Per my pig farming buddy, 300 people called in at their primary packing plant just yesterday. I’m crossing my fingers that it’s a solidarity thing and not 300 actual sickies but I can’t confirm that
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It’s not easy at all, but for some patients it can be effective. The problem is it is most effective early in the disease process. Guerin 2013, the study sited in the article, says to prone early and often, preferably in the first phase of ARDS (the results are quite extraordinary). Covid moves so slow that the early exudative phase often is happening before the patient is vented. Try putting a very sick, very much awake person in prone position and see how long that lasts.
I am a huge fan of prone position, no matter where in the disease process you are you will almost always see at least a short term gain in blood O2. However, it takes 4 to 6 people to prone a sedated vented patient, putting everyone in the room at risk. There is extreme risk of losing lines, disconnecting the ventilator, or even pulling the ET tube out. Also, if you are following Guerin protocol, you are almost certain to have pressure sores. Guerin calls for being proned 16 to 18 hours per day. Even many big hospitals don’t bother with it preferring ECMO or transferring the patient and small hospitals with virtually no practice doing it are bound to fuck it up.
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I wonder what percentage of workers at a packing plant have any ability to seek (let alone receive) testing. Between health insurance and immigration status it just seems impossible.
If I were an undocumented immigrant I would 100% avoid treatment and testing unless I thought I was going to die otherwise. Getting tested seems very -EV in Trump’s America.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve been wondering about this regarding if somebody in my family gets infected. Are you in the same house as your wife? Are you trying to quarantine her in your house (and how are you doing this if the answer is yes), or are you just shrugging and if you get it, you get it? You have no symptoms yet yourself?
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/obesity.page
In New York City, obesity is epidemic. More than half of adult New Yorkers have overweight (34%) or obesity (22%). Data show that people can have obesity early in life. Nearly half of all elementary school children and Head Start children do not have a healthy weight. In New York City, one in five kindergarten students and one in four Head Start children, have obesity.
Not everyone is a fit Manhattanite. The other boroughs have a lot of unhealthy people. African Americans are particularly susceptible to diabetes and obesity. I believe Latinos as well.
Er I guess this might mean NYC isn’t that polluted wrt to the lungs?
Thanks, everyone, for the responses!
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There is a lot of evidence that initial dosage of virus can affect eventual severity of the infection. I think the worst thing someone could do is say - if I get it I get it - from a suspected household member. Do everything you can to minimize exposure imo.
Another Tuesday bump?
Fwiw in AZ, the GOP governor has said that public safety officers have been advised to take no adverse immigration actions related to COVID testing/treatment. And the Maricopa County elected sheriff is a Democrat.
Not a dumb question at all. Small 1BR apartment so it’s virtually impossible to quarantine appropriately. Over a month ago we essentially conceded that if one of us got it, the other would likely get it as well.
I may have gotten it first, but don’t know for sure. About a week before her, I had a day (Friday, I remember), where I got chills/feverish/body aches pretty much out of nowhere. I spent the whole weekend in bed. No cough or breathing issues. I was pretty much back to normal after that except for an extra few days of fatigue.
But I’ll get that once a year or so anyway, so decent chance it wasn’t COVID. Her symptoms are much more abnormal/COVID-like. I have had no symptoms since she came down with hers.
I can’t imagine you can avoid getting exposed to it if you’re living in the same house with someone. People living together are all in the same boat.
Thanks - does anything in this article resonate/not resonate with you?
The biggest change: Instead of quickly sedating people who had shockingly low levels of oxygen and then putting them on mechanical ventilators, many doctors are now keeping patients conscious, having them roll over in bed, recline in chairs and continue to breathe on their own — with additional oxygen — for as long as possible.
The idea is to get them off their backs and thereby make more lung available. A number of doctors are even trying patients on a special massage mattress designed for pregnant women because it has cutouts that ease the load on the belly and chest.
’Stay away from me’ - Trump jokes with coronavirus survivor
President Trump has been meeting with coronavirus survivors at the White House.
'I’ve never felt this bad before," one woman told Trump, adding that she now feels about 85% better.
“Stay away from me,” Trump joked in response.
Another survivor told of being stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, calling it a “floating petri dish”. Trump replied: “They called it a ghost ship.”
Trump also again touted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug which is not yet proven to fight off Covid-19.
“You know if somebody else endorsed that medication it would be great,” he said, claiming that US media has remained skeptical just because he has supported it.
“But it’s OK. The word is out. These people don’t get it, the media, but the people get it,” he continued.
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But you could still try to reduce to initial exposure as much as possible for the sake of hopefully having a milder infection when you do get it.
Right but I’m wondering if it’s even possible to successfully quarantine somebody in the same household? And even more so considering they were probably asymptomatic for 2 to 5 days when you were in close proximity and not quarantining.
No. But if it was me I would still have us both wearing masks, keep windows open and fans whirring, and clean the shit out of everything constantly.
And only doggie style.
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I expect when this is all said and done there will be large trials testing the efficacy of our vent protocols against these new practices. Frankly, it’s virtually impossible to convince any doctor anywhere that a patient with PaO2 in the low 40s on a non-rebreather mask shouldn’t be ventilated. The docs in New York are trying these things because they were playing hot potato with their limited supply of vents. I honestly don’t know what the right answer is, all we have are a bunch of often contradictory anecdotes. The idea that ARDSnet, Guerin, and our other vent protocols are gone is laughable. Nobody is putting their license to practice medicine at risk except in the most dire of circumstances.
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I had a similar thing in February. Out of nowhere one day I felt very nauseous but didn’t throw up. I felt tired and had body aches for the next day or two and then was fine. Over the next 4 weeks I developed pain in my chest with no congestion, and I had moments where I felt feverish but had no temperature. Eventually it all went away. I never had any coughing or sneezing at all even though I had chest pain that felt similar to the early stages of pneumonia. (I had pneumonia 3 times before my 21st birthday, but never since then.)
I did wonder about CV-19 toward the tail end of it, but since my wife and daughter never showed any of those signs I assume it was something else.
I am so happy you’re in this thread. I read 8 hours a day on this and still at least 20% of everything I know about covid comes from your posts. Thank you!
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