COVID-19 Thread

[brwrsfan]

The mask use seems to be a city vs. rural thing. In my experience it's about 80-90% compliance in the city and 10-20% compliance in the two small towns I stopped at. Probably the worst one was a butcher shop that had 5 employees working in close quarters to fill orders, none wearing a mask. I get that we've decided that we're going the herd immunity route but the lack of precautions is going to cause exponential growth again and result in a ton of unnecessary deaths because hospital resources are overburdened as well as a massive economic loss because of delays in reopening.

 

I'd say this is accurate. I live in Oconomowoc - which I'd say is somewhat "rural" and at best it's 50% wearing masks. Went to Fleet Farm the other day and it was more like 25% or less (most employees weren't wearing one). Went out to Watertown for an errand, went to a butcher shop I like there - we were the only ones in the store wearing masks. None of the employees (no shields up by registers either). The people handling the food...nothing. It was almost like a different world where COVID didn't exist (or so the people there think).

[DuWayne Steurer]

I have to say that, listening to my wife tell me stories about people getting COVID, I'm just disheartened by the idiocy of some people.

 

There are people going into work - knowing they have a fever - yet they still go (and then test positive). Or people not wearing masks when required 'because it is uncomfortable' - and then testing positive. It just makes you shake your head.

 

And once that person tests positive - it means everyone around them - family, friends and co-workers - all end having to get tested - and even quarantined.

 

It's so frustrating that a few idiots can keep this thing going.

 

I'm not saying people need to run around in a hazmat suit - but just be smart. It's not about YOU. It's about everyone around you.

 

Rant done. Thanks for listening.

 

I have a friend that went to work with a fever and he said there was nothing he could do he couldn't risk losing his job despite the fact he knew he was potentially exposing people to covid-19. I'm like, you're not just exposing your co-workers you're exposing their families if you don't at least tell people. He said I can't tell them because if I tell them I have a fever they won't let me come to work.

 

Sigh....

 

While I'm not excusing your friend, shame on the company that he works for if he is really in the position right now where he risks his job if he stays home from work with a fever.

 

The thing of it is I kind of doubt he was going to lose his job if he called in sick. I think he just didn't want to miss a day, and he's that irresponsible. And I think there's at least a healthy percentage of people that feel that way.

[OldHeidelberg]

As of June 17, La Crosse County has 173 COVID-19 cases. On May 31, the county had 60 reported cases (with the first one being mid-March-ish). Between June 1-17 we have had 113, with 67 of those being in the past three days. If someone visited any one of six restaurants between June 5 and 7 they likely been exposed to COVID-19. I am not sure if statistically that is a spike, but it feels like one.

 

What I have seen here in the La Crosse area from a fair number of residents is very binary response to COVID-19; OMG, total lockdown! or What COVID? It doesn't take much effort or change to really limit the spread. Wash your hands. Don't touch things. Limit your trips out. Make 1 trip to the store instead of 3. When you are out keep your distance. Be social, but responsible. Just because you aren't likely to get severely ill or die from COVID doesn't mean you shouldn't care about the consequences of it spreading.

 

The last point is the one which really bugs me personally. My mom passed away on April 7, and the last time I was able to see her was when I drove her to the hospital to get her admitted. Because I was running a low-grade fever, I was not allowed to visit until I had a COVID test and it was negative. It took 5 days to get my results, which came in 10 minute after I got the phone call about my mom. My son-in-laws father and grandfather both also passed in April, and his family was in the same position as mine; no visitors.

 

Go to work. Live life. Be social. And please be considerate. Because COVID does impact people beyond the number of people who have died.

 

The frustrating thing is this whole outbreak in La Crosse seems to be about bar hopping 20 somethings. Maybe it was bound to rage through that crowd eventually and better to get it over with but it's annoying because I have the week off and am now right back on lockdown since I have family coming in one of whom has asthma. But no one seems to be adjusting to it despite daily warnings from the county, I would say mask wearing outside of store employees is about 20-25% right now in La Crosse, way down from a few weeks ago.

 

Sorry to hear about your mom, I lost both my parents too soon and you never really get over it.

[homer]

It's looking more and more like we won't have sports until who knows when simply because people can't be bothered to make a tiny sacrifice for the greater good.

[TURBO]

It's looking more and more like we won't have sports until who knows when simply because people can't be bothered to make a tiny sacrifice for the greater good.

 

We live in an extremely selfish society. The way things are today, a pandemic brings that out even more. Bunch of selfish idiots. We'll see how they like it when we get shut down again, this time more than likely even more strict.

 

I can only imagine how much the protests/riots have affected the situation. Now, in election season, the rallies will start up (both democrats and republicans, I'm not hanging this on one or the other)

 

Disgusting.

[homer]

re: protests

 

I have no idea what the actual impact is/was. I do know that many of the cities that had the biggest protests have not had case spikes. And the spikes that are happening started prior to the protests in many cases. Now, if you are in a city that was spiking and then there was protesting that can be like adding fuel to the fire. Hopefully, someone does the contract tracing on that to find out for sure.

 

My armchair theory is that it is less to do with protests or opening up but now that it's hot, everyone in the south is staying indoors in the AC hence why we are seeing spread there. In March/April everyone in the northeast/midwest was more or less indoors. Just a guess.

[OldHeidelberg]

re: protests

 

I have no idea what the actual impact is/was. I do no know that many of the cities that had the biggest protests have not had case spikes. And the spikes that are happening started prior to the protests in many cases. Now, if you are in a city that was spiking and then there was protesting that can be like adding fuel to the fire. Hopefully, someone does the contract tracing on that to find out for sure.

 

My armchair theory is that it is less to do with protests or opening up but now that it's hot, everyone in the south is staying indoors in the AC hence why we are seeing spread there. In March/April everyone in the northeast/midwest was more or less indoors. Just a guess.

 

We are learning as we go here but I agree, there wasn't a big surge in florida after all the spring break stuff in the media or after the Ozarks stuff but like La Crosse I read this morning that the Florida surge is being driven by younger people. That tells me crowded air conditioned bars may be a huge problem in the summer, I have spent about 10 years in Florida and for sure this time of year people start staying indoors just like in winter in Wisconsin. It seems obvious that bars are a huge risk, people drinking being less safe isn't exactly a revelation. I have a friend in Portland who tells me that social distancing in bars in mandatory there, can't sit at the bar, etc. Not sure if he is just justifying his return to bars or not but that seems like a big hole in the reopening, you just can't count on people in their early 20's to do the right thing, I know I was there once.

[homer]

This is from Kid Rock's bar in Nashville a few days ago. Not seeing many masks.

 

 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/entertainment-industry/article/21137226/kid-rocks-honky-tonk-others-cited-for-lack-of-covid-compliance

[nate82]

This is from Kid Rock's bar in Nashville a few days ago. Not seeing many masks.

 

 

https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/entertainment-industry/article/21137226/kid-rocks-honky-tonk-others-cited-for-lack-of-covid-compliance

 

I don't think a mask is going to help in that situation when it is densely packed like that. Mask or no mask it is still spreading.

[adambr2]

I guess we have pretty much collectively decided that we are going with the herd immunity route at this point.

[TURBO]

I guess we have pretty much collectively decided that we are going with the herd immunity route at this point.

 

The younger people have, and I guess the rest of us have no choice.

 

[LouisEly]

We live in an extremely selfish society. The way things are today, a pandemic brings that out even more. Bunch of selfish idiots.

No kidding. Between the people who can't be bothered to just wear a damn mask (and gloves) indoors in public places, and the people who are at the other end of the spectrum who are high risk and think that just because they shouldn't do something that nobody else should be able to either and they should shut down everything for everyone.

 

As for the protests, I don't think they will cause much of a spike because they were outdoors and during the daytime when it was usually sunny. We're two weeks past the protests, three weeks past the riots, so if there is a spike we should be seeing it now.

 

Here's Illinois new cases by day over the last 30 days - slight trend up the last six days, but not spiking at all:

[LouisEly]

My armchair theory is that it is less to do with protests or opening up but now that it's hot, everyone in the south is staying indoors in the AC hence why we are seeing spread there. In March/April everyone in the northeast/midwest was more or less indoors. Just a guess.

I think you're spot-on.

[Machu Peach]

We live in an extremely selfish society. The way things are today, a pandemic brings that out even more. Bunch of selfish idiots. We'll see how they like it when we get shut down again, this time more than likely even more strict.

 

With public health officials basically admitting they've been lying regarding masks and the inconsistent and hypocritical messaging on risky behaviors I'm not surprised that people are beginning to ignore them. I may not agree, but I can't really blame them either.

[adambr2]

We live in an extremely selfish society. The way things are today, a pandemic brings that out even more. Bunch of selfish idiots. We'll see how they like it when we get shut down again, this time more than likely even more strict.

 

With public health officials basically admitting they've been lying regarding masks and the inconsistent and hypocritical messaging on risky behaviors I'm not surprised that people are beginning to ignore them. I may not agree, but I can't really blame them either.

 

The medical community really dropped the ball on masks. Back in February you had the CDC, the Surgeon General, John Hopkins, and Health and Human Services saying, "Don't wear masks! They won't protect the general public!!"

 

Then when you try reversing course later, you lose all credibility. I think they knew they helped, but they advised against it because they were panicked against a N95 shortage for the healthcare industry and in the process they made a strategic error which looks very foolish now.

 

I think if they had started campaigning for mask wearing in early March and doubled down on it every chance they had, public perception would be different.

[LouisEly]

Maybe it was bound to rage through that crowd eventually and better to get it over with but it's annoying because I have the week off and am now right back on lockdown since I have family coming in one of whom has asthma.

The American Academy of Allergies, Asthma, and Immunology has stated that there is no increased infection risk among those who have asthma:

 

https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/asthma-library/covid-asthma

 

This has been corroborated by research from the University of Wisconsin, which showed that allergic asthma in adults may actually have a protective benefit and lower increased infection risk.

[igor67]

I could have sworn that they had stated months ago part of the initial no mask recommendation was based on preserving them for healthcare workers. I can get why enough people might have missed that or I may have read more between the lines. It's extra frustrating because as we have seen in a number of different cases now just slowing the spread is also giving us time to properly test therapies and find some things that actually reduce the death rate, so it isn't just a wait for the vaccine.

[PeaveyFury]

Maybe it was bound to rage through that crowd eventually and better to get it over with but it's annoying because I have the week off and am now right back on lockdown since I have family coming in one of whom has asthma.

The American Academy of Allergies, Asthma, and Immunology has stated that there is no increased infection risk among those who have asthma:

 

https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/asthma-library/covid-asthma

 

This has been corroborated by research from the University of Wisconsin, which showed that allergic asthma in adults may actually have a protective benefit and lower increased infection risk.

 

worth noting, though, that the AAAAI's comments clearly note that there is no known increased risk because there is no published data, implying that as we know more that may change:

 

It is important to know that currentlythere is no evidence of increased infection rates in those with asthma. And although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that patients with moderate-severe asthma could be at greater risk for more severe disease, there are no published data to support this determination at this time.

 

Early studies in NY showing the association have largely been proven flawed at this point, though.

[Machu Peach]

I could have sworn that they had stated months ago part of the initial no mask recommendation was based on preserving them for healthcare workers. I can get why enough people might have missed that or I may have read more between the lines.

 

One does not have to search very hard to find examples of senior health officials stating that masks didn't need to be worn by the general public because they would be ineffective at preventing spread. I, and many others, did not 'miss that'.

[homer]

I could have sworn that they had stated months ago part of the initial no mask recommendation was based on preserving them for healthcare workers. I can get why enough people might have missed that or I may have read more between the lines. It's extra frustrating because as we have seen in a number of different cases now just slowing the spread is also giving us time to properly test therapies and find some things that actually reduce the death rate, so it isn't just a wait for the vaccine.

 

This is from last week I think:

Supply shortages were the reason our government opted not to promote the use of masks to curb the early spread of covid-19.

 

https://www.thestreet.com/video/dr-fauci-masks-changing-directive-coronavirus

 

"Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected."

[BrewersSuperCollector]

Let’s just call it what it is...Fraud. We the American people were purposely deceived on the use of whether a mask was beneficial or not.

[MrTPlush]

They didn’t want people using medical masks because they wanted them saved for healthcare workers.

 

They also pleaded for people not to use cloth masks (or anything) either because:

 

A) They believed it would give people a false sense of safety and be more reckless.

 

B) They believed cloth masks were pretty much useless against COVID so there was no point.

[RobertR]

That quote really pisses me off. Stopping the spread of the disease should reduce the need for PPE by medical professionals. Heck, just say that any mask will do and America's cheapness will take care of it. No excuses for it.

 

The irony is, the better you handle the virus, the quicker you can get the economy back and increase confidence of consumers. The virus doesn't care about magical thinking and quick fix fantasies.

[adambr2]

Doesn't Fauci's quote almost directly state, "Well, we knew masks worked, we just were worried about running out of them so we lied to you." ?

[adambr2]

The whole "we were worried people would increase risk by wearing it improperly" rhetoric that you sometimes hear is so silly, too.

 

It's a mask. You wear it over your mouth and nose and that's it. It's not rocket science.

 

I think most people understand that it won't protect you if you wear it as a jockstrap.