tdhoosier

That Colorado man did test positive for COVID, by the way. So there was no wrong doing. If you test positive for COVID when you die it’s marked as a COIVD death even though (in this case) it was most likely alcohol that killed them. This is just how it is reported. The instant you leave results open for human intrupretation is when they get skewed. There needs to be a constant that can’t be manipulated with human bias, in this case it is a positive or negative test. And while you may fairly determine this particular case is not accurate, it’s a small outlier. While it should be considered, it doesn’t have a greater influence on the overall picture.

Wait, are the doctors getting money or hospital systems getting money? And it is about money. As many have pointed out above, it’s not in a hospital’s financial interest to inflate death numbers. It’d actually be more financially advantageous for them to suppress the numbers. They make more money on the elective surgeries that are getting cancelled.

The question should be are enough doctors lying to significantly impact the numbers, to the degree that death numbers tell a different narrative then what we are being fed. Is that what you believe? I’m not saying all doctors are good or bad people, but I’m not going to let a story from a friend of a friend of a poster I’ve never met in real life (love you Scott) make me not believe ALL the data collected.....or ever a vast vast majority of it. That’s how all these stories seem to start: “I heard that my cousin’s, friend’s, step Dad died in an auto accident and the they marked it as COVID.” Maybe some are true. Maybe some lack context. Maybe some are lies. The fact is there is no tangible proof of hospitals or doctors manipulating birth certificates. It’s all speculation based on hearsay that has never been followed down and reported on. Especially when many media outlets would be chomping at the bit to expose a story like this.

I'm sorry but I take those stories with a grain of salt. A) it's too easy to prove that the doctors are doctoring (no pun intended) causes of death. B) Doctors lying about this crap is against the hippocratic oath and would put their medical license in jeopardy. c) Are doctors going to lie about this for a hospital system when they themselves don't stand to benefit from all of this extra money flying around.....and risk their career at the same time? And the nurses are going to go along with this lie too? Hospital administrators are going to go along with this lie? Grieving families are going to go along with this lie? I'm sorry, it doesn't add up. A cover-up of this magnitude takes too many consenting parties to keep it a secret.

I've seen ours and some other districts school re-entry plan. Bottom line is it's definitely going to be a challenge. I've seen a few complaints, but I need to give props to the school board and superintendents who need to write these things. They are between a rock and a hard place drafting guidelines that are not going to appease all for a variety of reasons. How do you plan for the unknown? How do you appease the extremely cautious and people who think we're over-reacting at the same time? How do you appease both the parents and the teachers? You just can't. That said, our plan built its guidelines under three different scenarios: red (high spread), orange (moderate spread) and green (low spread). The gist is that red means everything is shut done and the kids remote learn. While in orange they move to a hybrid schedule and go to school every other day and remote learn on their off days; they also have to wear a mask in school when 'orange. Green still has minor precautions but the kids can go to school everyday. At the very least I like that this incentivises responsible behavior within the community. Let's face it, if we aren't in green it's going to mess up parent's work schedules and make our lives that much more complicated. Maybe this will have people second guess their decision not to wear a mask in public or go to an indoor bar. On the flip side, I sure hope that parents don't send their child to school who if they are 'on the fence' because the parent doesn't want to miss a day of work.

If there are any Morning Jacket fans on here, their new album is pretty darn good. And they finally record a killer jam that takes you back to their earlier stuff.

At least put up a pic.

Anybody have songs, that when listened to closely, just boggles their mind? For me, there’s the harmonies on Good Vibrations ...and The Strokes early stuff is just incredible. Every time I hear the chorus on Retililia, I just can’t wrap my head around how busy it is, without sounding busy.

I got one in the back of the throat? Then my wife went a week later because she was required to take a test and got jabbed in the brain.....said it was awful and her eye was hurting for a couple of hours after. I was watching a doctor on TV that said labs are working hard to produce an accurate test that only requires you to spit in a vile. Hope this comes sooner rather than later.

This was the point I was trying to make a couple of pages back. I think because now we have the capabilities to, many are taking test to confirm negatives. Sure, there may be some hypochondriacs out there, but employers are testing to ensure safe return to work and hospitals are using them to confirm people don't have covid before having elective procedures. And based on the re-entry plan I received from the school yesterday, kids will need to test negative if they want to come back before 14 days after showing symptoms. All of this is good IMO. Every expert I've heard talk about this says more testing is good....even if the negatives are high. It's better to know than not to know. It seems like the next obstacle is getting results back quicker and finding a test that's easier to administer. I'm telling you, if I take my kid to get that swab jammed up their nose I'm not sure I'll get them to take another medical test again.

Just saw this chart on John Hopkins, but another factor was added and it brought me back to this post. The number of positive tests (dark orange) is listed on this graph in correlation to total tests administered. I think it just give a better visual into how testing is influencing the overall case numbers. Testing more does play a slight factor in the increased case numbers, but not as much as some may think. The degree of change for tests administered far outweighs the degree of change for positive tests. link: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/usa

Never said that...of course less death is good overall. But I get the impression that some (not you Fouls) use a temporarily low death count to justify them taking things less seriously right now. Or as evidence to loosen restrictions when the case count is rising. I'm saying we can't ONLY look at the death toll. (That said, the deaths have started to go up as expected and in a week or two this conversation will be moot.) There are also other factors than just death. Namely hospitalizations, long lasting effects and economical impact. And because it spreads so quickly, it will run through a factory/warehouse/office space, forcing sick people to take work off (whether they die or not), diminish productivity and effect the supply chain. High case counts alone will affect the economy. Beyond this being more deadly than the flu, it hospitalizes more than the flu, it's more dangerous than the flu, it lasts longer than the flu and it spreads more quickly than the flu. So equating it to the flu (even if the death rate lowers) is comparing apples and oranges. Furthermore, hospitalis have taken the seasonal flu into account when determining their capacities, which typically run close to full. Hospitals did not factor in COVID to their capacity because it didn't exist before. It's like a game of Sink The Biz....the glass is the hospital, the beer in the glass (90% full) is the expected capacity and COVID is your drunk friend who can't control their pour. Even if deaths numbers drop we still are going to have to be careful for this very reason.

I was chewing gum to avoid this. Out of habit, I blew a bubble....it got a little sticky after that.

Thanks for the insight. This is a great example of why we can’t simply point to a low death rate and say it’s going to be ‘alright’. Transmission alone (even without government mandated shutdowns) is going to continue to devastate this economy. It was only last week when United said that air travel is going to turn around, then this spike continues to get out of control and today they’re announcing that 36,000 employees are going to be furloughed. We may not completely be able to control R, but our actions can keep it down. If we keep it down, it makes it much easier for this economy to operate, it makes it easier for kids to go back to school, it makes it easier for sports to resume, it reduces the strain on hospitals and healthcare workers, etc., etc. But let’s throw that all out the window because the death rate is temporarily down, or masks takes away your freedom or are just too uncomfortable 😢 , or your ‘over’ precautions. We’re just digging ourselves into a deeper hole to climb out of.

I was reading that one thing that we as a country need to be careful of if/when we are getting closer to herd immunity is that we don’t over shoot it. Just because we get to, say, 70% doesn’t mean the virus is going to stop reproducing exactly at that time. We need to approach that ‘herd immunity line’ (whatever it may be) slowly. It’s like rolling a boulder down a hill. If you want to stop it at as soon as it reaches level ground then you will have to slow it down before it gets to the bottom.

Getting trendy Mile!

Never have been to Pizzano's; there wasn't one near me where I grew up in the NW burbs, but have heard good things. I need to remember that next time I'm in the city, which seems less and less often as I'm getting older.

Would you say a study should be called in to doubt if: It was not randomized and double-blind, meaning doctors can select who they gave the drugs to and knew which patients they were administering HCQ or a placebo to? HCQ was treated with other medicine, which could impact the findings? If it excludes patients who had not yet been discharged from the hospital?

Palermo’s is pretty good.

I will fight somebody over what’s the best deep dish pizza. I’ve put a lot of thought into this over the years so if you want to debate me you better come at me guns blazing. 😎 First, I’ve talked to many people who have developed a negative opinion on deep dish because they either get imposter pizza outside of Chicago or have tried Pizzeria Uno (barf) Or Connies (double barf). If this sounds like you, then give it another try. The best Chicago Deep dish is made with the CORNMEAL CRUST. That’s right, you hear me lovers of Girodanos. I’m sorry, but doughy crust with all that cheese and all that sauce just throws off the ratio and it lacks crispiness. We’re supposed to be eating pizza not triangle shaped lasagna. That leaves you with Lou Malnatis (1A On my list) and Ginos East (1B On my list). Both have great pepperoni and amazing sausage. Lou Malnati’s gets the nod because they have ‘The Lou’ which is a tomato, spinach, mushroom pizza.

We had one where we used to live. The regular pizzas are alright, but they had this excellent one with chicken, tomatoes and green onion with a garlic white sauce - it ended up being the only one we got from Papa Murphys.

It really is sad that this is going to turn into a game of 'told you so' no matter what the final conclusion is on this drug. I just want something to work. Yeah, I just posted the summary, but this article has a little more info. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-immunity-covid-higher-shown.html

I'll balance that out with some hopeful news: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-53248660 🙂

Not sure anybody thinks we're going to 'beat' this. Quite the contrary. That said, while we aren't going to beat a hurricane, we can board up windows, build houses on stilts, evacuate population, etc. to minimize the damage.

I actually don’t necessarily agree we are catching ‘many’ more case due to increased testing. As I mentioned above, it’s not a black and white thing. I personally think increased testing only plays a small factor into why cases increasing.