Wednesday December 29, 2021

Christmas gatherings now hitting the stats full swing.. and hospitals, both hospitalized patients and the hospital workers. And airline employees.

USA: viral blizzard
Kansas: viral blizzard

my county: also a viral blizzard
hospitalizations:
- 71% unvaccinated/unknown (what does unknown mean?)
- deaths up


Let's see then, our I don't give a frak about anything but what I want New Years Eve partying ought to just about finish off the health care system nicely.


hells bells

Saturday, January 1, 2022, 12:15am, USA
Day one of year three of the 2020 SARS‑CoV‑2 pandemic.
😷

😔

So...

I got a nasty sinus infection the week leading into Christmas, and it turns out it might have been Covid.  My sister-in-law came up to visit, along with her kids and her boyfriend, and he ended up getting sick after they got back home, went in, and he ended up testing positive.  It's possible he could have gotten it somewhere else along the way, but it sounds like his symptoms were similar to mine...

I did go to urgent care when I started getting sick, and they tested for strep, but since I didn't have a fever, I guess they didn't feel like they needed to test for Covid, but in hindsight, probably should have.

My wife has a checkup today, and since she has also gotten sick, she will ask to be tested.  Self-test kits have been in short supply around here lately.

First case of "Flurona" confirmed in Kansas





https://www.wibw.com/2022/01/05/first-case-flurona-confirmed-kansas/

Quote from: flybynight on January 05, 2022, 11:55:41 AM
First case of "Flurona" confirmed in Kansas





https://www.wibw.com/2022/01/05/first-case-flurona-confirmed-kansas/

Quote from: flybynight on January 05, 2022, 11:55:41 AM
First case of "Flurona" confirmed in Kansas

https://www.wibw.com/2022/01/05/first-case-flurona-confirmed-kansas/

Well, <deleted expletive>.

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022
Kansas:
Record numbers of COVID-19 patients, and up to one-third of staff out sick, there is no bed space available. At least 80% of patients in each facility are unvaccinated, including nearly 100% of patients in intensive care.

Data from the software hospitals use to find available bed space, shows the number of patients who died while awaiting transfer increased from eight in November to 41 last month.

Chief Medical Officer of the University of Kansas Health System:
"This is our most difficult moment in the pandemic. We have an exploding number of COVID-19 patients, people aren't using good infection control."

Recent conversation with the chief medical officer from a rural area who told him:
"We don't do dialysis, but we can't get anybody transferred out, and these patients are dying." The doctor explained that he opened up a textbook, put in some catheters and tried to figure out how to do it.

Chief Medical Officer of the health system which serves the KC metro area:
The hospital had to defer 128 surgeries this week. The hospital is nearing the point of 'crisis standard of care' meaning doctors will start determining who gets care and who is left to die.


my county:
Deaths are slowly climbing.
Unvaccinated COVID patients overflow hospital. Unprecedented numbers of COVID-19 patients and staff members out sick with the virus.
County hospital physician:
"We've offered insane amounts of overtime. People won't take it because they can't; they just mentally or physically cannot anymore. And it is heartbreaking to look at that situation and think that we may have to deliver substandard care and just try to piece together care for patients. I don't know what we're going to do."

An emergency public health requiring face coverings for those ages 2 and older inside public spaces in my county will go into effect Friday. But there are so many exemptions to the order accepted that my projection is those who don't now will simply continue as they were.

👵

Oof.  That's terrible, Ever.

Currently, my home county is at 354 cases (356.19/100k), and 14.65% positive.  10 deaths, 18 new hospital admissions, and only 45.9% of age 5+ fully vaccinated, all per CDC reports.  Fortunately, they are showing our ICUs are only 29.35% used in the last 7 days, with a +3.21% change in the last 7 days.

https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/hospital-utilization is a pretty interesting site.  Gives numbers on overall bed availability (not just ICU) at hospitals within a certain area.

Our building has the virus now. We have just gone on lockdown from outsiders. We had a door to door flyers (new move) about wearing the fracking masks, that the imuno compromised in the building were now isolating.

I began my bug-in a week ago because no one was paying attention to what was coming and mask use was at its lowest with tenants and their guests. Until it hit. Just like in March 2020. Have paid my rent through March, cash on hand, pretty dog gone well stocked. And n95s and other ppe for emergency needs outside of apartment.

I gestimate 🤔 all of January, and as SuperBowl gatherings are in mid February to stir up any waning for another 4-6 weeks that closes down March too.

If nothing new comes down the variant pike April is looking pretty good from this vantage.

Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on January 07, 2022, 02:05:24 AM
I began my bug-in a week ago because no one was paying attention to what was coming and mask use was at its lowest with tenants and their guests. Until it hit. Just like in March 2020.

It's that selfish short-sightedness that is such a problem--"it's not a problem until it directly affects me, personally."  Not just with covid, but in general, it seems anymore.   


Stay safe!

Thank, Mr. E. You too. 👵

Friday January 7, 2022
Kansas: not even gonna look. It will be bigger than my county and.....

my county: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge
"This is the big one, Elizabeth."
- New daily 'known' case numbers are now redonkulous. Then I extrapolate to account for the unknown cases using a reasonably safe factor of 10 which = 😳
- In-patients have doubled

They've been prepared for this with the repurposed & re-designated inhospitable covid unit.

The glitch is keeping enough direct contact medical personnel, the staff that does the absolutely necessary grunt work to keep the place hospital-clean, plus the staff that feeds the whole kit and caboodle.  Then there's the lab workers. They may stand a better chance against infection and continue working if they keep their labs/offices force-field-ed.

Urban living. Zombies or world taking down virus, urban does not rock.

Happy New Year to this thread!

The situation in the UK, as of Monday January 10, 2022.

Family:
We continue to be COVID-free. Kids have returned to school, I'm back in work (but working from home two days a week), Mrs Sheddi continues to work from home as normal.

Local area:
Omicron is doing its thing.
The local case rate is 1730 cases per 100k people, up 31% from a week ago. This is the highest it's ever been, to my knowledge.
87% (+1%) of eligible 12+ in my area have had one dose of vaccine and 81% (+1%) have had two doses. 61% (+7%) have had a third or booster dose.

National:
The national case rate is now 1980 per 100k, up 7% on the week; very nearly 2% of the UK population have tested positive in the past 7 days. This is roughly 3x the peak number seen in the winter of 2020/21.

There have been 15,800 hospital patients admitted in the past week (up 58%) and 1295 COVID-related deaths (up 31%).

The hospitalisation numbers are getting very high and several regional health authorities have reported "critical incidents" due to the combination of rising patient numbers and staff illness:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/06/nhs-trusts-england-critical-incidents-covid-pressures-omicron

Vaccination numbers have nudged over 90% of 12+ with at least one dose, 83% with two and 62% with a third booster.

Checking in from sunny Florida.

Local hospital reports their daily positivity rate for tests yesterday was 28.1%. I saw estimates yesterday that 80% of Floridians will be infected by the Omicron variant before the end of January.

Wife and I are fully vaccinated and boosted. Our two teens got their newly-approved booster shots this past Saturday. The youngest (11) got her second shot the end of November. All Pfizer.

So our metaphorical hatches are battened down; now we just need to see which kid brings it home from school since they are eating together at lunch. At least their schools are currently requiring masks; the public schools here are not.

Monday January 10, 2022

kansas population 2,934,582±
Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 13,557 new coronavirus cases since the last reporting period on Friday. It is down from Friday's highest peak since the start of the pandemic which was 16,341 cases.

my county: population 118,785±
14 day average:
- reported active cases  3,323 (then extrapolate with a factor of 10 to cover unreported cases = 30,000± )
- average new reported cases  214.64
- three day increase of reported cases 310 (X a factor of 10 for the unreported)
- hospitalizations are holding on the high end... but holding
- deaths still rising with may be sadly keeping hospitalization count holding
- incident rate per 100,000 @ 2,498.13 (X a factor of 10 to cover unreported cases = 25,000± )
- average positivety rate among those tested 19.3%

"After adding nearly 1,600 new COVID-19 cases to the tally last week alone — the highest-recorded amount in Douglas County since the start of the pandemic my County Public Health data showed a slight tapering off Monday afternoon with just 310 new cases recorded since Friday."


Which may be indicative, or just slow reporting. Too soon yet to tell. I guestamate around 20% of my county is currently infected.

I'm told the usual suspects that didn't use contagion cautions in this building... still don't. Yup, that was my projection.

Friday January 14, 2022
Kansas: Up to our necks in it with a guesstimate of at least four or more weeks before it begins to peak here.

my county: population 118,785±
It's getting hairy.

When my county's active transition into this surge, Dec. 22nd, stat gatherers were reporting the 14 day average of reported cases at 47. Today, three weeks later, it's 276.86.

The reported active cases were 908, today it's 4,867. Reported average daily new cases were 100+. Today we're at 400+.

Hospitalizations have doubled and deaths are climbing faster.

The reported incidence rate per 100,000 was 547.01, today it's 3,222.21.

Times a factor of 10 to include unreported suggests close to 35,000 in my county of 118,785± are carrying the virus.

My building notified us only emergency orders will now be addressed, and only by appointment. I have gone to my back-up lighting, LED lights and lamps with bulbs, for which I prepped back-up lights & bulbs to belay burnout of overhead apartment lighting and the need to have maintenance in.

"Nursing homes are facing COVID-19 outbreaks, schools are closing and hospitals in the Kansas City area are seeing so many deaths that they are raising alarms about morgue capacity."


I ordered more n95s from Grainger's today. Because of heavy ordering my order may be shipped in smaller quantities, none of which is estimated to begin arriving before late January to early February. These are back-ups for me so I am not in need for this surge. And after Omicron they may not even be needed until next flu season anyway, but I'm thinking ahead just in case another variant comes down the pike.

Wednesday January19, 2022
(compared to this last month on January 14
and December 22)
Kansas: Hospitals begging us to help them by using contagion measures. Makes not one difference though; those who have alway done so continue to. And those who never did, will continue to never do so, compounding our health care system wipe out.

my county: population 118,785±
14 day rolling averages:
Reported average daily case count:
- today, January 19, 2022.. @ 339.57
-- January 14.. @ 276.86
-- December 22nd.. @ 47

Reported active cases:
- today, January 19th..@ 5,810
-- Jan 14th.. @ 4,867
-- Dec 22.. @ 908

Reported cases per 100,000
- today, January 19th.. @ 3,952.13
-- Jan. 14th.. @ 3,222.21
-- Dec. 22nd.. @ 547.01

Times a factor of 10 to include unreported suggests close to 40,000 in my county of 118,785 are carrying the virus.

- deaths still climbing

Numbers here are surging with the new variant.
Jan. 5th to 18th; 793 cases, the 18th was the big day with 385 new cases reported. Our total cases throughout this has been 5,518 total and 87 deaths.
Three more cases today....my friend Kayla, her 9 yr old son and her 18 month old daughter. Kayla says it's like a bad cold. No loss of taste or smell.

One of the deaths reported was of an old farmer named Robert. One of the first people I met when I moved here. He turned 80 last July...and there still wasn't a single man of any age that would have wanted to go hand to hand with him even at his age! Tough old bird.
Here's the thing: they reported his death as caused by Covid...however, what happened was he had had a colonoscopy done about a week prior. They ruptured his intestines in two places during the procedure. This was not discovered until his autopsy. Also, he was declared "covid free" 3 days before his death. He had had Covid about a month before and recovered from it. His daughter that told me this is furious they have reported him as a covid death.

Quote from: Lambykins on January 19, 2022, 06:09:05 PM
Three more cases today....my friend Kayla, her 9 yr old son and her 18 month old daughter. Kayla says it's like a bad cold. No loss of taste or smell.

Good to hear. That's what I'm hoping is the worst for me if I get it! Good timing for me too because just yesterday I met someone with a crumby immune system like mine who got confirmed Delta in December, recovered, then days later got confirmed Omicron. His experience with Delta was like a bad flu and with Omicron like the worst flu ever that fell short of the need for hospitalization.

That I do 'not' want. 👵

deltaflumicron

Quote
One of the deaths reported was of an old farmer named Robert. One of the first people I met when I moved here. He turned 80 last July...and there still wasn't a single man of any age that would have wanted to go hand to hand with him even at his age! Tough old bird.
Here's the thing: they reported his death as caused by Covid...however, what happened was he had had a colonoscopy done about a week prior. They ruptured his intestines in two places during the procedure. This was not discovered until his autopsy. Also, he was declared "covid free" 3 days before his death. He had had Covid about a month before and recovered from it. His daughter that told me this is furious they have reported him as a covid death.

I'm with his daughter. The med professional who did the damaged colonoscopy might skirt responsibility by hiding behind the cloak of covid. Do hope for her that she has a type of comfort/satisfaction in shining the giant spotlight on this that can't be ignored.



Not related, but her case reminded me that I've found we here have had some misreported death causes that were eventually removed from our covid stats because in autopsy it was proven that though they died while having covid they did not die 'from' covid. I try to keep track of the case removal numbers... and why.

Monday January 24, 2022
Kansas: Didn't check because, reasons. But the Chiefs won their game (boy was that a super duper game too) so I have concern that gathering, and spreading, may excellerate in the coming weeks.

my county 14 day rolling averages:
The thing here is I have been metaphorically holding my breath since Friday's numbers were posted because there was a hint of a downturn. And I want a downturn. And today's posted numbers continue that hope though logic tells me it's too soon.

Reported average daily case count is down just a little bit more.

New actual daily cases reported are down down down.

Reported active cases are way up though. So times 10 suggests maybe 60,000+ in my county where it's estimated that 84% of residents are in my city?

Reported cases per 100,000 are also down again. So are hospitalizations. But deaths are increasing.

My friends, family, and acquaintances I'm in contact with who have vehicles and living in free standing housing are doing real good right now. Good outlook, feeling that normal good about stuff.  A couple have been ill but didn't go for a test.

My friends & acquaintances I'm in contact with who have vehicles but lived in larger apartment buildings are saying they're doing okay but beginning to feel the drag of these past years on their 'wherewithall' regarding personal well-being.

Some of the friends & acquaintances I'm in contact with in this building who don't have vehicles are expressing depression and/or what I would call declining resilience, also saying that some others here, even with vehicles, are starting to look and sound like they're not doing well at all.

(I do admit to feeling schadenfreude about some of that last group because of the grief they've given management and the rest of us about mandatory contagion practices... and the anxiety I feel walking through them to go outside, so mostly I stay home. Yeah, definitely some schadenfreude going on there with me. I'm not yet the person I hope to be.)

Quote from: Ever (Zombiepreparation) on January 24, 2022, 05:43:29 PMwhat I would call declining resilience

I don't think I'm quite awake enough to fully appreciate that yet, but that is so true.


I remember a discussion on the old ZS site, and similar discussions elsewhere, asking about rifle and pistol magazines--specifically, whether leaving magazines loaded would cause them to fail.  It turned out that it wouldn't--it was the repeated stress of loading and unloading that would cause the springs in the magazines to ultimately wear out and result in the magazine failing to function properly.


I think we're similar, in a way.  I think that most of us here wouldn't have stayed on the old site for long if we didn't understand the value of resilience (even if you were just there for the zombies, you surely must've appreciated the importance of surviving, getting through it, and rebuilding, or bouncing back).  This forum, bringing some of our community back together, is an example of that resilience.


Unlike a spring, people can heal, given enough time and the proper resources.  But, like a spring, the more we have to bounce back, the more it wears on us.  Without the time to heal and rebuild, our spring will get more worn and weaker, until we feel like we just can't bounce back as well as we used to, or eventually, become so worn down that we just can't bounce back at all.


The ongoing ups and downs of Covid have got many of us feeling that way.  I'm not sure what the fix is, or if there is even a singular fix.  Finding time for something that makes you happy is probably part of it, at least.

QuoteI'm not yet the person I hope to be.

Maybe not, but I think that having the emotional maturity to self-evaluate means that you're on the right track.  I think that counts for a lot. 

Quote from: BuddhaIt is better to travel well than to arrive.