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[No Politics] What you need to know about CoVID-19 by SARS-CoV-2 [No Politics]

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maty

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[ The coronavirus particles have a size of approx. 125nm, but CO2, O2 and other gaseous air molecules like nitrogen are much smaller and will pass through the filter and the material of an N95 mask and almost any other material ... ]

covid-19-sizes.png
 

BsdKurt

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Ok folks, there is too much information here now.

Let's say I've been in a coma since February. What's the current situation with the virus, and what actions do I take? Is it ok to go outside and go to my friend's dinner party? Should I go to Home Depot and buy some N95 masks for protection? Should I go buy some pills? What kinds?

Can I get a nice short summary of what's going on and what I should do? Thanks, all.
No expert here, but here’s my take. For everyone, regardless of location or personal situation:
  • Wear a face covering in public. It doesn’t need to be an N95, it can be surgical disposable or cloth. Why? Because you must assume that you have Covid-19 and are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and covering your mouth and nose will greatly prevent you from spreading it.
  • Wash your hands more. Anytime you leave your home, assume your hands are covered in the virus. Imagine you have dipped your hands in paint right before your enter your home. Go right to the sink and wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Wash your hands before preparing food, after going to the bathroom, etc.
  • Practice social distancing. Mask or no mask, keep your distance from others. Leave space when waiting on a line. Be aware of other people who are too close and make space by moving away or politely asking them to step back. I’ll note that if you live in area where no one is wearing a mask and no one is doing the social distancing thing, this is going to be hard to pull off.
  • Educate yourself on how the virus spreads and avoid high risk situations and places. Here’s an excellent place to start.
If you‘re a high risk individual, then I’d be doing a whole lot more to try to avoid contracting Covid-19. What’s high risk? Right now it’s thought to be those over 45 (the more over - the higher the risk) and have a comorbidity like hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. The full list is Diabetes, Lung Disease, Cancer, Immunodeficiency, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Asthma, Kidney Disease, GI/Liver Disease, and Obesity. If your high risk then I’d be having my food and most things delivered, cleaning it before putting it away; restricting visitations and not leaving your home as much as possible among other things.

You asked about dinner party’s. Im not having people over inside my house. We’re over the hump here so we have had 2 couples over in our back yard, with 3 pairs of chairs setup about 8 feet apart. For bathroom use, we have our guests wear their mask and use a certain bathroom. We did a bbq like this as well but I wash my hands and wear a mask while prepping and cooking food. I see this as a reasonable compromise that should reduce the risk of us spreading it to each other but none of us are high risk. I’m not particularly afraid of dieing from this but I am afraid of 35% growth per day and will adjust my behavior and do my part at reducing the spread.
 

jhaider

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No, not in my experience. They have a general idea about them, but I've found that they know little about the various forms that many supplements come in. Often, different forms of a given supplement will work best for different individuals. Most doctors don't spend any time at all educating themselves about that.

"No, not in my experience. AES Fellows have a general idea about audio cabling, but I've found that they know little about the various forms that audio cables come in. Often, different brands of cable will work best for different systems. Most AES fellows don't spend any time at all educating themselves about that."

Put another way, doctors pay attention to what matters, as guided by scientific research. They're educated and experienced enough to filter out irrelevant but fancy sounding noise about "supplements" that might snare a lay person, just as someone who has studied the science of audio is educated and experienced enough to filter out whatever twaddle some dealer might say about cables.

Hopefully one is smart enough to value learned opinions from trained medical professionals over words spattered inside a rag called "Natural Health Magazine."
 

maty

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Thomas savage

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My advice is take mental health very seriously, don't underestimate how you're feeling.

Also please take whatever measures you can to prepare yourself for the possibility things just won't ever go back to normal.

Mentally prepare yourself , get infront of what might be coming as you'll feel a little bit more in control and a bit happier.

Let go of unnecessary expenditure and ego driven lifestyle choices , focus on what will make you safe and free.
 

Tubaman

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I'm not sure how you would or could do such a prospective trial. Perhaps a retrospective meta analysis could be done. I mean, if a prospective subject is found to be Vitamin D deficient, shouldn't such person start Vitamin D supplementation immediately, as a matter of course? Suboptimal Vitamin D levels are associated with poor health outcomes, regardless of whether one contracts covid-19 or not. Is this not correct?
Yes, low vitamin D status is associated with all of the risk factors for COVID-19 mortality, e.g. liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, old age, etc., etc. even without a person's having contracted COVID. (See "The Vitamin D Solution" by Michael Holick, M.D.)

And yes - it sounds like there might be ethical concerns regarding a prospective trial. However, I have read that when testing is done for pharmaceutical drugs, if it becomes clear early on that the drug is safe and effective, then the trial is stopped, and all participants are allowed to take the drug. So, they may do the same in any testing of vitamin D w.r.t. COVID-19. Based on the following article (no need to view the accompanying video), Harvard researchers are planning to conduct such a trial, and are recommending vitamin D supplementation for those who would be low otherwise:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/930152
 

Ron Texas

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I am one who believes things will go back to normal once there is a vaccine or effective treatment. However, we are already seeing an acceleration of trends which were already in progress. Brick and Mortar retailers are going bankrupt and fashion malls are emptying out. Amazon, Walmart, Target and tech are doing great. More people will work from home, but it will be far from universal. Open office layouts will go back to cubes. Buffet restaurants and self service salad bars will go away. There will likely be a permanent reduction in business travel, but I have no idea about how much. Globalization will be reversed with production moving closer to markets. This will be accompanied by continuing automation. Those who stay with production in Asia will prefer to invest in India, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Indonesia over China.

This will pass, but don't expect flying cars anytime soon.
 

MarcT

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I am one who believes things will go back to normal once there is a vaccine or effective treatment. However, we are already seeing an acceleration of trends which were already in progress. Brick and Mortar retailers are going bankrupt and fashion malls are emptying out. Amazon, Walmart, Target and tech are doing great. More people will work from home, but it will be far from universal. Open office layouts will go back to cubes. Buffet restaurants and self service salad bars will go away. There will likely be a permanent reduction in business travel, but I have no idea about how much. Globalization will be reversed with production moving closer to markets. This will be accompanied by continuing automation. Those who stay with production in Asia will prefer to invest in India, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Indonesia over China.

This will pass, but don't expect flying cars anytime soon.
Sounds good to me. And, yes, I understand that prices for various goods will increase. And there will be new jobs associated with the automation you mentioned.

Yes, I don't see how these huge Chinese buffet restaurants can operate profitably right now. One of the really big ones here appears to be out of business. Another one is apparently open again, but I'm not sure how they are managing to dole out the massive variety of food they use to have set out on the buffet line. It seems like a pizza buffet would be easier to manage, as you could have one or two people loading customers' plates up with the slices of their selection.
 

MarcT

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Yes, low vitamin D status is associated with all of the risk factors for COVID-19 mortality, e.g. liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes, old age, etc., etc. even without a person's having contracted COVID. (See "The Vitamin D Solution" by Michael Holick, M.D.)

And yes - it sounds like there might be ethical concerns regarding a prospective trial. However, I have read that when testing is done for pharmaceutical drugs, if it becomes clear early on that the drug is safe and effective, then the trial is stopped, and all participants are allowed to take the drug. So, they may do the same in any testing of vitamin D w.r.t. COVID-19. Based on the following article (no need to view the accompanying video), Harvard researchers are planning to conduct such a trial, and are recommending vitamin D supplementation for those who would be low otherwise:

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/930152

What happens is that if the independent review board detects a significant difference in outcomes, they will "unblind" the trial and find out which group is experiencing the better outcomes. Then, those in the other group will be offered the successful intervention, as it would no longer be ethical to deny them that treatment.

The only thing about Vitamin D is that it may take a period of time to really build up subjects' levels, which period of time covid-19 subjects may not have to spare. Now, they can give big Vitamin D doses by injections, so perhaps they could get their levels up in a hurry, in the event that a trial were to show a huge benefit.
 
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kevinh

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The lack of herd immunity is not surprising given the social distancing and lock down regimen.

BTW here is a link to the video that Youtube censored about herd immunity. Consider the % of deaths that are among the elderly and those with one of the comorbidity among the younger group (<60 yrs old).

https://www.aier.org/article/stand-up-for-your-rights-says-bio-statistican-knut-m-wittkowski/
 

MarcT

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Oh and don't turn to drink and drugs , this is admittedly one of those ' do as I say and not as I do ' things .
Personally, my plan is to turn to a "late life crisis" and raise all manner of hell!:D
 

Ron Texas

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Sounds good to me. And, yes, I understand that prices for various goods will increase. And there will be new jobs associated with the automation you mentioned.

Yes, I don't see how these huge Chinese buffet restaurants can operate profitably right now. One of the really big ones here appears to be out of business. Another one is apparently open again, but I'm not sure how they are managing to dole out the massive variety of food they use to have set out on the buffet line. It seems like a pizza buffet would be easier to manage, as you could have one or two people loading customers' plates up with the slices of their selection.

It's estimated 25% of all restaurants will close, but it's likely their owners will open new ones later.
 

MarcT

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