Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Waltham: foreclosures, rental, mortgage)

[OutdoorLover]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Well I mean really..how is covid bad for the brain but something like the common cold, flu, pneumonia, norovirus are not? What exactly about Covid has a negative affect on the brain but these other illnesses do not? It feels like this is just adding to the fear mongering.

As I mentioned earlier, the correlation can be established with pretty basic statistics about the prevalence of pathologies in Covid-19 patients versus the same pathologies in the general public.

It sounds like you're also asking about what the mechanism of damage might be. This is not simple to understand and may take a good deal of time (a year or more) to establish definitively even with the great worldwide research emphasis on Covid-19 right now. However, there are *some* indications that the virus may cause damage directly by crossing the blood brain barrier and invading the central nervous system - gaining access to the brain. Furthermore, it's known that many of the worst problems experienced by those with a serious course of disease are caused by an over-exuberant inflammatory response by the body and the ensuing immune system attack on tissues, which can cause both destruction of our cells as well as other pathologies including inappropriate clotting - clots in the vasculature can block the circulation of blood to the tissues served by these vessels, which can impair the affected cells and/or cause their death. As someone else mentioned the vascular endothelium - the blood vessel lining, is known to be attacked by both the virus and by the immune system's inflammatory response and besides the damage there, the ensuing chemical signaling can stimulate clotting broadly, which is bad news. Both gross clots of major vessels in the brain (causing a stroke) as well as microclots -smaller but more widespread clots, have been observed.

This is absolutely not "fearmongering", these are scientific findings that have been observed in many patients - symptomatically and with brain imaging verifying underlying physical damage there. Autopsies of some deceased patients show more directly the damage done. The sorts of things I have been describing have been documented by scientists and doctors around the world.

[msRB311]

Here's a list of places that will require you to show your covid vaccination card

https://www.google.com/amp/s/boston....e-provincetown

[rach5]

The latest surge as viewed via wastewater. https://www.mwra.com/biobot/biobotdata.htm

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by rach5

The latest surge as viewed via wastewater. https://www.mwra.com/biobot/biobotdata.htm

It's nice to see a graph which extends out long enough to have some context.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by rach5

The latest surge as viewed via wastewater. https://www.mwra.com/biobot/biobotdata.htm

Looks like our latest surge is on par with Oct/Nov of last year.

SHould be a fun fall.

[msRB311]

Ugh...my mother in law wants to come visit this september...kind of thinking this will be a way to get her to stay home...again.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Looks like our latest surge is on par with Oct/Nov of last year.

SHould be a fun fall.

Except that this year >60% of the population is vaccinated. I predict that this year's surge will be significantly smaller than last year's.

[msRB311]

I hope so. The problem is that kids go back to school in the fall and none of them are vaccinated.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by msRB311

I hope so. The problem is that kids go back to school in the fall and none of them are vaccinated.

Kids were back in school last year and no one was vaccinated. In my district, the weeks after break were also the worst for COVID cases. While school is probably a bigger risk than an absolute quarantine, I think the school environment has lower transmission than what the average kid actually does.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Except that this year >60% of the population is vaccinated. I predict that this year's surge will be significantly smaller than last year's.

One assumes. Even if case numbers do escalate the hospitalizations and deaths should be far lower ... particularly given the high vax rates amongst the highest risk groups.