Coronavirus Discussion Thread

Sled Driver

In a Wuhan Wet Market
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Apparently Abbott has developed a 5 to 13 minute test for COVID 19. I hop that this is accurate and it gets to be rolled out soon.

The FNC clip I saw said that this new Abbott Labs test was approved for use by the FDA within 43 hours of being preseented to them and is 15 minutes to get a result and Abbott Labs will manufacture 50,000 test kits this coming week.
 

Jim37F

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How is the false positive/false negative rate on these fast tests compared to the previous ones? That's my worry
 

SandpitMedic

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I can say that my SHTF closet is going to be filled out quite a bit more in the future.

I feel like this pandemic has made me acutely aware of how close we are to anarchy at any given moment. People have been literally fighting over toilet paper. My local grocery store is completely unable to keep the shelves stocked with eggs, bread, pasta or rice. It's really easy to imagine how quickly things would go off the rails if there was a real supply chain disruption. Stores would be out of food in <48 hours and people would be on their own...
All those dumb preppers are laughing at posts like this now. Guess who was right? When SHTF it usually isn’t a foreseeable event. I too wish I had more, even sitting on a good supply.

While I don’t think this virus is the one that kills us all... I think things will get worse before they get better. And there will be lasting effects.
 
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SandpitMedic

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@RedBlanketRunner are you a US citizen? How did you get a long term gig in Siam?
 

akflightmedic

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FiremanMike

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We are finally starting to see all of our test come back at quicker pace, but are still easily averaging 2-4 days for all of our patients. Not only are you seeing a surge of a week ago, but the tests that are coming back now.

We had our first crew exposure this week, patient crashed, was intubation, admitted to the ICU, took just over 2 days to get the results
Slightly less than 7 days, and out in the remote villages where there may be no community water system or reliable electric power nearly every home has a near new vehicle they are trying to make payments on and every person has a cell phone. Internet out there? Cell, tablet and lap top, I can't avoid it. And of course I don't live out there. Had a nice jeep that helped loose the Vietnam war I put a half million miles on during my little commutes.
You really could benefit from an little bit more open mind. I've heard all the rhetoric and misinformation but I try to read it all. I'm always open to new ideas, correcting my thinking, and absorbing other peoples knowledge. Various peoples comments here have been taken to heart and are now part of my knowledge base. Care to join me?

We’re back to the remote village drivel? No I don’t care to join you. You’re on a different planet, and I’m quite fond of earth.
 

Sled Driver

In a Wuhan Wet Market
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Elon Musk / Tesla & GM can learn a lot from Dyson.

Dyson, a no BS guy, tell me what my Country needs and it will be done immediately type of guy. Deserves the Queens Medal when this is over. The story I read 2 days ago about this said he would make 30,000 vents within the next 2-3 weeks and he would personally donate 5,000 units. He did not like the Vent machine he was given to copy and instead designed his own.

Tesla is supposedly ramping up with a Giga factory in N.Y., to make vents, I assume it is the one in Buffalo they walked away from. Finished product could quickly be trucked down the Thruway and right into NYC upon completion, going from factory production line into use at PT bedside in a matter of hours.
 

Carlos Danger

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I think I asked the same questions a while ago, and you said the virus wasn't affecting your hospital. Is that still the case?

This past Thursday we tubed and lined our first very likely (still no test result) COVID patient at my facility. My colleague garbed up and tubed the guy in his negative pressure room. Because the patient was over 230kg,, I also garbed up and watched from outside the room in case any help was needed. None was.

As of Friday, several other admitted patients were awaiting testing results, all of whom the hospitalists had low suspicion of actually having coronavirus however.

We are hopeful that we won't have as severe an onslaught of sick COVID cases as other regions, mainly due to our low population density, but also because we seem (we hope) to have gotten out ahead of this thing pretty well with the social distancing. Schools closed and people started staying home before there were any known cases in our area. We're on what, week two of that? And still only a pretty small handful of confirmed cases in our catchment area, with most of our surrounding counties having zero known cases. Seems like reassuring trend.

Still, predictions are that that this thing won't peak in our area for a few more weeks, so we'll see. We are as prepared as we can be for whatever comes though the door. Hoping that much more PPE gets delivered before that happens, and also for testing to ramp way up and start turn results around much faster. It is taking 10 days on average for results to come back, which in the case of this thing makes the testing pretty much worthless.
 

E tank

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This past Thursday we tubed and lined our first very likely (still no test result) COVID patient at my facility. My colleague garbed up and tubed the guy in his negative pressure room. Because the patient was over 230kg,, I also garbed up and watched from outside the room in case any help was needed. None was.

As of Friday, several other admitted patients were awaiting testing results, all of whom the hospitalists had low suspicion of actually having coronavirus however.

We are hopeful that we won't have as severe an onslaught of sick COVID cases as other regions, mainly due to our low population density, but also because we seem (we hope) to have gotten out ahead of this thing pretty well with the social distancing. Schools closed and people started staying home before there were any known cases in our area. We're on what, week two of that? And still only a pretty small handful of confirmed cases in our catchment area, with most of our surrounding counties having zero known cases. Seems like reassuring trend.

Still, predictions are that that this thing won't peak in our area for a few more weeks, so we'll see. We are as prepared as we can be for whatever comes though the door. Hoping that much more PPE gets delivered before that happens, and also for testing to ramp way up and start turn results around much faster. It is taking 10 days on average for results to come back, which in the case of this thing makes the testing pretty much worthless.
What's your standard intubation PPE? Just N95's? Those fitted or just 'off the rack'?
 

Carlos Danger

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What's your standard intubation PPE? Just N95's? Those fitted or just 'off the rack'?
PAPR if available (they are for now), fitted N95 with face-shield over it if no PAPR. Gown, double gloves, observer for doffing it all.
 

Gurby

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U.S. reported infections on runaway at 122,000+ up from 33,000+ a week ago. First place world wide. However, as a testament to the medical community efforts, the mortality rate is 6th place. Definitely doing something right. Fingers crossed.

That fatality rate is creeping up though, at 1.8% across the country now. NYC was holding at 0.5% for quite a while but now they're up to 1.6%. I remember reading somewhere that in China it was taking around 14 days on average from symptom onset to death, in those who will die. I'm worried that we are going to see that mortality rate keep going up especially in NYC as cases continue to explode at a ridiculous rate, and as people get further along in the progression of disease.


All those dumb preppers are laughing at posts like this now. Guess who was right? When SHTF it usually isn’t a foreseeable event. I too wish I had more, even sitting on a good supply.

While I don’t think this virus is the one that kills us all... I think things will get worse before they get better. And there will be lasting effects.

This won't be the one that gets us, but it certainly wasn't too far off the mark.
 

silver

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PAPR if available (they are for now), fitted N95 with face-shield over it if no PAPR. Gown, double gloves, observer for doffing it all.

As you start to see cases in the community, I would start to take precautions to view every intubation as a COVID one. PAPR/N95 + eye protection and if possible RSI for every intubation even in the OR.
 

E tank

Caution: Paralyzing Agent
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As you start to see cases in the community, I would start to take precautions to view every intubation as a COVID one. PAPR/N95 + eye protection and if possible RSI for every intubation even in the OR.
What we've done in our shop....that's a lot of intubations....I still don't believe that's completely warranted given the scarcity of PPE or liklihood of it. But they didn't ask me....we're still way on the left side of the curve....
 

SandpitMedic

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...but it certainly wasn't too far off the mark.
Yes it was. You don’t have to agree.

We have become accustomed to our lives and believe ourselves to be the center of this planet.
We forget how insignificant we really are, and that Mother Nature could hard reset this planet at any moment taking millions if not billions of lives. Shoot, remember that tsunami in Indonesia? 228,000 dead— In a snap.

This virus kills 35,000 since November and we’re losing our collective minds.
 

Summit

Critical Crazy
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Sandpit it is because if we did nothing the virus would have been happy to kill 100+ million across this world... is there anxiety about what comes next? Yes.

On the plus side, now that we FINALLY are seeing some halfway decent test triage, seeing turnarounds of 1-3 days. But I'm also getting test results back from 11 days ago...
 

Carlos Danger

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That fatality rate is creeping up though, at 1.8% across the country now. NYC was holding at 0.5% for quite a while but now they're up to 1.6%. I remember reading somewhere that in China it was taking around 14 days on average from symptom onset to death, in those who will die. I'm worried that we are going to see that mortality rate keep going up especially in NYC as cases continue to explode at a ridiculous rate, and as people get further along in the progression of disease.

Good read here: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/global-covid-19-case-fatality-rates/
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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I like that! Funny, I crank out numbers from multiple country sources and the US people say "FAKE" while they lagged behind almost everyone else in testing. Care to review some of my past posts now?
sure.... when you provide your actual source, I will gladly review them.
Here's another fake number for you I heard around March 10: "We will have over 1 million infections by April." FAKE! Might be April 2nd by the time it gets that high.
and yet, you failed to provide a source for this quote.... again....

I think we are done here.
 

Summit

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I had a site that had awesome CFR convergence lines for
current cases / current mortality
cases 7 day prior / current mort
cases 14 days prior / current mort
and compared them for a couple regions
Can't find it...
 

SandpitMedic

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Sandpit it is because if we did nothing the virus would have been happy to kill 100+ million across this world... is there anxiety about what comes next? Yes.
I think that’s a bit hyperbolic, even the WHO estimates ~250-650k deaths a year from influenza... 100+M??? Come on, I understand you’re stressed and anxious about this. I also understand unchecked COVID could kill some more of us, but again, we have the ability to defeat the natural process of “survival of the fittest” to some degree. Which inflates our self significance and makes us hypersensitive and hyperemotional to events like this. The mass media doesn’t help either.

My point was not that we should “do nothing” or this isn’t affecting people. I have relatives and friends in the at-risk group too. My point was that this is nowhere in the ballpark of a mankind killer or nature’s worst pandemic and no where near the big one. And that’s it- it’s more of a philosophical outlook.
 
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