Coronavirus: What questions do you have?

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
madcow rocketry
the rocketry show
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Chuck, I've got two questions:

1. I've seen many more people masking in my area, one way or another, in stores and whatnot since the big omicron surge started. What I've read is that moving to N95/KN95 masks is probably a good idea as the plain surgical and cloth masks may not do enough against this more transmissible variant, where the better filtering masks probably can have an impact. Question: Do you, as a health care provider, have any concerns about supply of masks for the frontline workers? Decent masks (N985/KN95) seem to be in good supply locally and on Amazon and other sites, but if a significant fraction of America (and the world?) starts buying them, I continue to wonder if production has ramped enough. Any perspective from your end would be appreciated.
 
2. For those who are getting covid these days, I'd be very interested to see a breakdown of "naive covid cases" versus second (or third...) timers. Both in terms of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. I'm just curious how many of these hundreds-of-thousands of new cases per day are people who've had it before. Data on vaccinated versus non-vaccinated is often available at state level, but I've not come across a good rundown of first timers versus retreads.
 
Marc_G said:
Question: Do you, as a health care provider, have any concerns about supply of masks for the frontline workers?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about Chuck's hospitals. We seem to have plenty of N95s for us for now. We still are asked to reuse them during our shift but not for days on end now.
 
OverTheTop said:
FYI in NSW they are asking ICU nurses that are symptomatic to
Click to expand...
Chuck, if a covid patient in a hospital is exposed to an infectious worker, what danger is there? He/she already has the infection anyway right? Wouldn't the danger be to non infected co-workers?
Also, would the strain on hospitals now be coming from the influx of patients or the shortage of workers due to Omicron infection and isolation/quarantine protocols?
 
Marc_G said:
Chuck, I've got two questions:

1. I've seen many more people masking in my area, one way or another, in stores and whatnot since the big omicron surge started. What I've read is that moving to N95/KN95 masks is probably a good idea as the plain surgical and cloth masks may not do enough against this more transmissible variant, where the better filtering masks probably can have an impact. Question: Do you, as a health care provider, have any concerns about supply of masks for the frontline workers? Decent masks (N985/KN95) seem to be in good supply locally and on Amazon and other sites, but if a significant fraction of America (and the world?) starts buying them, I continue to wonder if production has ramped enough. Any perspective from your end would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, FFP2 respirators (European equivalent to N95, KN95) have been mandatory here since almost a year (with a short break during low incidence period).
Back then, it didn't feel to me like the science had changed, but that the government become comfortable mandating them without creating supply shortages for health care personnel. But then again, that was my impression, I never heard an official saying that.

Noticeably, brand name respirators became available again last year. I assume that companies like 3M prioritize the health care sector accordingly. As long as I see 3M respirators on stock at reputable vendors, I guess it's okay to buy them in non-hoarding quantities.

Reinhard
 
Reinhard said:
For what it's worth, FFP2 respirators (European equivalent to N95, KN95) have been mandatory here since almost a year (with a short break during low incidence period).
Click to expand...
How does the case rate trajectory compare in your country with the FFP2 mandate with other countries without as strict a mandate?
 
jderimig said:
How does the case rate trajectory compare in your country with the FFP2 mandate with other countries without as strict a mandate?
Click to expand...
I have no idea about the masking rules in other comparable countries, but from local observations it certainly is no golden bullet. The biggest wave, so far, happened during a period where an FFP2 mandate was in effect. The mandate only appears to public settings and even then with exceptions (e.g. not while seated in restaurants), so it's overall effect is limited.

Compared to that, as I understand it they work well when used consistently and correctly (e.g. health care settings).

Reinhard
 
Last edited:
Marc_G said:
Chuck, I've got two questions:

1. I've seen many more people masking in my area, one way or another, in stores and whatnot since the big omicron surge started. What I've read is that moving to N95/KN95 masks is probably a good idea as the plain surgical and cloth masks may not do enough against this more transmissible variant, where the better filtering masks probably can have an impact.
Click to expand...

I tell people not to play with either mask type.

Marc_G said:
Question: Do you, as a health care provider, have any concerns about supply of masks for the frontline workers? Decent masks (N985/KN95) seem to be in good supply locally and on Amazon and other sites, but if a significant fraction of America (and the world?) starts buying them, I continue to wonder if production has ramped enough. Any perspective from your end would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Most facilities do have an ample stockpile for their staff and there are huge regional stores held by the GOV for emergencies. I am not worried at this time. I think we have enough for 30-90 days.
 
Marc_G said:
2. For those who are getting covid these days, I'd be very interested to see a breakdown of "naive covid cases" versus second (or third...) timers. Both in terms of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. I'm just curious how many of these hundreds-of-thousands of new cases per day are people who've had it before. Data on vaccinated versus non-vaccinated is often available at the state level, but I've not come across a good rundown of first-timers versus retreads.
Click to expand...

I do not have numbers handy nor could I release them at this time. Anecdotally, I can say, that locally, we are more first-timers that are unvaccinated, first-timers that are vaccinated, and second-timers in order of most to least. I have only seen a handful of third-timers. I will be honest with you because I am nto sure anyone is tracking that data closely outside of the DOD and we are not able to release it.

One thing I can say with 100% certainty based on data: The further you are from your infection (45-60 days) or vaccination (90-120 days), the more likely you are to catch any of the variants.
 
kuririn said:
Chuck, if a covid patient in a hospital is exposed to an infectious worker, what danger is there? He/she already has the infection anyway right? Wouldn't the danger be to noninfected co-workers?
Click to expand...

No data to answer but it is probably not going to do any more harm. I guess 2 variants at one time might be the issue. I would be more concerned about giving covid to a patient that does not have it. Most facilities have more non-COVID patients than COVID patients at this time.

kuririn said:
Also, would the strain on hospitals now be coming from the influx of patients or the shortage of workers due to Omicron infection and isolation/quarantine protocols?
Click to expand...

The strain on hospitals at this time is related to the lost staff and infected staff. I cannot replace them as fast as they are retiring and quiting.
 
Another update: Most hospitals in our local area are shutting down elective surgeries and routine clinical visits to make way for COVID testing, treatment, and to protect clinical staff. I think admissions are lagging and will be less but 1 admission in 100 people with 70 times the infection rate and less protective measures could surpass delta.
 
Down here Victoria had 22k and NSW has more than 35k cases in the past 24 hours.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-06/victoria-covid-cases-hospitalisation-death-vaccine/100740884
There is also a difference in the death rates between the two states due to the proportion of omicron/delta. This is the first I have seen of decent charts regarding deaths.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-06/victoria-covid-deaths-compared-to-new-south-wales/100736476The charts in that article should update if you revisit them in the future.
 
I am jaw dropped that North Carolina has around 10X the population density vs. NSW. I feel like we are fairly 'country' here, but that is a huge difference. And the population density of Xian is 17x more than NC. . . wow.

Sorry if this is off topic, but I am just amazed. We look at 'numbers' every day, but sometime don't think of the density and magnitue of what they mean. When OTT posted 35k in NSW, I figured that wasn't too bad, but based on density, that is terrible. I wish China was giving real numbers, as it could help to understand better, but that is a bridge too far for sure - no political stuff intended.

Sandy.
 
When you consider density of population in NSW keep in mind that the Western Division, which is nearly half of NSW by area, has a very low population density. Density is so low that there are only two levels of government, being State and Federal. There is no local government in that area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Division_(New_South_Wales)I guess that makes our figures not quite as bad as they could be, but nonetheless still bad.
 
What do you think about the research that shows Omicron spreading faster in vaccinated individuals?

https://www.theepochtimes.com/omicr...cinated-individuals-danish-study_4192825.html
Click to expand...

First, you have to search for the research behind this blog post. This is not news. It is more of a clickbait article. Second, the research has not been peer-reviewed yet. It is prerelease.

I am concerned about making decisions based on this study. It did not really take into account
preventive measures and instead assumed that the virus was more infective in that group. I do not feel that the researchers fully determined that masking and social distancing and human behavior were nto different between the two groups.

For example, we find that Philadelphia had more dun deaths, so we assume that guns are more deadly in Philadelphia than in Pittsburgh. We are missing other potential causes and making huge assumptions. That is what I feel happened in this study.

The bottom line: I am not convinced that there is not another reason for the difference between the two groups. For example, are unvaccinated individuals masked more and socially distancing more. Do unvaccinated individuals do out in public less? Let the peer review process begin.
 
Different question. Quidel home test kit. Here in New Hampshire, they are sending these out in the postal mail. The test kits have a small vial of liquid in them. It's Winter. The test kits end up sitting outside in a mail box or by the door in 21 degree temps for a few hours. I can't find anywhere where it says the kits are still good if they have been subjected to sub freezing temps. The kits do say to store them above 36 degrees.

Anyone have an answer? Are the test kits still good if they got below 32 degrees?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

stealth6
The Economy
2
Replies
47
Views
854
lr64
L
Angel_of_the_Skies
How did you start / maintain yourself in the hobby ?
Replies
10
Views
558
cwbullet
cwbullet
Marc_G
Windows geeks: Silly performance monitor logging question
Replies
5
Views
192
cwbullet
cwbullet
Banzai88
3D Printing P1P/P1S/Bambu questions
Replies
14
Views
440
Banzai88
Banzai88
J
Do you have any tips for a beginner?
Replies
7
Views
686
BABAR
B

Latest posts

Back
Top