Covid Discussion continuation v 3

Hopefully you and DWK have learned your lesson (although I highly doubt it). The Webmaster has been extremely 'lenient' with you two....disrespectful 'posters'.

 

Answer - Yes, downward trend has been continuing for over the past 30 days, down from ~7% 30 days ago.


Answe - Yes, trending average is roughly 1000 now, it was 1500 30 days ago, and over 2000 at its peak.



Johnston county as a subset has roughly been in line with the state for most statistics.
Deaths have been on a steady decline for the past month. Still statistically zero for those under 25 years old and only 20% between 25 and 64 years old. While people under 65 account for 87% of all cases, while people over 65 account for 81% of deaths

 

Thanks

 

Just think where we could be if we actually followed the advice of the experts in the field....

 

Trump suggests he may overrule FDA vaccine approval


ANJALEE KHEMLANI
Sep 24th 2020 4:00PM

President Donald Trump has fanned new concerns over the politicization of coronavirus vaccine approvals, suggesting he could block stricter guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to expedite a treatment to the general public.

As the U.S. faces a second wave of COVID-19 cases ahead of the flu season, two leading vaccine candidates are making their way through late-stage clinical trials. The need for a successful cure is high, as the world’s largest economy struggles to control nearly 7 million diagnoses and over 200,000 deaths. Globally, almost 32 million have been infected and more than 677,000 have died.

At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn repeated assurances that the agency would stick to usual standards of review of data and information in order to grant a limited emergency use authorization.

The FDA is in the process of expanding the observation period of Phase 3 trials, and the new guidance would push out an authorization toward the end of November, rather than the possible earlier timeframe of late October that is currently in sight.

The agency “will not authorize or approve any COVID-19 vaccine before it has met the agency’s rigorous expectations for safety and effectiveness,” Hahn said. He added that “every one of the decisions we have reached has been made by career FDA scientists based on science and data, not politics.”

However, Trump undercut the FDA chief in press remarks later Wednesday, criticizing the new guidelines as unnecessary, and suggesting the agency itself was playing politics.

“We're looking at that and that has to be approved by the White House. We may or may not approve it. That sounds like a political move,” Trump said.

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar similarly undercut the FDA Thursday, telling NBC the rules the FDA is pursuing already exist.

Trump has insisted a vaccine is likely to be approved by Election Day, even as all top health officials have suggested that it would take longer for a treatment to be available to the general public. At best, the two top contenders could have the first read of efficacy data by that time, with any sort of authorization comings weeks to months after.

Meanwhile, as concerns percolate over the impact of school reopenings, a new study suggested that some of those fears may be unfounded. While there have been reports of spikes in cases at colleges, grade schools have not seen such spikes, early data show. The rate of spread has been lower than expected inside buildings, and come mostly from external activities instead.

The results come as the debate over physical attendance in schools grows more acute, with New York City still trying to decide whether children will attend in person classes this year. In Wisconsin, officials warn parents are sending coronavirus-infected kids to school, all while lying to contact tracers and refusing tests.

Separately, Missouri’s Republican governor Mike Parson, who has refused to mandate masks, has tested positive for the virus. The governor said he feels no symptoms but is adhering to quarantining procedures.

Test before you fly
As the world faces a second wave of the coronavirus, airlines like United (UAL) and Lufthansa (DLAKY) are looking at pre-flight COVID-19 testing in order to encourage more travelers to take to the skies.

The industry has been under sever pressure, with as much as an 82% drop in international travel compared to last year.

It’s why airlines and even some airports have begun offering testing. Newark Liberty International Airport offers tests in one of its terminals, and European airports are piloting a self-test developed in Israel as the continent faces new outbreaks.

In the U.S., where second wave fears are on the rise, the need for testing has been hampered by regular shortages of necessary equipment — even as the FDA continues to approve new tests. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Robert Redfield said Wednesday that more than 90% of individuals have not had the virus — even though some areas, like New York City, has seen at least 22% of its population affected.

Most recently, an antibody test authorized for emergency use in July was reauthorized to include point-of-care fingerprick testing. The new authorization increases the potential use settings.

“As more and more point-of-care serology tests are authorized, they will help conserve those resources and may help reduce processing time for other types of COVID-19 tests, as less time is spent on serology tests,” the FDA’s Hahn told lawmakers on Wednesday.

 

My husband just said something close to that tonight, except that his language was a little less charitable.

 

I have found that common sense is not often sensible no matter how common it may be.

 

I thought we all were supposed to be “respectable posters” on this thread? Shouldn’t you be posting demeaning slurs on here, like the ones typically used against my womanhood, that have nothin’ to do with the discussion, instead of comparative mask/condom jokes? I’m just saying....
Lol.

 

Lol. Someone looking for attention,,, again.

 

I was making an ironic comment to Hught. I wasn’t talking to you. So, who is the one looking to get some attention by shoehorning himself into OUR conversation and adding nothin’ to it like always? You.

 

LOFL.

 

Young people may be more at risk of severe Covid-19 illness than realized


JACQUELINE STENSON
Sep 28th 2020 10:42AM

Before contracting Covid-19 in June, Stephanie Moir ran almost every day, pushing her two young children in a jogging stroller. Now she has trouble just getting out of bed and showering. She’s been dealing with the disease for months, and there’s still no end in sight.

Her battle has included eight trips to the emergency room and two hospital stays for a range of problems, including pneumonia, recurring diarrhea, racing heartbeat, infections, kidney problems, muscle weakness and electrolyte imbalances. She’s lost 30 pounds.

“I thought I was a healthy 33-year-old,” said Moir, a mental health counselor in Tampa, Florida. “I’ve never had a history of anything remotely like this.”

Moir has seen some 20 different health care providers, among them numerous specialists, and taken various medications and supplements, but a cure remains elusive. She takes comfort in the support she receives from family, friends and an online community, where she connects with other so-called long-haulers who also are trying to cope with persistent symptoms.

“I count my ‘good days,’ and I think the longest amount of good days I’ve had so far has been eight days in a row,” Moir said. “And what I mean by good days are days where I literally don’t feel like I’m about to die or need to go to the ER or feel like I’m losing my ability to walk.”

While young adults may think they are strong and invincible, doctors warn that Covid-19 can strike them with a vengeance, too.

Recently, the family of Dr. Adeline Fagan announced that the 28-year-old Houston OB-GYN resident died from the virus after a long hospital stay.

And Natalie Hakala, 22, was a healthy college runner before needing to go to the ER in August after testing positive for Covid-19, and she’s still not fully recovered.

New findings published this month further reveal how severely young adults can be affected by Covid-19. A research paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that among more than 3,200 adults ages 18 to 34 who were hospitalized with the disease, 21 percent required intensive care, 10 percent required mechanical ventilation and nearly 3 percent — 88 patients — died. Of those who survived, 3 percent — 99 patients — had to be discharged to another health care facility to continue their recovery.

“While the vast majority of young adults who get Covid are not going to require hospitalization, those who do have really high risk for these adverse outcomes,” said study author Dr. Scott Solomon, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It is not trivial.”

The research is worrisome because the incidence of Covid-19 in the United States is now highest among young adults ages 20 to 29, who from June to August accounted for more than 20 percent of all confirmed cases, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported Wednesday. Adults ages 30 to 39 made up the second largest group of cases.

Young people should not assume they are immune to the consequences of this disease and they should do everything they can to avoid it.

As young adults return to college campuses — and parties — multiple outbreaks already have been reported by various universities across the nation. Doctors are concerned about the spreading infections and the serious cases that can result.

“We’re seeing a really rising incidence of Covid-19 in young people, and that’s in part due to activity over the summer, and obviously we’re all very worried about this as they come back to colleges,” Solomon said.

“It’s unfortunate, but I think that we are likely to see an increased percentage of young people who experience these bad outcomes as the number of infections in this group goes up,” he said.

'Life-threatening for all ages'
Solomon and colleagues used a large health care database to look at serious Covid-19 illnesses in young adults hospitalized in April, May or June. Of the more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals in the database that treated a total of 63,103 Covid-19 patients during the study period, 3,222 patients, or 5 percent, were young adults admitted to 419 hospitals.

Overall, 58 percent of the young adult patients were men, and 57 percent were Black or Hispanic. More than a third were obese, including 25 percent who were morbidly obese (with a body mass index of 40 or higher), 18 percent had diabetes and 16 percent had hypertension. The young adult patients who had more than one of these underlying health conditions had the same risks from Covid-19 as middle-aged adults without those conditions, the study found.

Results also showed that the risks of dying or needing mechanical ventilation were more than double in young adult patients who were either morbidly obese or had hypertension.

While the study’s in-hospital death rate of 2.7 percent in young adult Covid-19 patients was lower than that in older adults, it is about double that of young adults who’ve had a heart attack.

Though young people often tend to discount health risks in general, they shouldn’t downplay the threat of Covid-19, Solomon stressed. They need to take precautions to protect themselves and others, he said, and those who have underlying health conditions should be especially vigilant.

“Young people should not assume that they are immune to the consequences of this disease and they should do everything they can to avoid it,” Solomon said.

In a commentary that accompanied the paper, Dr. Mitchell Katz, deputy editor of JAMA Internal Medicine and president and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, wrote the findings show that “Covid-19 does not spare young people.”

The paper “establishes that Covid-19 is a life-threatening disease in people of all ages and that social distancing, facial coverings, and other approaches to prevent transmission are as important in young adults as in older persons,” he wrote.

Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, recommended people of all ages with uncontrolled diseases like hypertension and diabetes work with their physicians to make sure the conditions are properly treated, and those who are obese should strive for a healthier weight.

“If you have these risk factors, it’s really important that you get them under control,” Poland said. “The better controlled they are, the lower your susceptibility and risk.”

Early in the pandemic, Covid-19 often was positioned as an “older-person disease,” but researchers now know that is not an accurate portrayal, said Dr. Lewis Kaplan, president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and a professor of surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Even people who are young and do not have underlying health conditions may get very sick, and there’s no way to know ahead of time how someone will respond to the infection, Kaplan said. Importantly, young adults who don’t get very sick can still spread the virus to more at-risk populations.

 

B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for September 29, 2020

 

Acknowledging the strength and fortitude of the parents of Chad Dorrill, a 19 year-old college student at Appalachian State, who passed away from Covid, Monday night. Chad’s parents, in their grief, took the time to tell their story to several media outlets, and to warn others that the risk is real. Chad was studying to become a physical therapist, in addition to playing on the college basketball team.
RIP, Chad Dorrill.