Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[IamRainey]

It's rampant where we live.

What general area of SoCal are you in?

I'm curious because so few of the people I know have had it despite the statistical fact that CA is consistently in the top 3-5 states with new cases for at least 4 or 5 months now and Los Angeles County is consistently the highest case load in CA.

This disease is a conundrum. Despite the statistics that we can see reported, my practical experience is that following the protocols of wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding large groups works. Medical workers who follow them actually have lower rates of infection -- an inestimable comfort since my ICU nurse daughter has stayed infection-free despite treating Covid patients since December when they estimate they had their first undiagnosed cases -- and "essential workers" like grocery clerks who come into contact with 100's of people every day have an infection rate that mirrors the general public. Meanwhile, places like ME which have been at the bottom of the nation's infection rate from the very beginning despite a far higher than average gerontological population had a huge spike from a single event -- a funeral -- where protocols were ignored.

Anyway, if you're interested in sharing a little more specifically where you and the heavy case load is I could factor it into my attempt to understand how this disease works. I, as my profile indicates, am in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

It is my understanding that there are several different strains of the virus in the US. One from China, which from the data (last time I checked) seems a little less virulent and not as hard on people, in general. I believe that is the strain that started in the western US.
The other strain came through Europe first before landing here on the eastern side of the US. This one is more virulent and has caused people to become more sick, and caused more deaths.
Now? I'm not sure since both strains have reached all over the US.

And I have lost track lately, but the virus continues to mutate (as normal viruses do) but it was one specific mutation, so far, that scientists were able to isolate that really ramped up how devastating the virus was/is.

 

[feather13]

What general area of SoCal are you in?

This disease is a conundrum. Despite the statistics that we can see reported, my practical experience is that following the protocols of wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding large groups works. Medical workers who follow them actually have lower rates of infection -- an inestimable comfort since my ICU nurse daughter has stayed infection-free despite treating Covid patients since December when they estimate they had their first undiagnosed cases -- and "essential workers" like grocery clerks who come into contact with 100's of people every day have an infection rate that mirrors the general public.

Hi IamRainey--I live in East LA and work in Riverside (where cases skyrocketed in July and August). Most of the people in my neighborhood who have contracted the virus have been undocumented, as have the family members of the folks who have done work on our house since the pandemic. I don't know if the deaths and illnesses they tell me about anecdotally are part of the official statistics of the disease in LA County, but from what I can tell the disease definitely disproportionally affects Black, Indigenous, Asian/Asian American, and LatinX communities in our area.

Families in my neighborhood are still throwing a number of parties, even now. On Saturday, someone down the street had a live band at a party they threw. Only about half the people seemed to be wearing masks, so I imagine our numbers keep growing from gatherings where few people are social distancing rather than places where protocols are being followed. A new brewery down the street also never closed during the pandemic (how this was possible, I don't know), still holds events with live bands, and has a consistently packed parking lot. Even some of the police who patrol our area don't wear masks.

A good friend of mine is a psychiatrist who works in a facility with COVID cases, yet she has remained healthy, probably because she follows strict CDC protocols. Several of her colleagues have become ill though and one custodian at the facility died. I'm really glad to hear your daughter has remained virus-free and can't thank her enough from afar for doing the incredible, life-saving work of being an ICU nurse.

Sorry to ramble on... all of this is to agree with you that the CDC and other protocols do seem to be working for those who follow them.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/fo...-deficiency-may-raise-risk-of-getting-covid19

If you are concerned please read this article. It is an election year and everything is political. Vitamin D can make a big difference.
I know this virus is scary but the cure has become worse than the virus, why I mentioned politics.
Also important to keep in mind people shot in the head, murdered in carjacking, and died in motorcycle crash have been counted as covid deaths. Hospitals make more money if you have covid and many states are still restricting their business.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Luckily nothing about trying to stop COVID is stopping people from getting vitamin D.
You can still go outside in every area of all 50 states. You can even go to places with other people, just stay apart of wear a mask. You can even just take a supplement.
Where I live it's very gloomy so people here have chronically low vitamin D year round except for mid summer. It doesn't surprise me that vitamin D deficiency makes COVID worse, but there's also nothing stopping people from getting more of it in the "cure".

 

[IamRainey]

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/fo...-deficiency-may-raise-risk-of-getting-covid19

If you are concerned please read this article. It is an election year and everything is political. Vitamin D can make a big difference.

I was going to add this! People use so much sunscreen today that most of us who aren't taking a supplement are deficient. It's in other products so people can be using much more than they're even aware of. What's more, Vit D actually helps the body metabolize so many other important nutrients like iron and is important for bone density.

The rest, however, is sorta horse pucky. Hospitals charge by the time you spend in their facility plus the services and meds they provide. Since there's a sector of Covid patients who are hospitalized for 4 weeks or more and use the most expensive services such as the ICU units, it's necessarily expensive. We talk about infection and death, BTW, but I've never heard anyone discuss the medical bankruptcies this virus is causing individuals and families and it will trickle down to hospitals and insurance companies too. OTOH, people who have things like traumatic accidents, gun shot injuries, heart attacks and strokes tend to be terminal or to recover and move onto rehab facilities much faster and, so, hospital costs are necessarily lower. Anyway, there is no surcharge or greater compensation for Covid diagnoses.

How on god's green earth could a medical professional diagnose a gun shot as Covid? I think you're getting information from unreliable sources.

Meanwhile, Covid seems to be a vascular disease and many many cases of Covid have been categorized as strokes and heart attacks. That's why the staff at my daughter's hospital are re-thinking the untreatable strokes, heart attacks and pneumonias they had in young people that were untreatable and occurred back in Dec. and Jan before the Wuhan outbreaks and concluding they were Covid-related.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

I was going to add this! People use so much sunscreen today that most of us who aren't taking a supplement are deficient. What's more, Vit D actually helps the body metabolize so many other important nutrients like iron and is important for bone density.

The rest, however, is sorta horse pucky. Hospitals charge by the time you spend in their facility plus the services and meds they provide. Since there's a sector of Covid patients who are hospitalized for 4 weeks or more and use the most expensive services such as the ICU units, it's necessarily expensive. We talk about infection and death, BTW, but I've never heard anyone discuss the medical bankruptcies this virus is causing hospitals and it will trickle down to hospitals and insurance companies too. OTOH, people who have things like traumatic accidents, gun shot injuries, heart attacks and strokes tend to be terminal or to recover and move onto rehab facilities much faster and, so, hospital costs are necessarily lower. Anyway, there is no surcharge or greater compensation for Covid diagnoses.

How on god's green earth could a medical professional diagnose a gun shot as Covid? I think you're getting information from unreliable sources.

Meanwhile, Covid seems to be a vascular disease and many many cases of Covid have been categorized as strokes and heart attacks. That's why the staff at my daughter's hospital are re-thinking the untreatable strokes, heart attacks and pneumonias they had in young people that were untreatable and occurred back in Dec. and Jan before the Wuhan outbreaks and concluding they were Covid-related.

Totally agree on people suffering from medical bills.
https://cbs12.com/news/local/man-wh...h-counted-as-covid-19-death-in-florida-report

And this one.... even though they try to refute it by saying "theres no proof hospitals are incorrectly coding patients as covid". They admitted that recent legislation allows for more medicare payments.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-covid-19-death-count/

And when you read how much vitamin D helps not to mention in texas doctors have been treating with nebulizers and asthma inhalers with great success. Then see a hospital bill for $40k, vs vit D. That's why they call it practicing medicine, not curing people. The goal is medicine, not the avoidance of.

Added* also to add to both of our points I believe vit D is part of why nursing home deaths were so bad. Most places are under staffed and people are neglected and dont go outside for sunshine.

 

[IamRainey]

Vit D is precautionary at best. Well advised, but it's never going to cure a Covid infection. Yes, steroids are making real headway with treatment. And I think the American public is behaving in a really infantile way in expecting cut and dried answers and holding the medical profession and researchers responsible for not having them.

There's a reason the correct designation for this virus is Novel Coronavirus-19. It is distinct, unique and new to the planet. They are learning and disseminating reliable information as quickly as they can trust it. It doesn't help when bad information is pumped out by conspiracy theorists on the internet and people in high places who want to evade reality and responsibility.

 

[feather13]

https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/fo...-deficiency-may-raise-risk-of-getting-covid19

If you are concerned please read this article. It is an election year and everything is political. Vitamin D can make a big difference.

I'm not a doctor and not in the medical field, but I wonder about the efficacy of Vitamin D for prevention in a state like California that in many places has sunshine all year (except right now, when our AQI ranges from 150-over 400 in some places and no one should be outside soaking up the sun, sunscreen or not).

If those of us who are BIPOC are more at risk for COVID, even without underlying health factors, and since most of the people who have outdoors jobs (construction workers, landscapers, farm laborers, etc.) here in southern California are people of color and probably don't wear a lot of sunscreen, why are our state's case rates still so high? Unless it has to do with Vitamin D absorption rates? Just thinking aloud... so much about this disease is unknown.

 

[IamRainey]

That's some of the stuff they're still figuring out. DNA may be part of it. Dietary deficiencies another. Maybe wind-driven agricultural chemicals or smog create vulnerability. I wonder if they'll, in time, find a link between air conditioning/filtered air and the virus. But you've already noted that people in your area aren't heeding the cautionary to avoid groups of more than 10 people. That would be a good place to start. As I noted earlier, that single funeral in ME about doubled their Covid death rate.