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

[ChocolateMouse]

Well, my understanding is that the higher BIPOC risk is because BIPOC folks are more likely to hold at-risk jobs in low education/low income neighborhoods (because education's funded by tax payers, so historically being literally killed -> no money when you're not anymore+segregation -> less funded schools - > less resources and education in BIPOC neighborhoods -> next generation grows up with less education on average which leads to less income, less school funding, etc. in a terrible cycle for generations) which puts them at greater risk. To put it frankly, if you're BIPOC you're more likely to be in a neighborhood where people are less able to stay home from work, less educated about medical practices, and therefore less likely to implement safe practices.
(In contrast to people who have plenty of resources and education access but choose to dismiss them which is a whole 'nother can of tuna.)

Combine that with good ol fashioned systemic doctors don't understand what diseases look like in BIPOC and have weird terrible ideas about it because all research is done on broke white college kids, and it becomes a mess. It just goes way further than "If you get some sun it helps". If you get some sun it helps, but it will cancel out fast if you're not also staying home, in high mask compliance environments, low stress, etc. I guess it's like if you're a construction worker that has to interact with 2 dozen other people every day and share tools and even close quarters with other people, and your wife works retail in a low-mask-compliance neighborhood, and your kid goes to a public school trying to stay open-and-in-person because people are threatening to cut their federal funding if they don't, and you can't afford to homeschool because you both have to work.... You can't expect a little extra sun to make or break your risk levels.

So my understanding is it's just a giant systemic cluster of awful. A straw that breaks the camels back in other words.

 

[sourland]

Funny story about our house. Few yrs after we bought it had a (it's about a hundred yards from the road) had a car stop and sit there, I went outside, they came up the drive, older couple. Husband said they lived in Colorado but he grew up in our house back in the early 60's only family here that had a TV so all the neighbors would visit just to watch it. Asked if he could look around. So we walked around outside, he telling me and his wife how everything looked back then. Then he asked if it wasn't too much if he could go inside, wanted to reminisce... I didn't know what to say first thing that popped in my head was the Miranda Lambert song "The House That Built Me" so I had to. DW was so mad, really angry bringing strangers into our house. He had obviously been here before, walk into our house into the kitchen then dinning room has two old doors next to each other he immediately pointed to the left door and said 'my dad put the bathroom in, just had a outhouse when we moved here' (it is where the bathroom is) And then he pointed to a little cabinet thing that is still on our wall other side, bottom big shelf folds down on little chains, he points at it and says he remembered his mom sitting there and writing and making out bills. Took them upstairs he told us what bedroom his was, (it's lathe and plaster many layers of wallpaper right now) said his mom painted a big whale in the ocean on one wall, I'm going to look for it when we remodel the room and send him a pic if it's there underneath.
They thanked us and left.
DW was still really mad at me.
Few months later got a thing in the mail saying we had to sign for a package from Colorado and pick it up from the PO.
I told her ha ha, I bet he sent us a million dollars, said they didn't have any kids. She says go pick it up and don't you dare open it till you get home. Get here with it, she opens it up. Big box of Colorado chocolate covered hazelnuts, she hands it to me and says there is your million dollars Lol!
And there was a card with a heartfelt letter thanking us for letting them in our home, and a hundred dollar Home Depot gift card saying little something to help your remodel. Ha!!! DW!! Made a hundred bucks for a half hour tour of our house! She's still mad, I still feel good inside giving him a chance to reminisce.

Well and compassionately done !

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

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.

There is a difference between having the virus and dying of the virus. Yes there are more cases but death rate is going down. I am Chicago suburbs and it was getting bad here for a bit. But waiting it out and talking to people (friends and family) with actual cases all say it's a nasty bug that lasts long time but nobody died of it. Nobody went to the hospital. Even CDC noted of all covid deaths only 6% had no contributing factors. Yes it's very fatal for people 80yo+ but so is the flu. I have a friend that went to hospital for unrelated issue that tested positive. They had no idea they had it. Here 3 weeks later that 65yo overweight with underlying heart condition recovered and is doing fine. Many people have it but never get any symptoms or sick at all. You probably already had it. Cases are going up because we are testing so many people. Illinois has population of 12.6 million. We have 264k cases and 8,500 deaths. That's 2% of our population that had it and of those 3% passed. You dont have to live in fear, just caution.
Again here I agree with @IamRainey that there is still lots unknown about this virus.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Well, my understanding is that the higher BIPOC risk is because BIPOC folks are more likely to hold at-risk jobs in low education/low income neighborhoods (because education's funded by tax payers, so historically being literally killed -> no money when you're not anymore+segregation -> less funded schools - > less resources and education in BIPOC neighborhoods -> next generation grows up with less education on average which leads to less income, less school funding, etc. in a terrible cycle for generations) which puts them at greater risk. To put it frankly, if you're BIPOC you're more likely to be in a neighborhood where people are less able to stay home from work, less educated about medical practices, and therefore less likely to implement safe practices.
(In contrast to people who have plenty of resources and education access but choose to dismiss them which is a whole 'nother can of tuna.)

Combine that with good ol fashioned systemic doctors don't understand what diseases look like in BIPOC and have weird terrible ideas about it because all research is done on broke white college kids, and it becomes a mess. It just goes way further than "If you get some sun it helps". If you get some sun it helps, but it will cancel out fast if you're not also staying home, in high mask compliance environments, low stress, etc. I guess it's like if you're a construction worker that has to interact with 2 dozen other people every day and share tools and even close quarters with other people, and your wife works retail in a low-mask-compliance neighborhood, and your kid goes to a public school trying to stay open-and-in-person because people are threatening to cut their federal funding if they don't, and you can't afford to homeschool because you both have to work.... You can't expect a little extra sun to make or break your risk levels.

So my understanding is it's just a giant systemic cluster of awful. A straw that breaks the camels back in other words.

In all respect this has nothing to do with POC. That is propaganda, stop spreading it. If it was about color the virus wouldn't say it's ok to kill this many white people if you can kill this many poc. That's baloney. I'm more susceptible to not being able to dunk a basketball but I can float better because of my lower bone density. I'm definitely more susceptible to sunburn. This has virus nothing to do with color or race.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

If it was about color the virus wouldn't say it's ok to kill this many white people if you can kill this many poc. That's baloney.

Yes, that would be quite silly to think that's how risk factors and viruses work. 9_9; So silly I'd hesitate to listen to people who interpret "I have less money to see doctors because of my upbringing in a poor, segregated neighborhood so I will not see a doctor/will go to work when sick and I will not get potentially life-saving treatment" as "The virus picks how many people to kill based on their skin color".

Good thing nobody would be silly enough to believe something like that, least of all me. I mean, do you really think I'd think the virus picks how many people to kill based on skin color?

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Yes, that would be quite silly to think that's how risk factors and viruses work. 9_9; So silly I'd hesitate to listen to people who interpret "I have less money to see doctors because of my upbringing in a poor, segregated neighborhood so I will not see a doctor/will go to work when sick and I will not get potentially life-saving treatment" as "The virus picks how many people to kill based on their skin color".

Good thing nobody would be silly enough to believe something like that, least of all me.

That makes no sense when every state has Medicaid programs for poor people. And Long before Obamacare we had a county health department that u can go to that I spent much time waiting in. I used these services until I got a job with healthcare. And I didn't blame anyone else because I couldn't afford something, I worked for it. What's next...... everyone deserves free college, free food, and free flying cars.
Added* entitlement never ends, it grows.

 

[IamRainey]

all research is done on broke white college kids

AMEN to this one! Back in the 70s when they started to become aware that women could have heart attacks too (my MIL died of one after spending months seeing doctors and telling them she didn't feel well) they became aware of this issue. But today, 30 years later, research is still conducted primarily on White males.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

That makes no sense when every state has Medicaid programs for poor people. And Long before Obamacare we had a county health department that u can go to that I spent much time waiting in. I used these services until I got a job with healthcare. And I didn't blame anyone else because I couldn't afford something, I worked for it. What's next...... everyone deserves free college, free food, and free flying cars.

Oh no. Not free education and free food and free transport. XD Whatever is next, clean air and less plastic in the ocean!? Why, we'll ruin the whole dang world!

In any case, my mom died from cancer. She was in what's known as the medicaid gap where you have too much money for government assistance and not enough to actually afford to see the doctor. She had cancer for years before she was diagnosed in an ER. She died 5 years later and every month was a family meeting trying to figure out how to pay for her treatment. I was 19 and intimately involved in how much money there was and wasn't for her treatment. I payed for her family to fly to see her in the last year out of my own pocket working as a hostess in a restaurant.

My partner also falls in the medicaid gap. Healthcare through work costs 1/4 of his paycheck when we live nearly paycheck to paycheck. But he makes too much for medicare. I know - we've applied. I have NO idea what we gonna do if he gets sick. Sell the house and the chickens I guess? Go live with his parents in another state?

So yes. I DO think that people can die from being poor and not having access to healthcare as a matter of fact.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

AMEN to this one! Back in the 70s when they started to become aware that women could have heart attacks too (my MIL died of one after spending months seeing doctors and telling them she didn't feel well) they became aware of this issue. But today, 30 years later, research is still conducted primarily on White males.

I recently had the opportunity to look over a handbook on skin diseases and how they manifest in different skin tones, especially in children. A huge red rash all over the body on a white baby barely showed up at all on a black one. It's led to BIPOC diagnosis rates being low and fatality in those conditions being MUCH higher. Gave me a lot of respect for equity advocates in the medical field.

 

[IamRainey]

There is a difference between having the virus and dying of the virus. Yes there are more cases but death rate is going down. I am Chicago suburbs and it was getting bad here for a bit. But waiting it out and talking to people (friends and family) with actual cases all say it's a nasty bug that lasts long time but nobody died of it. Nobody went to the hospital. Even CDC noted of all covid deaths only 6% had no contributing factors. Yes it's very fatal for people 80yo+ but so is the flu.

Yes and no. I can't tell you how excited my daughter gets when there's a new methodology for treating it. Positioning on the stomach or side, remdesivir and now steroids. And mortalities truly are going down. But the fact is that, even though older people are more vulnerable, she sees too many young people die of strokes and heart attacks when they're already in the hospital in treatment for the virus. And, often, they're the people who have month-long hospitalizations because they start out stronger and better able to fight the disease longer before they have massive traumas.

And, yes, the number of people who are asymptomatic (but still vectors of infection) is significant and probably indicates that the stats we have way underrepresent the numbers of people with Covid at any particular time. Just recently I saw this Wall Street Journal article that indicates kids may be vectors that we should be paying attention to. A lot of schools and colleges are beginning to shut down when cases start getting out of hand.