Encouragement Thread - If you need support let’s help

[cixelsyd]

9 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

You see it as surrendering rights. I see it as doing what needs to be done for safety of others.

I thought social distancing was our greatest safety measure.  If so, then the last thing we should be doing is closing our outdoor areas, and confining people into less space.

[JimF-LowBari]

21 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

I thought social distancing was our greatest safety measure.  If so, then the last thing we should be doing is closing our outdoor areas, and confining people into less space.

Agree with that only if people will follow social distancing while outside.... But like my mom would say it only takes a few people to screw it up for everyone 

Edited May 3, 2020 by JimF-LowBari

[HockeyDad]

When the disease affects different age groups so differently, the one-size-fits-all approach seems very unnecessary to me. I have two immediate family members in the medical profession. One a nurse working with Covid patients. We are on the front lines. I am not being flippant about this. When zero percent (per the local media, not making this up) of the population under the age of 40 in my state (WI) have died of Covid, and when the curve is flattened, it is time, at a minimum, to send them back to work. Oh, and the other kid in the medical field?  He was laid off a week ago because “no elective procedures” mandate has emptied his office. This seems insane. 

[Brian Tuma]

18 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:

When the disease affects different age groups so differently, the one-size-fits-all approach seems very unnecessary to me. I have two immediate family members in the medical profession. One a nurse working with Covid patients. We are on the front lines. I am not being flippant about this. When zero percent (per the local media, not making this up) of the population under the age of 40 in my state (WI) have died of Covid, and when the curve is flattened, it is time, at a minimum, to send them back to work. Oh, and the other kid in the medical field?  He was laid off a week ago because “no elective procedures” mandate has emptied his office. This seems insane. 

I’m curious as to how many of those under 40 are asymptomatic. I’m all in favor of reopening things if we have widespread testing and contact tracing in place. I would be encouraged if that’s what people were demanding with their protests. 

[JimF-LowBari]

What is the latest with testing the population? Keep hearing comparison numbers with other countries but that ignores the fact we have 330Mil compared to places with smaller populations. IOW pure numbers confuse the issue

[Ghost]

1 hour ago, Brian Tuma said:

  I would be encouraged if that’s what people were demanding with their protests. 

Sorry that you might be disappointed.

[Continental]

13 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said:

Likewise. I don't have accounts at Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or any such social media.

Although glancing just at the twenty or so most recent subject lines in the forum to which Greg linked, they all appear to be scientifically oriented. It's hard to imagine much heated discussion of such topics as "Performance Characteristics of the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG Assay and Seroprevalence Testing in Idaho".

Headlines are always nice.  Just like on here when you look at the threads that have been closed.  It's often when you get to the comments......

Reddit is huge.  There are threads that are scientific and purposeful.  Others that are informative.  But it covers a vast amount of subject matter. 

[LabMaster]

1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

What is the latest with testing the population? Keep hearing comparison numbers with other countries but that ignores the fact we have 330Mil compared to places with smaller populations. IOW pure numbers confuse the issue

My understanding is that the comps must be based on a per capita metric to get a truer read on where the US is relative to other county’s testing.  What we are being told, that we have the most testing of any country, is a bit misleading because we are being told raw numbers, not per capita numbers.  On per capita, the US is well behind many other country’s. The previous focus on ventilators/respirators is now shifting to testing. PPE remains a concern as it should, but testing and contact tracing is now critical.  And beyond that, we MUST continue social distancing.  That does work.   That we can do, without relying on manufacturing.  I am encouraged we are opening things up but we still need to remain diligent in protecting the vulnerable.  I live in a state that is beginning to open things up, with safety measures.  I’m ok with wearing a mask in public, not playing golf for a while longer, shopping early in the morning, dining out el fresco and so on.  I’m ok with social distancing (and avoiding Darwin enthusiasts). I would like to be sure we all get to enjoy life ahead which would include a 2021 DCI season.  I am sure we will.

[N.E. Brigand]

3 hours ago, LabMaster said:

My understanding is that the comps must be based on a per capita metric to get a truer read on where the US is relative to other countries' testing.  What we are being told, that we have the most testing of any country, is a bit misleading because we are being told raw numbers, not per capita numbers.  On per capita, the US is well behind many other countries.

Correct. While the U.S. did surpass South Korea in per capita testing about ten days ago, many other countries (e.g., Germany, Canada) have higher per capita testing than us.

However, the example of South Korea is instructive. On a per capita rate, that country's death rate is about 42 times better than ours: they have 250 deaths and we have nearly 68,000 deaths, and both countries reported their first COVID-19 case on the same date in late January. Given that the U.S. has 6.4 times as many people as South Korea, if our per capita death rate were as low as theirs, we'd have 1,600 deaths here. (However, we are not the worst country in deaths per capita. For instance,, the U.K. has 28,000 confirmed deaths, which on a per capita basis is more than twice as many as the U.S. it may be notable that the U.K. at first deliberately opted to allow the disease to spread in hopes of developing herd immunity. And speaking of other countries with coronavirus problems: in Russia, three different doctors who warned authorities that the COVID-19 oubreak was more severe than was being acknowledged all fell out of windows. Have any physicists examined why gravity seems to be so strong in that country?) What this tells us is that a higher per capita testing rate alone is not enough, since we've done more testing per person.

The difference seems to be that South Korea did the bulk of their testing before the virus had spread very widely in their country, and we did the bulk our testing after it had done so here. So in order to get a true picture of where the disease here is now, and who specifically needs to be quarantined, i.e., to end the more widespread lockdowns and focus on just the infected, we need to keep expanding our testing rate. Lately I've read suggesions that a better metric would be the positivity rate. Ours is very high compared to other countries, which implies that we're mainy testing symptomatic people and missing the asymptomatic carriers, who therefore go right on spreading it to others.

But we're making progress. And a number of states are gearing up for the next phase, by securing access to hotel rooms, so that when testing is widespread enough for a proper trace-and-isolate program, those rooms can be used for quarantine.

Edited May 3, 2020 by N.E. Brigand

[Cappybara]

On 4/30/2020 at 10:23 AM, N.E. Brigand said:

I was saving that bit of good news for today, having already posted five encouraging news items yesterday. Maybe subconsciously I was leaving it for you, as the originator of this thread and someone who's mentioned that drug in the past, to mention here.

- - - - - - - - - -

Apparently I should also be feeling encouraged that I live in the U.S. rather than Sweden, where they took a looser approach to locking things down than many states did here, and they now are suffering in terms of total fatalities (2,462 as of yesterday), at least in comparison to their Scandinavian neighbors (Norway: 207; Denmark: 443 -- Finland: 206). Sweden is about twice as large as each of those others, so they probably ought to have a death toll of 1,000 or less.

Have there ever been any Swedish drum corps?

Is there a good list of all the countries known to have had a drum corps?

Meh, death toll was its highest ever yesterday for the US, at 2,909, 17 days after Easter Sunday. Coincidence?