Stayin' Alive - Covid-19 #10

[Rorshach]

 

5 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

That;s interesting. You're by way of Norway, right? 

I am. My parents were working there as missionaries, and then as aid workers later on. Most of the time out there I was a kid, but I did my MA in history on Etihopia (well, missionary history, but still  )

[Raja]

11 hours ago, The Great Unwashed said:

Sorry double post.

Study shows that COVID-19 may infect and damage the heart.

Has anyone seen any other reports similar to this?

The devil is in the details in stuff like this - the article asks the right question here - is the injury caused by the virus itself or is it a byproduct of the body's reaction to the virus?

The main study in that article looked at 416 patients, out of which 82 patients had 'cardiac injury' ( they used CK MB & Trop I as measures of cardiac injury, which is fair enough), but you're certainly going to have that 'cardiac injury' happen in patients when they've got sepsis & shock going on because of the pneumonia.

It's possible that the onset of this 'cardiac injury' might be associated with the clinical outcome/ prognosis of a patient, but that is not the same thing as a direct effect on the heart, in fact, that study then goes onto state

Quote

"However, a recent pathological study found scarce interstitial mononuclear inflammatory infiltrates in heart tissue without substantial myocardial damage in a patient with COVID-19,¹³ suggesting that COVID-19 might not directly impair the heart"

So we don't really know, and based on the evidence so far, it doesn't seem to be the case that it directly affects the heart.

Now, the cardiac injury they describe might be a prognostic indicator in patients with COVID 19, but even that information we're not completely sure about it because the ones who did have the cardiac injury were already sicker at baseline ( Table 1 - with the cardiac injury group, 29 percent already had coronary artery disease ( CAD) & 60 percent had hypertension compared to the 6 percent in the non-cardiac injury group that had CAD and 23% had hypertension, also the injury group were older than the non injury group ) so at baseline, these groups were not really like for like comparisons.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

 

I am. My parents were working there as missionaries, and then as aid workers later on. Most of the time out there I was a kid, but I did my MA in history on Etihopia (well, missionary history, but still  )

K, got ya, better context. I thought you meant you've been living there for the last eight years.

I have a friend from school who grew up there, but moved to the states when he was 12 or 13. He loves to cook and the food is exceptional. He'd bring in huge dishes through high school. 

[The Anti-Targ]

4 hours ago, john said:

You get (or got) vaccinated as a baby. The test is to see if the first vaccination still holds, is my understanding. I have no idea if I got the vaccination or just the test. 

Ahhh OK. That's different to here. No one got / gets vaccinated as a baby.

[Maithanet]

On 3/28/2020 at 11:15 AM, Maithanet said:

Continuing my series, Here's an update on the number of coronavirus test results by day in the US.

3/23 - 54k

3/26 - 97k

4/1 - 101k

4/2 - 118k

4/3 - 140k

4/4 - 227k

4/5 - 139k

4/6 - 155k

Tests are finally meaningfully going up in the US.  The US is also belatedly closing the gap in testing/capita on better prepared countries like Germany.  The other good news is that this jump in tests has not had a corresponding jump in positive cases:

4/3 - 32k

4/4 - 34k

4/5 - 27k

4/6 - 29k

If you are a real optomist, you could say that cases look like they're peaking.  But I think I need at least two more days of similar results before we can really be confident that we aren't going to see another jump.  It's messy data because some states look like they've peaked and others are still rising steadily. 

[The Anti-Targ]

UK report on intensive care with 2900 patients says 73% of intensive care patients are men. That's a huge sex difference.

[Rorshach]

43 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I have a friend from school who grew up there, but moved to the states when he was 12 or 13. He loves to cook and the food is exceptional. He'd bring in huge dishes through high school. 

Don't mention the food. Now I'm depressed that the restaurants are closed..

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, Rorshach said:

Don't mention the food. Now I'm depressed that the restaurants are closed..

 

 

Think on the plus side, a religious guy from Norway can bemoan the lack of food from the Horn of Africa with an agnostic guy from the states who is either 1/8 or 1/16 Norwegian. 

Progress, 

[Zorral]

Damn! @Rippounet -- very, very sorry to learn your symptoms have made a return -- may they be milder than the first round.

 

 

[Derfel Cadarn]

Typical. A few days before Final fantasy 7 remake releases, my work send me a laptop to work from home. I was hoping for another two weeks of writing my fourth novel, catching up on TV, and playing the PS4

[BigFatCoward]

If there was ever proof needed that people need to filter their news, 600 people have died in Iran from consuming dodgy alcohol that they thought would help them, with another 3000 still in trouble. 

[Rorshach]

33 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Think on the plus side, a religious guy from Norway can bemoan the lack of food from the Horn of Africa with an agnostic guy from the states who is either 1/8 or 1/16 Norwegian. 

Progress, 

We truly live in the future!

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

I got the vaccine. You’ll likely know by a circular scar on your upper left arm

That small circular mark is a smallpox vaccination scar. I have one too. In fact it was a plot point in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novel. In Canada, a TB vaccine is usually a scratch. I distinctly remember getting it as a child.

[Alarich II]

5 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

If there was ever proof needed that people need to filter their news, 600 people have died in Iran from consuming dodgy alcohol that they thought would help them, with another 3000 still in trouble. 

The problem in Iran being that there are no trustworthy news as their own leaders are pushing conspiracy theories and lies. And the situation in Iran is bad, really bad from what I'm hearing from my father in law. No one believes the official figures or sources. So in their desperation people believe whatever it is they want to hear and nothing else. The regime has well and truly poisoned the well.

[maarsen]

3 hours ago, Isis said:

I'm going to guess that you are talking about Mefloquine (trade name Larium). Again, not the same drug as chloroquine.

I am going by what I remember from newspaper reports from over 20 years ago. The Canadian Forces members were required to take a cocktail of drugs for diseases such as malaria, and many complained about the side effects. They were basically told to shut up and follow orders, even after there was evidence of psychotic behaviour. It may have been Mefloquine.

I have a problem with my memory in that I have close to total recall but not close enough. I really should use the internet to fact check more, especially as I get older. I will try to do better in the future.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

19 minutes ago, maarsen said:

That small circular mark is a smallpox vaccination scar. I have one too. In fact it was a plot point in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander novel. In Canada, a TB vaccine is usually a scratch. I distinctly remember getting it as a child.

I'm not old enough for smallpox.  My BCG left a small slightly raised round scar.  It's very normal.

[Filippa Eilhart]

1 minute ago, Pebble thats Stubby said:

I'm not old enough for smallpox.  My BCG left a small slightly raised round scar.  It's very normal.

same here, I didn’t get the smallpox vaccine and I have the scar. The smallpox scar is much bigger (my parents have those)

[Maithanet]

9 minutes ago, maarsen said:

I have a problem with my memory in that I have close to total recall but not close enough.

I can't watch The Voice because i have perfect pitch, and my dick is so big I can't ride a bicycle. 

[Isis]

2 hours ago, Rorshach said:

Sounds a lot like Lariam, yeah. 

Been living in Ethiopia for 8 years, my sister (an MD) has been living around the continent for longer. I seem to recall that somewhere around 1/5 to 1/4 get strong psychological side effects from it, but if you don't, it's the best prophylactic out there.

Giving it to the US army was like a massive-scale study in psychological side effects. In the UK it is no longer prescribed for malaria prophylaxis unless you have had it before and tolerated it well. I work in the UK malaria reference lab. I have colleagues with horror stories about Larium. 

[Isis]

56 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

If there was ever proof needed that people need to filter their news, 600 people have died in Iran from consuming dodgy alcohol that they thought would help them, with another 3000 still in trouble. 

Yeah, this came up on Pub Med about 10 days ago and when I did a search to confirm it had been in the NY times already at that point. That moment remains saddest, most bleak and hopeless I have felt about anything that happened since this started.

ETA: some people were selling methanol to others as a 'cure', i.e. making a few quid off of something that is lethal (knowing it was poisonous but pretending that it was ethanol, not methanol) - at a time when thousands of people are dying from a respiratory virus. I just think it's the most disgusting and repulsive thing I have heard in a long time.