Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: home, schools, live)

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by redplum33

3 kids and 3 words for you, bjimmy: small sample size.

that wasn't the sample though. that was the number infected from the sample.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Of course that's the whole point.

For sure. I dont understand why people dont understand this.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The clear lesson is to keep it out of the nursing homes. No visitors. Weekly testing of the staff. PPE mandates. Protocols to limit the spread within the facility. You do that and you chop your body count in half. You then do what you can to keep most of the high risk people in their bubble. Combine that with the improvements in treatment over the last 90 days. Lower density places with automobiles and single family homes should be able to keep most of the high risk people out of the way. Like usual, the places tough to control are the high poverty rate neighborhoods which aren’t single family homes and automobiles.

Seemingly the best news is that, despite Remdesivir being slightly better than nothing, the pharma Tocilixumab is showing very promising results in younger patients who do not have underlying pulmonary issues. The study indicated a nearly 50% IFR reduction in patients experiencing an immune response induced “cytokine storm” ... a scenario which seems to have taken down a number of otherwise health individuals working “front line” jobs.

The problem, of course, is there’s no “free lunch”. Knocking down the immune IL-6 response does increase lung infection risk which must be managed with antibiotics and other clinical means. It’s far from a cure.

There are obviously other pharma either in or entering studies right now, so hopefully further progress and understanding is made. Until then, a full return to the office remains very problematic for the upper third to quarter of the work force. Still very high risk compared to other common viruses.

[sawyer2]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

The problem, of course, is there’s no “free lunch”. Knocking down the immune IL-6 response does increase lung infection risk which must be managed with antibiotics and other clinical means. It’s far from a cure.

Yes, the medical teams are really building a very strong arsenal for patients who progress with anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive, and steroid approaches. It is still a very delicate balance as you note, especially for those who are immunocompromised.

This virus is incredibly interesting medically and there are very small pockets of patients with very unique side effects - for example, suggestive of triggering Type 1 diabetes through attacking beta cells in the pancreas in a few patients. Many other examples like that that are making the medical profession really scratch their heads.

It's not just 'did you live or die', there are other sequelae for many.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

More great news! Kids don't really spread coronavirus!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ch-study-shows

https://www.pasteur.fr/fr/file/35404/download

From the Bloomberg article:

The data on kids has been contradictory so far, with some reports corroborating the Pasteur findings and at least one pointing the other way.

The only accurate statement you can make right now is: “Insufficient data. Nobody knows.”

It would be wonderful if COVID-19 performed a Trumpian vanishing act but nobody high risk should be changing their behavior at the moment. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be an older K-12 teacher with a chronic health issue. I wouldn’t want to be grandma and grandpa living in a multigenerational household with grandchildren in school. If you’re 40, healthy, with school-aged children, your risk is low. We need to consider the households that aren’t in that category.

[htfdcolt]

Schools are reopening for the fall, in both MA and CT. So yes, this is a calculated risk that both state governments are willing to take.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

From the Bloomberg article:


The only accurate statement you can make right now is: “Insufficient data. Nobody knows.”

It would be wonderful if COVID-19 performed a Trumpian vanishing act but nobody high risk should be changing their behavior at the moment. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be an older K-12 teacher with a chronic health issue. I wouldn’t want to be grandma and grandpa living in a multigenerational household with grandchildren in school. If you’re 40, healthy, with school-aged children, your risk is low. We need to consider the households that aren’t in that category.

That Bloomberg quote is not scientifically evaluated. If anyone has any studies whatsoever that suggest kids are at least as likely as adults to contract and transmit Covid 19, I would love to see them.

Not knowing 100% about something does not mean we know 0%. All the evidence suggest contra to doom and gloom that is so popular on here.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

lol love on this site I can't cite CDC or Pastuer Institute and people have no clue how to interpret data. Waste of time.

Go read more panic porn guys. It's really helping. Enjoy the collapse of the state.

Please give us, in plain English, what this "good news" is that you're referring to, that you're claiming we're ignoring. Because empirically what we see is the US at an all-time new daily high in terms of cases (40,000), and having reversed the downward trend that we were on. We're all looking for that good news, please.

[Bridge781]

Originally Posted by htfdcolt

Schools are reopening for the fall, in both MA and CT. So yes, this is a calculated risk that both state governments are willing to take.

That seems to be the plan for now. There is a whole lot of time for that to change if things get bad again. I hope they don’t but it doesn’t seem like this is over at all. That’s not being doom and gloom, it’s reality. Things have gotten much better in MA which is great but I don’t see why people going back to normal activities and having people travel again wouldn’t lead to a spike.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

Yes exactly. Looks like you don't trust the European experts. That is pretty shameful.

It’s not that I don’t trust. It’s just that the sample size seems small.

I’m still rereading the study. 510 pupils, 42 teachers, 641 parents and some others. 1300 or so in total and 10% of that total caught the virus. 61% of the parents/caretakers of an infected student caught it and 2 adults were hospitalized.

If anything, that tells us that the kids themselves aren’t really transmitting it much between themselves, but if it does happen there’s a strong chance they will bring it back to their household and infect the other members of that household.

That data suggests that the entire reason schools were closed was valid.