COVID ICU Delirium

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The Atlantic reported that COVID-19 patients have been experiencing a sort of living nightmare as they battle the virus in hospitals.

Hallucinations vary, from a feeling of falling in slow motion, to one patient felling that a nurse had taken a circular saw and cut her arm and both of her legs off. The saw then came through the wall and cut her head in half.

Patients suffering from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Many of these patients have to be put on a ventilator. 80% of patients on ventilators experience ICU Delirium. Patients are sedated in a medically induced coma to ease the memory of the difficulties. However patients reconstruct false memories from stimulus while sedated.

Patients might look like they are resting, while in reality their brain is on fire. A patient might then wake up in a medically induced haze with a tube down their throat and wrists tied. In war time, that would be considered torture. Patients might feel they are being kidnapped or being tortured. They might see blood dripping down the walls, or people might have animal heads. Children might float by with no faces. If a patient has to get an MRI they might feel they are being put in an oven.

COVID-19 is the perfect storm for Delirium. Patients are put on a high dose of drugs, a longer illness along with absence of family and mobility. Communities around the country and around the world are going to have to deal with a tsunami of survivors who have delirium. Even when patients recover and can rationalize that the things in their head could not have happened, the terror is still very real. The delirium can last even after a patient returns home. One in Four ARDS survivors had PTSD symptoms later in their recovery. Nightmares can get so bad that the recovering patient might wish they had died. Surviving and getting your life back are two different things.

 

India’s COVID Martyrs

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In India on May 16, 2021 fifty doctors died in a single day. 269 doctors have died in the second wave of the virus in India. Last year, 736 doctors had lost their lives during the first wave. The highest number of fatalities have been reported from Bihar (69) followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27). Only 3% of the doctors who died were fully vaccinated.

Five months into India’s vaccination drive, only 66 per cent of India’s healthcare workers have been fully vaccinated.

Dr. Jayesh Lele, the General Secretary of The Indian Medical Association, (IMA), told NDTV, “It is very unfortunate that we lost 50 doctors yesterday across India and 244 in the second wave since the first week of April”.

“Secondly we want to highlight that doctors are understaffed and overworked. They sometimes work for 48 hours at a stretch without any rest. This adds to the viral load and they ultimately succumb to the infection. The government needs to take measures to boost the healthcare workforce,” he added.

While the The Indian Medical Association (IMA) says that a thousand doctors have died due to Covid so far, the actual numbers may be far higher. The IMA only keeps a record of its nearly 350,000 members. India, however, has more than 1 million 200 thousand doctors. The former president of IMA, Dr. K.K. Aggarwal died on May 17, 2021 from COVID-19. The doctor was infected despite being vaccinated.

Doctors and nurses who are on the front line of the battle against the virus are being stigmatized in India. There are cases of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals, being shunned by others for fear of being infected. This includes the threat of being evicted from their own apartments and general ostracism. People are frightened and superstitious. “They recognize us with our lab coats and stethoscopes. Many doctors have been asked to vacate their rented homes by their landlords as they believe that doctors staying at their houses may make them more susceptible to Covid-19,” a junior doctor at Hyderabad’s MGM Hospital told The New Indian Express newspaper on condition of anonymity.

 

 

Vaccine Incentives

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President Joe Biden has a goal of seeing 70% of Americans vaccinated with at least one shot by July 4, 2021.

Dating Apps including Tinder, Hinge, OK Cupid, BLK, Chipsa, Plenty of Fish, Bumble, and Badoo will be offering badges for singles to display their vaccination status, and give vaccinated users free benefits like boosts, super likes and super swipes.

The apps are also implementing filters so people can see who has been vaccinated as well as promotions and links to vaccine.gov to help people find where to get the shots.

“Hinge will encourage users to share their vaccination status on their profile and give vaccinated users a free ‘Rose,’ which is premium content that indicates to other users that they’re especially excited to get to know them,” the White House said.

“Vaccinated people will also receive a free ‘Boost’ to move their profile to the front of a daters’ stack,” the White House said of the app’s plans. The White House noted that OkCupid has found that people who are vaccinated or who plan to be receive 14 percent more matches compared to those who don’t.

This might seem like small beans compared to “Vax-a-Million” which gives Ohio residents a chance to get one million dollars if they get the shot. The state will pick the name of name of one vaccinated person per week for 5 weeks. The “Ohio Vax-a-Million” lottery will be funded with the state’s federal coronavirus relief dollars, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said during a statewide televised address on May 19, 2021.

Along with Melinda Gates, lets hope the Ohio winners get bumped up to the top of the dater’s stack.

 

 

Identified Airborne Object

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Identified airborne objects have been recognized by a government agency called the CDC. In early May 2021 the CDC finally recognized that COVID-19 is airborne instead of strictly droplet based.

The droplet based theory meant that 6 feet of physical distancing would prevent the virus from spreading between people. However studies have shown that the virus can linger in the air for up to three hours in tiny particles and spread much further than 6 feet. The risk of transmission is greatest within three to six feet of an infectious source where the concentration of these very fine droplets and particles is greatest.

Once infectious droplets and particles are exhaled, they move outward from the source. The risk for infection decreases with increasing distance from the source and increasing time after exhalation. Two principal processes determine the amount of virus to which a person is exposed in the air or by touching a surface contaminated by virus.

An MIT research paper concluded that the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors can be as great at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet in a room where the air is mixed. Existing safety guidelines have omitted too many factors to accurately quantify the risk of airborne transmission, such as time of indoor exposure, mask use and ventilation rates. The danger of exposure now is mostly for those who have not been vaccinated.

On April 27, 2020 Pentagon officially unclassified three videos taken by US Navy pilots showing “unidentified aerial phenomena,” known as UFOs. It seems very mysterious that they would release these videos shortly after the start of the pandemic. When the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill was signed into law in December, 2020, a  180-day countdown began for US intelligence agencies to tell Congress what they know about UFOs. In June 2021 the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies are scheduled to deliver unclassified reports on UFOs to Congress.

Freedom

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The vaccination rate has stalled in America. 41% of Republicans say they do not plan to get a vaccine, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, while 4% of Democrats do not want the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that vaccinated Americans can take their masks off outdoors and indoors. They are over 95% protected from getting infected by the COVID-19 virus and its mutations. The un-vaccinated will not wear masks and they will spread the virus amongst themselves Extending the pandemic and resulting in more deaths.

President Joe Biden warned May 17, 2021 that coronavirus case numbers could rise once again in U.S. states with low Covid-19 vaccination rates. He said it would be a needless “tragedy” to see Covid cases rise among those who do not get vaccinated. Nearly 35 million Americans may refuse the shot. That’s how many Trump voters wouldn’t get the vaccine if the polling turns out to be correct, representing almost 17% of the adult American population. Among Magats, personal freedom is more important that life. The virus doesn’t give a crap about party affiliation. Biden further stated, “Those who are not vaccinated will end up paying the price.”

As of May 17, 2021, more than 154 million American adults, or 59.7% of U.S. adults, have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and roughly 121 million American adults, or 47.1% of U.S. adults, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

A study by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, of COVID-19 diagnoses and deaths from March to December 2020 found that a greater number of people died in states led by Republican governors. The study suggests that the less stringent remediation measures taken by Republican governors have likely led to the deaths. The study offers evidence about the danger of political polarization.

9 Fully Vaccinated Yankees Infected

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Nine NY Yankees fully vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, have tested positive for Covid-19. One player, shortstop Gleyber Torres tested positive for Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated and having previously contracted the coronavirus during the off season.

Also testing positive were pitching coach Matt Blake, third base coach Phil Nevin, first base coach Reggie Willits and four traveling staff.

All but one of those infected were asymptomatic meaning they could spread the virus not even knowing they had the COVID virus.

“When you read the fine print, they tell you that you still could get the Covid and the vaccination is to protect you from the symptoms, either to eliminate them all together and protect you if not fully protection then the percentages,” New York general manager Brian Cashman said.

“With regard to the Yankees, we obviously need to learn more about that situation,” CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. “My understanding is that six of the seven reports, six of the seven infections, were indeed asymptomatic infections. And we will look to more data from that report to understand what happened there. All of the real-world data we’ve seen that’s been in the published literature, large studies, in many different settings, have demonstrated that those vaccines are effective, have a high effectiveness against disease.”

The Yankees said the team is undergoing additional testing and contact tracing, with the assistance of the baseball commissioner’s office and its medical experts. The New York State Department of Health is advising the team. “We’ve been rocked here the last several days,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think it’s stopped all of us a little bit in our tracks. We’re dealing with a lot. Our heads are spinning trying to get our hands wrapped around everything.”

So as we rush to return to normal by removing all our masks, you might wonder, are breakthrough cases possible? Well when half of a team can be re-infected, I would venture to say, yes.

Maskless!

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On May 13, 2021, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky informed the fully vaccinated that they can go without masks both outdoors and indoors in many circumstances. State and local officials are having to decide whether to follow suit. This marked a major turning point in America’s COVID Crisis. To date 585,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. That is more casualties than in WWI, WWII and Vietnam combined.

“We are asking people to be honest with themselves,” Walensky said on NBC’s Meet the Press which aired Sunday. “If they are vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated and they are not wearing a mask, they are not safe.”

This decision was based on the current state of the pandemic in the U.S., along with evidence that vaccines are extremely effective in the real world. “That science, in conjunction with all of the epidemiological data that we have, really says now is the moment,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told NPR on May 13, 2021.

The CDC’s recommendation has created some confusion because it does not lift local mask mandates. States, municipalities and businesses can make the choice whether or not to follow it. There is no way to track if people have had the vaccine. Vaccine passports have been adopted in other countries but some Americans thin it would infringe on their freedoms.

“This was not permission to shed masks for everybody everywhere. This was really science driven, individual assessment of your risk,” Walensky said May 16, 2021  on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” For now, when you leave home, it makes sense to bring a mask with you in case the place you’re going still has a “mask required” sign on the door.

Dung

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People in India are smearing cow dung and urine over their bodies hoping it will boost their immunity against COVID-19 as second wave of the crisis worsens. Cows are of special significance to Hindus, who see them as a sacred symbol of life and the earth. Hindus believe cow dung has therapeutic and antiseptic properties. Doctors in India are warning against the practice.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) feels he is now immune to COVID since he knows how to smear dung. At a congressional hearing about COVID-19 Senator Paul seemed to imply that Dr. Anthony Fauci engineered the pandemic. It is a line of questioning that appeared to play to conspiracy theories that are circulating on the internet. He went on about gain of function research which would “juice up” super viruses and he claimed the United States was funding such research in creating deadly weaponized viruses. Dr. Fauci’s response to the Senators conspiracy theories was, ” Senator you are entirely and completely incorrect.” Fauci continued, “We have not funded gain of function research on this virus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. No matter how many times you say it, it didn’t happen.”

Research is still being done to find the exact cause of the COVID-19 virus. The virus probably originated in bats, but how it passed to people is being investigated. Researchers are keeping an open mind about how the pandemic started and will not exclude any scenarios, including the unlikely one that the virus accidentally escaped from a laboratory. Considerable time has passed since the emergence of COVID-19, and many people only have mild or no symptoms, which will make it challenging to identify the first infected person.

In another hearing Rand Paul characterized of wearing masks as “theater.” This folly of dung came before the CDC said that vaccinated individuals could remove their masks when outside and indoor in certain situations. Back then Fauci advised caution, allowing scientists time to study the new variants now circulating in the U.S. and other countries. Even today some think that the variants from Brazil, Africa and India can evade vaccines causing breakthrough cases. America and particularly Florida have been very lax in offering safety protocols to slow the spread of the virus. Any time the numbers of cases go down Governors are quick to ease all safety measures and then of course there are surges in cases. Government only seems able to react rather than plan ahead.

CDC Lifts Masking for the Vaccinated

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Back in January of 2021 before the historic roll out of vaccines in the United States, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings discussed safety measures he was taking to keep constituents safe. He initiated ‘COVID Strike Teams’ which would inspect businesses to see if they were maintaining coronavirus safety measures.

As Orange County approached 52,000 coronavirus cases, 11 bars in one day were found to not have no face masks, no social distancing, no hand sanitizers and no disinfecting. The strike teams had saw 86% compliance in visits to 4,910 businesses. Businesses were instructed on ways they can operate their business more safely and if they remained repeat offenders they were fined.

People who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the director of the CDC announced May 13, 2021. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House Covid-19 briefing. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”

On May 12, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order, which essentially dissolved Orange County’s Strike Teams of authority. “I find it somewhat hypocritical that the governor provided clemency for fines or violations of local laws but let stand fines imposed by the state of Florida. Frankly, that simply is not right,” Demings said. He has decided to lift mask requirements outdoors but said the county needs to reach a 70 percent vaccination rate before masks can be removed indoors too. The 70 percent vaccination rate is an ambitious goal for the area as inoculations have slowed.

Since late last year, Orange County’s Strike Teams have fined 28 businesses for not following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Under the governor’s new order, none of those businesses will have to pay those fines. “There is nothing unprecedented about local governments trying to provide for and protect its residents during a pandemic,” Demings said. Demings says the Strike Teams have helped boost compliance in businesses to 99% countywide. “We’re going to still send our Strike Teams out and we will still maintain a list of those who are non-compliant,” Demings said.

On May 13, 2021 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order granting pardons to Florida residents and businesses charged with violating local COVID-19 safety protocols. The executive order covers criminal penalties for things like refusing to practice social distancing or adhering to mask mandates. Jerry Demings wife, Val Demings is considering running for the Florida Governors position to unseat the incumbent, Ron DeSantis.

Olympic Flame

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The XXXII Olympiad was originally slated for 2020 in Japan but was postponed in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic it was rescheduled to July of 2021.

The Daily Mail reported that, Japan’s government is expected to widen a virus state of emergency May 14, 2021, just 10 weeks before the Tokyo Olympics are set to open. The widening emergency, aimed at combating a fourth wave which is putting Japan’s medical system under strain, comes with public opinion firmly opposed to holding the Games this summer, fearing further infections.

350,000 people have signed a petition calling for Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled as Japan expands Covid-19 state of emergency. Only 1% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated. Kenji Utsunomiya, a former candidate for Tokyo governor, urged Games organizers to ‘prioritize life’ as he submitted the 351,000-signature petition to city authorities.
On May 13, 2021, a doctors’ union warned it was ‘impossible’ to hold the Games safely during the pandemic, but organizers say virus countermeasures will keep the athletes and Japanese public safe. One of the country’s most prominent businessmen, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, said he is ‘afraid’ of the Games going ahead. ‘I am very much afraid of having the Olympics,’ he told CNBC. ‘Not just Japan, but many countries they’re having still a big, tough situation, I don’t know how they can support sending athletes.’