COVID-19/corona virus mega thread/prepping thread

[zxcvbob]

According to the HIPAA Journal, simply having a person's name places their information under HIPAA provisions. Search "18 PHI identifiers" for a full list. Can also be see about midway down this page under the "What is PHI" heading.

https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-considered-protected-health-information-under-hipaa/

However, what I'm seeing seems to indicate HIPPAA restrictions only apply if you work in health care. I can't see anything that makes HIPPAA applicable for those not in a healthcare-related role. Maybe Millcreek can enlighten us.

Brad

I don't think just a name is enough to trigger it; you need some associated actual health info to go with the name.

There was another law with the backronym "HITECH" (I will try to look it up) that applied HIPPAA standards to tech companies and other people who might come across PHI in the course of their work.  (I tend to conflate HIPPAA and GDPR a bit, I have to be on guard for both, although I've not encounted any data in the past 20 years that would be affected.  We won't talk about the data I've seen 25 years ago.  

[Cliffh]

Posted by: fistful
Insert Quote
Are the last few comments in response to the Federalist article? I believe the writer is saying that some people, who can work remotely, or can afford to miss a few months’ worth of income, don’t understand that some people are going broke because their jobs can’t be done remotely. Or they don’t appreciate that their lock-down lifestyle depends on people that can’t work remotely.

Mine was more in disgust over the a-holes who are trying to make this whole situation more than it is.  It's not racial, it's not "us" vs "them", it's not about classes of people.

It is what it is.  Some people are more fortunate than others - always.  If things had gone another way, the ones who are currently working wouldn't be and those who aren't would be.

*expletive deleted*it happens.  Deal with it.  Don't try to make the situation something it isn't.  

Life ain't "fair".  Never has been, never will be.  If for no other reason than everyone has their own definition of "fair".

[MillCreek]

In order to be subject to the HIPAA regulations, you have to be a 'covered entity' or a 'business associate' of a covered entity engaged in healthcare activities or functions.

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/covered-entities/index.html

[MillCreek]

Hilarious!

[MechAg94]

Man wears KKK hood while grocery shopping in California
https://nypost.com/2020/05/04/man-wears-kkk-hood-while-grocery-shopping-in-california/

A day after San Diego residents were required to wear face coverings in public, a man went grocery shopping while wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, according to a report.

Too soon I guess.  

I guess I am assuming the guy was just trying to make a point about mask requirements.  He should realize no one has a sense of humor when it comes to that.  
He should tell everyone he is a democrat candidate and the issue will go away.

[MechAg94]

Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus nursing home policy proves tragic
https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/cuomo-coronavirus-nursing-home-policy-proves-tragic-goodwin/

Mullin had another complaint, too — that the media never asked the governor about an order mandating that nursing homes admit and readmit patients who tested positive for the coronavirus, despite the extraordinary number of deaths among the elderly.

I heard about this over the weekend.  It seems to me this is a policy is guaranteed to spread the virus further among 'at risk people. 

“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” the governor said.

He turned to Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, who confirmed the policy, saying “if you are positive, you should be admitted back to a nursing home. The necessary precautions will be taken to protect the other residents there.”

The second part of Zucker’s answer is debatable, the first part is not. The disastrous results speak for themselves.

[RoadKingLarry]

Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus nursing home policy proves tragic
https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/cuomo-coronavirus-nursing-home-policy-proves-tragic-goodwin/
I heard about this over the weekend.  It seems to me this is a policy is guaranteed to spread the virus further among 'at risk people. 

Sometimes you can chalk it up to stupidity or just plain old incompetence and sometimes ya really got to wonder.

[MillCreek]

^^^There was actually more to the nursing home policy than that. The primary goal of the policy was to free up hospital beds that were needed (especially in NYC) for acutely-ill COVID patients.  Every bed that was filled by a patient who could have been discharged to a nursing home was one less bed to handle a COVID or other patient. 

The issue in NYC points up more that there are not enough skilled nursing facility beds to handle acute patients.  Elder care has always been the bastard stepchild of healthcare, and they just don't get enough resources.  And no one ever thinks about it until Mom or themselves have to go to such a facility.

[makattak]

https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-may-have-been-present-france-early-december-2970178

Provided it's not a false positive, France may have had the coronavirus present in December.

Which would mean it was here, too and we've been dealing with it for much longer than the "first" case in March.

Remember those stories about how this was a tough flu season?

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article239614573.html

Maybe it wasn't just the flu, but the beginning of the pandemic.

[bedlamite]

https://www.businessinsider.com/israel-coronavirus-monoclonal-antibody-potential-treatment-2020-5

[MechAg94]

^^^There was actually more to the nursing home policy than that. The primary goal of the policy was to free up hospital beds that were needed (especially in NYC) for acutely-ill COVID patients.  Every bed that was filled by a patient who could have been discharged to a nursing home was one less bed to handle a COVID or other patient.  

The issue in NYC points up more that there are not enough skilled nursing facility beds to handle acute patients.  Elder care has always been the bastard stepchild of healthcare, and they just don't get enough resources.  And no one ever thinks about it until Mom or themselves have to go to such a facility.

I have thought about it.  My Mother worked as a nurse for a few years and spent some time working in nursing homes.  She hated it.  She never wants to live in one of those places.  

[Hawkmoon]

Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus nursing home policy proves tragic
https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/cuomo-coronavirus-nursing-home-policy-proves-tragic-goodwin/
I heard about this over the weekend.  It seems to me this is a policy is guaranteed to spread the virus further among 'at risk people. 

"That’s a good question. I don’t know,” the governor said.

He turned to Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, who confirmed the policy, saying “if you are positive, you should be admitted back to a nursing home. The necessary precautions will be taken to protect the other residents there.”

Considering that the "necessary precautions" include putting CV-positive patients in negative pressure rooms, which nursing homes don't have, this statement is stunning in its level of idiocy.

[MechAg94]

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01003-6
I am not sure if this article provides anything new, but I heard the models that predicted 2.2 Million deaths originated with Professor Neil Ferguson.  And from what I hear, he and his modeling code have a history of overestimating deaths. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQeorYF9A-k
Steven Crowder isn't an authority, but he mentions the same professor and the same modeling code overestimated deaths in past disease flare ups.  I am not certain what articles he is referencing. 

[MechAg94]

^^^There was actually more to the nursing home policy than that. The primary goal of the policy was to free up hospital beds that were needed (especially in NYC) for acutely-ill COVID patients.  Every bed that was filled by a patient who could have been discharged to a nursing home was one less bed to handle a COVID or other patient. 

The issue in NYC points up more that there are not enough skilled nursing facility beds to handle acute patients.  Elder care has always been the bastard stepchild of healthcare, and they just don't get enough resources.  And no one ever thinks about it until Mom or themselves have to go to such a facility.

On the first paragraph, what exactly are you saying here.  It appears those nursing homes did NOT have the ability to separate infected people from uninfected and sending infected people into those nursing homes only helped spread it among people who are particularly vulnerable.

And thinking about that sort of nonsense, I have to wonder what other boneheaded bureaucratic decisions were made that made their situation worse. 

[BobR]

On the first paragraph, what exactly are you saying here.  It appears those nursing homes did NOT have the ability to separate infected people from uninfected and sending infected people into those nursing homes only helped spread it among people who are particularly vulnerable.

And thinking about that sort of nonsense, I have to wonder what other boneheaded bureaucratic decisions were made that made their situation worse. 

What a lot (if not all) nursing homes have been doing is isolating the residents to their rooms. While it is not ideal it is better than the communal setting in most nursing homes for meals, and such.

At the State Veterans Home here it is our only hotspot, staff and residents are testing positive. We have turned one of our floors into a Covid unit and have transferred all of the positive cases from the SVH to our facility. This allows them to continue testing down there, do a deep clean and take some of the pressure off of the staff. Very few, if any, other facilities in the US are able to do something like this.

bob

[Ben]

Well, donned my stupid mask and hit Costco for the first time in over two months.

I got there at 0945 (they were already open) and saw lots of cars, so thought there would be a line, but I walked right in. It was the least crowded I had ever seen the place. Most everything seemed fully stocked, they even had loads of TP, paper towels, and water (I took none since I still have a tears worth of my pre-panic stock  ). I saw few people with TP in their carts, and then only one package.

The one thing they were short of was meat. Today was the first day of their "three fresh meat items per shopper" limit. There was some chicken and pork, but not much and little variety. Other than a little ground meat, there were zero beef products. Even the $50 ribeye packs they sell were gone. I guess meat is the new TP. They had lots of fish though, and plenty of meat products in packages. Unrelated, but score for me - they have their Schnitzel packs back in stock. Best packaged schnitzel I've ever had. Almost as good as mom made. I stocked up on five of them.

When I left the store, there was a ridiculous line outside of people waiting to get in as they were apparently limiting number of shoppers, which explains why my shopping experience inside was nicer than usual without dummies blocking me in the middle of every aisle. Maybe they need to make that a standard policy. 

I will give them some kudos after ragging on them about the mask requirement and people showing up unaware. They were actually handing free masks out at the front door to anyone who wanted one. They're doing it for this week only though, then everyone is on their own.

I'm going by my local market tomorrow, so will see what the meat situation is there. I'm expecting them to be fully stocked, but you never know.

[charby]

I'm going by my local market tomorrow, so will see what the meat situation is there. I'm expecting them to be fully stocked, but you never know.

People are hoarding meat here too, most stores are limiting how much meat you can buy per purchase. Also listened to the Ag report today, frozen inventories of meat wear still higher now than last year, 1 or 2%. Good old Tyson Foods president sure made a panic when they stated there will be disruptions to the meat supply because of Covid-19.

[Ben]

People are hoarding meat here too, most stores are limiting how much meat you can buy per purchase. Also listened to the Ag report today, frozen inventories of meat wear still higher now than last year, 1 or 2%. Good old Tyson Foods president sure made a panic when they stated there will be disruptions to the meat supply because of Covid-19.

Why I was thinking mine might have meat  is as I mentioned before I think they buy all local. Of course if people drive here from the city, that won't matter. I'm not sure where Costco, Albertson's etc get their "fresh" meat. I would think it might be somewhat regional, versus say, a California Costco getting meat from back East or something (at least for beef), but I don't know how it works with the big chains.

[charby]

Why I was thinking mine might have meat  is as I mentioned before I think they buy all local. Of course if people drive here from the city, that won't matter. I'm not sure where Costco, Albertson's etc get their "fresh" meat. I would think it might be somewhat regional, versus say, a California Costco getting meat from back East or something (at least for beef), but I don't know how it works with the big chains.

Figuring 5 companies control 85% of the fresh beef and pork meat in the US, probably get their fresh meat from Tyson, JBS, National Beef, Smithfield, ConAgra, or Purdue (poultry).

[Ben]

From "The Dead Zone", circa 2003:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1257399587947646978

[makattak]

Well, donned my stupid mask and hit Costco for the first time in over two months.

I got there at 0945 (they were already open) and saw lots of cars, so thought there would be a line, but I walked right in. It was the least crowded I had ever seen the place. Most everything seemed fully stocked, they even had loads of TP, paper towels, and water (I took none since I still have a tears worth of my pre-panic stock   ). I saw few people with TP in their carts, and then only one package.

The one thing they were short of was meat. Today was the first day of their "three fresh meat items per shopper" limit. There was some chicken and pork, but not much and little variety. Other than a little ground meat, there were zero beef products. Even the $50 ribeye packs they sell were gone. I guess meat is the new TP. They had lots of fish though, and plenty of meat products in packages. Unrelated, but score for me - they have their Schnitzel packs back in stock. Best packaged schnitzel I've ever had. Almost as good as mom made. I stocked up on five of them.

When I left the store, there was a ridiculous line outside of people waiting to get in as they were apparently limiting number of shoppers, which explains why my shopping experience inside was nicer than usual without dummies blocking me in the middle of every aisle. Maybe they need to make that a standard policy.  

I will give them some kudos after ragging on them about the mask requirement and people showing up unaware. They were actually handing free masks out at the front door to anyone who wanted one. They're doing it for this week only though, then everyone is on their own.

I'm going by my local market tomorrow, so will see what the meat situation is there. I'm expecting them to be fully stocked, but you never know.

I stopped by Kroger yesterday so we could do our day after Cinco de Cuatro celebration today.

I planned to make Chicken Fajitas. Notice the past tense. There was no chicken.

Not, "no chicken breasts." Not "no fresh chicken." There was no chicken, but one nasty looking bag of chicken thighs... which had clearly been left behind for a reason.

So, we had to bite the bullet and have steak fajitas tonight. (There were also smaller amounts of beef and pork, but still available.)

Also zero toilet paper and zero paper towels. I'm actually getting a little concerned as I haven't bought toilet paper in two months now and we're actually getting low. Probably only 2 weeks of supply left and I don't like to be anywhere near that low.

Last check at BJs (Costco competitor) on Friday there was no TP. They did have paper towels, but we're good on those for now.

Meats are definitely getting scarce. No chicken breasts, only a few thighs. Their beef section was picked over (hamburger gone), but there were still a few cuts.

I've also read that some fast food places are rationing meat, as well.  

[WLJ]

Three frontline health care workers have mysteriously fallen out of hospital windows in Russia over the past two weeks, heightening public attention to the working conditions for doctors and medical professionals amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Three Russian doctors fall from hospital windows, raising questions amid coronavirus pandemic
https://www.wdrb.com/news/coronavirus/three-russian-doctors-fall-from-hospital-windows-raising-questions-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/article_5353731a-8f19-11ea-89cf-d3185103fade.html

[Ben]

Meats are definitely getting scarce. No chicken breasts, only a few thighs. Their beef section was picked over (hamburger gone), but there were still a few cuts.

I've also read that some fast food places are rationing meat, as well.  

All because of MSM reports that there might - might - be a meat shortage. If nothing else, the whole virus thing has shown us some interesting aspects of hoarding and panic mentality. While serious, the virus it isn't thatserious in the SHTF sense. Yet from reactions to this, something only a little worse seems to be all that it would take to actually empty stores, for which the next step would be violence.

[zxcvbob]

Walmart has frozen turkeys (Honeysuckle and Butterball) for $1.48 a pound.  They disappeared right after New Years, but they are back now.  That's not a holidays price for sure, but it's a lot of good eatin' for $27.  I may go get one tomorrow.  Roast it, slice the meat off and freeze 2/3 of it in quart bags, boil the carcass, make a big pot of gumbo for Mothers Day.  (my wife loves my turkey gumbo)  Chicken gumbo kinda needs sausage with it, turkey doesn't.

I've also been digging meat out of the deep freezer and cooking it.  I should have been rotating my stock all along but haven't been; I have steaks and roasts that are several years old.  (if I was honest, which I'm not, some of it would be 10+ years old but most only 2 or 3 years (actually, I'm not so sure about the "most" part))

IMHO there is no meat shortage.  There might be a retail meat shortage and a glut in the commercial (restaurant) market.  Buy your meat in 30 lb boxes and there should be lots of if available -- if places like Sysco will sell to the public.

[Perd Hapley]

https://www.dailywire.com/news/chinese-scientist-on-verge-of-very-significant-coronavirus-findings-murdered-in-pittsburgh

Dr. Bing Liu, 37, who is from China, “was shot multiple times around noon Saturday inside his home in the 200 block of Elm Court,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. “Police believe that Mr. Liu was shot by another man — identified later by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office as Hao Gu, 46, of Pittsburgh — who then got into his car parked about 100 yards away on Charlemagne Circle and killed himself.”

Don't they know it's racist to say that things come from China?