Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Newsflash - yes, people have and are dying of covid.

You can continue in your ignorance. I'm out. I forgot for a minute why I quit talking about covid around here.

 

It's small scale, but researchers may have found a root cause for long haul symptoms. Blood clotting has been found at significantly higher levels in long haul patients. Thankfully, researchers don't listen to "experts" here who believe long haul to be mostly psychosomatic.

 

Someone say Psychosomatic??

 

Just an aside, when a patient comes in with Covid we only ask them if they've been vaccinated, we don't ask for proof. We then just check the vaccinated or un-vaccinated box on the check in forms. Those numbers of vaccinated with Covid seem kind of high to me, actually. After seeing the embarrassed looks on the faces of people when they admit they weren't vaccinated I don't think it's a stretch to think that some people fib about being vaccinated to avoid embarrassment. I've seen people lie about all kinds of stuff about their health. It's very common.

 

Nonsense. You can get everything from plants you can from fish. And more. Where do you think that fish get it from?

 

Here is evidence that meat causes Type 2 diabetes. Long longitudinal study. Lots of evidence on the relationship between meat and dairy and all sorts of illness. I just don’t want to turn this thread into a thread about eating lifestyles. But it is laughable for posters to promote so called “healthy” eating as a method to avoid the worst effects of COVID when most people doggedly stick to their unhealthy eating regimens— even defending them vigorously with the level of condescension reflected in the posts and others. And it is correct what the poster upthread said; you are not going to change my mind because I have spent years learning about this. You are right about processed foods. But, not about meat and dairy.
A Diabetes Link to Meat

 

Oh, I drove to old town for lunch. Took a long walk around & had a cheeseburger @ 1 of my fav dive saloons - the trailhead - for the 1st time since covid. It was great.


Ashes to ashes
dust to dust
if the women don't kill me
than the cheeseburger must

 

I have been tracking COVID data daily since last May. There are some apparent oddities that I have found in the death rates that I would like to throw out and get thoughts on.

On the last day of June when cases started to spike, presumably from Delta variant, the cum death rate on June 29th was 1.80%. This was based on 34,397,052 cum cases. Since then, through today, based on an additional 3,499,530 cases since 6/29 the cum death rate has dropped considerably to 1.69%. So since 6/29 the death rate has only been .6%.

Going back one year to 08/20, the monthly death rates were:

08/20 - 2.00%
09/20 - 1.97%
10/29 - 1.25%
11/20 - 0.84%
12/20 - 1.17%
01/21 - 1.55%
02/21 - 2.96%
03/21 - 2.18%
04/21 - 1.19%
05/21 - 2.12%
06/21 - 2.68%
07/21 - 0.70%
08/21 - 0.46% through 8/17

What is the explanation for the massive drop in death rate that exactly correlates with increased case rate from Delta Variant in July? It would appear that the Delta variant, while more highly transmissible is significantly less fatal and I have not heard or read that.

 

As Hank Williams wrote and Tom Petty sang:
“Just a deck of cards
And a jug of wine
And a woman’s lies
Make a life like mine”

 

It goes down at the start of spikes. The number of cases explodes upwards when there is a spike but deaths lag as the cases take time to resolve. The death rate increases towards the end of spikes when the deaths from cases from higher points on the curve are diluted with fewer new cases.

 

I think I was paraphrasing Jelly Roll Morton

Ashes to ashes
dust to dust
if the whiskey don't kill me
than the women must

 

Could be because there seems to be a generally younger and healthier patient population getting Covid now. Before you seldom saw someone under 45 but now we have a lot of those patients. Likewise we are seeing a lot less numbers of older patients over 75. Most of them have gotten the vaccine. Lots of younger people didn't get the vaccine because they thought they were either not going to get Covid or thought if they did it would be a piece of cake.

 

Pharmacist faces federal charges for allegedly selling vaccine cards - Chicago Tribune
A Chicago pharmacist was arrested for allegedly selling authentic COVID-19 vaccination cards on eBay.

Tangtang Zhao, 34, allegedly sold 125 vaccination cards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for $10 each during March and April. Zhao is accused of taking the cards from his employer, an unnamed national pharmacy chain that administered vaccines, and sold them online to 11 buyers, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

 

So going on 2 years and only 10% of the country has had covid? Watching the news regularly, you'd swear 10% have died from covid.

 

What's more important, perception or reality?

 

I was going to suggest something along these lines. I've heard the Delta variant is less lethal but I have known personally more people that have recently died from Delta than from the initial virus. That of course doesn't dispute the overall death rate but as you said many if the deaths last year were the older and infirmed. It doesn't mean those that died last year were less meaningful but when someone in their 30s, 40s, 50s etc suddenly dies from a virus the randomness and immediacy of it resonates more I guess.

 

I have a friend who is a nurse in one of the Orlando health hospitals. She has been against the vax for some time. I saw her yesterday and it had been a few months since I’ve seen her…..I couldn’t help but ask if she had changed her mind on getting the vax. She said actually, I don’t care about the data or anything people say, I believe my eyes and everyone in the hospital for COVID are non-vaxed.
She said she got the first shot and is soon to get the second.

 

Blink your eyes and reality with covid has changed. I would just spitball that more like 30% have had it, unless you don't buy the asymptomatic cases.

 

Similar to how I felt although I wasn't anti vaccine. I had minimal effects from covid last year and didn't rush to get the vaccine although I did urge my parents to get theirs. As my patients I ran on in the field piled up along with the diversity in body type, age, health etc I decided it was time to get mine. That was about 3 weeks or so ago.