[Nerissa]

But on a lighter note I’ve just received a Voice message from one of my recovered friends.  She has an African Grey parrot who talks and mimics a lot.  He has learned to mimic the dry covid cough and sniffles he heard in the household and she sent me the recording of his voice!

[Nerissa]

It also states how certain other viruses and diseases (HIV, measles) CAN infect the brain and cause neurological symptoms or conditions. So this is all hypothesis, and the numbers reported are not high enough for this to be a primary mode for the virus (maybe).

Oh and Fao Marvin , further to your helpful investigation, the Royal
college of Psychiatrists have today started asking their members to begin logging and reporting the  neuropsychiatric effects of covid they see.

[xyzcf]

Good morning all.

Something I read talked about COVID and strokes, not sure where but indeed, many bacterial and viral infections can affect the brain.

This looks interesting:
https://ethics.harvard.edu/covid-roadmap?fbclid=IwAR2IuHo_Dpt-ODCagS7RzVLL0P-hGjtrK3bB9g6o3JCN4GUKwuRoPedmHo0

"Our bipartisan group of experts in economics, public health, technology, and ethics from across the country, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, has released the nation’s first comprehensive operational roadmap for mobilizing and reopening the U.S. economy in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

"Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience: Massive Scale Testing, Tracing, and Supported Isolation (TTSI) as the Path to Pandemic Resilience for a Free Society," lays out how a massive scale-up of testing, paired with contact tracing and supported isolation, can rebuild trust in our personal safety and re-mobilize the U.S. economy.

Among the report’s top recommendations is the need to deliver at least 5 million tests per day by early June to help ensure a safe social opening. This number will need to increase to 20 million tests per day by mid-summer to fully re-mobilize the economy.

For a video explanation of the Roadmap, see Vi Hart's video "How We Reopen" on YouTube.

You can also find the report and related material at the Pandemic Resilience Roadmap website, www.pandemictesting.org.


Correction: The April 20, 2020, 6am posting of the Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience contained an error which has been corrected in the 12pm posting. The earlier posting attributed to the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA) estimates of a capacity to achieve 1 million tests per day. This was a reporting error. The correct information is that the Broad Institute, which analyzed 250,000 samples a day for the Human Genome Project, is a good example of the kind of lab that might be stood up to achieve a capacity of 1 million tests per day."

[Thunder]

Oh Nerissa, that is hilarious!!!

I'd like to hear that parrot.

[marvin4242]

Oh Nerissa, that is hilarious!!!

I'd like to hear that parrot.

I'd take that parrot with me when I was outside and aim it people who are not keeping quite the right amount of distance!

 

[MyBrainIsBroken]

Thank you for all of the nice comments regarding my cousin. They are very much appreciated. Xyz is correct, the situation looks a lot different when somebody you care about is ill with this disease. I was very upset last night! My rational mind knows that most people who contract Covid-19 seem to recover with no lasting effects but my emotional mind has been affected by all of the hysteria surrounding this disease and my emotional mind was running the show last night.

I got some very good news this morning! My cousin is doing so much better that she may be going home today! I can't tell you how relieved I am to know this but I will be more relieved when I know that she's home and she and her family are all fully recovered.

In response to Marvin's queestions, my cousin has been sick for about a week. It was quite mild at first and she thought it was allergies. She was able to be tested because she's a healthcare worker. She has only been in the hospital for about two days. She has no comorbidities. Her only real vulnerability is that she is an ER nurse. Her story was covered by the big city TV news.

I believe failing to provide our healthcare workers with proper PPE borders on criminal negligence but I know that idea will fly like a lead balloon. In my experience politicians and administrators are very good at CYA.

Thanks again for your support! I'm still a little shaken up and I just read on FB that one of our UK forum members has an Aunt who has been hospitalized with Covid-19 so now my heart aches for her and her Aunt.

Editing to add a bit more information. This social distancing makes things so difficult! My cousin did spend one night in ICU and a couple of her children are still pretty sick.

One more addition. My granddaughter is finishing her first year of college in a 4 year Nursing major. She just told me one of her friends who was planning to become an ICU nurse has decided that she can't do it and is changing her major.

My granddaughter still wants to become a nurse, probably an OR nurse, but she is worried about finances because she hasn't been able to work at her part-time job. Now she doesn't know how she's going to pay for her schooling this fall. I hope some consideration will be given to providing incentives for kids who want to work in healthcare now that we know not only how important those jobs are but also how dangerous they can be.

[marvin4242]

First: there seems to be very preliminary information that one of the Covid 19 virus is inflammation of cardiovascular system, which may lead to increase in micro clots. There have been some reports of detection of these clots in some patients who did poorly (without a primary cause) and may be what is causing some of the other organ stressors that are seen. Even in some of the non pneumonia cases there was reports of micro clots were causing the reduction in lung oxygen function. Some are in fact putting patients on low doses of anti coagulants as a precaution, but to be clear this has NOT been testing methodically, its a hypothesis from field reports. If this is the case it could explain some of the cases where people show very low blood oxygen without realizing it, and other complications. A careful administration of anti coagulants may help. What is not clear is whether this is a side effect of an over active immune system or a symptom of the virus' behaviour.

Second: An interesting read about the cost of social distancing to the economy vs the cost if more deaths occurred. Please note I am NOT advocating that human lives can have a numerical dollar value put on them. I think this is an interesting read to get context that even if we ignored the deaths (which we should NOT) it would not help the economy. In fact it would hurt the economy.

It is a bit counterintuitive, specially as people are struggling in the moment. But the truth it there is no "big economy" conflict between saving lives and minimizing the bigger damage to world economy.

And this is before the consideration that money is just a means to an end to make human lives better (at least it is to me). Not an ends to itself.

"The value of lives saved by social distancing outweighs the costs"

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/the-value-of-lives-saved-by-social-distancing-outweighs-the-costs/

edit: not sure how much of this overlaps with the podcast posted earlier from NPR, haven't had a chance to listen yet, sorry if its redundant.

[xyzcf]

There is more data coming out that shows how strokes may be a complication of COVID.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/health/strokes-coronavirus-young-adults/index.html

Because this virus was an unknown virus, much will become known about it over time.

From the article Marvin posted...this really causes me to sit up:

"a model published by a team at Imperial College London estimated that if the pandemic were allowed to rampage through the United States unmitigated, it would lead to around 2.2 million deaths. Current estimates suggest that the total death toll by August may be more in the region of 60,000 to 124,000 deaths—if (and it’s a huge if) social-distancing measures stay in place. That’s a horrific number, but at its most optimistic, it means 2.14 million fewer deaths than that worst-case scenario. This means that the estimate of 1.24 million lives saved could be on the low side."

Things like that help me to remain committed to social distancing and wearing a mask. If the numbers are anywhere near correct (and many experts continue to express the need to continue with these measures) then continuing to practice them is essential.

Dr. Fauci's talk yesterday, that if we are careful not to rush with reopening things, and follow these measures, that we shall be in a much better place in the fall when we get hit with a double whammy of influenza and COVID.

I think that it is very important to understand that vaccination for influenza in the fall will be a very important measure to also decrease the stress on the health care system. I know that many people do not get vaccinated for influenza and perhaps we need to rethink what stops us from getting that vaccine.

[xyzcf]

A very good look at how we are impacted by loneliness and what we can do. Well worth watching the video. Dr. Laurie Santos from Yale University "The Happiness Lab"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/22/opinions/loneliness-is-a-petri-dish-for-depression-but-youre-not-alone-gray/index.html

[OldPilot]

This is probably not big news but underlying conditions are a major contributor to covid-19 deaths.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/sickest-covid-19-patients-underlying-conditions-are-common-large-study-n1189906

So just like with MLC/LBS we must take care of ourselves.