COVID topic vol 2

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Stahlmann
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COVID topic vol 2

Post by Stahlmann »

No free beds in hospitals in my area.
Talked to Ukrainian programmer recently - somebody from his family died from this.
Seeing screens from some medical program, citing that patient was refused from 10 care units (yea, nobody knows that you're dog on the internet)

:-DDD

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Alphaville
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Alphaville »

upcoming mink massacre in dernmark due to coronavirus mutation jumping to humans and showing antibody resistance :?

looks like humans and minks have been playing corona ping-pong with each other for a while now

one damn thing after another...

eta: apparently this already happened in spain and the netherlands. i had no idea...

DutchGirl
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by DutchGirl »

Hospitals in my area (Rotterdam, the NL) declared that they had no free beds for COVID19 patients for half a day a few days ago. Anybody who needed to be admitted to a hospital would have to travel elsewhere.

I am glad that the numbers are going down (again, like at the end of spring) due to being in some kind of lockdown here again, and I'm glad that the situation isn't as bad as it was in the spring (based on the numbers of people in the hospital, and based on COVID19 deaths).

I talk to people who had COVID19 almost every day at work. A significant percentage has longer term damage from it, like lung problems and fatigue. For some others, luckily they suffered only little and seem to have healed completely.

Flurry
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Flurry »

I have a few cases with colleagues/friends but everybody's fine. Fortunately nobody had worse symptoms than a very soft flu.

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Alphaville
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Alphaville »

as i said in another thread, there’s been a few deaths in my wife’s extended family.

catpepper
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by catpepper »

Didn't know about this. Covid is quite control where I live. Sounds really grim.

DutchGirl
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by DutchGirl »

My boyfriend's family members seem particularly susceptible to a worse variant of the disease. One, a school headmaster of roughly 45 years old, was on a ventilator for two weeks, and at one point his wife was advised to say goodbye. No previous health problems. He lived, after all (a small miracle!), but is still recovering physically and mentally from the onslaught.

Then another cousin, age 25 or so, had to go to the hospital for it a couple of months later (so not directly infected by the first family member). Luckily, he didn't need to go to the IC(U?) and got to go home after a couple of days.

It's possible that some people are genetically more susceptible for a particular infection than others, so for me that is another reason to avoid infection - don't want to get in trouble myself, don't want my boyfriend to get into trouble either.

AnalyticalEngine
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by AnalyticalEngine »

Does anyone have any scientific sources that go into details on the mink zoonosis? That has the potential to be massive significant because zoonosis tends to increase virulence, but I'm having a difficult time finding reputable scientific details on this incident.

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Alphaville
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Alphaville »

AnalyticalEngine wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:12 am
Does anyone have any scientific sources that go into details on the mink zoonosis? That has the potential to be massive significant because zoonosis tends to increase virulence, but I'm having a difficult time finding reputable scientific details on this incident.
zoonosis has been posited from the outset (bats, pangolins, whatever) so that element has been there already even as we’re not done figuring it out.

minks are new(ish), but a quick term search throws a preprint server paper from the netherlands where minks already were culled:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 1.full.pdf

news of previous mink culls here:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... s-outbreak
(first i hear of this btw, i had no idea till i got the reuters alert about denmark)

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Alphaville
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Alphaville »

DutchGirl wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 6:36 am

It's possible that some people are genetically more susceptible for a particular infection than others, so for me that is another reason to avoid infection - don't want to get in trouble myself, don't want my boyfriend to get into trouble either.
yes. covid is what nassim taleb in fooled by randomness called a “big russian roulette generator”. just because there are many empty chambers, it doesn’t mean that there are no bullets.

jacob
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by jacob »

The mink issue has been on and off in the Danish media for several months by now with minks already being shown to be infected. What's new (not that new, a couple of months old) here is that a few cases of zoonosis (mink to farmer) have been verified and political calls for culling the entire herd. Some mink farmers have offered going into extended lockdowns w/o outside contact to save the farms.

Mae
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Mae »

AnalyticalEngine wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:12 am
Does anyone have any scientific sources that go into details on the mink zoonosis? That has the potential to be massive significant because zoonosis tends to increase virulence, but I'm having a difficult time finding reputable scientific details on this incident.
You might find some interesting reads here, although I only skimmed the page: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/pos ... ng-animals

My friend who lives in the Netherlands has been keeping tabs on which/how many mink farms there got overrun by Covid. He has shared a news article in May(!) in which the Minister of Agriculture states that zoonoses have taken place. A study by the Dutch government has been published at the end of July re: findings in the first 4 infected farms. As of 13 September, 53(!) mink farms in the Netherlands have reported cases of covid.

The Netherlands were actually phasing out mink farms - rightly so - by 2024. Now that Denmark is set to kill all of their mink population, rising mink pelt prices are predicted and it looks like people in the industry are calling the Dutch gov to push the date by which mink farms should be phased out ... while there is a pandemic raging throughout all of Europe. (Hey, profit over people's health or animal lives, right?)

Edit: apparently, this year the date for the end of mink farming in the Netherlands was pushed forward to March 2021 because of covid. So no longer 2024.

Edit 2/update: 68 infected mink farms in the Netherlands as of 3 November.

UK-with-kids
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by UK-with-kids »

From what I read, the main market for mink fur is China. Given there is going to be massive unmet demand, presumably that means lots of mink farms will open up in Asia to replace the ones that get closed down in Denmark. What could possibly go wrong? :lol:

Somewhere on the previous Covid thread I think Jacob gave some figures on the total proportion of vertebrate biomass that is made up of human beings and their domesticated animals, which is what makes a huge reservoir for potential infections. Maybe somebody has a link to that post?

What's worrying to me is that the human race continues to grow exponentially and we eventually start culling wild animals because they spread diseases that threaten humans. We already culled thousands of badgers in the UK because of a link to Bovine Tuberculosis (and badgers are related to minks as both are mustelids). While that specific issue would go away if we stopped farming cows, we don't really solve the problem even if all humans become vegans and but continue to multiply.

jacob
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by jacob »

UK-with-kids wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:30 am
Somewhere on the previous Covid thread I think Jacob gave some figures on the total proportion of vertebrate biomass that is made up of human beings and their domesticated animals, which is what makes a huge reservoir for potential infections. Maybe somebody has a link to that post?
The Earth's vertebrate animal mass is currently comprised of roughly 30% humans, 60% domesticated animals, and 10% remaining wild animals. The last number has declined a lot in the past 50 years as the human population has more or less doubled along with an increased preference for meat diets.

7Wannabe5
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I wonder what percentage of wild animals remaining are semi-symbiotic with humans; seagulls, rats, possum, etc.

7Wannabe5
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Also, as mentioned in my journal, I am once again in hospital surrounded by mass of Covid patients. Almost every staff member who comes in my room (luckily I am locked up private) talks about how crazy it is. Also, the fire alarm has gone off in false alarm twice since I’ve been here.

I was going to try to get myself sprung early to avoid exposure, but my own situation with asthma is too severe to take the risk. Doctor said he would advise loved one to stay under observation. I am getting worn out doing risk analysis calculations.

DutchGirl
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by DutchGirl »

Good luck, 7Wannabe5... I hope you recover quickly and can go to the safety and comfort of your own home, soon.

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Viktor K
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Viktor K »

I thought the issue with the recent mink transmission is not the zoonosis, which is relatively new still, since other human to animal transmission was not transmissible back across the animal to human.

This one is so that’s unique, but not necessarily why popping up in news now.

I thought it was because of the mutation in this now that also makes it resistant to antibodies, which could negatively impact Efficacy of current vaccines in development

Peanut
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by Peanut »

UK-with-kids wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:30 am
From what I read, the main market for mink fur is China. Given there is going to be massive unmet demand, presumably that means lots of mink farms will open up in Asia to replace the ones that get closed down in Denmark. What could possibly go wrong? :lol:
Thanks for the laugh

7Wannabe5
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Re: COVID topic vol 2

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

They kind of tried to keep me at the hospital, because I am still wheezing even on lots of meds, but I heard the buzz at the nurses station, and at least 2 patients tested positive in the supposedly non-Covid area they were keeping me, so I chose to leave. I try to be optimistic, but I did not get any encouragement from any medical personnel regarding the outcome if I get Covid on top of asthma that can’t be knocked out with strong iv steroids. They told me to come right back if I run a fever or get very tight again.

This shit is for real people.

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