COVID-19/corona virus mega thread/prepping thread

[De Selby]

And...
 
It is not magical.
 
A lot of people don't catch it.
 
About 95% of the people who catch it don't notice it.
 
Of that, about 95% of the people who notice it are okay with Nyquil and Sweet Oblivion until it blows over.
 
Some of them think that it is bad enough to go to their doctor - maybe 5%. Most of them get told to go home and take Nyquil. Some of them get admitted to hospitals.
 
If they are lucky, they get high-flow 02 via CPAP.
 
If they get vents, they are in trouble - mostly because vents suck.

Some of the rest, primarily terminally ill geriatrics, won't make it.
 
Which is pretty much the case for the past few decades.

Got a source for those hospitalisation rates for Covid?

[Bogie]

Early in, and I've seen it a bunch of times since, starting with the Chinese... 95% of the people are either immune, or just don't have symptoms. Not all of the folks who notice things present for treatment. Of the presented cases, only about 5% are serious. And that was back when they were stick folks on vents regardless.
 
Here in St. Louis, after about 18 months, we're looking at an overall fatality rate of 0.17% - mostly from long-term-care, SNFs and hospices...

[De Selby]

Early in, and I've seen it a bunch of times since, starting with the Chinese... 95% of the people are either immune, or just don't have symptoms. Not all of the folks who notice things present for treatment. Of the presented cases, only about 5% are serious. And that was back when they were stick folks on vents regardless.
 
Here in St. Louis, after about 18 months, we're looking at an overall fatality rate of 0.17% - mostly from long-term-care, SNFs and hospices...

The overall fatality rate in St Louis is not .17 according to the links you posted - it’s above 2 percent.  I’m not sure where you’re getting that figure but I’d like to see it, along with even one news article or other source saying only 5 percent of COVID cases are serious.

[Bogie]

You are making a conclusion based upon only presented cases.
 
Overall, with this "really damn contagious bug," which you can catch just by being near someone, who might not even be sick, we've had 553 fatalities out of around 319,000 people. Most of them folks who already had one foot over death's doorstep...
 

[Bogie]

This is a week or so old, but hasn't changed much. FWIW, the "under 40" bar hadn't gone above zero until we had a new administration sworn in - then it grew a few.

[Bogie]

In the past two weeks, we've had 10 fatalities attributed to the 'Rona in the City area. No idea as to whether they were already terminally ill, or not.
 
In that same time, I had a coworker who has had three relatives shot in what I'm figuring is gang-related violence.
 

[dogmush]

FWIW, the average age of COVID ICU patients at our local biggest hospital  ticked into the 40's this week.  I don't have the age breakdown of individuals, but it's definitely no longer only geriatrics, at least around here.  The one hospital was at 250 admitted and 164 in the ICU.

Bogie, not to put too fine a point on it but your "5% of 5% of 5%......." hypothesis is utter crap, and if you could find any data with anywhere near those numbers, I'd be surprised.   Yes lots of folks get through COVID fine, and there is an hard to measure (at least in the US) number of Asymptomatic cases, but nowhere near where you seem to hope.

[MechAg94]

First off, some countries do substantially live with no COVID. Not every country in the world failed to control it like the US, and not every public health system is as incapable of control. On the numbers it does look like failure to stop Covid is inevitable in the US, but countries with more advanced public health systems need not give up and accept that they’ll always have Covid.

In terms of ongoing control measures, food safety, agricultural quarantine, and medical hygiene all
cost huge amounts of money and time. Should we give them up because food poisoning still happens, because farms still get coronavirus and other outbreaks, and because infections still
Happen in hospital? Does that make all investment in controlling those infections a waste?  And if not, why is COVID special in being allowed to run uncontrolled?

Which countries?  Did they actually do testing to confirm no COVID? 

[TommyGunn]

First off, some countries do substantially live with no COVID. Not every country in the world failed to control it like the US, and not every public health system is as incapable of control. On the numbers it does look like failure to stop Covid is inevitable in the US, but countries with more advanced public health systems need not give up and accept that they’ll always have Covid.

In terms of ongoing control measures, food safety, agricultural quarantine, and medical hygiene all
cost huge amounts of money and time. Should we give them up because food poisoning still happens, because farms still get coronavirus and other outbreaks, and because infections still
Happen in hospital? Does that make all investment in controlling those infections a waste?  And if not, why is COVID special in being allowed to run uncontrolled?

What countries have "zero covid?"  Has it been confirmed by tests?   I can see isolated countries being relatively covid free.  But Japan is an island nation and is beset by covid problems,  Australia, also an island nation, as I said, goes crazy on lockdowns for cases that could be counted on one hand.

If the U. S. "failed" to control covid, it seems much of the world did as well.  And, no, covid is not being allowed to run uncontrolled,    it is simply nearly impossible to really control. 

Investments in controlling infections are not a waste,  but most infections in hospitals are not the results of pandemics,  they happen because there are sick people in hospitals, which happens because that's where sick people go for medical help. 

As for countries that did not "fail to control it like the U. S.,"  just how did they achieve this miracle?  How do these "more advanced public health systems"    plan to totally eradicate covid? ? ?  The Spanish Flu bug is still around,  and even the Bubonic Plague pathogen is still out there.  As I said before, THERE WILL NEVER BE "ZERO COVID" AGAIN ON PLANET EARTH.     Some isolated mysterious countries (like Shangri-La, for example)  might escape for awhile so long as they can shut down vectors 100%,  but in reality I don't think that will last.
 

[Angel Eyes]

Meanwhile, six weeks in prison for not wearing a mask in Singapore:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/18/asia/singapore-briton-jailed-mask-intl-hnk/index.html

[Ben]

This study suggests that the vaccines and natural immunity are about equal for the first few months after getting the vaccine. It further suggests that if you had covid, getting the vaccine boosts your natural immunity. I suppose that's something for me to think about. I'd like to read more verifying research on that aspect first. I also didn't read all the way through the study to see if one vaccine was superior to another regarding that "double immunity".

https://www.theepochtimes.com/major-study-covid-19-vaccines-less-effective-against-delta-as-good-as-natural-infection_3955968.html

https://www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/files/coronavirus/covid-19-infection-survey/finalfinalcombinedve20210816.pdf

[Bogie]

Looking at much of the numbers around the covids, I see something akin to this...
 
"25 people were shot in St. Louis last week, with 5 of them dying. If you live in St. Louis, you have a 20% chance of being murdered!!!!!!"

[WLJ]

Looking at much of the numbers around the covids, I see something akin to this...
 
"25 people were shot in St. Louis last week, with 5 of them dying. If you live in St. Louis, you have a 20% chance of being murdered!!!!!!"

In a world where 2+2= whatever it needs to be to push a narrative what's the problem?

[Bogie]

And in other news, low-price on tires for my van has gone from $60 to $75 in the past month.

[dogmush]

And in other news, low-price on tires for my van has gone from $60 to $75 in the past month.

Tires probably need their own inflation thread.  I have 265/70/18's on my truck and want to go to something all season, all terrain in the 35" tall range.  that's like $250-$300 each.  When I fist started looking a year ago it was more like low $200's per tire.

[sumpnz]

Tires probably need their own inflation thread.  I have 265/70/18's on my truck and want to go to something all season, all terrain in the 35" tall range.  that's like $250-$300 each.  When I fist started looking a year ago it was more like low $200's per tire.

Nice pun.

Do you prefer just compressed air, or N2?

[Ben]

Tires probably need their own inflation thread.  I have 265/70/18's on my truck and want to go to something all season, all terrain in the 35" tall range.  that's like $250-$300 each.  When I fist started looking a year ago it was more like low $200's per tire.

Funny, I was going to start a tire cost topic. I got Dueler Revos for my truck I guess a half year ago when Costco had a deal going - $200 ea.

Right now I'm looking for new tires for my Polaris Ranger because I've already got like a dozen plugs in the crappy 0.5 ply OEM tires. I'm looking at 8 ply tires, and little UTV tires are going for $175 - half the size and nearly the price of the Revos.

[WLJ]

Nice pun.

Do you prefer just compressed air, or N2?

I usually tell them to fill them up with the 78% N 21% O mix. The confused look on some of their faces is priceless. uh, I don't think we have that.

[De Selby]

Which countries?  Did they actually do testing to confirm no COVID?

Both Australia and New Zealand.  And yes, both do routine testing. When outbreaks occur from international arrivals, lockdowns have brought cases back to zero.

[De Selby]

What countries have "zero covid?"  Has it been confirmed by tests?   I can see isolated countries being relatively covid free.  But Japan is an island nation and is beset by covid problems,  Australia, also an island nation, as I said, goes crazy on lockdowns for cases that could be counted on one hand.

If the U. S. "failed" to control covid, it seems much of the world did as well.  And, no, covid is not being allowed to run uncontrolled,    it is simply nearly impossible to really control. 

Investments in controlling infections are not a waste,  but most infections in hospitals are not the results of pandemics,  they happen because there are sick people in hospitals, which happens because that's where sick people go for medical help. 

As for countries that did not "fail to control it like the U. S.,"  just how did they achieve this miracle?  How do these "more advanced public health systems"    plan to totally eradicate covid? ? ?  The Spanish Flu bug is still around,  and even the Bubonic Plague pathogen is still out there.  As I said before, THERE WILL NEVER BE "ZERO COVID" AGAIN ON PLANET EARTH.     Some isolated mysterious countries (like Shangri-La, for example)  might escape for awhile so long as they can shut down vectors 100%,  but in reality I don't think that will last.

The countries that have had long periods of no Covid while remaining open did so with effective quarantine and lockdown responses. Again, you can keep repeating it but both NZ and Australia have spent most of the past year fully open domestically, and with zero Covid. It’s not a fantasy.

[De Selby]

Looking at much of the numbers around the covids, I see something akin to this...
 
"25 people were shot in St. Louis last week, with 5 of them dying. If you live in St. Louis, you have a 20% chance of being murdered!!!!!!"

Looking at your analysis, I see something akin to this:

“Ebola is neither contagious nor deadly because zero people died in St Louis of it last year! If Ebola comes to St Louis, I’m going to hug infected people just to prove how safe it is!”

[zahc]

"25 people were shot in St. Louis last week, with 5 of them dying. If you live in St. Louis, you have a 20% chance of being murdered!!!!!!"

Your point is made, but the real situation is more like "2500 people were shot in St. Louis last week, with 500 of them dying. Also, the murderers are gradually going house to house and we have reason to believe they will eventually shoot everyone in the city. And neighboring cities are the same. So if you live in St. Louis, you have a 20% chance of eventually being murdered".

And instead of 20% it's like 0.2%.

[TommyGunn]

The countries that have had long periods of no Covid while remaining open did so with effective quarantine and lockdown responses. Again, you can keep repeating it but both NZ and Australia have spent most of the past year fully open domestically, and with zero Covid. It’s not a fantasy.

Both Australia and New Zealand have had covid19 cases.  Even one case is NOT zero covid.   

It is pretty easy to isolate New Zealand and probably not much harder to isolate Australia.  It is impossible to isolate America.

And I would hardly call the extreme measures Australia is using, employing military to keep people inside, banning talking to neighbors, forcing masking while drinking, being "fully open domestically."

You live in a fantasy-land called "Oz" for sure ......

[De Selby]

Both Australia and New Zealand have had covid19 cases.  Even one case is NOT zero covid.   

It is pretty easy to isolate New Zealand and probably not much harder to isolate Australia.  It is impossible to isolate America.

And I would hardly call the extreme measures Australia is using, employing military to keep people inside, banning talking to neighbors, forcing masking while drinking, being "fully open domestically."

You live in a fantasy-land called "Oz" for sure ......

Most of the past year the country has been fully open and also had no community transmission of covid. Lockdown measures (which are not what you’re describing) have been temporary to address short term outbreaks and bring cases back down to , and have done so successfully.

[Ron]

Comparing NZ to the USA, particularly with the open borders invasion of Covid positive illegals seems sort of silly.

Australia has been open? No proof of vaccination or any other proof of health?

Folks could just walk in?