August 8, 2021

Dealing w/ the spouse of a patient who refuses to believe wife has COVID

https://twitter.com/nurseryanrn/status/1424097595060891650?s=21

We almost had to remove the spouse of a patient from the hospital last night because he refused to believe that his wife, who had signs/symptoms of COVID for 10 days and was found with an oxygen saturation of *9%* after having a probable stroke, had COVID. Violently in denial.


“But she had a stroke. This has nothing to do with COVID. Why are you making this about COVID”

Refusing to accept that their decision to live at home with her COVID symptoms for 10 days without treatment dropped her SpO2 so low that her brain isn’t receiving the necessary O2.


We see this a lot. Unvaccinated folks having signs/symptoms of covid for 1-2 weeks before coming to the ED, then by the time they get to us they need an emergent intubation. Denial is killing so many of these patients - getting to the hospital sooner means decreased mortality.

For reference, an oxygen saturation below 85% causes lack of oxygen perfusion to vital organs and over any extended period of time is incompatible with life. An SpO2 of 9% isn’t something any of us had ever seen in a patient that wasn’t minutes away from death


COVID denial didn’t pop up out of thin air. There are actual people to hold accountable for this. Carlson, Hannity & others have blood on their hands. Immeasurable loss of life.

The patients know it too, but most find out minutes before intubation and never wake to regret it.

August 7, 2021

Every day Florida's breaking records - 23, 903 new cases today

Texas had 10, 954 new cases

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

August 7, 2021

6 members of a JAX church died in 10 days

https://twitter.com/cleavon_md/status/1423794350862082048?s=21


🚨In 10 days, 6 members of Impact Church in Jacksonville #Florida died from COVID. Four members who died were under the age of 35, all of them healthy, and the only thing they had in common was they were NOT VACCINATED, said the pastor. #SoulsLostToCovid news4jax.com/news/local/202…

He says 15 to 20 members are now in the hospital, another 10 or so are at home with the virus and three to five vaccinated members also tested positive.


The church held a vaccine event in March where he says 800 people were vaccinated.

With the surge in the greater Jacksonville community, and in his church, they’re now holding another event on Sunday. The event is open to the public.



This church tried to do the right thing and it still didn’t work. The pastors of this church are African-American so I’m not sure we should assume these are right wing evangelicals .

https://www.weareimpact.com/contentpages.aspx?p=c50c287c-e499-4c43-87aa-b4b18839ab26

August 6, 2021

Contact tracing not required in Texas public schools when students test positive

Texas public schools are under no obligation to conduct contact tracing when students test positive for Covid-19, state education officials said this week as the state struggles to control new outbreaks.

The Texas Education Agency said data from 2020-21 shows "very low" Covid-19 transmission rates in classrooms and lower transmission rates among children than adults.

"School systems are not required to conduct Covid-19 contact tracing," the agency said in announcing the guidelines Thursday.

The decision was criticized by the Texas State Teachers Association, which accused officials of ignoring how fast the virus' Delta variant can spread.



https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/contact-tracing-not-required-texas-public-schools-when-students-test-n1276228?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

They want to hide the numbers of children being infected. JFC

August 6, 2021

Well, Sturgis is starting out well

https://twitter.com/VictoriaDahl/status/1423702850970931201?s=20

omg, just watched a news report from Sturgis. Reporter asks if they're worried about covid there. Man standing in a group says "Nah, my wife's got it right now. She stayed home."
I really wish the camera hadn't cut away from his friends at that moment.


https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1423738271717265410?s=20

Sturgis starts today. Up to 700,000 expected to attend.


https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1423715654893441029?s=20

WATCH: Sturgis biker bursts out coughing as he tells CNN why he won’t get the COVID vaccine

During an interview with reporter Adrienne Broaddus, one attendee at this year's rally said "hell no" when asked if he was going to get the vaccine.

He then falsely asserted that the vaccine would "make you sterile and kill your ass."

The man then said that he won't trust the vaccine because it hasn't yet been fully approved by the FDA -- and then went into a coughing fit.




If I was a reporter i wouldn't want to be anywhere near this mess.

August 6, 2021

Coronavirus booster shots for the immunocompromised expected to be authorized soon

Federal health officials are racing to ensure that millions of Americans with weakened immune systems can get additional shots of coronavirus vaccines to protect them against the highly contagious delta variant.

The actions could mean the extra shots would be authorized in days or weeks, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been announced.


In the next week or two, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to review data from the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention supporting the use of additional vaccine doses for the immunocompromised. If officials are persuaded, they will amend the emergency use authorizations for the vaccines to permit the extra inoculations. Advisers to the CDC and the agency, in turn, will urge people with certain medical conditions to talk to their doctors or pharmacists about getting the shots.

Immunocompromised patients represent about 7 million adults in the United States, including those who have received organ transplants, patients on cancer treatments and those with rheumatologic conditions and HIV, according to the CDC. They are more likely to become seriously ill from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and might more frequently spread the virus to others, experts say.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/06/booster-shots-immunocompromised-fda/

August 6, 2021

New data suggest J. & J. vaccine works against Delta and recipients don't need a booster shot.

A single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the Delta and Beta variants of the coronavirus, data from a clinical trial in South Africa suggest.

The study is the first real-world test of the vaccine’s efficacy against Delta, a highly contagious variant of the virus surging across the United States and much of the world. South Africa’s Ministry of Health reported these preliminary results at a news conference on Friday. The data have not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

In the trial, called Sisonke, the researchers evaluated one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in nearly 500,000 health care workers, who are at high risk of Covid-19. The vaccine has an efficacy of up to 95 percent against death from the Delta variant, and up to 71 percent against hospitalization, the researchers reported. (The vaccine did slightly worse against the Beta variant, which is thought to be more adept at sidestepping the immune response than Delta.)

When so-called breakthrough infections did occur in vaccinated volunteers, they produced mild symptoms in 96 percent of the cases and resulted in severe disease or death in less than 0.05 percent, the study found. The trial ran from February to May of this year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/06/science/johnson-delta-vaccine-booster.html


This is interesting. The J & J vaccine protects better against the Delta than the Beta version of COVID.

August 6, 2021

This is the 6th pediatric death from COVID he's posted in past 48 hours

https://twitter.com/cleavon_md/status/1423365729206902784?s=21


Another child has died from COVID. This is the 6th pediatric death from COVID that I've posted in the last 48 hours. The child was from Los Angeles County California, less than 12 years of age and therefore ineligible for vaccination. abc7.com/los-angeles-co…

August 5, 2021

AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka has died unexpectedly

https://twitter.com/lauralitvan/status/1423314342167171076?s=21

August 4, 2021

Shontel Brown is going to be on Morning Joe!

Jonathan Lemire just announced this on Way Too Early.