COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)

[NobodyHere]

Well Walgreens says I'm positive. Nice knowing you all.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Well Walgreens says I'm positive. Nice knowing you all.

I hope for mild symptoms that resolve quickly.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Well Walgreens says I'm positive. Nice knowing you all.

Hope you get better soon

... but that isn't as important as your other update?

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Well Walgreens says I'm positive. Nice knowing you all.

Can I have your stuff?

[flere-imsaho]

I can't believe I don't have it, and, more specifically, that my kids don't have it. Their schools have been overrun (and still haven't switched to virtual). But no positive tests in the household so far! It continues to feel like it's only a matter of time, or that we all got it and were asymptomatic and didn't test on the right days to catch it. What a world.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Can I have your stuff?

There's to be a fight to a death at my funeral. Winner takes all.

[spleen1015]

My symptoms earlier this week lasted about a day. My son had them for about 36 hours or so. I am getting tested this afternoon just to see if I have it. I don't know if I will show positive if my symptoms were on Tuesday.

Apparently, all of the unvaxxed players on my daughter's softball team came back to school with it after the holiday break. All of them have tested positive and have symptoms. None of the vaxxed are showing symptoms so they haven't been tested. I'm assuming they all have it at this point.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Hope you get better soon

... but that isn't as important as your other update?

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

There's to be a fight to a death at my funeral. Winner takes all.

"And here at the estate sale, we move on to lot number 47. It is a rejected letter to a publisher with notes for a dating book here called 'How to be Cocky and Funny' with a foreword by Kyle"

SI

[Thomkal]

Hope that all here who test positive have mild symptoms and quick recoveries

[HerRealName]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

"And here at the estate sale, we move on to lot number 47. It is a rejected letter to a publisher with notes for a dating book here called 'How to be Cocky and Funny' with a foreword by Kyle"

SI

I'd fight to the death for that.

Hope all impacted get better soon.

[Ksyrup]

I'm really trying hard to understand the purpose of testing with no symptoms.

If you have close contact but no symptoms and are fully vaccinated, the recommendation is to get tested after 5 days. I did this. I was told a rapid test is unreliable and a full PCR test is needed. It got sent to a lab and took 5 days for results. So at that point, it's fully stale information. If it's positive, that was 5 days ago (let's even say 3 days if a test comes back a little quicker) and I still have no symptoms, so I've been living my life, masked. Now that I'm positive, guidance is to isolate for 5 days and wear a mask an additional 5 days. But I've already blown through the 5 day isolation period? So WTF cares anymore? I'm back to ... mask for 5 days?!

I'm frustrated because my daughter is in the same boat now, but with the complication of playing HS basketball. Two teammates tested positive this week and the season is continuing as usual. Coach emailed everyone to strongly encourage everyone to get tested this weekend and if you have any symptoms, stay away. My daughter is symptom-free. That means a PCR test and wait for results. In the interim, she'll be practicing and playing games. If she comes back positive, the damage is already done because of the delay in test results - plus, she has to sit out even with no symptoms.

It seems useless to test if there's that kind of lag in results. It made sense during 2020 when we were mostly sitting in our houses with limited interactions, but now, we're supposed to go about our normal lives and then act on stale information if a positive results comes back.

She's a senior and has like a dozen games left in her career. Unless she has symptoms or is forced to test, I'm not testing her on the off-chance she has to miss games because she now knows she had Covid several days ago and may not have it now (which we won't know for ... 3-5 more days!).

[albionmoonlight]

My county gives us results w/in 12 hours, so testing after contact makes sense.

I agree that any lag in results makes testing pointless.

[albionmoonlight]

sliver of good news:

Data is coming in, and it looks like lockdowns did not/do not have the negative mental health affects on kids (increased suicides, etc.) that we had feared they might:

/1 THREAD: I knew this day would come.

While pediatric societies & "hospital organizations" did "science by press release," breathlessly discussing a correlation on a parent survey or releasing a statement about 1 month of admissions in May 2021, I knew we would get REAL DATA.

— Tyler Black, MD (@tylerblack32) January 13, 2022

[molson]

Anecdotal counterpoint - all my friends' kids are unpleasant weirdos now.

That may be unrelated to COVID though.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I'm really trying hard to understand the purpose of testing with no symptoms.

If you have close contact but no symptoms and are fully vaccinated, the recommendation is to get tested after 5 days. I did this. I was told a rapid test is unreliable and a full PCR test is needed. It got sent to a lab and took 5 days for results. So at that point, it's fully stale information. If it's positive, that was 5 days ago (let's even say 3 days if a test comes back a little quicker) and I still have no symptoms, so I've been living my life, masked. Now that I'm positive, guidance is to isolate for 5 days and wear a mask an additional 5 days. But I've already blown through the 5 day isolation period? So WTF cares anymore? I'm back to ... mask for 5 days?!

I'm frustrated because my daughter is in the same boat now, but with the complication of playing HS basketball. Two teammates tested positive this week and the season is continuing as usual. Coach emailed everyone to strongly encourage everyone to get tested this weekend and if you have any symptoms, stay away. My daughter is symptom-free. That means a PCR test and wait for results. In the interim, she'll be practicing and playing games. If she comes back positive, the damage is already done because of the delay in test results - plus, she has to sit out even with no symptoms.

It seems useless to test if there's that kind of lag in results. It made sense during 2020 when we were mostly sitting in our houses with limited interactions, but now, we're supposed to go about our normal lives and then act on stale information if a positive results comes back.

She's a senior and has like a dozen games left in her career. Unless she has symptoms or is forced to test, I'm not testing her on the off-chance she has to miss games because she now knows she had Covid several days ago and may not have it now (which we won't know for ... 3-5 more days!).

I decided this morning to cancel my test for this afternoon. Someone who really needs it should get tested.

I stay at home 98% of the time and the only people I will see in the near future are my wife and son. My son is headed home tomorrow.

While ready your post I was thinking I just wouldn't have my daughter tested. If anyone asks, I would say she didn't test positive and let it be. I guess you can 'Aaron Rodgers' people. You don't have to say she tested negative. Just say she didn't test positive. Let her have the rest of her senior year.

[Ksyrup]

After I wrote my post above, I went to workout and got a call from my daughter that tonight's game is off. Not for Covid on her team, but the other team. I sure hope this peaks and recedes quickly or the end of basketball and the start of spring sports are going to be severely hampered/compromised. Again...

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

sliver of good news:

Data is coming in, and it looks like lockdowns did not/do not have the negative mental health affects on kids (increased suicides, etc.) that we had feared they might:

None of that should be surprising. The "increase in suicide" crowd was just using it as an excuse to get kids back to school. Pressures from school/work is a large contributing factor to suicides in general, and time taken out of those pressure cooker situations is going to be pluses to mental health for most. The only caveat would be for people in abusive situations, but you would hope that would be a tiny fraction of people.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

sliver of good news:

Data is coming in, and it looks like lockdowns did not/do not have the negative mental health affects on kids (increased suicides, etc.) that we had feared they might:

/1 THREAD: I knew this day would come.

While pediatric societies & "hospital organizations" did "science by press release," breathlessly discussing a correlation on a parent survey or releasing a statement about 1 month of admissions in May 2021, I knew we would get REAL DATA.

— Tyler Black, MD (@tylerblack32) January 13, 2022

The lockdown has been better for my kids, school-wise. Since they are homeschooled, they are more excited about learning and have done better with their schoolwork. They are able to work at their own pace and are able to get any special accommodations to meet their needs. My wife and I are playing this out on a year by year basis.

We've also been able to get braces, with the myriad of checkup visits, and address any other issues without worrying about missing school.

It's good to see that children were not as negatively impacted by the lockdowns as we initially feared.

[Ksyrup]

Spring 2020 was a clusterfuck for schools, for the obvious reasons. No one was prepared for going online. 2020-21 was much better when they had to go online.

Nothing outside of normalcy is ideal, of course, but we aren't living in ideal circumstances.

[Brian Swartz]

The turnaround time and availability of testing varies from area to area; I think advice/guidance should vary based on that as well For example, unlike KSyrup's report of a 5-day turnaround, mine was 24 hours for a PCR test. So I really think it just depends on some of those factors.

[RainMaker]

Tried to post this yesterday but it got botched in the thread. Here's where I was tested. More and more I'm reading about them, it seems like they weren't even really testing samples and just telling everyone they were negative.

Seems like maybe there should be a bit more oversight over these places. They were operating out of a number of states and I guess just now being shut down.

EXCLUSIVE: The Center for COVID Control opened pop-up testing sites across the US.

Now, it's temporarily closing amid federal+state investigations & mounting complaints.

We got a copy of a federal report that says the chain wasted 40,000 tests — & more: https://t.co/Pe0fBYLdz2. pic.twitter.com/3oXwLql7L6

— Block Club Chicago (@BlockClubCHI) January 14, 2022

[RainMaker]

Also seems like a bad idea that they were all over social media bragging about buying lambos and stuff. Should have watched Goodfellas for an important criminal lesson.

[RainMaker]

This makes me think the death counts are going to get real ugly soon.

�� I’d love to understand why the federal government will no longer require hospitals to report the daily number of #COVID19 deaths as of February 2nd

Cc @HHS_Spox @HHS_ASH @hhs @Cyrusshahpar46 pic.twitter.com/dlugV4Vm7P

— Jorge A. Caballero, MD (@DataDrivenMD) January 14, 2022

[Danny]

I work in two elementary schools. Have not seen any increases in mental health needs. Have seen far more kids not prepared for school behaviorally and academically. I was in support of safety first before this year but let's not kid ourselves and deny it has had an academic impact for younger kids.

[CrimsonFox]

Fuck. I blew my voice during an audition on Tuesday. Wed-Thurs my throat felt...uncomfotable. Yesterday I was sneezing a lot and tired. This morning I felt stuffy and sinus achey. And now I have pretty bad congestion. Hope to fuck it isn't....well you know. Hopefully it's major allergies due to the weather changes.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Danny

I work in two elementary schools. Have not seen any increases in mental health needs. Have seen far more kids not prepared for school behaviorally and academically. I was in support of safety first before this year but let's not kid ourselves and deny it has had an academic impact for younger kids.

It would be good to have data. My wife is an education professor and some of her new research is in remote learning, but she's more a qualitative researcher, so this isn't the type of issue she would address.

We talk about it. It's a tricky subject. She made many modifications to her own classes when they went remote. Even had some oral finals over Zoom rather than written exams. I don't want to assert I know everything she has considered, but she feels that lecturing students is far more difficult - they're often just online and doing who-knows during class. But using the classroom software to manage smaller sub-discussions among students on class topics is working and students are even happy to have some interaction in that world.

Her university returns to mostly in-person learning next week with the new semester, though she's still doing one online section.

My sense... and there's no data yet. I could be wrong... For affluent parents, there have been "pods" and tutors and a home life with more interaction. Opportunities that single parents closer to the poverty line might not be able to provide. This might be particularly difficult in more closed-in settings, like an urban apartment building. Just being able to run around in the back yard with a couple of friends could mean a lot to a young kid.

I think COVID is going to end up taking a hammer to any recent progress on closing "gaps" in achievement. As for the suicide stuff... that would take years to properly analyze. Damage today does not necessarily have a specific result tomorrow. We just don't know yet and can't make assumptions.

[Edward64]

Not about mental health (how is that defined) but more academic impact ...

Wife is a Special Ed teacher (autism etc.) and she is of the opinion that remote doesn't work as well for the kids. Can't get the kids near as focused when they are at home.

But it's better for her. She doesn't have to deal with the inevitable small "dramas" that occur between the kids and the physical stuff (e.g. she gets hit, has to sometimes restrain a kid etc.).

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

This makes me think the death counts are going to get real ugly soon.

�� I’d love to understand why the federal government will no longer require hospitals to report the daily number of #COVID19 deaths as of February 2nd

Cc @HHS_Spox @HHS_ASH @hhs @Cyrusshahpar46 pic.twitter.com/dlugV4Vm7P
— Jorge A. Caballero, MD (@DataDrivenMD) January 14, 2022

Misleading Viral Claim on Government Tracking COVID-19 Deaths Debunked

[flere-imsaho]

Anecdotal, but the general consensus in our town is that curriculum has definitely been scaled back the past couple of years, at all levels K-12. We have friends who have both our kids & older kids, so can do a comparison between "normal", say, 8th grade, and what we've seen recently. Educational attainment is definitely going to be down. It'll be interesting to see what impacts this has in the future. Probably not great.

Edit: plus, you have issues like currently where my 13-year-old son told me he had a sub in his math class yesterday who had to leave halfway through the class (reason unknown) and no adult replaced him (other parents have told stories of similar experiences). They weren't learning much in math prior to the sub leaving, but definitely didn't stick with the work after he left.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

This makes me think the death counts are going to get real ugly soon.

�� I’d love to understand why the federal government will no longer require hospitals to report the daily number of #COVID19 deaths as of February 2nd

Cc @HHS_Spox @HHS_ASH @hhs @Cyrusshahpar46 pic.twitter.com/dlugV4Vm7P
— Jorge A. Caballero, MD (@DataDrivenMD) January 14, 2022

Average Daily New Covid-19 Hospitalizations By Week (Monday-Sunday) - Texas Medical Center

Two weeks ago, Texas Med Center registered its highest new hospitalization rate of the entire pandemic at 401 per day. This past week, they shattered that with 497 per day. So that's basically 3500 last week alone. Not cases - those numbers are going to be suppressed by testing capacity. These are straight up hospitalizations.

Total TMC Covid-19 Positive Patients In Hospital - Texas Medical Center

We're not quite at our peak hospitalization total yet, tho (we're at around 2500 vs a peak of 2800). But I suspect we'll see a new high this week once the numbers are tallied on Monday (or maybe Tuesday due to the holiday).

SI

[cuervo72]

Hand-wringing over potential suicides, collective shrugs over school shootings.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

It would be good to have data. My wife is an education professor and some of her new research is in remote learning, but she's more a qualitative researcher, so this isn't the type of issue she would address.

We talk about it. It's a tricky subject. She made many modifications to her own classes when they went remote. Even had some oral finals over Zoom rather than written exams. I don't want to assert I know everything she has considered, but she feels that lecturing students is far more difficult - they're often just online and doing who-knows during class. But using the classroom software to manage smaller sub-discussions among students on class topics is working and students are even happy to have some interaction in that world.

Her university returns to mostly in-person learning next week with the new semester, though she's still doing one online section.

My sense... and there's no data yet. I could be wrong... For affluent parents, there have been "pods" and tutors and a home life with more interaction. Opportunities that single parents closer to the poverty line might not be able to provide. This might be particularly difficult in more closed-in settings, like an urban apartment building. Just being able to run around in the back yard with a couple of friends could mean a lot to a young kid.

I think COVID is going to end up taking a hammer to any recent progress on closing "gaps" in achievement. As for the suicide stuff... that would take years to properly analyze. Damage today does not necessarily have a specific result tomorrow. We just don't know yet and can't make assumptions.

We have data for our students. I'll add that I work for a lower ses area and I'm sure that plays a part. As you said I imagine more affect areas likely have much better outcomes. The shutdowns definitely widened the gap further from those with and those without

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Hope you get better soon

... but that isn't as important as your other update?

I think I'm done with that. I asked her out. She gave a non-committal response. There also may be some complications I'm not going into on this board. But don't be worried I know I will be asking for more fruitless answers on this board before too long.

I've decided if I don't get a girlfriend before I turn 40 then I'm just going to get realdoll2 and go to town.

[CrimsonFox]

[Thomkal]

Heh

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I think I'm done with that. I asked her out. She gave a non-committal response. There also may be some complications I'm not going into on this board. But don't be worried I know I will be asking for more fruitless answers on this board before too long.

I've decided if I don't get a girlfriend before I turn 40 then I'm just going to get realdoll2 and go to town.

There's always a boyfriend if all else fails

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Hand-wringing over potential suicides, collective shrugs over school shootings.

Yeah, there is a lot of concern trolling over mental health and development in kids. The people who are the loudest about this have also been the people who fight the hardest against providing more educational opportunities, mental health resources, and general health care for children.

[Ksyrup]

It's all a pretext for shutting down government-run education so private Christian schools become indoctrination incubators to create a white majority of Charlie Kirks, MTGs, and Madison Cawthorns.

[CrimsonFox]

Captain Kirk and Magic the Gathering?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Yeah, there is a lot of concern trolling over mental health and development in kids. The people who are the loudest about this have also been the people who fight the hardest against providing more educational opportunities, mental health resources, and general health care for children.

I particularly love the people who like to compare group A now to group A in 2018, like there isn't the giant obvious variable of a global pandemic that's different. It's one thing to compare achievement gap now vs then because then you are comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges and it's a fair comp. But like you said, the people advocating loudest for it are the ones who don't give a damn about kids anyways and are just using them as pawns in their anti-mask culture war and have no sincere belief in actually trying to better things.

SI

[Danny]

Part of the issue is the toll this has taken on education providers who have been largely villainized and unappreciated. There are huge staff shortages and it's likely going to get worse. It has been a terrible time to work in education, people are leaving the field or choosing not to enter it. Credentialing programs are lowering their standards and its going to be an uphill battle

[thesloppy]

I finally got my test results back, 10 days after I first made the appt & 4 days after getting tested. Even the lab processing is gummed up at this point. My symptoms were gone like a week ago & I quarantined the whole time, so it's almost purely informational at this point.



Absurdly, part of me was relieved by the positive, if only because positive feels like the only definitive result. Considering the testing delays/hiccups/conditions I wouldn't have entirely believed a negative result.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Absurdly, part of me was relieved by the positive, if only because positive was the only definitive result. Considering the testing delays/hiccups/conditions I wouldn't have entirely believed a negative result.

I get it.

My negative really doesn't mean a whole lot to me since I've been sicker since the negative than I was before it (and by the time I got tested, my symptoms were largely gone).

And there's not much point in testing again since I'd likely be in the same situation if I tried anyway(with the worst seemingly behind me and a 3 day delay to get tested)

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Danny

Part of the issue is the toll this has taken on education providers who have been largely villainized and unappreciated. There are huge staff shortages and it's likely going to get worse. It has been a terrible time to work in education, people are leaving the field or choosing not to enter it. Credentialing programs are lowering their standards and its going to be an uphill battle

Its like this in retail and the service industry. You basically have a segment of the population who are insulated from the risks getting upset at people for not taking risks with their lives for substandard pay.

[bhlloy]

Oof, accidentally clicking on the first page of this thread and reading some of the opinions is a bit painful (and not a shot at those people either as I don’t think any of us saw this happening in our most vivid nightmares early on)

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Oof, accidentally clicking on the first page of this thread and reading some of the opinions is a bit painful (and not a shot at those people either as I don’t think any of us saw this happening in our most vivid nightmares early on)

It's a good thing we could laugh at a televangelist who was transparently a snake oil salesman for what he is. Boy, it would be embarrassing if the President would make statements that sounded like using sterilizing UV light and ingesting bleach, millions wouldn't take a free vaccine, and more people seemingly listen to some meathead making $100M on Sirius and quacks on YouTube recommending horse dewormer then legions of scientists who study this for a living. /nervous chuckle/

SI

[molson]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Oof, accidentally clicking on the first page of this thread and reading some of the opinions is a bit painful (and not a shot at those people either as I don’t think any of us saw this happening in our most vivid nightmares early on)

You could do the same in the Ebola thread. Though that one was politically swapped - the conservatives were telling us that we were all going to die and needed to shut the country down.

[CrimsonFox]

and then there was the Lost series of threads...oh my!

[RainMaker]

I have a feeling when this is over we're going to find out some really scummy stuff went on with the testing. I posted about that large testing company that appears to just be a scam at this point. And with how easily those people were able to get into the testing industry (they owned an axe throwing bar a year earlier), I think we'll find a lot of similar stories.

I wish I had a positive test too like thesloppy mentioned. At least it would have made sense. My symptoms were pretty mild so it could have been other stuff, but it happened during the surge and at the same time some people around me got it. But seems pointless to get tested now that it's past me and I doubt I can trust a test from a company that seems like a scam.

Are there any accurate tests out there to show you had it? It would be more for informational purposes at this point.

[CrimsonFox]

when this is over, he says...