had it. I wonder if that is also the reason that the second dose is so hard on some people ie, it's affecting them as if they've HAD the disease............................

Friends who had COVID a few months ago, then had the vaccine, had the side effects hit them a LOT harder than the others I know who've had it.  They said it felt like having COVID again for a day.

[Ambergris]

The daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is on the rise yet again after dropping precipitously from January highs.  The latest 7-day moving average of confirmed cases was at 60,425 on March 27, and the U.S. is continuing to see an average of roughly 50,000 new cases a day.  Dr. Calvin Sun, an NYC-based emergency medicine physician, cites three main factors driving this recent uptick: the virus mutating, the rolling back of safety measures, and the recent increase in travel. “One is the variants,” Sun said. “People are getting reinfected again.”  Less than 1% of adults report getting reinfected with the virus. But those who do get reinfected could experience more severe symptoms the second time around if they're positive for one of the several variants (mutant strains). 
The second reason for the surge in cases "is a half-hearted response,” Sun said. “Mask mandates only do so much. Not all businesses are forcing it, and only half of them are or three-quarters. That’s like only vaccinating 80% of the population. That 20% is going to get reinfected, create a new variant, recombination, and then we have to start all over again. Not all of us are safe until everybody is safe.”  The "population" is only the portion of the larger population that is physically healthy enough to be vaccinated to start with.  Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, West Virginia, and Connecticut all rolled back restrictions like mask mandates and indoor capacity limits within the last month. (Other states like Georgia and Alaska never had mask mandates to begin with.) As restrictions ease, Connecticut is among the top five in terms of most daily cases per capita. 

The third factor in the recent rise in cases, according to Sun, is people traveling a lot more.  “Most of the people I’ve been telling are positive since last Thursday and Friday [have said] ‘I was on a plane,'" Sun said. "Where did you come from? And it’s usually one of four or five states.”  As more places roll back their restrictions, the number of travelers has increased substantially.  The CDC still recommends not traveling, both domestically and internationally. Nevertheless, the latest TSA data showed that 1,406,234 traveled in the U.S. on Monday, one of the highest numbers since the pandemic began.  On March 12, the TSA screened more than 1.3 million travelers, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.  “That’s a decision they have to live with,” Sun said. “That is based on your ethical guidelines and what you feel is right or wrong. But when something bad happens, that’s on you when you infect other people.”

[Mother]

This is only an opinion so please take it as such. 

 

It seems that no one really does have a handle on what to do about this virus. Nor do they have an actual consensus how effective the vaccine is.   I have heard/read variously, from CDC and reports from other countries around the world, that the vaccine does not keep you from getting the virus yet it is being suggested that people can be around others who are vaccinated within two weeks of getting it, even, according to ads, be able to hug them.   However, 'they' say, even if you did have the vaccine you should still wear your masks and social distance. Would that mean hugging from afar? Still?

 

It appears one consensus might be that the vaccine only confers that you won't get as seriously ill when you do get it and even then it's unknown how long the protection would continue.  That might help the hospitals and health professionals and probably the insurance companies.  But if children aren't vaccinated and they are hugged they could still get the virus, often without symptoms, which can still infect others?  That almost appears to me as if some care less about the spread of the virus and more about the economic impact.

 

It is my opinion the vaccine can lower the risk of sever illness but will not stop the illness totally or the spread of it.  I believe nature will do that, eventually and despite the vaccine.  I really believe those who feel confident of receiving the vaccine should be allowed to get it but realize it's limitations and act accordingly for their own protection and the protection of others.    I believe all of our lives will be impacted in various ways by this virus for a long time to come yet. 

 

One last opinion.  Aside from the virus I believe there are and will be other changes coming for us.  I see it in the political unrest around the world (not just the US); I see it in the changing weather patterns; I see it in the earth, in nature.  Change is inevitable.  We can disagree all we want about who is right and who is wrong but in the end survival comes from adaptability not strength.  We need to be prepared to adapt to the changes.   Part of that adaptability is what Mrs. S is about but we can only adapt if we are open to that adaption.  To do that I believe we need to be open to all sides of an issue and to be open to a change of our own opinions. 

 

Okay, thanks for letting me opine!  

[Homesteader]

Today, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin AGAIN ruled against the governor's mask mandate. The state statute says that the governor can only impose emergency measures for 60 days. Period. Every 60 days after the first ruling, he reissued the mandate over the legislature's lawful right to reopen the state. After the second time the governor overrode the STATE SUPREME COURT, the court smacked him really hard this time. They don't appreciate a governor trying to do an end-around their rulings. Hopefully, this governor is a one-and-out one. Even though we are allowed to removed our masks in public now, most of us won't. It was just the fact that our governor felt he was above the law when it came to our State's statutes. 

 

MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers from issuing any new public health emergency orders to mandate face masks without the approval of the Republican-controlled state Legislature.   

 

In a 4-3 decision, conservative justices in the majority declared the statewide mask mandate invalid and ruled Evers exceeded his authority in issuing multiple emergency declarations over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Evers used the emergency orders to require face coverings be worn indoors statewide after lawmakers opted not to.

"The question in this case is not whether the Governor acted wisely; it is whether he acted lawfully. We conclude he did not," Justice Brian Hagedorn, writing for the conservative majority, said.

 

State law says governors may issue health emergencies for 60 days at which point the Legislature must approve an extension. Evers has argued he may issue new emergencies without their approval because the pandemic's threat has changed, similar to emergency declarations over separate flooding events in the same river.

Hagedorn said state law governing public health emergencies "must be read to forbid the governor from proclaiming repeated states of emergency for the same enabling condition absent legislative approval."

[David Austin]

Didn't get my answer

Is purge mask is a type of general masks?

[Jeepers]

I only know of two kinds of purge masks.

 

One has to do with a valve on a diving mask that purges water from inside of a mask.

The other is like a halloween mask that covers the whole face like a celebrity's face mask.

 

Are you talking about a different kind of mask for medical use? If so then I don't know.