COVID impacts

[Bramblethorn]

We've just gone to Stage 4 restrictions here - curfew 8 pm to 5 am, etc. etc. Our worst days have been about 700 cases - nowhere near US levels, but still alarming.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Hitting closer to home (sorta)

My officemate's* parents both contracted COVID a couple of weeks ago. Her mom was in a different state supervising some renovations on a rental property they have there. They're not sure how she caught it or whether or not her dad caught it from her mom or some other way.

Her mom is doing ok, recovering at another property they have out there. Her dad seemed to be doing ok but was readmitted to the hospital yesterday evening. He's got a bunch of pre-existing conditions, including heart issues and some fairly rare kind of cancer that I can't remember the name of (but he was still working, more than full time, for the Dept of Defense).

His prognosis is grave. My officemate said the doctor's aren't even completely sure what the virus has done to him, but it's effecting his heart, and they diagnosed him with cardiomyopathy. She was on the phone with one of his nurses, and the nurse was noncommittal about if there was even a treatment he could tolerate.

Suffice to say, she was a wreck today, trying to work and stay distracted but fielding calls from her mom and trying to decide if she should go to where they are. It's a horrible feeling.

And that's on top of some system wide COVID related stress.

*By officemate, I don't mean someone I work with or who works in the same building as me. I mean for the last three years our desks have been literally back to back in a room that might be ten feet square, but it's doubtful.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

My officemate's* parents both contracted COVID a couple of weeks ago. Her mom was in a different state supervising some renovations on a rental property they have there. They're not sure how she caught it or whether or not her dad caught it from her mom or some other way.

Her mom is doing ok, recovering at another property they have out there. Her dad seemed to be doing ok but was readmitted to the hospital yesterday evening. He's got a bunch of pre-existing conditions, including heart issues and some fairly rare kind of cancer that I can't remember the name of (but he was still working, more than full time, for the Dept of Defense).

His prognosis is grave. My officemate said the doctor's aren't even completely sure what the virus has done to him, but it's effecting his heart, and they diagnosed him with cardiomyopathy. She was on the phone with one of his nurses, and the nurse was noncommittal about if there was even a treatment he could tolerate.

Suffice to say, she was a wreck today, trying to work and stay distracted but fielding calls from her mom and trying to decide if she should go to where they are. It's a horrible feeling.

And that's on top of some system wide COVID related stress.

*By officemate, I don't mean someone I work with or who works in the same building as me. I mean for the last three years our desks have been literally back to back in a room that might be ten feet square, but it's doubtful.

Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. It sounds, as you already put it, grave. I keep reading more things they are discovering the virus does in the body besides the lungs. I hope he pulls through. The effect on your office mate must be hard to witness.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. It sounds, as you already put it, grave. I keep reading more things they are discovering the virus does in the body besides the lungs. I hope he pulls through. The effect on your office mate must be hard to witness.

I think that's the key thing a lot of people forget. This virus is less than a year old. There have been a lot of assumptions by the medical fraternity about what they think it's going to do, but no one can be really sure because it's so new. And different.

"It's just like the flu..." conspiracy idiots say.

Tell that to the 28 yo woman who's just had a double lung transplant.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I think that's the key thing a lot of people forget. This virus is less than a year old. There have been a lot of assumptions by the medical fraternity about what they think it's going to do, but no one can be really sure because it's so new. And different.

"It's just like the flu..." conspiracy idiots say.

Tell that to the 28 yo woman who's just had a double lung transplant.

Some doctors have started noticed neurological effects, including brain damage. There's been at least one preliminary study verifying that suspicion. That's alarming all by itself, but it strikes me that it's the tip of the iceberg. Doctors are not good at noticing cognitive effects until those effects are dramatic. They don't have a comparison of a person's cognitive ability under normal conditions, and they don't routinely ask questions to screen for it.

Nearly two years ago now, I had a medical issue related to my cerebrospinal fluid. There was the usual parade of doctors and specialists in the hospital. I told every one of them that I was confused and having trouble thinking, but none of them paid any attention to that. I looked at my medical records afterwords, and they only paid attention to physical effects - even though my brain was floating in the same fluid that was surrounding my spinal cord. There's nearly a year I still have only the vaguest memory of because it got wiped, and I struggle sometimes with things that used to come easily, but when I mention this to the doctors, they brush it off because I seem fine to them.

Imagine, with all the demands on a doctor's time and attention, and with the challenges of just keeping people alive, what's being missed. Cognitive effects are particularly had to assess with children, so that's concerning. Researchers have already identified some children who suffered brain damage that was severe enough to cause motor function deficiencies. It may be a long time before the full scope of the damage to individuals and to society is revealed.

 

[astuffedshirt_perv]

Some doctors have started noticed neurological effects, including brain damage.

Yeah, these knock on effects are really interesting in a long-term scenario. In typical actuarial accounting, having COVID would put you at worse health outcomes than someone who didn't. Will people, now children but adults in the future, pay higher life/health insurance rates because they had COVID? Will bad/criminal decisions be brushed off as COVID effects? Will people who were never diagnosed compete in society at an advantage?

 

[Bramblethorn]

Taken about a week ago - usually this is one of Melbourne's busiest streets.

https://www.fijitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Bourke-Street-mall.jpg

I'm not a crowds person, but I love this city and it aches to see it like this.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

One quick update: My officemate's dad seems to be doing much better; she's back to being mostly annoyed at him, so that's actually a good sign. As of Thursday he was supposed to be discharged from the hospital.

~~~~~
On another note: for the sciency types here, I thought this article about the immune system and how differences in people's immune systems might account for the differences in symptoms and reactions to COVID was interesting. And accessible for those of us who are not physical medicine professionals...

It's from the Atlantic, as part of their ongoing non-paywalled Coronavirus coverage, so it should be readable.

covid-19 Immunity is the Pandemic's Central Mystery
Snippet: Immunity, then, is usually a matter of degrees, not absolutes. And it lies at the heart of many of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest questions. Why do some people become extremely ill and others don’t? Can infected people ever be sickened by the same virus again? How will the pandemic play out over the next months and years? Will vaccination work?

To answer these questions, we must first understand how the immune system reacts to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Which is unfortunate because, you see, the immune system is very complicated.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

One quick update: My officemate's dad seems to be doing much better; she's back to being mostly annoyed at him, so that's actually a good sign. As of Thursday he was supposed to be discharged from the hospital.

~~~~~
On another note: for the sciency types here, I thought this article about the immune system and how differences in people's immune systems might account for the differences in symptoms and reactions to COVID was interesting. And accessible for those of us who are not physical medicine professionals...

It's from the Atlantic, as part of their ongoing non-paywalled Coronavirus coverage, so it should be readable.

covid-19 Immunity is the Pandemic's Central Mystery
Snippet: Immunity, then, is usually a matter of degrees, not absolutes. And it lies at the heart of many of the COVID-19 pandemic’s biggest questions. Why do some people become extremely ill and others don’t? Can infected people ever be sickened by the same virus again? How will the pandemic play out over the next months and years? Will vaccination work?

To answer these questions, we must first understand how the immune system reacts to SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Which is unfortunate because, you see, the immune system is very complicated.

I'm glad to hear about your officemate's dad. Annoyed is a nice, normal thing.

Thanks for the article. I really like The Atlantic. I feel a little guilty about contributing to the death of print journalism by not subscribing. The problem is that I'm already "subscribing" to electricity, groceries, insurance, etc.!

 

[oggbashan]

My eldest daughter is a private tutor. Usually, in the summer, she accompanies two of her students to their holiday home in France - but not this year.

She has three more students currently abroad and is doing tuition online.

The family in France is in the foothills of the Pyrennees at their third home (Other two are Kensington and Tuscany). They are trying to stay well away from the locals eating the produce from their own farm. The only downside, they claim, is that they can only drink wine from their own vineyard.

As one of my Australian friends would say "What a bugger!".

 

[BelleCanzuto]

The family in France is in the foothills of the Pyrennees at their third home (Other two are Kensington and Tuscany). They are trying to stay well away from the locals eating the produce from their own farm. The only downside, they claim, is that they can only drink wine from their own vineyard.

As one of my Australian friends would say "What a bugger!".

This GenXer Yank says, "That's a nice problem to have..."

Or, if I was remotely social media savvy: #firstworldproblems

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I'm glad to hear about your officemate's dad. Annoyed is a nice, normal thing.

Thanks for the article. I really like The Atlantic. I feel a little guilty about contributing to the death of print journalism by not subscribing. The problem is that I'm already "subscribing" to electricity, groceries, insurance, etc.!

Same here. I have a subscription to the Washington Post, but I attempt to evade The Atlantic's article limits by using "incognito" tabs on Chrome.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I don’t subscribe to any National news sites. I justify it by thinking it’s the same as reading a paper left on the lunchroom table. I do buy the twice weekly local paper.

A friend has been in isolation because she worked with a nurse who contracted the virus. They’re both ok.

A friend in India’s husband is showing symptoms. Theykre waiting for the test results.