Covid-19 #19 Tsunami Wave

[Zorral]

This is tragic reading, the best prepared hospital in the USA for Covid-19 is breaking down (no paywall because this is a pandemic information article).

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/americas-best-prepared-hospital-nearly-overwhelmed/617156/

And then this, from North Dakota.  What I want to know though, is where were these voices and aired opinions Before the election, never pushing back in this publication or elsewhere that relentless conspiracy and lying bs that most of Nodaks have swallowed hook, line and sinker, so even as they die they refuse to admit Covid-19 exists except to hurt shaggoth.  Ya hear that billionaire wanna be potus governor Burgum?

You know, maybe North Dakota will the place where they can really study herd immunity, considering how many are positive, sick and dying, with ever more every day, and their relatively small population.

Public health officials are dialing 911 and some ND sheriffs are ignoring the call
In what universe is it acceptable for law enforcement officers to simply ignore certain statutes? Speed limits aren’t very popular, but failure to enforce them — announcing that they won’t be enforced — would invite carnage on our highways.

https://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/6769401-Forum-Editorial-Public-health-officials-are-dialing-911-and-some-ND-sheriffs-are-ignoring-the-call

Quote

 

North Dakota is facing the worst public health crisis in more than a century — and one of its worst disasters in terms of sheer human misery — and some of the state’s sheriffs are cavalierly shunning their important roles.

It’s an appalling dereliction of duty and sends exactly the wrong message.

The state health officer imposed a statewide mask mandate and Gov. Doug Burgum imposed new capacity limitations on businesses in orders that took effect Nov. 14. The actions were taken as North Dakota continues to lead the nation — and even the world — in per-capita rates of coronavirus infections and deaths.

If ever there were a time for all hands to be on deck, that time is now.

But a handful of sheriffs around North Dakota have let it be known that they will not enforce the mask mandate. Failure to obey the mask mandate order is an infraction punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense.

When the order was announced, however, Burgum urged law enforcement officers to place a priority on educating people about the importance of wearing masks in public and to reserve citations for the most flagrant violations.

A friendly but firm reminder that the mandate is in effect, with a few words about the need for everyone to do their part in limiting the spread of the highly contagious — and sometimes deadly — virus would go a long way in accomplishing the mandate’s mission.

It’s a common-sense approach. We’ve seen that while local mask mandates have helped prod people into wearing masks, local mandates typically lacked penalties and were easy to ignore by those incapable of placing the health of the vulnerable among us over their own selfish concept of “freedom.”

Enter Cavalier County Sheriff Greg Fetsch, who dismissed issuing citations for mask violations as silly. "Our jails are full already," he said. "Why would we want to try and put somebody in there for not wearing a mask?"

Talk about silly, Sheriff Fetsch. Who ever said anything about jail?

Hettinger County Sheriff Sarah Warner said her deputies wouldn’t be issuing citations because "this is a health issue and should not be turned into a criminal issue."

Again, failure to wear a mask is an infraction, not a criminal violation. Wearing a mask in the midst of a deadly pandemic is a civic duty. Failure to do so is a moral crime.

At least Warner said she would have her deputies educate people about the importance of mask wearing. But any law enforcement chief who announces that she will not enforce the mandate is undermining a critical public health tool.

In what universe is it acceptable for law enforcement officers to simply ignore certain statutes? Speed limits aren’t very popular, but failure to enforce them — announcing that they won’t be enforced — would invite carnage on our highways.

Our hospitals are on the verge of being overrun, and our doctors, nurses and other health-care workers are battling exhaustion and risking serious illness as they heroically care for those who are sick during this prolonged pandemic.

Having law enforcement leaders flout the mask mandate is shameful and destructive. They should do their jobs.

 

 

[williamjm]

I thought this article was interesting about a 6-month long study of how long covid antibodies might last for.

 

Quote

 

The Oxford study enrolled more than 12,000 healthcare workers of which 11,000 tested negative for Covid-19 antibodies.

Of those without any antibodies at the start of study, 89 developed symptomatic infections that were confirmed with a swab test.

Of those that did have coronavirus-specific antibodies, none developed a symptomatic infection during the study period.

There were three individuals who developed asymptomatic Covid-19 infections despite having positive antibody tests, compared with 76 in the group without any antibodies.

But none of the three became unwell.

 

 

[Fragile Bird]

6 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

@Fragile Bird - how seriously are these taken by the authorities?

I’d have a hard time if W and I had to choose between residences. would we just have to lie and say we were going to the grocery store?

If you are single you are allowed to visit one other household. I am in a bubble with my brother and SiL. Fortunately we live next door to each other. My brother and I do a lot of our shopping together, or if I go somewhere I check in with them to ask if they need anything.

These household rules are not, because they really cannot be, strictly enforced. You have to trust people to do the right thing. However, there have been quite a few publicized cases where folks had parties and the police showed up and charged them. The fine is going to be $750 for breaking the restrictions.

[The Anti-Targ]

7 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I just lost a whole team due to 1 positive and everybody else not socially distancing. I'm fucking seething. I'm the most proactive person in the station for shouting at people ignoring the rules. How the fuck did it happen to me? 

You only have them by the short and curlies for 8-10 hours a day. That means they have 14-16 hrs to be stupid without you there reminding them not to be stupid. It only takes being stupid once and in a big enough group of people someone being stupid once in the "right" conditions is almost a certainty, given time.

 

[Zorral]

Not that it matters, or signifies much, but that Atlantic piece on the Nebraska hospital linked to above --

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/11/americas-best-prepared-hospital-nearly-overwhelmed/617156/

uses the same word I used when making the subject line for this thread -- tsunami.

Quote

Not even the best-prepared hospital can compensate for an unchecked pandemic. UNMC’s preparations didn’t fail so much as the U.S. created a situation in which hospitals could not possibly succeed. “We can prepare over and over for a wave of patients,” says Cawcutt, “but we can’t prepare for a tsunami.”

What does matter about that is that we all saw and knew this was coming, and the USA did frackin' nothing at all about it in the time it had to do something to head it off at the pass, at least in some places, despite rumpty.

 

[Lord of Oop North]

We had a mini outbreak among our field crew, which we believe can be traced back to some work they did at our parent companies plant. There have been a number of positive cases over there, which the company has not publicized or acknowledged at all.

Luckily no contact between me and that crew.

[S John]

2 minutes ago, Lord of Oop North said:

We had a mini outbreak among our field crew, which we believe can be traced back to some work they did at our parent companies plant. There have been a number of positive cases over there, which the company has not publicized or acknowledged at all.

Luckily no contact between me and that crew.

Yea I’ve had a couple close calls recently as well. It feels like the circle is tightening. For a long time I didn’t know anyone who had it and now I know several, including people that I had contact with around the time of their infection. Several members of my family have had it. Thankfully none got seriously ill.  Suffice to say, wife and I have deemed it prudent to go to ground again. Cancelled going to Thanksgiving, probably won’t do anything family related for Xmas. Wife is full time WFH now thankfully but I have to go in a couple times a week. Masks and social distancing are mandatory for whatever that’s worth. Could be worse. Other than that and necessary outings we are holing up and avoiding any and all social calls. Wife is super pregnant, Covid is the last fucking thing either one of us needs right now.

[A True Kaniggit]

3 hours ago, S John said:

Yea I’ve had a couple close calls recently as well. It feels like the circle is tightening. For a long time I didn’t know anyone who had it and now I know several, including people that I had contact with around the time of their infection. Several members of my family have had it. Thankfully none got seriously ill.  Suffice to say, wife and I have deemed it prudent to go to ground again. Cancelled going to Thanksgiving, probably won’t do anything family related for Xmas. Wife is full time WFH now thankfully but I have to go in a couple times a week. Masks and social distancing are mandatory for whatever that’s worth. Could be worse. Other than that and necessary outings we are holing up and avoiding any and all social calls. Wife is super pregnant, Covid is the last fucking thing either one of us needs right now.

I feel a rant coming on.

Not towards you, just towards people around where I live in general.

 

Edit: The rant will be coming eventually. A good rant takes time.

[S John]

Just now, A True Kaniggit said:

I feel a rant coming on.

Not towards you just towards people in general.

Haha yea I feel ya. I think I may have posted about this in this thread and maybe didn’t follow up, but back in October I was around a relative that tested positive a couple days after we saw each other and he definitely got it from someone BEFORE we saw him, so he had it at the time. It was the most people my wife and I been around socially since March and I def remember looking around the room at one point and thinking, fuck, this is the kind of thing you aren’t supposed to be doing right now. And lo and behold, someone DID have Covid! 

Luckily, and amazingly, nobody else got it. There were prob 15 people there, including the person that definitely had it, but somehow didn’t give it to anyone else. I mean, I hugged this person twice. We were drinking whiskey together. I figure he had probably so freshly acquired the virus himself at that point that he wasn’t shedding it. That’s the only thing that makes sense. He had unknowingly picked it up from a coworker maybe the day before we saw him.

We got super lucky, and I’m not keen to test my luck again. We have honestly been pretty dang careful overall, but just goes to show that one time of relaxing could have Covid bombed half the family. Thankfully it didn’t. We were fortunate that it didn’t.

[rotting sea cow]

12 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

In case you were worried about Christmas, rest assured! Dr. Fauci says that Santa Claus, because of his goodness, has innate immunity to Covid-19.

Thank heavens!

Santa is old, fat and likely has diabetes and other non communicable diseases. He is about to visit multiple households around the time of large outbreaks. He is a very high risk individual and likely to die in case he catch it. 

[Fragile Bird]

5 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

Santa is old, fat and likely has diabetes and other non communicable diseases. He is about to visit multiple households around the time of large outbreaks. He is a very high risk individual and likely to die in case he catch it. 

Aren’t you a sour puss! Is that what you are telling children? No Christmas this year, too dangerous for Santa! Oh shut up with your wailing and tears...

[williamjm]

6 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

Santa is old, fat and likely has diabetes and other non communicable diseases. He is about to visit multiple households around the time of large outbreaks. He is a very high risk individual and likely to die in case he catch it. 

On the other hand, he does know where all the naughty people are who haven't been following the guidelines so he can avoid them.

[Luzifer's right hand]

I just saw a documentary about the anti Covid-19 measures in Taiwan. A lot of them would never work in most other countries but it is impressive how well organized that country is.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Aren’t you a sour puss! Is that what you are telling children? No Christmas this year, too dangerous for Santa! Oh shut up with your wailing and tears...

I'd just tell my children Santa isn't real. 

Problem solved.

 

[williamjm]

30 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

I just saw a documentary about the anti Covid-19 measures in Taiwan. A lot of them would never work in most other countries but it is impressive how well organized that country is.

A friend of mine lives in Taiwan (she's originally from Scotland). She's said that it's a surreal experience for her seeing the contrast between how normal her life has been in Taiwan this year and what her friends and family back home have been posting about. I think they may have some sort of mandatory mask wearing and temperature checks (she was surprised to hear they weren't being done in the UK) but other than that everything is pretty much open as usual. The only real limitation is that they can't really leave the country and return so had to scrap her plans to visit her family in Scotland over the summer.

I do remember reading a while back that Taiwan put their first measures in place in December 2019 based on reports of a new respiratory disease in China which is impressively fast reactions.

[Luzifer's right hand]

49 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Well, do tell - what are they, and which ones wouldn’t work in many (I’m assuming Western) countries?

Quarantine with daily controls for all travellers, positive people and people who had contact with positive people. They track the phones of people in quarantine and track you down if you leave and gov official visits you daily and explains the rules to you again. It is expected that other people report people who do not follow the rules and those people are fined and exposed online and on TV. They get all that they need from the goverment including a place to live for the duration of the quarantine if they do not live alone.

One guy visited his familiy and they mentioned everything he did including when he used a certain elevator to find people who had contact with him. That is only possible if your laws allow it and the case numbers is low. 

To ensure that every person has access to masks you have to buy them in pharmacies and they track how many you buy(max. 3 per week for adults more for children).

Special cabs that are disinfected between customers take travelers that arrive by plane to their place of quarantine. Those cabs do not transport normal customers and many drivers sleep in the cars to protect their families.

Staffed checkpoints at entrances with temperature measurements and and disinfection of hands and shoes seem to be common at many places. Although the documentary was a bit older and it seems that things are more relaxed now as most cases are imported.

The main thing is the enforced quarantine I guess. That is only possible on islands I suspect and the intensity of the tracking would be illegal in most places. In addition to that most poor countries will lack the infrastructure to track people properly.

They did mention that life for people who are not in quarantine is mostly normal except for heavy masks use in all puplic places even outside, temp checks and pretty excessive use of disinfectants. It was mentioned that avoiding a lockdown is a large motivation for many people although it was also said that even the people who disagree with the measures tend to follow them because doing what the law says is just the thing you do in Taiwan.

[Luzifer's right hand]

25 minutes ago, williamjm said:

 

25 minutes ago, williamjm said:

A friend of mine lives in Taiwan (she's originally from Scotland). She's said that it's a surreal experience for her seeing the contrast between how normal her life has been in Taiwan this year and what her friends and family back home have been posting about. I think they may have some sort of mandatory mask wearing and temperature checks (she was surprised to hear they weren't being done in the UK) but other than that everything is pretty much open as usual. The only real limitation is that they can't really leave the country and return so had to scrap her plans to visit her family in Scotland over the summer.

I do remember reading a while back that Taiwan put their first measures in place in December 2019 based on reports of a new respiratory disease in China which is impressively fast reactions.

The documentary mentioned that Taiwan informed the WHO that something was going before China admitted anything and that the WHO ignored that information. 

 

[Fragile Bird]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

I'd just tell my children Santa isn't real. 

Problem solved.

 

Bastard!

eta: mean bastard!

eta 2: really, really mean bastard!

[williamjm]

42 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

The main thing is the enforced quarantine I guess. That is only possible on islands I suspect and the intensity of the tracking would be illegal in most places. In addition to that most poor countries will lack the infrastructure to track people properly.

It is easier for islands but Mongolia also had a strict quarantine and shut down almost all foreign travel and worked extremely well - their first recorded case of community transmission was only a couple of weeks ago.

38 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

The documentary mentioned that Taiwan informed the WHO that something was going before China admitted anything and that the WHO ignored that information.

I think Taiwan are probably rightly obsessed by what is happening in China, particularly what is not being announced officially.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

23 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Bastard!

eta: mean bastard!

eta 2: really, really mean bastard!

I'm sorry, BIRD!, but my children when born will be part of the Chosen People. They have no need for the silly fat man flying around in the sky.