Wow, it’s getting really scary in Texas - and everywhere else!

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pj.mask said:
Coworker just got out of the hospital for it. Did a big write up. Said only at risk activity was going into grocery store because they needed specific items they worried they wouldn’t get through curbside. Wore a mask.

Said the scariest part was how hard it was to breath. Reasonably healthy 50yo.
Said second scariest part was lack of hospital staff. They had minimal interaction with staff while struggling for their life. Were checked on 1-2x per day by staff (almost never a doctor, sometimes a nurse, usually just a worker).

But several vocal people in my neighborhood are still complaining that their ‘freedom is being taken away’ by us not opening the communities/socialist pool.

Someone compared it: ‘a cancer patient doesn’t go to a football game and expect everyone else to wear a mask - they stay home. If you’re scared stay home’

I guess if:
cancer patient = being risk adverse
Optional Football = required to work to feed your family?

Even if the majority of people do the right thing, there are 5-10% (based on neighborhoods Facebook group) who want to go fast until they go down in flames.
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Ask them if their freedom is being taken away when they are required not to smoke in restaurants, or take off their shoes for check in for the airlines, etc.
 
pj.mask said:
Said the scariest part was how hard it was to breath. Reasonably healthy 50yo.
Said second scariest part was lack of hospital staff. They had minimal interaction with staff while struggling for their life. Were checked on 1-2x per day by staff (almost never a doctor, sometimes a nurse, usually just a worker).
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They were probably constantly checked via vital sign telemetry.

I'm not excusing anything. It is just part of the modern world and losing the human touch.

I'm betting there is a silent crisis out there of pressure sores (bed sores) due to severe hospitalizations. The human touch is literally needed to help avoid that problem.

Pressure sores are considered by many almost a non-event. As a caregiver of my father who suffered from these for 8 months after a hospitalization, I can guarantee you they are trauma.
 
Fermion said:
Isn't heart disease, stroke, etc. at an older age somewhat of a natural cause?

I am not trying to make light of COVID but I don't think the death rate posted is some sort of end of the world, bring out your dead type rate if compared with the huge population (30 million) and normal death rate per day (over 400 at least) in an average year.
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My grandma lived till 98. Never took any medications. One day she went to sleep and never waked up.

That is how people die of natural cause. Most people don't die of natural cause.
 
Yes, unfortunately Hanna looks to pass right over poor beleaguered Rio Grande City while it is still a tropical storm.

It will definitely impact the Rio Grande Valley. We’ll be checking our outdoor cameras frequently (while power lasts) and hoping that most of it stays north of our home.

It’s right there just offshore, and looks to make landfall about halfway between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/mcallen/78501/weather-radar/335730
 
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As a storm, hopefully, no evacuations are required. But here's the thing: in NC some of our worst "people displacement events" have been flooding tropical storms.

Texas too. TS Allison comes to mind as being particularly severe.

Displaced people are a huge problem if it occurs. NC is fretting about this. Putting people together in huge rooms with cots is a problem. I'm not sure what their plan is, but they've come up with something.

As a disaster relief volunteer, we're praying for nothing this year. It has been too stressful the last few.
 
Unfortunately flooding in the Rio Grande Valley is common. They were handing out sandbags a couple of days ago. They do have to set up shelters. Yes, how to you socially distance in shelters in an outbreak area? Space people apart more and have everyone wear masks?
 
audreyh1 said:
Unfortunately flooding in the Rio Grande Valley is common. They were handing out sandbags a couple of days ago. They do have to set up shelters. Yes, how to you socially distance in shelters in an outbreak area? Space people apart more and have everyone wear masks?
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This has potential for real tragedy. Hopefully the storm will fade...
 
I remember tornado warnings and watches this past Easter in Georgia. The forecast was scary, so DH and I were worried about that, but the virus added a whole 'nother layer of concern for us. The thought of damage occurring and us having to temporarily stay somewhere else, deal with insurance agents, etc. - ugh! We have more knowledge today about the virus, masks, etc. I am still feeling relief at dodging the bullet. My heart goes out to people in this situation.
 
144 deaths in Arizona and 125 deaths in Florida reported today with 12k new cases in Fla.
 
Fermion said:
Isn't heart disease, stroke, etc. at an older age somewhat of a natural cause?
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No, no, and (prob) no if you’re equating natural w/ diabetes, dementia, and a host of other diseases that afflict the typically unhealthy American.
Disease by definition is not natural.
Also, accepting an earlier end-of-life is not standard practice in American medicine. That’s why people with terminal diseases are offered life-changing treatment. Devices and surgeries for failing hearts, lungs, liver, kidneys. Expensive chemo for widespread cancers. All this is done to extend life by months, if not years.
If this is what we as society expect, then it doesn’t make sense to just shrug and say, well, they were going to die anyways.

This is not to say that not-in-a-state-of-death is the equivalent of living. This is a discussion that is only in the very baby stages of modern American medicine. Our progress in what medicine can accomplish has outpaced our discussion, as a nation and as a field, of how we should approach the latter and end of life. It has ramifications on so many levels. All the failings of dealing with SARS CoV2 and COVID19 reflect this -> Ultimately, it comes down to what do we value?
 
P.S. said:
No, no, and (prob) no if you’re equating natural w/ diabetes, dementia, and a host of other diseases that afflict the typically unhealthy American.
Disease by definition is not natural.
Also, accepting an earlier end-of-life is not standard practice in American medicine. That’s why people with terminal diseases are offered life-changing treatment. Devices and surgeries for failing hearts, lungs, liver, kidneys. Expensive chemo for widespread cancers. All this is done to extend life by months, if not years.
If this is what we as society expect, then it doesn’t make sense to just shrug and say, well, they were going to die anyways.

This is not to say that not-in-a-state-of-death is the equivalent of living. This is a discussion that is only in the very baby stages of modern American medicine. Our progress in what medicine can accomplish has outpaced our discussion, as a nation and as a field, of how we should approach the latter and end of life. It has ramifications on so many levels. All the failings of dealing with SARS CoV2 and COVID19 reflect this -> Ultimately, it comes down to what do we value?
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Good post. This concept is under emphasized.
Would one tell a breast cancer patient to just see what happens and hope for the best, as you are going to die anyway?
 
Fermion said:
Isn't heart disease, stroke, etc. at an older age somewhat of a natural cause?

I am not trying to make light of COVID but I don't think the death rate posted is some sort of end of the world, bring out your dead type rate if compared with the huge population (30 million) and normal death rate per day (over 400 at least) in an average year.
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Yes, you are correct. "Natural causes" refers to the manner of death. That is someone died of natural causes (heart attack, stroke etc as you said) as opposed to dying due to accident, homicide, suicide, or undetermined cause.
 
Fermion said:
I am not trying to make light of COVID but I don't think the death rate posted is some sort of end of the world, bring out your dead type rate if compared with the huge population (30 million) and normal death rate per day (over 400 at least) in an average year.
Click to expand...

Wow.

Seems to me that if an average of 400 people died per day pre-Covid & suddenly an additional 50 or 100 or more are dying every day due to a new, highly contagious disease, most people would find that pretty alarming.
 
rodi said:
When you look at the normalized data it's clear that the states that were hit early were hit much harder in terms of deaths/million. NY, NJ, CT, MA all have deaths/million over 1000... We've obviously figured out treatment a bit more... or just that deaths are a lagging indicator. (Hope it's the former.)

(All of this is based on looking at worldometer and sorting.)
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It's too bad the data from state to state is so unreliable and often not directly comparable. The death rates are all over the board!

There is a lot of evidence that exposure to air pollution like that emitted by vehicles makes people more susceptible to death once infected with Covid-19 or other similar viruses:

In the U.S., Wu et al’s study on deaths from COVID-19 found a much higher risk of death in areas with higher past average PM2.5 pollution levels. A 1 µg/m3 increase in long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with an 8% increase in the COVID-19 mortality rate. [5] A previous study by the same author of 60 million Americans who were 65 years or older found that a 1 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 exposure led to a 0.73% increase in all-cause mortality. This small increase in pollution levels resulted in an 11 times greater increase in all-cause mortality for patients with COVID-19 infection. [6]

This increased risk of severe illness and death in areas with high levels of air pollution is not just associated with COVID-19, but also emerged during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002-2004 and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. [3] During the SARS outbreak, locations in China with a moderate or high long-term air pollution index (API) had a SARS case fatality rate of 126%, 71% higher than locations with a low API. Other studies have shown increased PM2.5 exposure was associated with mortality during the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009.
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https://www.rgare.com/knowledge-cen...-pollution-exposure-impact-covid-19-mortality

https://grist.org/justice/study-even-the-tiniest-amount-of-air-pollution-makes-covid-19-more-deadly/

When the lockdown first happened, the roads were almost empty and I noticed a huge increase in air quality. The air smelled much more fresh and pure. I'm sure some of it was also due to most airplanes being grounded. But now vehicle traffic is not that much lower than normal so particulate matter has obviously picked back up. Studies have shown how the lockdown made the air healthier:

https://www.minnpost.com/environmen...s-in-air-pollution-during-the-covid-pandemic/

I think as a society we are far more susceptible to pandemics in terms of both infection rates and death rates than we were before we filled our towns and cities with noxious gases and particulate matter. Humans evolved along side viruses that create respiratory threats but our protective mechanisms did not evolve with the kind of fossil fuel emissions brought about by modern conveniences. And now the test data is showing us the folly of our ways.

It might be "manly" to some people to smirk and laugh about the harmlessness of air pollution, at least right up until they are hospitalized with Covid-19 and wondering if air pollution might have been a contributing factor to their inability to recover.
 
If you are awake, check out the radar at Rio Grande City TX! At 1am Hanna had dropped to tropical storm but still 70mph over 80 miles inland.* The eye is over Rio Grande City at the moment because winds are calm.

Sustained winds are 42mph near our house and heavy rain. I can see some areas by camera and other than small debris blowing in the air looks OK so far, which also means we still have power. Fingers crossed! More very heavy rain yet to come looking at the radar rain bands. What a mess!

ETA: at 4am it was sitting right on top of Rio Grande City with max sustained winds of 60mph.
 
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10 inches of rain in our neighborhood so far, and still have some rain bands approaching!
 
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