COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

[Blitz24]

Yeah don't you remember? It's all right there in General Pershing's memoirs. "We sailed to France in 1917, arrived, looked all around and there was no fighting". "I asked a local resident where was the war?" and he replied, "Oh everybody got sick and they had to go home, didn't they send you a telegram?" To which I said, "No nobody sent us anything". "I just shrugged my shoulders and said, OK BOYS BACK ON THE BOAT and we came back home".

I mean it's all there in the history books. I'm surprised you don't remember it the way Trump does.

I know history has changed since the last time I studied it, but I guess we have now re-classified one of the earlier wars as a World War. Not that it matters, but then we no longer have to worry about WWIII (since it happened already). I just don't know what World War Number we are up to (4? 6? 21? 765.4?).

 

[DesertPenguin]

That was the ceasefire, the end was 1919. Top pub-quiz question.

True. Cease fire was November so it took time to spread the word

 

[Danoff]

Gaiter masks are found to be worse than than not wearing a mask at all.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/08/us/d...test-trnd/index.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

It doesn't say that. It says fleece. I know it conflates the two, but gaiter does not mean fleece.

 

[Joey D]

It doesn't say that. It says fleece. I know it conflates the two, but gaiter does not mean fleece.

I'm not sure what they're trying to say here. The gaiter, which they say is fleece and I assume picture #11, doesn't look like fleece. It looks like polyester or microfiber. If it is fleece, it's pretty thin and understandable why it doesn't do anything. Fleece fibers are pretty airy which is why you don't wear a fleece when it's windy outside.

Here's a link to the study CNN is referencing: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/07/sciadv.abd3083

Maybe I'm just understanding or I'm missing something?

 

[Jezza819]

The dominoes are starting to fall.

BIG 10 cancels all fall sports including football

https://www.espn.com/college-footba...urces-big-ten-pulls-plug-fall-football-season

PAC 12 cancels all fall sports including football

https://www.espn.com/college-footba.../sources-pac-12-calls-fall-sports-eyes-spring

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Oh man...BIG10 without football, that's a national disaster.

/umichalum

 

[Keef]

Oh man...BIG10 without football, that's a national disaster.

/umichalum

Miller thought they had a beer shortage during football season, wait til we get to depression season.

 

[Joey D]

Oh man...BIG10 without football, that's a national disaster.

/umichalum

At least Michigan won't have to disappoint me again this year.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Maybe I'm just understanding or I'm missing something?

Whatever it's saying, I guess the moral of the "story" is that if it doesn't affect your breathing it's probably worthless.

 

[Blitz24]

At least Michigan won't have to disappoint me again this year.

"See? An upside!"

- Constantly questioning why to bother Rutgers fan.

 

[McLaren]

Any of our New Zealand members care to share what's going on there? Heard over a news source that the country is going into lockdown for a few days over a family found to have caught it?

 

[Joey D]

Whatever it's saying, I guess the moral of the "story" is that if it doesn't affect your breathing it's probably worthless.

I still think something is better than nothing. I'll be curious to see the peer reviews on that paper, something just seems off about it.

 

[FPV MIC]

Any of our New Zealand members care to share what's going on there? Heard over a news source that the country is going into lockdown for a few days over a family found to have caught it?

It's been all over the news here in Australia but there don't seem to be too many facts available yet. It has been great to see the NZ government being pro-active again unlike a couple of the eastern states over here.


There have been four positive cases of Covid-19 outside of managed isolation or quarantine, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

After 102 days without community transmission they are the first cases acquired from an unknown source. New Zealand is now activating a resurgence plan.

Ardern said we must take a "precautionary" approach as no origin had been found, or link to isolation facilities or people who work at the border.

As a result, Auckland moves to level 3 restrictions from 12 noon tomorrow. The restrictions will last three days until midnight Friday. The rest of New Zealand will move to level 2 at the same time.

"These three days will give us time to assess the situation, gather information, make sure we have wide-spread contact tracing," Ardern said.

Aucklanders are asked to stay home to stop the spread. "Act as if you have Covid and the people around you have Covid."

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423305/covid-19-new-cases-push-new-zealand-into-resurgence-plan

 

[Nismonath5]

Any of our New Zealand members care to share what's going on there? Heard over a news source that the country is going into lockdown for a few days over a family found to have caught it?

Yep, so basically what's happened is a whole family in South Auckland have caught Covid, and nobody knows how they got it yet so the whole country's been put on alert, with Auckland specifically being put into lockdown. At the moment it's only pencilled to be till Saturday, which is when they hope they'll have determined the cause and therefore be able to work out a plan from there, but we all figure it will be longer. Not ideal at all.

It got announced out of the blue at about mid evening last night, and came into effect mid day today, so as you can imagine, plenty of panic buyers, stocker-uppers and generall madness. Not nearly as bad as the first time, mind you. Less toilet paper

Some news links:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12355869

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-...9-in-community-auckland-going-to-level-3.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53741091

 

[FPV MIC]

The first bits of news are starting to come in about NZ. Contact tracers will be under the pump for a while. A few excerpts below:


Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said authorities are aware of "an additional four probable cases who are people with symptoms linked to the four community-based cases".
"All of these probable cases are waiting test results," Dr Bloomfield said today.

"Just over 200 close contacts have been identified and over a hundred of those have already been phoned and spoken with," Dr Bloomfield told reporters.


One of the family members from the infected household visited Rotorua at the weekend and testing efforts were being ramped up in the popular tourist town.
The woman in her 20s travelled to Rotorua while she was symptomatic.

This last one is probably the most worrying for New Zealanders:.... and why go to a tourist spot while sick

https://www.9news.com.au/world/coro..._nz-coronavirus-outbreak-grows-to-five_120820

 

[Danoff]

Looks like Russia is going to skip Phase 3 of a vaccine and just test directly on the public.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/russia-s-approval-covid-19-vaccine-less-meets-press-release

Lots of bad things to say about that, and I don't want to take away from those bad things. One good thing to say is that another vaccine is basically in phase 3 (from every other country's point of view). If it works in Russia, the rest of us might have another potential option besides AstraZeneca .

 

[Touring Mars]

Looks like Russia is going to skip Phase 3 of a vaccine and just test directly on the public.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/russia-s-approval-covid-19-vaccine-less-meets-press-release

Lots of bad things to say about that, and I don't want to take away from those bad things. One good thing to say is that another vaccine is basically in phase 3 (from every other country's point of view). If it works in Russia, the rest of us might have another potential option besides AstraZeneca .

Let's hope their 'Sputnik moment' doesn't become more like a 'Challenger moment'....

 

[Dennisch]

Who voted for the zombie outbreak in Russia before the end of the year?

 

[DesertPenguin]

Who voted for the zombie outbreak in Russia before the end of the year?

It's on my bingo card. It's like we're the guys betting in Cabin In The Woods

 

[Daniel]

This last one is probably the most worrying for New Zealanders:.... and why go to a tourist spot while sick

For what its worth, all 200 close contacts have already been contacted. Bloomfield has given a mandate that anyone working, visiting or contracting for the two workplaces *must* stay self-isolated until they're contacted by the Ministry of Health.

I can understand why. Because we've been so lucky to not have any confirmed community transmission for 100 days, our primary source could only have been imported from overseas. In other news I've bought one of the cool reusable masks because the government here finally started recommending them.

 

[Jezza819]

For what its worth, all 200 close contacts have already been contacted. Bloomfield has given a mandate that anyone working, visiting or contracting for the two workplaces *must* stay self-isolated until they're contacted by the Ministry of Health.

I can understand why. Because we've been so lucky to not have any confirmed community transmission for 100 days, our primary source could only have been imported from overseas. In other news I've bought one of the cool reusable masks because the government here finally started recommending them.

I was watching the Super Rugby League last weekend and it looked like they had packed stadiums again. How long have they been doing that and I guess they thought they were at a safe enough place where they could pack people in like that again?

 

[Daniel]

I was watching the Super Rugby League last weekend and it looked like they had packed stadiums again. How long have they been doing that and I guess they thought they were at a safe enough place where they could pack people in like that again?

We went to alert level 1 (i.e. no restrictions outside of border restrictions) in early June so it's been about two months of being able to do stuff like that.

 

[Joey D]

We found out yesterday that my son's daycare has to shut down for two weeks because a kid tested positive for COVID. I'm not sure of exactly what happened since my wife went to get my son, but it sounds like a kid was on a family vacation last week and returned to daycare on Monday without symptoms. During one of the mid-day temperature checks the workers do, they discovered that the kid was running a low-grade fever and immediately put them in the "sick room" to get the parents there to pick them up. While I appreciate the proactiveness, it still left someone's kids spreading their COVID cooties all over the place for 4-5 hours. The owner of the daycare said that the kid had to get a COVID test done before being able to return, upon getting the test they discovered the kid had COVID. As soon as they got the result, the daycare shut down and will be until August 27th.

All kids need to get tested before returning too, so we went yesterday afternoon to get my son tested. Having a kid tested is awful. A nurse is a spacesuit comes out to the car and then does the test. My son already has a fear of medical workers, so that was the fun. Thankfully, a handful of animal crackers made it mostly better after the fact. I really hope his test comes back negative, because if it's positive, my wife and I are just going to assume we have it. He has been coughing the past day or two, but the whole valley is full of smoke from wildfires and everyone is hacking due to that. He doesn't have a temperature or any other symptoms and I'm monitoring him closely including looking at his toes, giving him a taste of lime to see how his taste is, and taking his temp about every hour. We've already had a virtual visit with his doc too so we know what to look for as well. I'm proactively ramping up his asthma treatments too (albuterol nebulizer) and giving him a daily inhaled steroid to keep his lungs as clear as possible. Thankfully, he's not acting sick and running around like a little idiot so that's good.

I have an idea who the COVID kid is too and his parents are mega d-bags so it's pretty par for the course they'd take a vacation without caring they shouldn't be traveling right now.

 

[Blitz24]

We found out yesterday that my son's daycare has to shut down for two weeks because a kid tested positive for COVID. I'm not sure of exactly what happened since my wife went to get my son, but it sounds like a kid was on a family vacation last week and returned to daycare on Monday without symptoms. During one of the mid-day temperature checks the workers do, they discovered that the kid was running a low-grade fever and immediately put them in the "sick room" to get the parents there to pick them up. While I appreciate the proactiveness, it still left someone's kids spreading their COVID cooties all over the place for 4-5 hours. The owner of the daycare said that the kid had to get a COVID test done before being able to return, upon getting the test they discovered the kid had COVID. As soon as they got the result, the daycare shut down and will be until August 27th.

All kids need to get tested before returning too, so we went yesterday afternoon to get my son tested. Having a kid tested is awful. A nurse is a spacesuit comes out to the car and then does the test. My son already has a fear of medical workers, so that was the fun. Thankfully, a handful of animal crackers made it mostly better after the fact. I really hope his test comes back negative, because if it's positive, my wife and I are just going to assume we have it. He has been coughing the past day or two, but the whole valley is full of smoke from wildfires and everyone is hacking due to that. He doesn't have a temperature or any other symptoms and I'm monitoring him closely including looking at his toes, giving him a taste of lime to see how his taste is, and taking his temp about every hour. We've already had a virtual visit with his doc too so we know what to look for as well. I'm proactively ramping up his asthma treatments too (albuterol nebulizer) and giving him a daily inhaled steroid to keep his lungs as clear as possible. Thankfully, he's not acting sick and running around like a little idiot so that's good.

I have an idea who the COVID kid is too and his parents are mega d-bags so it's pretty par for the course they'd take a vacation without caring they shouldn't be traveling right now.

Can't the daycare expel the child for the parents' stupidity/selfishness?

 

[Joey D]

Can't the daycare expel the child for the parents' stupidity/selfishness?

I hope so. They're scrambling right now to get the workers tested and coat the entire building in bleach so I'm not going to approach the subject right now. But given how serious they take everything, my hunch is they'll be kicked out. If they aren't I'm going to find a new daycare. I know asshat parents will be everywhere, but I'd rather not be around people I know are asshats.

 

[DesertPenguin]

I'd rather not be around people I know are asshats.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If you know where the asshats are you can act accordingly, but if you don't know they're there yet you may run into the same problem again.

 

[McLaren]

I guess that part remains lost on me with some of the current news topics of schools quarantining b/c they found kids with it. What happens after the kids/faculty come back to a school, and more cases are discovered? Do they go right back into quarantine? Sounds highly counter-productive unless the quarantined kids/faculty are continuing their education efforts at home.

 

[Daniel]

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If you know where the asshats are you can act accordingly, but if you don't know they're there yet you may run into the same problem again.

That's not social distancing!!

Our Director-General of Health announced yesterday that any positive cases (and household members of said positive case) will now be moved to the same quarantine hotel as any positive cases that arrive from overseas. This is a massive development for us since prior to this, any positive cases found in the community were simply told to self-isolate. I've heard the quarantine hotels are quite high quality as well.

 

[Joey D]

Thankfully my son's COVID test came back negative, although the smoke around here is giving him a handful of the symptoms (no fever though). It's stressful to think that the test could be a false negative, but his doctor doesn't seem too worried and had another virtual visit with us today to help put our minds at ease the best she could. I think I've learned more about pediatric COVID in the past couple of days than I ever wanted to know. She mentioned we could get a blood test done too if the steroids and allergy meds she prescribed didn't start working by Monday. I'm happy he has arguably the best family med doctor in our health system.

Still, just to be safe, we're going to stay quarantined for a few more days (not like we'd really go anywhere anyway).

One question I do have, has anyone had an antibody test? I'm convinced I had COVID back in January and want to get tested, but I'm not sure what's involved with it. I do know if you have the antibodies you can donate blood to help with researching treatments and whatnot. If I have the antibodies, I want to be able to help.

 

[Brett]

One question I do have, has anyone had an antibody test? I'm convinced I had COVID back in January and want to get tested, but I'm not sure what's involved with it. I do know if you have the antibodies you can donate blood to help with researching treatments and whatnot. If I have the antibodies, I want to be able to help.

I too would like to know this, except I think I may have had it in February.