Phish concerts leave trail of infections

[Chuckanut]

Just having completed a 3 day drive across 5 southeastern states I can tell you most places masking indoors in public spaces is almost nonexistent. People have blown Covid off.

Looks like an excellent environment for Omicron spread to me.

I saw a similar situation in Idaho back in September. OTOH, near to home, masking indoors is done by about 99% of the people from what I can see. I made my yearly trip to an big indoor shopping mall today. I did not see one person without a mask. Some stores were even limiting the number people in the store at one time. The county does have a mask mandate in place, so that is probably part of the reason.

FWIW, the mall claims it has installed new UV devices in their ventilation system and has increased the amount of outside air that is mixed with recycled indoor air.

 

[VanWinkle]

Just as you using "fear" may not have been the best word, me using "burying your head in the sand" may also have not been the best choice of words on my part, so I apologize for that.

As a front line healthcare worker, it is incredibly frustrating and exhausting and disheartening to diagnose new COVID cases every day in rapidly rising numbers and still see so many people speaking out against vaccines and masks and social distancing. Right now we are still dealing with the fallout of all the people who just had to have their big Thanksgiving get togethers, which resulted in tons of new cases. That will start to taper off in time for all of the people who just have to have their big Christmas parties and NYE events triggering most likely an even bigger wave of cases that carry us well into January.

Caution and fear are definitely related, but are also part of our survival instincts. There's a reason I won't get up on the roof. I don't want to fall off and break my neck. Can you take it too far? Absolutely. Like you, I know people that barely leave their homes. I think that's an overreaction. I still go to the supermarket weekly or Target or out to dinner. I just put on my N95 and go about my business. But that's not a super crowded environment. I'm not shoulder to shoulder with people for an extended time like I would be at a Broadway show or concert for example. The latter are things I don't think people should be doing right now in areas with high transmission rates.

I am sure as a front line health care worker, you are much more attuned to the suffering and sadness that goes with treating the many patients. I have not had a close relative with serious Covid symptoms although many have had Covid. You are seeing another side of the disease that I am ignorant about. My hat is off to you for what you do every day and I appreciate your point of view on this pandemic from the front lines.

Thanks again for your point of view.

VW

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Well, I am testing out my super juiced vaccination status after this weekend. We attended a birthday party for a relative and while is was supposed to be outside, weather pushed the attendees indoors. Well, it was a pretty small space and it was WALL to WALL people. No masks, of course...not in "these parts", no sir! Of course in addition to the no masks, I would venture to guess that the vaccination rate was lower than 50% and a few people who we would have expected to be there were out with COVID. Sadly, there was an older attendee there in a wheel chair that has stage III lung cancer...no mask, either.

We didn't hang around very long, but the odds of being around someone that had COVID is probably pretty darn high. We are planning on visiting family down the road for Christmas, so will take a home test on Friday to see if we once again were "lucky" before making the trip.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Exactly. Unfortunately, many people only think in terms of ICU occupancy when they talk about overwhelming the healthcare system but there's a lot more to it than that. As I've mentioned before, urgent cares across the country are swamped, totally overwhelmed with record numbers of patient visits.


My urgent care opened today at 9:00. We closed for the day due to capacity at 10:45. By then, we were already booked solid until closing time. I'm sure we turned away at least as many patients as we saw if not more. I've been doing this for over 5-1/2 years and this is totally unprecedented.

I was curious as to what our UC situation is. I took a look at the Google maps (how busy is it) graphic and the 3 that are nearest to me show "a little busy" but about 1/2 of the "normal" traffic. I did the same for the Miami area and they showed either "much busier than normal" or "busier than normal". Of course, this is just anecdotal but I think a good indicator of how regional it can be.

I also echo the sentiments thanking you and your cohorts for doing what you do. I can imagine it's pretty frustrating to deal with so many sick patients that now wish they had gotten vaccinated.

 

[silvor]

I find it interesting that the sports outbreaks have occurred among the players, and not the fans. In addition, the players outbreaks all appear to be asymptomatic. I have seen no reports of outbreaks occurring among NFL/NHL/NBA sports gatherings in arenas or stadiums.

I would think it's because the players are being tested daily. The fans aren't getting tested until they get symptoms.

 

[JoeWras]

On our local NHL message board, someone claims they got Covid at a game. I wouldn't be surprised. We've been to a few and it is like living in a sardine can.

We did notice mask adherence was better the last game we attended 4 days ago. I guess the news has some people trying harder.

So yeah, 4 weeks post booster, we're venturing out. We're living life. We're doing everything asked of us.

We're currently in an isolation period before meeting family. We'll get a test before we travel.

BTW, regarding the NHL, the players are coming down with it like crazy. Games are being postponed left and right. NHL has had good vaccine adherence, with only 1 or 2 players not vaxed. Our team is 100%. Doesn't matter. Nearly 1/2 of the team has had or currently has Covid positive.

Canadian teams have omicron running rampant through them.

 

[audreyh1]

We are finally having a memorial service for DF early Jan. Fingers crossed and I’ve stocked up on rapid tests. This will be the first time all siblings have seen each other in 2 years. Two siblings and their families live overseas, so it’s been quite tricky.

 

[tulak]

Local NHL game was postponed. I’m happy, since we had tickets and need to get tested later this week for an upcoming trip to Canada.

 

[Badger]

Who said anything about fear? Where did you even get that from?


You are planning to go to a large Christmas show. Great. Thousands of people were planning to go see the Rockettes Christmas show too. Guess what? They won't be going because all performances have been cancelled due to COVID. So have many Broadway shows. A few NFL games were postponed. Numerous colleges have shut down. Schools are going virtual again. Offices are going remote WFH again.


THERE'S A PANDEMIC GOING ON in case you haven't noticed, and it's getting worse every day. Fear has absolutely nothing to do with it. New York reported the highest number of new cases yesterday ever since the pandemic began.


Ignoring reality doesn't mean you have no fear; it means you're burying your head in the sand and disregarding your own well being and that of everyone around you.

+1+1+1+1+1


Cheers!

 

[iloveyoga]

Exactly. Unfortunately, many people only think in terms of ICU occupancy when they talk about overwhelming the healthcare system but there's a lot more to it than that. As I've mentioned before, urgent cares across the country are swamped, totally overwhelmed with record numbers of patient visits.


My urgent care opened today at 9:00. We closed for the day due to capacity at 10:45. By then, we were already booked solid until closing time. I'm sure we turned away at least as many patients as we saw if not more. I've been doing this for over 5-1/2 years and this is totally unprecedented.

Disneysteve, I value your opinions and always read your posts. Thanks for all the work you do to help others.

 

[Badger]

If the event is cancelled due to the danger, I will not attend.

If the event is cancelled I don't think you will have a choice.



Cheers!

 

[Aerides]

Local NHL game was postponed. I’m happy, since we had tickets and need to get tested later this week for an upcoming trip to Canada.

the NHL has suspended all games through Christmas.

 

[disneysteve]

I was curious as to what our UC situation is. I took a look at the Google maps (how busy is it) graphic and the 3 that are nearest to me show "a little busy" but about 1/2 of the "normal" traffic. I did the same for the Miami area and they showed either "much busier than normal" or "busier than normal". Of course, this is just anecdotal but I think a good indicator of how regional it can be.

Keep in mind that those online estimates are notoriously faulty. Just a month or so ago I was finally successful at getting our administration to remove that feature from our website. It was never right and it was causing a lot of problems. Patients would walk in and be told there was a 2+ hour wait and start yelling at the front desk staff because our website said the wait time was 15 or 20 minutes. So what is actually happening may be very different than what Google says.

 

[tulak]

the NHL has suspended all games through Christmas.

I didn’t know that. Makes sense with all the covid positive players. Looks like it might affect player participation in the Olympics, which would be a bummer.

 

[Gremlin]

Keep in mind that those online estimates are notoriously faulty. Just a month or so ago I was finally successful at getting our administration to remove that feature from our website. It was never right and it was causing a lot of problems. Patients would walk in and be told there was a 2+ hour wait and start yelling at the front desk staff because our website said the wait time was 15 or 20 minutes. So what is actually happening may be very different than what Google says.

Is your UC still seeing patients who only need COVID testing? In our system, all testing, no matter the reason for the need for testing, are done through a drive in site separate from all clinic/hospital facilities. And we still have a well oiled, large vaccination center set up at the mall - so no waiting more than 24 hours for an appointment to get a booster/vaccine.

Overall I’ve been very pleased with how organized it’s been here. Of course, this city of 70k serves a total of only 380,000 so it might be it’s just easier than in more populated areas. Of course, the patient load in the ICU/hospital beds is still a major issue.

 

[disneysteve]

Is your UC still seeing patients who only need COVID testing? In our system, all testing, no matter the reason for the need for testing, are done through a drive in site separate from all clinic/hospital facilities.

For a long time, we had two drive up testing sites. Those ultimately closed. The big problem with that model is that they can't bill for those encounters. They can't bill insurance for just doing a drive up swab but they can when that swab is done as part of an office visit. Of course, they could charge a fee for the swabs which is what many places do, but that's not the business model they want to go with.


Another problem is staffing. We are so short-staffed right now. When we had the drive up sites, they were "borrowing" staff from urgent care and other places, but they just can't do that anymore. They are going to be opening a small drive up site just for employees and symptomatic patients referred from within our system and they're actually using an outside agency to staff it. That won't be open to the general public though as they just won't have that kind of capacity.

 

[gattara]

We are finally having a memorial service for DF early Jan. Fingers crossed and I’ve stocked up on rapid tests. This will be the first time all siblings have seen each other in 2 years. Two siblings and their families live overseas, so it’s been quite tricky.

That's a long time not seeing family, and during a time you lost your dad. Hoping all goes well, fingers crossed for you and your family.

 

[audreyh1]

That's a long time not seeing family, and during a time you lost your dad. Hoping all goes well, fingers crossed for you and your family.

Thank you very much!