Jax and Coronavirus

[Steve]

Jacksonville ICU's are full again. My friend and neighbor was taken to Baptist Downtown a few nights ago via ambulance. There were over 60 people waiting in the ER, half had come in via ambulance. After waiting for four hours with no progress his wife drove him to Baptist South where he died.

If you need medical care in the ER right now you are on your own. Don't get sick. Don't get injured.

Obviously very very sorry to hear that, but Baptist reported their numbers today and this doesn't seem
Full:

https://twitter.com/baptisthealthjx/status/1479450121737805828?s=21

[Lunican]

^Baptist Downtown is completely full. Unfortunately there is no way to determine how full they are from the numbers they post. They are working to convert regular rooms into covid ICU rooms.

[Lunican]

A major problem this time around is staff being out with covid. Hospitals are extremely short-staffed at the moment.

[Lunican]

Hospitals Are in Serious Trouble
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-hospital-strain-health-care-workers/621193/

[BridgeTroll]

Great information Lake... thanks for sharing.  My wife had similar symptoms but when I convinced her to get tested she was negative... I now seem to be developing similar symptoms... I still have an appetite, no fever, and tastebuds working fine...but since my wife was negative I am self quarantined and treating symptoms... using the Zicam zinc nasal swabs so Covid test probably won't happen unless I  feel worse.

Sore throat was bad Friday night... felt like crap Saturday morning so went to urgent care and got swabbed. Still have a wicked sore throat but results just came back negative... more hot tea, lozenges and Tylenol...lol

[Lunican]

485,000 new covid cases in the U.S. today.

1.48 million new cases in the U.S. today.

[BridgeTroll]

485,000 new covid cases in the U.S. today.

1.48 million new cases in the U.S. today.

No one except China seems to be able to control a virus...

[Ken_FSU]

Second quarantine of the year.

Between coworkers and friends, I know over 30 people who have tested positive since the New Year.

My 8-year old daughter caught it, as did two members of my team.

Hoping this thing burns off relatively fast like it has elsewhere.

[jaxlongtimer]

Heard on NPR the opening part of DeSantis's "State of the State" speech today to open the legislative session. 

He led off with calling Florida the state of "freedom," repeatedly bragging about his warding off Federal and medical mandates regarding COVID and not once referencing the dire impact COVID has had on the State.  He only talked about how he kept businesses and schools open, fighting off Fauci and the "inciteful media," not once mentioning the State's scourge of illness and death or the wipe out of our medical communities and overflowing hospitals.  Nor, the negative economic impacts of COVID that offset his "positive impacts" he takes credit for. 

He is just a total panderer to the Trump base to build a foundation for his presidential ambitions.  Like many politicos today, he doesn't really care how many backs he needs to trample over to get there.  It is what is truly wrong with our political system today, driven very much by dark money {e.g. see the recent connections between Nextera/Florida Power & Light dark money and the efforts to sell JEA and put up bogus candidates to manipulate election outcomes (https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-dark-money-ghost-candidates-tactics-20211230-7zelkoadffclde3z76ax3cgx3m-htmlstory.html)}.

DeSantis, a Republican who is seeking a second term in November and hasn't ruled out a White House bid in 2024, called Florida the "freest state" in the U.S.

"Florida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions," he told a packed and largely maskless House chamber in Tallahassee during his 33-minute address.

DeSantis said school closures have been reckless, politically motivated and hurt students, and he cited job losses the governor blamed on mandates that he complained have denied Americans freedom because of a "coercive biomedical apparatus."

These policies, DeSantis said, are grounded in "blind adherence to Faucian declarations," a reference to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and formerly a top adviser to presidents since 1984, including President Donald Trump....

....In their official response to the governor's speech, Democrats noted that more than 60,000 people in Florida have died from COVID-19.

"What we don't need is to create more fake boogeymen," said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Hollywood. "There's already enough fear and anger in our society, we don't need our elected leaders making it worse."

Jenne added: "We don't need the third-largest state in America to devote it's entire legislative session to making sacrifices at the altar of political ambition for any one individual."...

....In November, DeSantis will run for re-election as governor against one of three candidates vying to be the Democratic nominee: Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., and state Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami.

Fried, in an interview, said DeSantis is forcing his own beliefs on the people of Florida, and is not being transparent enough to Floridians about his plans for the years to come.

"His attempts to run for president of the United States means that he no longer is caring about the people," she said. "He wants to use the people of our state as his own tools to get to the White House, and it's really up to the people of the state to stop him."

https://www.wuft.org/news/2022/01/11/freedom-works-desantis-mocks-covid-restrictions-bashes-feds-on-economy-and-immigration/

[Steve]

I think we're finally coming to grips with the inevitable that most everyone will be exposed to this. I think the faster we come to grips with this, the better:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/omicron-variant-will-find-just-about-everybody-fauci-says-but-vaccinated-people-will-still-fare-better/ar-AASE8Qn?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

[Lunican]

Remaining unvaccinated is a bad bet.

[Steve]

Remaining unvaccinated is a bad bet.

On THAT we 100% agree. I don't get the hesitancy - wife and I both are vaxxed with booster.

This past week both my kids have tested positive (too young for vaccine) - one on Friday and one on Monday. For them, it is an extremely mild cold - so mild we likely would have sent them to school at other times. The only thing that threw me off is Friday night one of them had a dry cough so we tested her.

My wife and I haven't tested positive (both taken 2 rapids a few days apart), but since Saturday I've had a scratchy throat and have felt a little rundown at the end of the day....all so mild that had I not suspected covid I'd have gone to work and may or may not have even considered downing a dose of dayquil.

[BridgeTroll]

Apparently they now want us to wear the N95 masks... next up...scuba...

[jaxlongtimer]

Apparently they now want us to wear the N95 masks... next up...scuba...

N95 and KN95 have long been the preferred masks to wear.  With the increased contagiousness of Omnicron, their superior filtering and tighter fit has become even more necessary.  Just make sure they are NIOSH approved (list of such brands can be found on the internet).  Amazon and others have been selling many N95 and KN95 masks not so approved to unsuspecting buyers.

[Steve]

Genuine question here-what exactly are we trying to prevent here (aside from those who do not have funny functioning immune systems): Assuming you're healthy and vaccinated, the hospitalization rate for Covid is like 5 per 100k people. Flu is between 40 and 60 per 100k (CDC numbers on both).

The whole, "zero Covid" thing isn't going to happen since vaccines -while dramatically improving symptoms - don't seem to be doing much to limit spread.

Personally I just think we're all delaying the inevitable with all of this.

I certainly am not a doctor and I have been wrong on many things in life so this could be one of them, but shouldn't we be targeting public health policy to those that do not have fully functioning immune systems?