Coronavirus

[SMAlset]

Just saw a Bloomberg article from today on AppleNews (not seeing yet on their own website) saying because of rising cases and hospitalizations in Sweden that if they have to they will turn to their Nordic neighbors for help. They are not sure they will have enough ICU beds and one of the doctors commented that “people are exhausted”. Assume he means their medical staff specifically although sure the general population feels that way too.

“Sweden looks set to ask its Nordic neighbors for help in alleviating the pressure on its health-care system, Svenska Dagbladet reported.

A decision on the “national escalation plan” will be made within the next 24 hours, the newspaper said citing a report in Dagens Medicin.”

Apparently they have some standing agreement with their neighbors for emergency preparedness in health care. Have to wonder though, if given Sweden’s covid policies to encourage herd immunity and accepting their mounting dead unlike the policies elsewhere around them, if neighboring citizens will be happy if that occurs. Likely would match the feelings of those here who have been observing covid protocols and seeing those who flaunted no-masks now overwhelming ICUs especially in these tiny town hospitals with so few beds to begin with. Can’t imagine for those observing, how you’d feel if your family member needs acute care and being told no room at the inn and it results in a family death. Sad and unnecessary to have come to this despite a lot of best efforts to educate from health professionals and some Government officials. Not like people didn’t see the damage done during the first surges.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

That's not what the chart looks like to me, it's dropped dramatically since the recent high of 60.

It's up to about 68 deaths on that same day in the chart now, FWIW. We'll see how high they go. Exceeding the prior peak of over 115 deaths a day looks possible now. Deaths just keep going up, though I suspect the rate of increase has slowed at this point.

 

[SMAlset]

Reports of Bell's palsy among a four people who got the Pfizer vaccine will have the CDC monitoring recipients but at this point "no known or expected casual relationship" between the two.

From CNBC:
CDC will monitor for Bell’s palsy among Pfizer vaccine recipients, but sees no causal relationship

I am curious with the ultra cold Pfizer vaccine, is there some way for an individual to know that the vials have been maintained at the proper temperature or just have faith that the chain of handling has been done correctly? Like does it turn cloudy or any other visual indication like a seal or label changes color? Personally I think the Moderna one makes the most sense to have in general and surprised Pfizer would create something that requires such special handling.

 

[TespaceX]

With a little forceful nudge from the White House, the FDA has officially given EUA status to the Pfizer vaccine.

 

[Jeff N]

Reports of Bell's palsy among a four people who got the Pfizer vaccine will have the CDC monitoring recipients but at this point "no known or expected casual relationship" between the two.

From CNBC:
CDC will monitor for Bell’s palsy among Pfizer vaccine recipients, but sees no causal relationship

I am curious with the ultra cold Pfizer vaccine, is there some way for an individual to know that the vials have been maintained at the proper temperature or just have faith that the chain of handling has been done correctly? Like does it turn cloudy or any other visual indication like a seal or label changes color? Personally I think the Moderna one makes the most sense to have in general and surprised Pfizer would create something that requires such special handling.

I think they have temperature monitoring in place during the long distribution process via UPS and FedEx. Once it gets to the hospital or clinic the individual vials are only taken out and distributed for near-term use within a 5 days period when it can be kept in a normal refrigerator where other non-Covid vaccines might be kept. So, it’s not like it will suddenly go bad if it momentarily fails to be precisely kept at -70.

 

[Jeff N]

It's up to about 68 deaths on that same day in the chart now, FWIW. We'll see how high they go. Exceeding the prior peak of over 115 deaths a day looks possible now. Deaths just keep going up, though I suspect the rate of increase has slowed at this point.

View attachment 616737

Sweden vs Norway.

 

[heltok]

Reports of Bell's palsy among a four people who got the Pfizer vaccine will have the CDC monitoring recipients but at this point "no known or expected casual relationship" between the two.

From CNBC:
CDC will monitor for Bell’s palsy among Pfizer vaccine recipients, but sees no causal relationship

I am curious with the ultra cold Pfizer vaccine, is there some way for an individual to know that the vials have been maintained at the proper temperature or just have faith that the chain of handling has been done correctly? Like does it turn cloudy or any other visual indication like a seal or label changes color? Personally I think the Moderna one makes the most sense to have in general and surprised Pfizer would create something that requires such special handling.

It varies across populations, but the annual incidence of Bell’s Palsy is 15-30 cases per 100k; 4 people out of nearly 22k is not abnormal. There were no cases in the placebo group; this is the nature of statistics—small sample sizes do not necessarily line up to population means

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

View attachment 616764

Sweden vs Norway.

FWIW, someone does a nowcast. Looks like they hit 100 per day today approximately. h/t Marc Bevand on Twitter.

Lag is up. Too many deaths to keep up, sadly.

Reported Covid-19 deaths in Sweden

 

[SMAlset]

Santa Clara County is a large county here in the SFBay area. I had been wondering how we were doing bed wise and saw this Patch article—not good only 31 beds available. That was as of this past Wednesday.

Gilroy Hospital Reaches ICU Capacity In Coronavirus Surge

 

[Doggydogworld]

FWIW, someone does a nowcast. Looks like they hit 100 per day today approximately. h/t Marc Bevand on Twitter.

Lag is up. Too many deaths to keep up, sadly.

Reported Covid-19 deaths in Sweden

Yeah, that peak on November 24 hasn't shifted to the right in a week. I suspected lag was up since there was no real turndown in positive tests or ICU cases.

In other news, this STAT article has some interesting background on the research that led to mRNA COVID vaccines.

 

[Doggydogworld]

FWIW, someone does a nowcast. Looks like they hit 100 per day today approximately. h/t Marc Bevand on Twitter.

Lag is up. Too many deaths to keep up, sadly.

Reported Covid-19 deaths in Sweden

I also stumbled across this somewhat anti-Tegnell article in Science magazine which says the actual peak back in April was higher than indicated because they didn't test all the dead. It says hospitals refused care to overweight old people due to poor prognosis and sent younger people home (where some died) because COVID doesn't kill the young. 7% of Sweden's nursing home population died in the first wave. The vast majority were not taken to hospitals where oxygen could be administered, just given morphine at the nursing home.

It has some quotes from Tegnell and the FHM discouraging masks and encouraging travel, and also from his mentor who said some very stupid things. There are also anecdotes of people getting reprimanded and even fired for wearing masks, some in healthcare settings!

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I also stumbled across this somewhat anti-Tegnell article in Science magazine which says the actual peak back in April was higher than indicated because they didn't test all the dead. It says hospitals refused care to overweight old people due to poor prognosis and sent younger people home (where some died) because COVID doesn't kill the young. 7% of Sweden's nursing home population died in the first wave. The vast majority were not taken to hospitals where oxygen could be administered, just given morphine at the nursing home.

It has some quotes from Tegnell and the FHM discouraging masks and encouraging travel, and also from his mentor who said some very stupid things. There are also anecdotes of people getting reprimanded and even fired for wearing masks, some in healthcare settings!

I guess we’ll see in the end how much of the reporting verifies but that is pretty disgusting. The incompetence seems stunning. At least in Sweden the absolute level of mortality that resulted was more limited than elsewhere (e.g. US). Not much solace to those who lost someone though.

 

[SMAlset]

We lost Tommy “Tiny” Lister (62, actor, former wrestler) just the other day, 12/10. I will always remember him as the very, very tall scary dude on the boat with the Joker and Batman in “The Dark Knight” (think he helped save the boat passengers at the end...saw the movie quite a while ago). He was found dead on the floor of his home during a wellness check by sheriffs. He had covid 4 months ago but had recovered. He was diabetic and said he wanted to get the vaccine as soon as it became available. He had told friends recently that he thought he had it again based on symptoms he was feeling and was very weak. A cause of death hadn’t been determined yet according to TMZ cited below.

Tommy 'Tiny' Lister Had COVID 4 Months Ago, Feared It Returned
'Tiny' Lister Told Friend 'God's Got Me' After Scary Stream with Fans

Read we also today lost Charley Pride, Country superstar singer, from covid related issues. He was 86. He had just appeared on the Country Music Awards to receive a lifetime achievement award on Nov. 11 and some wondered if he might have caught it there. Nice write up in Variety: Charley Pride Dead: Country Music Legend Was 86 - Variety

 

[SMAlset]

The following Bloomberg article relates how Sweden not only faces a rising number of infected citizens and deaths but also a shortage of medical staff due to resignations of those who are simply burnt out.

"But increasingly, staff are so desperate for some real time off that they see resignation as the only way out, Ribeiro said. A survey by broadcaster TV4 showed that in 13 of Sweden’s 21 regions, resignations in the health-care profession are now up from a year ago, at as many as 500 a month.

...It’s uncertain where that extra capacity will come from. Stockholm has asked for additional health-care staff from Sweden’s armed forces, but it’s not clear the military has the resources to help. In the meantime, over 100 staff from a children’s hospital have reportedly been redeployed to intensive care units, meaning that children who had been due to receive non-emergency surgery will now be forced to wait."

Bloomberg also reported that today Finland said it's ready to free up space for Swedish ICU patients.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[SMAlset]

For those following Santa Clara County, the San Francisco Chronicle had this article today on the county with a focus on Regional Medical Center in San Jose.

Life and death inside a Bay Area ICU stressful, 'but we've got this'

 

[alloverx]

Australian covid numbers by state

 

[dhanson865]

KCHD: Knox County Health Dept. Senior Director Dr. Martha Buchanan tests positive for COVID-19 | WATE 6 On Your Side

they got rid of the daily cases graph and went to these replacements.

 

[ReddyLeaf]

I’m not sure if this has been posted, but I know the concept has been discussed even way back. It looks like there is sufficient evidence that Coronavirus was circulating in Italy as early ad Nov/Dec 2019.
Italian boy found with coronavirus more than a year ago could be Europe's first case

 

[cwerdna]

Santa Clara County is a large county here in the SFBay area. I had been wondering how we were doing bed wise and saw this Patch article—not good only 31 beds available. That was as of this past Wednesday.

Gilroy Hospital Reaches ICU Capacity In Coronavirus Surge

It's better than State: ICU capacity now at 0% in San Joaquin Valley | KGET 17 which was reported on local news today.

 

[Causalien]

I’m not sure if this has been posted, but I know the concept has been discussed even way back. It looks like there is sufficient evidence that Coronavirus was circulating in Italy as early ad Nov/Dec 2019.
Italian boy found with coronavirus more than a year ago could be Europe's first case

Thiscwas a while ago, but if you read my earlier posts on covid, the first time I officially heard of covid in China was Nov as well.

Rumored circulation starting was sept to oct for a pneumonia like disease.