Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Does this mean his disciples will stop talking about how we should be doing it like Sweden?

 

I do not understand how you can state: "We can say with certainty that access to the data is being restricted" or that "We have no idea who or what entities are involved with mining this limited-access data or if it is being completely and thoroughly mined at all." There are many free and open Covaid data sets. Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) - Statistics and Research.
Here is one of MANY papers analyzing this data. Hospitalization Rates and Characteristics of Patients Hospitalized ...
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30026-1/fulltext

Perhaps what you are addressing is the lack of robust data sharing in the medical community? Here is a really good piece in the lancet on that issue (identifying the Medical Information Mart as a good solution that needs to be used more. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(20)30082-0/fulltext

I would conclude by saying I know data is being collected and analyzed. The lack of answers may be attributable to several causes:
- The data is not being shared or shared robustly (full form) between centers. This is not uncommon in the highly competitive US medical industry (capitalism mixed with medicine).
- The Federal government has done a terrible job of leadership in collecting/sharing data.

Good source of articles: https://www.nejm.org/coronavirus. Unfortunately, lots of voices, little leadership, and politicization are the answers to your question of why clear data seems rare in my opinion. The data/researchers are there doing their jobs.

 

well, don't kill the host until it has infected two others...if it were to mutate and spread to other mammals...the horror. Therapies and vaccines are our best hope.

 

Yes you do. You address it in the bottom of the post.

But one specific example that was called out and has not been addressed by the government yet is how the health department has restricted access to death records that are supposed to be public record (for FL at least). I know of some other specific cases where folks are hiding behind HIPAA (incorrectly, at that, by the way).

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

The first link only appears to include basic data that is widely available. The second link makes a reference to a study that includes some underlying conditions (that is what I think we can do so much more with). The third link refers to minimally collected data:

There's so much more information that can be utilized.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

most can but it takes more study to prove that it works as well, dosing etc.

 

The PDF below may shed some light on the increased risk of hospitalization for men over 60...
file:///C:/Users/green/Documents/2020%20coronovirus/SSRN-id3571863.pdf

EDIT: guess you must use the WESgators link below to get to the pdf...Men mostly over 60 produce an androgen that serves as a gateway for the virus to enter healthy cells increasing risk for men over 60...some younger men may also be at increased risk for increased virus virility.

 

This is mostly what I was talking about! (when was it published? )

While there is not one unified medical database (over 1,000 in the US), we don't have to pull data from every one of them to begin the process. Access to even a small percentage of them could help us make some headway. But I do agree that a unified healthcare data system should be the end goal.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

https://www.researchgate.net/profil.../Androgen-driven-COVID-19-pandemic-theory.pdf

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

— 65% of Americans support Trump's pause on immigration

A majority of Americans — as much as 65 percent — favor a temporary pause on most immigration to the United States as the coronavirus pandemic continues, according to two separate new surveys.

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released Tuesday shows that even though a majority of Americans approve of his plan to temporarily halt nearly all immigration to the U.S.

The survey of 1,008 Americans was launched after Trump announced on April 20 that he planned to pause immigration during the pandemic to protect high skilled jobs for the tens of millions of Americans who've filed for unemployment in recent weeks.
----

 

Well just one voice, but not exactly good news if it comes to pass.

Pandemic likely to last up to two more years, experts’ report predicts — CNN

 

I’ve thought that this has always been a possible if not likely outcome. We may all just be ducks on a pond

 

There SHOULD be leadership at the federal and state levels to limit the impact of regulations on data sharing and to force cooperation amongst public/private researchers (form a "dream team" of scientist to sort and distribute data). Unfortunately, that has not occurred. However, I do know that the process of analyzing data sets has, and is, occurring. NYU scientists: Largest US study of COVID-19 finds obesity the single biggest 'chronic' factor in New York City's hospitalizations | ZDNet.
Case-Fatality Rate and COVID-19 Death Characteristics in Italy - American College of Cardiology

Moreover, the existing medical system in the US is a bastardized combination of capitalism, crony regulation, and health morality. This disfunction has manifested itself for the last 30 years with the US being near the bottom of first world countries in surveys of patient satisfaction AND having almost third world results (based on things like infant mortality, etc). People are unhappy with reason in the US, and Covaid is bringing the chickens home to roost. A not minor part of this problem is turf/competition amongst medical players when the focus should be on patient results more than, or at least as much as, profits. In our current system there is little connection between spending and quantifiable results. We have the resources and need to organize and use them for this crisis and in the future.

 

So if this is true, all we have done is increase the amount of time it's gonna take to get to that 60-70% by all these shutdowns. This is what some health professionals have been saying and they have been chided left and right for saying it.

 

Sorry if you took offense, but my post was framed in comparison. I even wrote "in comparison." And those comparisons, like it or not, are valid. Americans' independence is widely acknowledged, as is our relative disregard for our elders. I'm under no obligation to support these claims further. If you want to dispute it, fine. Let's hear it.

 

If nothing changes, it’s a fair question.
But a few points - that assumes no vaccine in the interim, that we don’t get better with how to treat these cases either via experience or medications (we are already learning ventilators aren’t the best answer, promise position helps greatly etc and several medications are in the pipeline), and most importantly that we don’t overwhelm hospitals and have the death rate skyrocket because we didn’t have the bandwidth to treat “treatable” people. NY only had about 1/4 to 1/5 of its population infected and they had to call in help from around the country. Imagine dying from a heart blockage because there are no hospital beds for a stent as an example.
Cost benefit can certainly be done against all of that, but a slower roll will have its benefits.

 

Like I said, what percentage of Americans do you think don't care? The self-deprecating exaggeration of one's own group just comes off as misery. GATOR fans do it all the time, so it's nothing new or unexpected even for this site...I think it deserves to be called out when it happens, though. We obviously have different opinions on this, that's why I'd be curious to see what percentage of Americans you think don't care. Or have you even thought about it in that context?

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

There's not a numeric answer to this, WES. It's a social construct and in this particular case, applying a number would be flawed for multiple reasons. Patterns exist and this type of conclusion is best supported through qualitative (not quantitative) analysis. If you don't agree, that's fine, but I have yet to read any substantive support for your conclusion, whereas I supplied multiple sources for mine.

 

What is my conclusion?

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS