D&D and the rising pandemic

[Umbran]

forgive my ignorance but is vaccine effectiveness and antibodies against flu virus X the same thing?

Yah. The vaccine induces your immune system to produce antibodies. The vaccine is effective so long as you have enough antibodies to protect you from the virus.

Edit to add - This is one of the places where "detectable" and "effective" matter. A study or two have claimed they detected antibodies even decades after exposure to some flu strains. But that doesn't speak to effective immunity.

 

[ad_hoc]

I’m thinking, as things progress and we start reopening our various communities, one of the things that’s going to be found in more stores- including convenience stores- is masks of some sort.

Maybe HomeEc and similar classes will return to schools* and kids will learn how to make their own, along with basic cooking, etc.

Even the N95 masks will eventually become more (but not commonly) available in the next few years, or perhaps something new that is easier for the regular Joes and Janes to use.



* we are the virus

I'm sure people will be selling the N95 respirators but they shouldn't be and people shouldn't be buying them.

In order to work properly they must be fit tested then the right ones used. Then they need to be used properly.

Hopefully at some point there will be a coordinated effort to teach people how to properly use masks in general.

I see too many people touching their face while using them.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’m hoping that IF N95s become more available, that availability will be preceeded by a massive increase in production so that those who need them for work will have them in adequate supply AND that there be some kind of tutorials on proper use either available or (ideally) required.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This could also be useful:

The device one doctor says you should have in COVID-19 fight

Coronavirus "kills by silent hypoxia," or low oxygen, Dr. Richard Levitan said.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Eltab]

For me the hardship isn't in what we are doing now, it's the fact that there doesn't seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel, and every time there seems to be one it is quickly put out

Amen.

Cue music: Eminem
Well, this looks like a job for me / So everybody just follow me / 'Cause we all need some encouraging / Life would be so empty without me!
End music
(Lyrics in italics slightly edited)

Try using these quotes when somebody tells you discouraging news:

• "Always with you it can not be done." - Yoda
• "Do not take counsel from your fears." - General George Patton

There is more than one way to skin a cat, even a cat that wants nothing to do with it and refuses to cooperate. We have to keep looking, keep working on it. Challenge the naysayers to offer an alternative. Anybody can sit in a comfy armchair and disparage the efforts made by others, kibbutz and carp and complain. What IS going to work?
Having an M.D. is a sign that you hold greater responsibility to lead, to work, to seek out a cure - not to prevent action others are making to achieve same.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by blood and dust and sweat; who strives valiantly; who errs, who falls short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. " - Theodore Roosevelt

Also look up the whole paragraph of "The only thing we have to fear is ... fear itself.". It is both applicable and inspiring.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

This could also be useful:

The device one doctor says you should have in COVID-19 fight

Coronavirus "kills by silent hypoxia," or low oxygen, Dr. Richard Levitan said.

www.yahoo.com

That's really interesting. I wonder if people aren't noticing their lower oxygen levels because they're more sedentary during self-isolation?
Seems like a compelling argument for getting some exercise-- not just for the exercise itself, but to monitor how effectively you're breathing under modest exertion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My dad is an allergist- a subspecialty of immunology- so he sees people with respiratory deficiencies all day, every day. I’m also a patient.

More than once, people have walked into his office on the verge of being cyanotic: having a bluish cast to their skin due to lack of oxygen. The reason is kind of like how the (possibly apocrypha) story goes about cooking a frog by putting it in the water and then turning on the heat. Done right, by the time the frog realizes the water is too hot, it’s too late.

Likewise, conditions that affect your breathing rarely hit you rapidly. They creep up on you slowly, and you can get in real trouble before you even realize it. I know from personal experience that if I miss my treatments for a while, I still feel fine even if I’m objectively having measurable, significant drops in my oxygen levels. And as soon as I’m back on regular treatment for a month, I can look back and realize just how sick I was. But while I was having the issue, I didn’t notice.

Remember, one of the early myths about Clovis-19 was that if you could hold your breath for 10 seconds, you didn’t have it.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Here in Spain this is a total tragicomic disaster. We are ruled by the wrong people. We need face masks but this goverment ask the wrong people, more expensive and worse quality. Medical personal infected by their fault. I suspect they didn't the right brand because they are too corrupt to reject the economic comissions. They had to buy Chinese face masks, when there are lots of companies in Europe.

And also they are behaving like potential dictators. Spain may become a new Venezuela if we don't stop them. The want to use this health crisis to get absolute power. I am afraid then they don't want stop the emergency and they really wish the economic crash to buy cheap and after awaint the good economic years.

And do you know? DEA wants to question some Spanish big fishes, and not only bussinesmen but also important politicians. Our goberment could face a trial for criminal negligence.

Where I live it is one of the safest zones of the peninsule, but in a nursing home in my own city has died some old people.

Some day somebody will produce a movie about Pedro Sanchez, our president, because he is the perfect example of a psychopath and toxic boss. He is like the real life version of the character Willie Stark from Robert Pern Warren's book "All the King's Man".

In the worst health crisis since the Spanish flu a century ago our lives depend on people who wouldn't be hired by a private company.

 

[FrogReaver]

Nearly 3 million New Yorkers have had coronavirus, antibody study suggests

 

[Umbran]

.

Nearly 3 million New Yorkers have had coronavirus, antibody study suggests

Ugh. Here's hoping that their adjustment for the selection process was a bit off, so that the total is lower.