Would it surprise you to know that Boris Johnson was Born in the USA?
More serious (but letās level the island
For kicks)
I have not read the papers.
Always been worried about mutations but would general concur that until we see The following itās not high alert time.
1 significant infection of previous positives
2 significant new symptoms are demographic profile for symptoms
3 rapid spread in spite of good masking and social distancing measures
My read so far is no/no/maybe.
Almost by definition, a mutation that becomes a significant amount of the population has some advantage. It is possible as we have largely isolated into social groups that a particular variant my spread more rapidly if it arises or gets into a āless carefulā group and that may alias the data (we arenāt looking at specific spread rates but at some combination of spread rate and group behavior).
So to me the story is to be wary. Shut down U.K. travel. Keep testing the vaccines against the prevalent strains. Same with the monoclonals and the testing assays.
As far as us, keep staying safe and get your vaccine when offered and get an update when offered. Keep you mask on regardless of whether youāve pozzed or been vaccinated.
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Yep. I mean, the mutation information is useful to researchers and certainly the vaccine developers, but thus far, thereās nothing to indicate that this will change anything for the average person (or even front line health care workers working with covid patients) for the next 3-6 months. The plan is still stay at home as much as possible, wear your mask when youāre not, get your vaccine when itās your turn.
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Just heard from the big man that our local health department has reclassified us from 1B to 1A since weāre paramedics in addition to fire dorks. Should be getting stuck this week 
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Are you fucking kidding me you muppet? She is the only member of her household who leaves the home for more than curbside pickups, was placed into mandatory quarantine when a classmate tested positive, and subsequently the entire school was closed and 10 other students in the class have tested positive. Gtfo with your trashbag nonsense.
Edit: niece guy (me) and covid guy are different, despite us both being Green A avatars. Hereās hoping you have an easy recovery other Green A guy.
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Certainly we can hope and expect with a competent health agency assume that what is actionable for monitoring mutations as far as spread rate, vaccine, morbidity, etc is being done. Maybe not universal in every country but enough.
Nothing actionable for us plebes yet. An engaged and uninhibited CDC in the US should be able to advise us when something needs to be done on our part.
I will worry and donāt blame anyone else for worrying but Iām not doing anything different for now. But if you are British and cough my in general directionā¦
Anybody got any numbers updates? I assume things are looking about the same w/w?
I might be spending that extra cash for better masksā¦
One thing I havenāt seen addressed about this new British strain that seems important is that R0 could be higher because of holiday shopping/gatherings, shutdown fatigue, or any general risky behavior. Some places have shutdown more strictly and then seen spread grow among certain groups who increase home gatherings during shutdowns and reduce mask usage.
So itās really hard to draw conclusions without more data, more time, and more information.
As others have pointed out:
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Itās extremely unlikely that N95 level masks are any less effective. The virus overall would have to get smaller, which it did not.
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It doesnāt seem to impact the mortality rate.
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It appears unlikely to be able to evade vaccines, but weāll see.
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Itās probably a little more transmissible, but as long as #1 is true, that doesnāt impact most of this forum as weāre all pretty locked down and virtually never going around unmasked. Weāre also all going to take the vaccine when offered. So it seems reasonable for there not to be too much panic and hysteria here. Once I read that there had already been about 4,000 spike protein mutations and none impact the vaccine efficacy, I was pretty relaxed about this one. If #3 changes, Iāll freak out then.
Iām probably in the minority here but I have only used surgical masks and zero n95. I imagine almost no one uses them. Maybe 2%.
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Yeah. Havenāt seen a lot of N95 masks in America. Honestly most people appear to have something resembling a bandana.
According to my mother, covid has not stopped people from going last minute shopping including herself. Said the mall was packed though everybody was masked up. I scolded her a bit about going but she āhadā to. Apparently Amazon isnāt always on time and better to risk covid19 than potentially being a day or two late with your gift amirite
Gotta kill yourself to impress your family I guess. Even people who do appear concerned tend to be extremely inconsistent in practice.
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Just eyeing the worldometer graphs the case numbers have flattened at around 220,000 but last I looked in detail positivity was running in the mid teens. Deaths still climbing pushing 2700 per day. Rate of increase has slowed.
Both trends are a few days old so more confidence aside from the testing being at least significantly limiting. We are hitting on the low range of modeled deaths predictions which is good news. Still going to average 3,000 per day by next week.
I want to preface this by saying that Iām just looking for friendly advice and will take anything said here, even by medical professionals, as only that.
That being said there is some pretty legit knowledge itt.
My gfās mother has been struggling with COVID for about 3 months. Sheās in one of poorer neighborhoods of San Salvador and had been receiving what most would consider substandard care. They basically stabilize and release.
50 yo female. Obese but not morbidly. Slight history of heart problems but nothing major. No smoking or previous lung problems. Originally sick mid September with standard low fever and resp problems. Its gotten bad enough where she needed hospitalization 3 times, first maybe a month after infection and 3 weeks ago most recently. Was in ICU for 3 days this time, first time sheās been in ICU. 3 day stays first 2 times, week total this latest one.
Weāre trying to get more info but i think they basically gave her IV fluids and oxygen and let her rest. Maybe something different in ICU but that 3 days was apparently an information blackout from the hospital.
Im just wondering about any suggestion on the best course of action. She seems like she prob needed to be vented months ago but normal ppl arenāt getting that there. Were trying to find a pulse ox now. Would in home oxygen be helpful? Only if her ox sats are routinely low but not dangerous? Or regardless?
I helped my dad during his late stage COPD so i know how and why oxygen was used for that but would covid damaged lungs be different? I think COPD is problems expelling bad air more than breathing in. She has been taking routine nebulizer breathing treatments but they were only supposed to be temporary.
Just confirmed she did receive blood transplant with covid antibodies
Ill update with any new info. My gf just got home a week ago and is trying to get better informed.
Really appreciate any help or comments.
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Cloth masks are mostly what is used here too. Even at work where we got a free fitting for N95 masks no one wears them. I would but itās hard for me to breath with them when Iām working hard so I wear one called a PN95 or something. Donāt know if it works as well.
Hereās a new asshole errr nominee
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Some big population states on the rise
https://twitter.com/covid19tracking/status/1341184510486986752?s=21
Sounds about right. But the UK was running hot with American PMs, so I guess this is just regression to the mean.
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Look no one is going to be able to tell you something for sure, but this sounds like exacerbations of chronic lung or heart disease far more than covid. Most people end up needing hospitalization days 5-12 or thereabouts. Week 4? Notsomuch.
She needs to see/have a physician regularly, but obviously thatās complicated and Iām not sure how to help with that. If you can get her a pulseox and oxygen she needs to keep her spO2 at 91-92% at minimum.
Real tough situation though, itās a pretty wide set of things that could possibly be causing her symptoms. She needs a doc.
N95s fucking hurt and I avoid wearing them as much as possible, even in a hospital. Itās not necessary for the vast majority of normal people. Using something that is easier to have 100% compliance with is probably a better idea for normal people.
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The N95s suck. I end up with nasal drip after using them for long enough. They also fuck with my beard.
However, they are effective enough to justify using.