• Welcome to TalkWeather!
    We see you lurking around TalkWeather! Take the extra step and join us today to view attachments, see less ads and maybe even join the discussion.
    CLICK TO JOIN TALKWEATHER

COVID-19 detected in United States

KoD said:
I don't understand why some news sources are claiming Alabama is one of the few states with declining numbers. Out of the 31000+ confirmed cases, 9000+ (~29% of the total) have occurred over the past 2 weeks.
We've certainly seen an obvious increase at the hospital in Madison County, which is one of the most fortunate counties per population so far. A month ago we'd sometimes go a couple days with no positive cases and lately we've had half a dozen or more in a single shift. Hopefully it's not a long term trend.
Click to expand...

What's the severity of the cases and demographics of them there? Are you guys seeing what seems to be happening in other places where it's mostly the younger crowd (20-40)?
 
gangstonc said:
In states where masks are required in public, the rate of new cases has dropped by 25% in the last two weeks. In states where they are not, cases are up 84%.

From Dan Satterfield.
Click to expand...

California is the big outlier right now in the states that require masks. I'm still not sure exactly what to think on the issue. It'll be interesting to compare California to some other states that don't require masks again in a month or two and see how things spread.
 
I live in Shelby Co. AL, I’m continuing to wear a mask in stores and will continue for how ever long it is suggested.
Masks are uncomfortable, not easy to breathe in stores that are warm and it’s nasty on my skin but it’s a small inconvenience compared to being intubated or causing a loved one or friend to be intubated!
 
Jacob said:
What's the severity of the cases and demographics of them there? Are you guys seeing what seems to be happening in other places where it's mostly the younger crowd (20-40)?
Click to expand...
It's a mixed bag as far as demographics and that may be because the sample size is small, but it's mostly younger to middle aged folks 30-55. As far as severity, most of the positives have been discharged. Quite a few had pretty mild/isolated symptoms such as only a sore throat or abdominal discomfort/diarrhea which adds a lot of ambiguity to identifying possible positive patients early. Also many of them haven't had symptoms for very long or had recent exposures to known positive cases so the latent phase of the infection hadn't occured. That said, we have had a noticable increase in people who tested positive several days or 1-2 weeks prior to revisiting with worsening symptoms but that number is still pretty small right now.
 
Hello everyone. Greetings from Panama City Beach, FL. We opened up from the virus, but are beginning to shut down again. Bars are closed and the rumor mill has it the beach will be closed by the 4th of July. Great for public safety, not so much for local businesses trying to keep their doors open.
 
We're apparently still moving forward with Phase 3 here next month, which I really don't feel great about. The situation in Virginia isn't bad, but given the national trends, I don't think it's responsible to go further with it right now. It would be better to wait until things start to slow down across the board than to rush re-opening, create a new spike in cases, and have to shut back down again. I'd be a lot more confident if people were going to be responsible and wear their masks and keep their distance, but I don't have that much faith in human nature, I guess.

In any case, I was told today that I'll still be teleworking for a few more months at least.
 
An ER doctor today chose to test 15 patients (during their 8 hours shift) based on symptoms, 7 were positive. Usually there's 1-2 positive per 30 tested. I hope that trend that doesn't continue. We've had to expand the infectious disease isolation area from 1/4th of the ER to 2/5th due to the patient load and positive cases. Now we're finding positive cases outside of the highly contagious unit, and most every patient is being tested if there is a nano ounce of suspicion (we've been doing this for months). There's also some increased infection among staff - can't really elaborate on that. It's to the point where I'm considering an N95 all day, even at the nurses station. Of course it's the same N95 I've had for months because there are no more to replace it. ER patient load is back full throttle and SARS-CoV-2 wants to play along as well. Still manageable.. But deteriorating at an increasing pace. Staff are being offered incentive pay for working overtime. Some staff are leaving to pursue big paychecks in travel to hotspots. Visitors are banned again (excluding extreme circumstances).
There's a lot of variables pertaining to the strain on a healthcare system and all of these currently occuring can't get much worse or we're going to start having problems.

I think it's pretty far from a disaster at this time, but that possibility is now visible on the horizon.
 
A few weeks ago I read a news article on vaccines that mentioned that the 20 or 30 million Americans with antibodies at that point would be lower priorities once a vaccine comes out (hopefully in early 2021). Dummy me didn't grasp the significance -- they expect 20 to 30 million recovered cases by the end of this year -- until days passed and now I can't find the article again.

However, here's that 20 million number popping up again.

Well, we did keep the deaths to around 100,000, though that is still a tragedy, during the first peak of the virus virulence.

Now, while cases are soaring, especially in the South and West (we just went on statewide mandatory face masks in indoors public areas in Oregon, though most counties remain in Phase 2), hospitalizations are proportionately lower, I believe -- a nasty crisis, but perhaps not as bad as it might have been if this was a peak-virulence period.

We've just got to hang tough til they get a safe, effective vaccine out.
 
bjdeming said:
A few weeks ago I read a news article on vaccines that mentioned that the 20 or 30 million Americans with antibodies at that point would be lower priorities once a vaccine comes out (hopefully in early 2021). Dummy me didn't grasp the significance -- they expect 20 to 30 million recovered cases by the end of this year -- until days passed and now I can't find the article again.

However, here's that 20 million number popping up again.

Well, we did keep the deaths to around 100,000, though that is still a tragedy, during the first peak of the virus virulence.

Now, while cases are soaring, especially in the South and West (we just went on statewide mandatory face masks in indoors public areas in Oregon, though most counties remain in Phase 2), hospitalizations are proportionately lower, I believe -- a nasty crisis, but perhaps not as bad as it might have been if this was a peak-virulence period.

We've just got to hang tough til they get a safe, effective vaccine out.
Click to expand...
Did you read KoD's post right above you? Hospitalizations for COVID are at an all time high in Alabama and other states.
 
ghost said:
Did you read KoD's post right above you? Hospitalizations for COVID are at an all time high in Alabama and other states.
Click to expand...

What you bolded however is still true. Proportional to the number of positive cases, hospitalizations are significantly lower, even in Alabama and other southern states.

However, it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison to back in March/April given how much different/more available testing is now.
 
It’s getting bad at the hospital I work at. We are seeing an increase in the number of patients coming in who have tested Covid positive earlier and are now having worsening symptoms. Our ICU is full and our Covid wing is almost full. Young people coming in and struggling to breathe. We can’t go at this rate much longer or it’s going to be overwhelming.
 
gangstonc said:
If you don’t wear a mask in public, please start doing so. I’m ready for this mess to be over.
Click to expand...

I don't mean this snarky, but I don't think masks are going to make this go away any quicker than not wearing them. If anything, not wearing masks might make it go away quicker, it might just be more painful getting there. (this is not an endorsement either direction, just a statement)

This thing is too widespread, with tens of millions of cases in the US, for masks to stop it at this point. It can limit the spread, but it's not going away (with or without masks) until we reach herd immunity or if a succesful vaccine is developed.

I hate to use this term, but the next two weeks should tell us a lot. If we get to the middle of July without healthcare systems being overrun in Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California (and to a lesser extent Alabama, and a couple others), then there's obviously something quite different with the virus now than what it was in Feb/March/April.
 
Not wearing masks is just going to make it more widespread. Wearing a mask is an incredibly minor thing that requires almost no effort. If it prevents even one case, it's worth it. It's a bad situation already, but not taking the easiest steps available to mitigate it will make it worse and for longer.
 
warneagle said:
Not wearing masks is just going to make it more widespread. Wearing a mask is an incredibly minor thing that requires almost no effort. If it prevents even one case, it's worth it. It's a bad situation already, but not taking the easiest steps available to mitigate it will make it worse and for longer.
Click to expand...

I wasn't making an argument against wearing masks. How will not wearing a mask make this thing last longer though? If anything, not wearing a mask should make its duration shorter, as the virus will eventually burn itself out if it gets widespread enough. Wearing a mask will limit that spread (again, not saying this is a bad thing, obviously), but it'll also prolong the virus being around. That was really the point I was making.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top