Coronavirus:

[robert.]

I have to agree with you, there, Robert, except that around here I have noticed people in our community finding ways of being copacetic and pleasant toward each other, and working things out, almost as a team. However, when one looks at nearby large cities, it becomes a different, far less freindly, atmosphere and reality.

Making generalities isn't really necessary, and I'm not sure they are particularly helpful or valid. I take the days one at a time, as I do the people, as individuals, one at a time.

I have help out my neighbor neighbor more in the last 4 months then the previous 9.5 years. He is 72 and broke his pelvic bone. while pruning a tree.

[HONDO74]

Coronavirus will be with us forever, Sage scientist warns

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53875189

Coronavirus will be present "forever in some form or another", a member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has said.

Sir Mark Walport said people would need to be vaccinated at regular intervals.

His comments come after the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he hoped the pandemic would be over within two years, as the Spanish flu had taken two years to overcome.

Sir Mark said denser populations and travel meant the virus spread easily.

He also said the world population was now much larger than in 1918.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Sir Mark said that, in order to control the pandemic, "global vaccination" would be required, but coronavirus would not be a disease like smallpox "which could be eradicated by vaccination".

"This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another, and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations," he said.

"So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals."

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO, has said that the Spanish flu of 1918 took two years to overcome, and that advances in technology could allow the world to halt coronavirus "in a shorter time".

The flu of 1918 killed at least 50 million people.

Coronavirus has so far killed 800,000 people. Nearly 23 million infections have been recorded but the number of people who have actually had the virus is thought to be much higher due to inadequate testing and asymptomatic cases.

SOCIAL DISTANCING: What are the rules now?
JOBS: Can my boss force me to go to work?
FACE MASKS: When should you wear one?
LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?
GLOBAL SPREAD: Tracking the pandemic

Sir Mark warned that it was "possible" coronavirus would get "out of control" again, but said more targeted measures could now be used instead of a generic lockdown.

Coronavirus cases have been increasing in European countries in recent weeks. Some nations, which had appeared successful in suppressing the initial outbreaks, are now seeing infections rise again.

As of 22 August, the UK recorded 21.5 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over the last fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Sir Mark said: "We know that less than one in five people around the country have been infected, so 80% of the population are still susceptible to this virus.

"It is this terrible balance between trying to minimise the harm to people from the infection and protecting people, whilst keeping society going."

He said he was worried about the rise in the number of cases in Europe and other parts of the world.

[G3750]

I was offering my honest opinion.
However, since I realize there are numerous voices on this forum who know far better than I about such matters, I make my statement and look forward to being further informed, have my understanding expanded, and, perhaps , even enlightened.
(No satire or sarcasm in that reply.)

OK, well then, I will respectfully disagree. By ordering nursing care homes to accept individuals testing positive for COVID-19 on 24 hours notice, Cuomo doomed many of their inhabitants. Governor Wolf in PA is equally culpable. I find their actions abhorrent and reprehensible. I pray that they will both be punished in this life and the next.

George

[robert.]

George i agree with you about the nursing homes. Somebody needs to fight for nursing home reform/change. A medical facility should be able to handle a virus.It appears many are ill equipped for any medical response.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Coronavirus will be with us forever, Sage scientist warns

Well, of course it will. Why do people persist in this bizarre belief that diseases "go away"?

[Neil]

The thing to remember about the decision to insist nursing homes accept patients who were SARS-CoV-2 positive (the virus that causes COVID-19 disease) is that it was made prior to realizing that the course of the disease could be highly variable and prolonged, and that primary reason for this edict was simply that allowing patients who were reasonably well to stay in hospitals might overwhelm the inpatient facilities that would be needed for the seriously ill. Nothing evil or unreasonable. Just a decision that may have contributed to the disaster in these facilities. But the reasoning made sense at the time, and probably was not the major factor in the disaster. Nursing homes are not designed for acute care of ill patients, nor are they staffed by highly trained health professionals. Their infection control procedures, like those in the best university hospitals, were inadequate to deal with the situation. So many healthcare workers in NYC became ill, and some died. Those who are blaming the governors of NY and Pennsylvania are wrong in my opinion, writing as someone who is right in the middle of this pandemic from about day 14 or 21, and who knows as much about the disease as anyone commenting on FOX News, that bastion of objectivity .

If you want to send governors to hell, start with the fools in Florida, Texas and Georgia, who even after we understood the importance of masks and social distancing, closing down bars and restaurants, sports stadiums etc. have for political reasons exposed their citizens to suffering and death out of their misplaced loyalty to the fascist, psychopathic criminal who is the head of their party nationally. Unlike the governors of NY and Pennsylvania, they had advice from people with months of experience with the disease, but they chose to ignore it because it didn't fit with their political ideology.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

If you want to send governors to hell, start with the fools in Florida, Texas and Georgia, who even after we understood the importance of masks and social distancing, closing down bars and restaurants, sports stadiums etc. have for political reasons exposed their citizens to suffering and death out of their misplaced loyalty to the fascist, psychopathic criminal who is the head of their party nationally. Unlike the governors of NY and Pennsylvania, they had advice from people with months of experience with the disease, but they chose to ignore it because it didn't fit with their political ideology.

You left out SC and Mississippi.......

[Neil]

I thought they seceded again and reformed the Confederacy. They didn't want to give up their successful racist ideology by substituting misogyny .

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I thought they seceded again and reformed the Confederacy. They didn't want to give up their successful racist ideology by substituting misogyny .

Well, that all goes without saying........and applies to an even longer list of states.

[E7]

Dang near got scalded by all the HOT air!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Dang near got scalded by all the HOT air!

Driving through PA today with all the Confederacy flags out might qualify PA to be added to that list of states,

[rogruth]

I'm from Ohio but have lived in Georgia more than half of my life now.
The Civil War or as I was strongly informed the War Of Northern Aggression
has been over for 135 years and I am still appalled at how often references
are made about it. And not just in the south. The subject has been covered
from every angle and viewpoint and I don't think it will go away.
Maybe Lincoln was wrong in not allowing the South to secede.

[robert.]

People are angry in PA. about DR. Rachel Levin's actions. PA.s health secretary removed her mother from a nursing home. After making the mandate that nursing homes keep covid positive patients .She placed her mother in a hotel. While others died. Removing her mother spoke volumes about the impending doom.

[Neil]

People are always safer in isolation than in group facilities. Exception perhaps being hospitals. Our COVID-19 rate as hospital employees is lower than the population we are taking care of. If you had the money to do so, you would remove your loved one from a group home or a nursing home, no question. What I'm telling you is that we knew from almost day one that a nursing home was going to be a location of problematic public health safety. Not in doubt, ever. We didn't know just how much risk, but we knew that schools, colleges, etc. would be riskier than private homes so we closed those facilities. We couldn't do the same with nursing homes, obviously.

[Neil]

Roger, the war was inevitable I think. The Confederacy would have fought to expand slavery into new territories and the USA would have resisted. The Confederacy would have invaded the North in search of escaped slaves, who would not have been returned after the secession. War was going to happen as long as slavery existed in the South and human beings were considered valuable property.