Thank you for the new thread, Norbert, even if I'm still pretty far behind on parts of the last one.
It's entirely possible that unexplained deaths are indeed unrelated to Covid, though it's probably also good that they're doing autopsies.
However, we have since heard of a few serious pneumonia cases in our area, back in the spring, where our Level 1 hospital had supposedly tested for Covid, even more than once, and the test was always negative -- but the supposed 'bacterial' pneumonia did not respond to antibiotics, and the people felt horrible, like nothing they had ever had before, which certainly makes you wonder. One of those cases even made the newspaper (not ours, another one) and was later readmitted when it turned out he had Covid after all, after he was in serious breathing difficulty. Even heart attacks and strokes can apparently be caused by Covid. I suspect that one of the forensic stories of 2020-2021 is going to be how many Covid tests, from which labs, returned false negatives.
That is, if researchers can find that out in retrospect, by using blood and tissue samples, X-rays, CT scans and MRIs, etc. There was a report on one of the TV shows several days ago -- Amanpour? BBC? can't remember -- about people with fairly severe long-term Covid who were still having trouble even getting a correct diagnosis, because nonspecialist doctors were misreading their scans and failing to identify their lung problems as Covid. The pictures of the scans were pretty shocking, at least according to the doctor, though I as a layperson couldn't really tell.
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Frustrations Boil at Pace of Vaccinations at Long-Term Care Facilities
The Trump administration raised hopes of a speedy process for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Patience is wearing thin. ...
... vaccinations of some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens are going more slowly than many state officials, industry executives and families expected. Their hopes had been buoyed when government officials said long-term care facilities would be at the front of the line for vaccines.
CVS and Walgreens, which are largely responsible for vaccinating residents and workers in long-term care facilities, are on track to make at least initial vaccination visits to nearly all nursing homes they are working with by Jan. 25. The two pharmacy chains have already given out more than 1.7 million vaccine doses at long-term care facilities.
But the progress is uneven across the country and not nearly as comprehensive for different types of long-term care. For example, thousands of assisted living facilities — for older people who need less care than those in nursing homes — do not yet even have an appointment for their first visit from the pharmacy teams, in large part because states have given such facilities lower priority in their vaccine-distribution plans. ...
The pace of the vaccination program has taken on greater urgency as the rapidly spreading virus continues to decimate nursing homes and similar facilities. The virus’s surge since November has killed about 30,000 long-term care staff and residents, raising the total of virus-related deaths in these facilities to at least 136,000, according to a New York Times tracker. Since the pandemic began, long-term care facilities have accounted for just 5 percent of coronavirus cases but 36 percent of virus-related deaths. ...
The vaccinations by CVS and Walgreens were always expected to take several months because of the need to visit tens of thousands of facilities three times. The first two visits are for most residents and staff to get the two doses of the vaccine, with the third visit as a backup for people who missed the first clinic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/business/c...
How to (Literally) Drive the Coronavirus Away
What’s the transmission risk inside a car? An airflow study offers some insight for passengers and drivers alike ...
In a new study, Dr. Mathai and three colleagues at Brown University — Asimanshu Das, Jeffrey Bailey and Kenneth Breuer — used computer simulations to map how virus-laden airborne particles might flow through the inside of a car. Their results, published in early January in Science Advances,
( https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/1/e... )
suggest that opening certain windows can create air currents that could help keep both riders and drivers safe from infectious diseases like Covid-19.
To conduct the study, the research team employed what are known as computational fluid dynamic simulations. Engineers commonly use these kinds of computer simulations, which model how gases or liquids move, to create racecars with lower drag, for instance, or airplanes with better lift.
The team simulated a car loosely based on a Toyota Prius driving at 50 miles per hour, with two occupants: a driver in the front left seat and a single passenger in the back right, a seating arrangement that is common in taxis and ride shares and that maximizes social distancing. ...
Unsurprisingly, they found that the ventilation rate was lowest when all four windows were closed. In this scenario, roughly 8 to 10 percent of aerosols exhaled by one of the car’s occupants could reach the other person, the simulation suggested. When all the windows were completely open, on the other hand, ventilation rates soared, and the influx of fresh air flushed many of the airborne particles out of the car; just 0.2 to 2 percent of the simulated aerosols traveled between driver and passenger.
The results jibe with public health guidelines that recommend opening windows to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus in enclosed spaces. ...
Because it’s not always practical to have all the windows wide open, especially in the depths of winter, Dr. Mathai and his colleagues also modeled several other options. They found that while the most intuitive-seeming solution — having the driver and the passenger each roll down their own windows — was better than keeping all the windows closed, an even better strategy was to open the windows that are opposite each occupant. That configuration allows fresh air to flow in through the back left window and out through the front right window and helps create a barrier between the driver and the passenger.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/health/cor...
Two Friends, Two Continents, Very Different Pandemics
Steven LaBrie is a freelance baritone in New York. Jarrett Ott has a full-time job singing in Germany. As the coronavirus spread, that made all the difference. ...
As two singers rising through the close-knit world of Philadelphia’s most acclaimed conservatories, Steven LaBrie and Jarrett Ott knew each other in passing. But on one raucous night in 2009, when Mr. Ott joined the celebration of Mr. LaBrie’s 21st birthday — an evening of tequila, dancing and after-hours pizza — their friendship was sealed.
Both baritones, Mr. LaBrie, now 32, and Mr. Ott, 33, stayed close as their opera careers began to blossom. They and their partners lived near each other in Astoria, Queens, for a time, and Mr. LaBrie and Mr. Ott worked out at the same gym. In 2018, with fellow baritone Tobias Greenhalgh, they released “Remember,” an album of songs by American composers.
That year, their paths split. Mr. Ott started a full-time job in the ensemble at the respected opera house in Stuttgart, Germany. Mr. LaBrie remained based in New York, a freelance artist with a growing reputation.
This divergence made all the difference when the coronavirus hit. With performances canceled around the world, Mr. LaBrie’s income fell to nothing; he hasn’t had health insurance for years. But across the Atlantic, support from the German government meant that Mr. Ott’s position was safe, his pay almost unchanged and his benefits secure.
[two interviews]
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/arts/music...