Coronavirus Discussion Thread

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Critical Crazy
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Antimaskers are cut from the same cloth as antivaxxers. It is supremely frustrating.

No. We're short on 3M hoods. Once you're assigned one, it's yours unless/until it rips. I currently have the only 3M Versaflo helmet in the hospital.
How did you get your own? We are having huge issues with getting 3M to supply PAPRs and supplies.
 

Peak

ED/Prehospital Registered Nurse
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No. We're short on 3M hoods. Once you're assigned one, it's yours unless/until it rips. I currently have the only 3M Versaflo helmet in the hospital.

We share our 3M hoods and clean them in between each use. We have had some hoods last week over two months. How often often are y’all replacing yours?
 

Peak

ED/Prehospital Registered Nurse
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In Canada we are more or less totally reopened, with new rules in place at most stores, gyms, and public spaces. We were very lucky in most areas to have very low total cases thus far, and our vastness really helped. Not hard to social distance in most areas of the country. Cities were hit the hardest, but now they seem to have a pretty good system in most provinces for contact tracing and quelling outbreaks.

Places like New Brunswick border Maine and have similar demographics, but very different stats.

Maine- 3373 total cases thus far and 105 dead.
New Brunswick - 165 total cases and 2 deaths.

On the West Coast

British Columbia- 2947 total cases and 177 deaths.
Washington St- 34151 total cases and 1342 deaths.

All things are not equal but the numbers certainly are interesting. Quebec was our hardest hit province so far percentage wise.

Quebec (8.4Mil)- total cases 55 682 with 5560 deaths
Virginia (8.6Mil)- total cases 64,350 and 1845 deaths

It’s interesting that y’all seem to have a lower case load per capita but a higher fatality rate of those infected, what do you think contributes to the discrepancy?
 
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Akulahawk

Akulahawk

EMT-P/ED RN
Community Leader
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We share our 3M hoods and clean them in between each use. We have had some hoods last week over two months. How often often are y’all replacing yours?
Right now we're not having to share hoods. Most of ours seem to last a couple months. In our ED, we've only had to replace a couple. My helmet should last a few years... and that allows me to stretch our supply just that much farther because I'm not drawing from hospital supplies for a hood.
 

RocketMedic

Californian, Lost in Texas
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I suspect this is the new normal with regards to PPE
 

Bishop2047

Forum Crew Member
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It’s interesting that y’all seem to have a lower case load per capita but a higher fatality rate of those infected, what do you think contributes to the discrepancy?

We are not testing as much as the USA. Might be part of it. Especially early on we were only testing those with several symptoms and a good story. was not until the curve was very much flattened that testing was opened up to all.

 

Virgil

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Well, I tested positive a few days ago. My division supe said I was the third one that day calling with the same story

I feel fine, my taste and smell disappeared so that’s when I made the call. But I feel completely fine other than that, and the doc says I’m towards the ending of the infection.

Unfortunately my housemates also contracted it(From me) and have been experiencing different symptoms. Some have fevers, others have no taste, and a few also have diarrhea, and we’re all super fatigued.
 

SandpitMedic

Crowd pleaser
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Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms in my experience. Almost every C19+ patient I’ve had has c/o some bout of diarrhea with it.
 

Virgil

Forum Crew Member
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Diarrhea is one of the most common symptoms in my experience. Almost every C19+ patient I’ve had has c/o some bout of diarrhea with it.
Oh that’s interesting. My stomach has been kinda weird for a while but I definitely noticed stomach pain and all that much more within the last week or so.

Is it true that there are different “strains” of Covid? Because I’ve had friends be positive with a more chest related illness(SOB, chest tightness, worsening cough, etc) while me and my housemates have had a more sinus/head sickness. We’ve had no taste or smell, congestion, sinus pressure, etc.
 

DragonClaw

Emergency Medical Texan
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Oh that’s interesting. My stomach has been kinda weird for a while but I definitely noticed stomach pain and all that much more within the last week or so.

Is it true that there are different “strains” of Covid? Because I’ve had friends be positive with a more chest related illness(SOB, chest tightness, worsening cough, etc) while me and my housemates have had a more sinus/head sickness. We’ve had no taste or smell, congestion, sinus pressure, etc.

News says the strain down here (Houston) is more virulent. But... who knows?
 

Carlos Danger

Forum Deputy Chief
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Antimaskers are cut from the same cloth as antivaxxers. It is supremely frustrating.
So anti-maskers all have the same reasoning for their positions, as do anti-vaxers? Tell me more.
 

FiremanMike

Just a dude
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Antimaskers are cut from the same cloth as antivaxxers. It is supremely frustrating.

As a mask skeptic, I disagree. I don’t feel masks are dangerous, I just don’t understand the science of my sports team cotton mask with loose ends as being effective in stopping the spread of an airborne virus which is small enough to blow through the holes in cotton cloth.
 

DragonClaw

Emergency Medical Texan
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According to a poster the #1 way to stop/prevent Corona is washing your hands. If this is true why isn't washing hands mandatory in public? Mask ordinance/law is a thing
 

FiremanMike

Just a dude
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WARNING - ANECDOTE

We had a guy get sick. really sick, spent a few days in the hospital, very long recovery time at home.

Turns out, he worked for several days with a cough (thought it was allergies) before it was bad enough to get tested.. Rode the medic with multiple partners, no masks being worn at the firehouse (don’t get me started). This was about 8 weeks ago.. (side note, he’s off at least another month).

To date, there have been NO OTHER symptomatic Covid cases at work. His partners are also negative.
 

Carlos Danger

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There are several of reasons to not want to wear a mask that don't involve being a "science denier", not the least of which is that the overall strategy of trying to stop the spread of the virus through social distancing and mask wearing among the general public is itself questionable.
 

VFlutter

Flight Nurse
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As a mask skeptic, I disagree. I don’t feel masks are dangerous, I just don’t understand the science of my sports team cotton mask with loose ends as being effective in stopping the spread of an airborne virus which is small enough to blow through the holes in cotton cloth.

I agree with some arguments against masks however that is not one. Cloth masks are intended to prevent large droplet transmission usually from coughing or sneezing, not protect against an airborne virus which COVID-19 is not. It is hard to argue the effectiveness of them for that purpose.
 

FiremanMike

Just a dude
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I agree with some arguments against masks however that is not one. Cloth masks are intended to prevent large droplet transmission usually from coughing or sneezing, not protect against an airborne virus which COVID-19 is not. It is hard to argue the effectiveness of them for that purpose.

Are they saying covid isn't airborne anymore?
 

Carlos Danger

Forum Deputy Chief
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Are they saying covid isn't airborne anymore?
It has never been technically considered "airborne" the way measles and TB are, but respiratory droplets containing the virus can aerosolize through coughing, sneezing, even talking, and that aerosol can stay suspended for a few minutes within a small radius. Exactly like influenza and the common cold. The difference with COVID-19 is that it is considered to be much more contagious than seasonal influenza or the cold, so with the same amount of exposure you are more likely to get it. There's no question that masks reduce that to at least some extent, especially if both parties (the sick one and the not-sick one) are wearing them. Effectiveness depends widely on who you ask, as well as the characteristics of the masks themselves, of course.

The questions in my mind are: is masking among the general public really necessary; is the effectiveness of masking among the general public consistently worth the mandates; what are the unintended consequences of mask mandates (there are always unintended consequences); what about individual autonomy (always a foremost concern in my mind); and, lastly, is trying to stop the spread really the best strategy to begin with, vs. instead focusing on protecting the minority of the population who is likely to develop severe disease and allowing those who are at very little risk to be exposed naturally and develop herd immunity? Especially considering that the more we learn about it, the less deadly we are finding out it is on a per-case basis.


The officials have been wrong about pretty much everything they've told us since day 1. They've changed most of their recommendations at least once, been inconsistent and self-contradictory in their messaging in general, and every prediction has failed to come true. We HAVE managed, however, to beat the hell out of our economy, massively increase our federal debt, create record unemployment, destroy many, many businesses, force the cancellation of countless weddings, graduations, family vacations, and funerals, seen a huge spike in suicides, a huge spike in mortgage defaults, etc, etc. All that, and it isn't even clear that any of the lockdown and social distancing orders were really necessary or all that effective. Considering all that, I'd say anyone who doesn't question the necessity of mask mandates at least a little bit, should probably give some more thought to the reliability and intentions of the governing officials who are telling us how important it is.
 

mgr22

Forum Deputy Chief
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An aspect of COVID that gets relatively little publicity is disability. I haven't been able to find any studies -- too soon, I guess -- but I've read dozens of reports of ongoing disability secondary to the disease. I doubt such outcomes were considered by the President when he claimed 99% of cases are "totally harmless" (and I doubt most symptomatic COVID sufferers would describe their experiences as harmless).

Looking at COVID outcomes merely as binary -- i.e., alive or dead -- and thinking of herd immunity as a largely inconsequential process are mistakes, I believe.
 
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