Coronavirus Outbreak: Part 2

From they it was worded in the article I read, I think it was mostly a staffing issue. I’m not totally sure.

This seem pertinent to the discussion. The data are not finalized, but currently it does not appear that other causes of death changed places on the ranked list; notably, suicide did not rise in the ranks in 2020. Raw numbers are not available, so it’s not a full picture.
COVID19 was the 3rd leading cause of death

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I will be really curious to see how the data shakes out. I work in an outpatient clinic primarily. We treat a lot of patients with lung disease. Winter is a really difficult time for these patients since even a cold or sinus infection can trigger a flare of their COPD or asthma. For the ones who managed to avoid COVID, they’ve been so much healthier this year. We’ve prescribed significantly less antibiotics than usual.

On the other hand, we are starting to see post-COVID lung disease patients. Pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease, previously healthy people on oxygen for months. This morbidity is difficult to quantify.

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I want to be clear that I am not attempting to minimize the impact COVID has had on mental health. I was just encouraged that there was not a corresponding rise on that list.

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Welcome to the Forum! I’m so sorry to hear about your friend. COVID has bought on so much lost continually.

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Oh, that’s so sweet of you! We are honestly thrilled she is still here (we were told three times to prepare ourselves to lose her) but it’s hard that the long term prognosis is so uncertain; she’s kind of blazing a trail, so no one, including her doctors, know what to expect. (She probably caught it some time around Memorial Day weekend last year, though we don’t know where.)

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I really appreciate this comment and I scrolled back up and reread it, and it hit home for me. It reminds me that a lot of our differences here stem from either our profession or something specific in our family that is of particular concern. That’s how it should be. We all need to do what’s best for our families. The one size fits all approach has been one of my greatest frustrations with covid.

My DD12 did not thrive doing school at home, at all. She fell apart completely without the in-person social aspect. My wife and I both spent a lot of extra time with her, but she just felt lost, depressed, angry with her sister who was able to handle it well, really mean and disrespectful to us, not eating, hating her appearance, etc. Alert after alert about more missing assignments and horrid grades on ones she turned in. I was so frustrated about this for months because I couldn’t relate to this problem or help her very easily. It was heartbreaking and gut-wrenching. It took the school opening back up and her going back for things to click with her again, and it’s been a slow road back to where she needs to be academically, and mentally and emotionally overall. It will be a struggle yet for awhile to recover from where she was. I was so happy to see her happy in WDW. She needed that, not that it magically solved everything.

Some of my covid views are through that lens, and it definitely led to me lashing out here once in awhile on especially bad days. That issue has affected my family much more than anything else, including us all being infected with the virus. I’m not saying her mental state is more important than someone’s life. I won’t play that comparison game, and none of us should be expected to. I love my daughter and saw what the loss of interaction and activity did to her, and that doesn’t mean I don’t value others’ lives enough if I think more things can get back to normal. Pros and cons to everything. My family has to be top priority, but I also don’t want people to die.

I’ve learned of a few people here having a child with a high risk condition, and therefore it’s led them to be more on the concerned and cautious side with covid. That makes total sense to me, and I might be on that side too with a child having that specifically higher risk that I would need to protect.

I think a year into this, there is still a lot of misconception on just what the other side’s position is. I feel my opinions and those who share them are misunderstood, and I probably am misreading others’ concerns too. We often miss or don’t know each others’ detailed context, and we fail to understand the depth of the concerns and where they come from. Our concerns don’t need to be identical or prioritized exactly the same way for them to be valid to us in our lives. It’s taken me a long time to understand and respect some of the concerns that are not my own, but I am trying, and I hope for that to be mutual. We have all been hit by this in one way or another. I have hope though, and I think what unites us here is greater than what divides us. This forum is also like a family in a way, and I do care about this family too.

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This is so true.
And it seems to be the area humans struggle with in general. Our personal convictions have come “the hard way”: we’ve lived them. For the most part they are born from our personal experiences and developed over time. They guided our decision making pre-pandemic and it is no wonder they influence our thoughts and behaviors mid-pandemic. We all do better when we recognize that we all have different backstories and “baggage”, and offer grace to one another rather than just become frustrated that people don’t see things our way…

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Welcome to the forum!

Yes. I totally agree with this. We’re just lucky to live where we do. (Although I never thought of it being extreme :stuck_out_tongue: :wink: :grinning:)

My concern is getting our vaccination rate up where it should be. I’m concerned that our vaccination clinics seem to go begging now. Just because the virus is somewhat suppressed currently, doesn’t mean it will stay that way. About 55% of the state has either had COVID or the vaccine. That probably is nowhere near what is needed to have herd immunity.

I don’t think we understand all that well what makes this virus spread. Why it surging in Michigan of all places? They’ve had stricter restrictions and mask rules than many populated, yet less hard-hit places.

Anyway, it’s “mud season” here now- in between ski season and summer. No one here but us residents. I sure don’t want people to be lulled into complacency and not get their vaccines just because they think the virus is gone, and then have it come back and hit us between the eyes this summer.

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The running theory is variants.

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Yes, vaccination is the single best solution for defeating the virus. The higher the vaccination rate, the better. As many resources as can be expended on producing, delivering, administering, and promoting vaccination, the better.

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MI just had most schools start to go back face to face in the last 2-3 months, and went from 25% capacity at restaurants to 50%, and opened up some small events. Add in the UK variant and people thinking that less restrictions means they don’t have to be careful and we have a perfect storm.

If you look at the curve of cases here, it’s almost an exact replication of what happened when they went back to school in the fall, and started sports, and opened gyms. We’re close to the peak we hit in December, but hopefully vaccination and a shift toward doing more things outdoors will let us curb it without another lockdown.

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So very sorry to hear about DD. :pray: There are many stories like that out there.

Thank you for sharing. I really don’t think we are that far apart. You are correct that our baggage influences our opinions. I’m in CA. That should say it all. I have long said that our elected and public health officials have spent far too much time enacting rules to restrict us rather than allocating some of that time to figuring out how we can do some activities safely as we learned more about the virus. As much as they said they were following the science, some rules bordered on ludicrous! I really do feel we are respectful of one another here and do care for one another.

Hug DD often and speak her love language often!

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I’ve been trying to understand some of those as well. Is it like setting the speed limit intentionally a little low because they expect people will go 5-10 miles over? Are they expecting rule followers to restrict more than really necessary in the hopes that somehow offsets those not adhering to the rules hardly at all? Is it just desperation? I’m really not sure!

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I’m typically a rule follower. But those ludicrous ones during the pandemic? Shhh! I ignored them!

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CA was hit really hard by the pandemic. BUT you get DL all to yourself, no outsiders allowed :wink: :partying_face:

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I’m not sure that there is even one formula they are following.
As a NY resident, some days it has felt like they are making rules because they actually care. Other days it has felt like they just have control and need to use it. Without getting too political, our governor has a rather grandiose personality and got a lot of attention early on. And I also think that leaders in places like NY or CA have a hard time recognizing that there is a huge variety between the metro areas and the rural areas.

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Me too, @stlouie. I was a card carrying rule follower. Pray for my leaders. Respect the ones in positions of authority. I don’t know what to call myself anymore. I’ve seen too much now. I wonder if I will ever go back… So much tomfoolery.

And then there’s the huge quandary if you set different rules, the metro people just flock to the rural areas, when that’s exactly what’s NOT needed. We’re just a couple miles from the county for Houston proper, so be we’ve really seen it.

On the personal progress front, DS16 just got Pfizer #1! So glad our pediatrician is affiliated with Texas Children’s.

We got an email last night inviting us to sign up and I jumped on it. From the bits of what I’m overhearing, they are just transitioning from vaccinating “Family Plus” (I’m assuming staff families) to all of their 16+ patients. (I’m assuming their high risk patients were done way earlier.)

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