I just heard Jacob Ward* on CNN say a few interesting things. 1. That with the case of the woman patient in Northern California, 36 nurses had to be quarantined! That’s a lot of staff missing from duty. 2. That the travel ban is misdirected. (Could you guess that xemophobe Stephen Miller wrote Trump’s speech? “Foreign” Disease.” The Covid-19 virus is here in the US and elsewhere already already. (not sure if rest is from Jake Ward or another good guest) 3. TESTING TESTING TESTING (and no backlogs, please)! Testing allows epidemiologists to learn where our own hotspots are. We need to be able to plan & allocate resources. A few days ago, some expert said that one thing large scale testing for the Covid-19 virus does, is allow pretty good zeroing in on who’s got the virus, where they are. They (epidemiological detectives) can interview patients and use various paper, mobile phones and electronic tracking to help them figure out common trail and sources. (Cue up Forensic File music.) 4. One of the expert guests suggested, depending on how “hot” your area seems to be or likely will be, to postpone elective surgery to free up hospital beds. I guess my surgery is elective ;-/ but I am in significant discomfort/pain. I think it is a go home that day, but light general anesthesia or just put me in a coma. Small joint surgery. Alisande, Isn’t that laparoscopic gb surgery pretty much go home the next day? See what your docs advise. 5. The US has tested only a few hundred and there is a backlog on getting the tests processed. South Korea has tested a few thousand individuals, and weeks ago. The US has handled this situation so very poorly. The virus has exploded in such a short while. Maybe someone has accolades for the CDC leadership (Reddington (spelling), a nodding bobble head. Top leadership has been abysmal. Don’t hold out for a vaccine, even in 18 months. This is a tremendously difficult thing to achieve with a coronavirus. We can attempt to slow the spread, to flatten the curve, but this disease is going to sweep over us. “Social distancing” is one way to help slow things down. It is too late to stomp it out (on this planet anyway). Gird you’re loins, folks. Seniors congregated close together in nursing homes is a perfect set up for lots of very ill and dying citizens. It’s not going to be nice. ”We’re fighting an enemy and we don’t even know where it is,” says Ron Klain, former Obama Ebola czar, speaking of the incredible lack of testing. He also said that when you look at the Johns Hopkins virus map and see no red dots or blobs in an area (day Maine or Gondwanaland), it cannot be interpreted as meaning no Covid-19 there. Rather, it indicates that there has been no testing there. (Returning my tix to Gondwanaland.) * Jacob Ward is excellent. Smart, calm, trained, experienced.

Could we maybe start a new thread "Covid Humor 2"? This one has so many funny things, but it's gotten so large it freezes up my computer when I try to open it. I don't know if that's a problem for anyone else, but if so, what do you think about starting a new thread instead of posting here?

Lets follow the SCIENCE. The vaccine is here. Age is only one factor in receiving it--job factors heavily. Immunity from this vaccine and having recovered from COVID is unknown as this is all to soon. The other saving grace on the horizon is a treatment. The Washington crowd getting ill before the election all received the new treatment that is in clinical trials right now. It's out of the Lab my youngest works for. The problem is TIME. It is still in clinical trials--so far they are getting fabulous results but safety says finish the trials. Once the treatment is in place and the vaccine is like seasonal flu people will be treated...things will go back to full normal. WHEN will this all be firmly in place is anyone's guess. We are living in the middle of a time of learning about something NEW. I would not personally put huge amounts of money down on travel that cannot be recovered until the treatment is available and I have not heard the timeline on the trials. YOU may well be safe but that does not mean venues are open, travel is as it was. I would like to know who this 50% of "medical workers" are. People you cannot read a stat like that and not ask to see THE SPECIFICS of the survey! If they are polling uneducated, minimum wage earners who work as nursing assistants, personal care assistance, home health aids then yes I believe it. Many of them truly believe in the paranoia of chips being put in these vaccines. It is also true this is very fast for a vaccine to be developed. It can take DECADES for the medical ramifications of drugs on the human body to appear. It is for sure a gamble of a certain degree. How much of a gamble, well what options at this point do we have but to trust in 2021 vaccine development is to a point we are safe when they tell us we are.

According to the Mayo clinic Covid website every state in the country except Alaska has an average new daily case rate below 25 per 100K people. The national average in 9 per 100K. My state is 3.2 per. You can drill down to the county level as well by clicking on the state. Just a few months ago during the Omicron surge the entire US map was black (highest level - 150+ per 100K). Mayo Covid map I'm going to wait a few months before I get the second booster unless there is another surge causing cases to increase again. I'm targeting August or September.