Covid19

[Saab2000]

I too have had good experiences with real New Yorkers. A few a-holes give them an undeserved bad name. One of the layovers we have is right in Midtown Manhattan and I love it. Walk 5 short blocks in any direction and you'll see a zillion different things. I walked about 4 blocks down towards the East River last year about this time and found a hole-in-the wall bar and had the greatest dinner with locals, served by a very friendly bartender who takes the train in from Yonkers. It was a blast. Go five blocks in the opposite direction from the hotel and you're in Times Square, which is a total circus I've seen once and that was enough.

Also had a great time about 15 years ago with a bunch of incredibly loud, obnoxious and over-the-top fun Jets fans at a local hangout in Queens, within spitting distance of the old Shea Stadium and Arthur Ashe Stadium.

I get to New York a lot and even La Guardia is no longer the national shame it once was. That has proven be something I couldn't have believed if I hadn't seen the 180º turnaround in the past few years.

Looking forward to New York persevering and layovers in the City again.

[NYCfixie]

And in/around NYC. New Rochelle was, if I recall correctly, one of the first hotspots.

The ultra-orthodox are cloistered, unworldly, a-scientifc (anti-scientific would imply that they're deniers. They're not deniers, they're ignorers!) and very suspicious of outsiders of any kind. It's a recipe for maximum pandemic impact.

The ultra-Orthodox Haredi aren't most Jews, so please distinguish the fundamentalists from most of us. Please?

I mean, very few Jews disregarded Shelter In Place and went to their father-in-law's resort for Passover. It's kind of the same thing.

You should have taken greater care when referencing a different part of the Jewish faith and culture than your own.

I personally take great offense to what you are offering as fact when it is only your opinion/perspective.

What do you think the orthodox (haredi, ultra, modern) would say about your beliefs/customs/rituals?

[NYCfixie]

I too have had good experiences with real New Yorkers. A few a-holes give them an undeserved bad name.

It's all in how you define it but more often it is option A (and sometimes option B). The a-holes are often the pretenders.

Option A
"Real" New Yorkers are the ones who were actually born on the island of Manhattan since most everyone outside of NYC thinks of NYC solely as Manhattan, spent most of their lives there, and probably still don't have a drivers license.

Option B
"Real" New Yorkers are the ones who were actually born in one of the 5 boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island), spent most of their lives there, and may not have a driver's license.

Option C
Those who grow up in the greater NYC area most often in the suburbs of Long Island and Westchester.

Option D
Those who move to New York and start calling themselves New Yorkers.


(full disclosure - I am an A but I did eventually get a drivers license).

[Saab2000]

It's all in how you define it but more often it is option A (and sometimes option B):

Option A
"Real" New Yorkers are the ones who were actually born on the island of Manhattan since most everyone outside of NYC thinks of NYC solely as Manhattan, spent most of their lives there, and probably still don't have a drivers license.

Option B
"Real" New Yorkers are the ones who were actually born in one of the 5 boroughs (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island), spent most of their lives there, and may not have a driver's license.

Option C
Those who grow up in the greater NYC area most often in the suburbs of Long Island and Westchester.

Option D
Those who move to New York and start calling themselves New Yorkers.


(full disclosure - I am an A but I did eventually get a drivers license).

I am absolutely not a New Yorker but I enjoy visiting for the most part and I'd like to see so many more things.

Our friend Ergott (who no longer posts here) is a friend of mine from Islip and he's got the right speech patterns for my liking and is a Yankees fan. And he does have a drivers license because he's picked me up at my hotel a few times for beers and bike chats. I'm in no position to assign identity in these matters but he seems like a New Yorker to me, but I can definitely see the difference. I have layovers there and used to have layovers in White Plains. These have a totally different feel to me than anywhere in the city.

I guess for me, a visitor, I'd probably lump those who were either born in, or grew up in, the five boroughs. But maybe Manhattanites are more selective!

[beeatnik]

From the Department of Misinformation and Poor Math (and Google) Skills.

No, Dr. Oz Didn’t Say Only 2–3% of Children Would Die of Coronavirus If Schools Reopened – Reason.com

This guy, Shaun King, claiming 2 to 3 percent of children will die if we re-open schools and many including Soledad O'Brien and Carole Radziwill extrapolating to 2 million deaths. Yikes.

Shaun King on Instagram: “��The INSANE moment where @dr_oz says if we go ahead and open America’s schools, only 2-3% of students will die. ⁣ ⁣ We have 76 million…”

The study Oz references:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/l...s-on-covid-19/

Report 9 - Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand | Faculty of Medicine | Imperial College London

No, Dr. Oz Didn’t Say Only 2–3% of Children Would Die of Coronavirus If Schools Reopened – Reason.com

Defending a clip from Fox News and citing Reason to show reason...strange times, indeed.

[j44ke]

...

I get to New York a lot and even La Guardia is no longer the national shame it once was. That has proven be something I couldn't have believed if I hadn't seen the 180º turnaround in the past few years.

Hah, you old midwestern softie. You've obviously not had to get out of your taxi and walk down the middle of Grand Central Parkway to get to your gate on time. Really, La Guardia is still a pit - maybe a construction pit and perhaps that's reason to be optimistic - but still in large part it remains a bus terminal that planes land at. I am comfortable waiting a few years before changing my opinion though. :-)

Okay, let's get back to covid19 science, statistics and medicine.

[Too Tall]

*Gentle reminder that the poo flinging COVID thread is not this thread.

[beeatnik]

^Light hearted or political?

Also posted in the context of seeing more information or debate on policy re: reopening schools.

[guido]

Covid-19 is rapidly becoming America’s leading cause of death | Washington Post

"In just weeks, covid-19 deaths have snowballed from a few isolated cases to thousands across the country each day.

The U.S. surgeon general had warned that last week would be like Pearl Harbor as he attempted to create context for the threat — but it turned out that more than five times as many Americans died from covid-19 last week than were killed in the World War II raid."

[Mark Kelly]

On the subject of vaccine development here's Professor Frazer, one of the developers of HPV vaccine, on the challenges of developing a vaccine against a coronavirus:

We've never made a successful vaccine for a coronavirus before. This is why it's so difficult - Health - ABC News

[COVRTDESIGN]

I hope I don't get it just on the fact that I got the Swine Flu when I was in the Air Force and it was absolutely brutal!!!

[houston]

I appreciate you asking. I am feeling a lot better today. Yesterday at about this time, I started feeling a bit better and more energetic and I have been getting better steadily. This is day 9 and I am very optimistic that I am pulling out of it(whatever it was).

I wanted to offer what is hopefully the last update on my issue. I am back to normal now on what would be considered day 11. I feel great. I still have no idea what I had. It was either a mild case of COVID-19 or a long drawn-out case of the flu. I really appreciate the support from the group here and I am thrilled to be feeling better.

[mbrtool]

Houston, that is great news.

Ray

[sk_tle]

On the subject of vaccine development here's Professor Frazer, one of the developers of HPV vaccine, on the challenges of developing a vaccine against a coronavirus:

We've never made a successful vaccine for a coronavirus before. This is why it's so difficult - Health - ABC News

There is a lab in Switzerland that claim they have one ready already* and it is generic enough to prevent from possible mutations. It will just take around 6 months to make it approved for sale and they will initially focus on the domestic market (but I guess they'll be happy to licence to others).

* though only tested on animals so far.

[j44ke]

I wanted to offer what is hopefully the last update on my issue. I am back to normal now on what would be considered day 11. I feel great. I still have no idea what I had. It was either a mild case of COVID-19 or a long drawn-out case of the flu. I really appreciate the support from the group here and I am thrilled to be feeling better.

That's terrific! No centuries for a while yet though. And eat your wheaties!

[j44ke]

On the subject of vaccine development here's Professor Frazer, one of the developers of HPV vaccine, on the challenges of developing a vaccine against a coronavirus:

We've never made a successful vaccine for a coronavirus before. This is why it's so difficult - Health - ABC News

Professor Frazer's prediction is that the most likely candidate will be a vaccine that uses a part of the virus attached to a chemical to induce an immune response, or "subunit" vaccine.

"That [vaccine type] has been successful in animal models for coronaviruses in the past and that is of course where the money is being put in large measure at the moment," he said.

"Another sort of vaccine would be just antibody transferred from somebody who had been infected already and had got rid of the infection.

"Which would be an immunological means of preventing infection, and could probably be more quickly developed than an actual vaccine."

This sort of vaccine was tested with SARS in 2003 and resulted in reinfected lab monkeys having a nasty immune response, which is why many groups working on a vaccine for Sars-CoV-2 are going for a very specific antibody response.

Very interesting. Thanks.

[davids]

Once again, NYTimes is on topic. This is a video presentation but it is well worth watching re: Chasidic communities in Brooklyn.

Zoom Shivas and Prayer Hotlines: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Traditions Upended by Coronavirus - The New York Times

Thanks Jorn.

It's encouraging to see community leaders acknowledging the problem and developing solutions. The room full of bodies was chilling, and the panoramas of maskless people, and people still crowding together as their communities are ravaged, were heartbreaking.

[beeatnik]

Houston, other than the symptoms and your telemedicine consultations were there any other reasons you were certain of your diagnosis? Based on your posts, on forums and Insta, it seems like you took extra precautions earlier than most. Were you concerned about contacts in mid February?

I wanted to offer what is hopefully the last update on my issue. I am back to normal now on what would be considered day 11. I feel great. I still have no idea what I had. It was either a mild case of COVID-19 or a long drawn-out case of the flu. I really appreciate the support from the group here and I am thrilled to be feeling better.

[beeatnik]

Not sure where this should go. Lab-associated theory gaining traction in mainstream media

US explores possibility that coronavirus spread started in Chinese lab, not a market - CNNPolitics

It's been gradual. Earlier pieces quietly reported the growing controversy over the wet market theory.

How did coronavirus break out? Theories abound as researchers race to solve genetic detective story - CNN

"If you bring wild animals -- you catch them in the wild, you bring them together in large numbers," he said. "They're stressed and then they can become virus factories, and they're in close contact with human beings in the markets and they're butchered in the markets, and by people in relatively unhygienic conditions."

But an article in Lancet has cast some doubt on the theory. The study shows that about a third of the first 41 confirmed infected patients had no direct exposure to the wet market. Among them was the first known patient, whose symptoms reportedly began appearing December 1.
"No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases," the report states.

The market was shuttered January 1, two days after the Wuhan authorities issued a public health alert about it.


No conspiracies here but a counterpoint to the accepted narrative.

Coronavirus may have been in California earlier than thought - Los Angeles Times

“The virus was freewheeling in our community and probably has been here for quite some time,” Dr. Jeff Smith, a physician who is the chief executive of Santa Clara County government, told county leaders in a recent briefing.

How long? A study out of Stanford suggests a dramatic viral surge in February.

But Smith on Friday said data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local health departments and others suggest it was “a lot longer than we first believed” — most likely since “back in December.”

“This wasn’t recognized because we were having a severe flu season,” Smith said in an interview. “Symptoms are very much like the flu. If you got a mild case of COVID, you didn’t really notice. You didn’t even go to the doctor. The doctor maybe didn’t even do it because they presumed it was the flu.”


NOTE: Moderator (J. Ake) - moved from Covid 19 political forum to Covid19 forum for discussion/examination.

[houston]

Houston, other than the symptoms and your telemedicine consultations were there any other reasons you were certain of your diagnosis? Based on your posts, on forums and Insta, it seems like you took extra precautions earlier than most. Were you concerned about contacts in mid February?

Beeatnik,

Even now, I am completely uncertain of my diagnosis. My zip code has the highest infection rate in the city and I learned this a few days into my sickness. I contacted my local doctor friends and they all told me that it is very similar to what COVID patients are currently experiencing. I didn't really have a cough but I was assured that not all cases come with a cough. The heavy chest was the symptom that gave them pause. They told me that there is a good chance I have it and to self quarantine and keep a close eye on it. The treatment would be the same whether I had it or not, assuming it never took a drastic negative turn.

In mid February, I wasn't as vigilant as I probably should have been. I took a few business trips in early February but grounded myself by the 15th. Once I was stopped travelling, I have been a home office hermit with little contact with the outside world. I went on solo bike rides in the boonies right up until I started feeling like crap. That may have been too much in retrospect.

What are your thoughts? Did I push it?