Mid-July covid-19 check

The daily Covid cases in my state have been on a steady decline since late July. My church is even going to allow a very minimal attendance this Sunday..... Now, I have said here before that I don't have the ability to keep up with news the way I would like but there was some talk here not long ago about Covid numbers potentially being manipulated by the administration. Was that factual? Am I being lulled into a false sense of security here?

 

Kind of. The HHS took over and lessened the guidelines for who needs a test and what counts as a covid death. That could be contributing to lowering the numbers of cases. However I don't think it was as impactful as I initially feared it would be.

To be honest, it doesn't seem South Carolina has a good handle on their cases based on positivity rates.

Ideally you want to see positivity rates stable below 5% to know you have adequate testing capabilities. If it's more than that or unstable, it indicates the numbers are underrepresenting the actual case numbers.

See the difference between South Carolina

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/south-carolina

And illinois

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/illinois

 

Wow... That is quite telling

 

Not being a medically minded sort of fellow.... What is the reason that a virus seems to thrive in colder weather? Is it because we tend to all be inside and closer to one another when it is cold outside?

 

Partly that, but also it travels better in the cold. There's a shell around many virus, covid included called the lipid envelope.



That envelope is heat sensitive and melts pretty easily. So when it's cold outside, the virus can travel further and stay infectious outside the body longer.

Influenza is the same. The cold is why we have flu seasons even though it's technically around all year.

 

Thank you for that enlightening response. I totally get it. Thank you much.

 

Sure thing!

 

My daughters entire family has this thing. Husband and three kids that she is tending to. I can only imagine this time next week she will have to too.

 

I'm really sorry to hear that. I hope they all get through it smoothly and wish you all the best!

On the upside, it hits children pretty mildly most often. And, a doctor wouldn't recommend this, but in my non-medical opinion you can visit with them more freely without worry once this passes. A doctor wouldn't recommend it because there's always a chance they could get reinfected, but that chance is exceedingly rare. Like, so rare that when a reinfection happens it's international news.

 

Jeez man.... Folks are falling like flies around here. Thankfully my daughters family are all back to almost 100%. They are dealing with lingering headaches and their sense of taste has not returned to normal. It amazed me that in a small house with four confirmed Covid cases, my daughter didn’t succumb to the virus.

I now have many sick friends. A third of the folks in my church are sick with it. And it isn’t from church. All our services have been on YouTube since this thing started.... I looked yesterday and my state had more than 4000 cases. This state was locked down tight as a drum when we were reporting 200 or so cases a day. What a terrible way for all these families to spend their holidays.

I have a question. I may have dreamed this, but I believe that I heard somewhere that people with type O blood may have some inherent immunity to this thing. Only reason it comes to mind is that my daughter has O negative blood and survived unscathed in a home with four confirmed cases. Is there something to that or did I dream that type O blood may have a natural immunity to Covid? Anything scientific to back that up?

 

I'm glad to hear your family is better! I've heard the loss of taste and smell can be really unnerving.

As for the type O blood, I've heard that too. As I understand, the evidence isn't totally conclusive yet, but it's growing to support the idea of type O blood persons being less likely to both contract it and less likely to experience severe illness.

 

Well..... I now have a good friend that has succumbed to Covid. A very good friend from my church in his mid 70’s. He was admitted Sunday. Intubated yesterday and passed away this morning. He was a good man that used to host fishing tournaments for church members. In the mid-1990’s my young son entered the tournament and caught two small fish. Old Joe conspired with all the other fishermen to claim they didn’t catch anything so my young son won the trophy with two tiny fish that year. He was a good man and I’ll miss him.

 

Sorry for the loss of your friend. This pandemic will touch us all.

 

Thinking is may be prudent to fire this thread up again. My granddaughter (unvaccinated) has caught the new delta variant of Covid. I stopped watching my states new infection numbers many months ago. Now that I am looking again, it appears we have had quite a dramatic rise in cases again….. I had thought the heat of the summer months was an enemy to Covid. Is this new variant resistant to heat somehow or is it just that much more contagious? If the new numbers are any indication, I am rather worried about what may happen when the cool temperatures of fall & winter set in.

 

My workplace is back to masks. 86 percent of dems and only 52 percent of republicans are vaccinated. bunch of idiots. Darwin award winners by the thousands.

 

Sorry to hear about your granddaughter. I hope she gets well soon!

So it seems like the new variant is hyper-contagious. Apparently reinfection is more likely with this variant too, but not by much considering how incredibly rare reinfection was before anyway. Because we've done a pretty good job vaccinating on the whole, I don't foresee lockdowns happening again but we probably will see some areas bring back distancing and mask mandates if it gets too bad in the coming months.

Also it seems to be holding up that if you were infected previously or vaccinated, you get a milder illness even with the variant. Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic it won't be too bad and there's an element of overhype from news trying to get ratings. I'd still be careful, but I also think the worst is behind us.

 

Thanks, Gene…. I genuinely appreciate your voice of reason.

 

This new Delta variant sure does seem to be praying on our children. And in our state they are going back to school next week. I'm not a fellow that typically worries about things he cannot change, but I am very worried about what will transpire in a few short weeks. Fortunately, last year our schools seemed to be safe haven from Covid for the kids. I pray that this year will be no different.

 

"preying"

 

I have a brother that still treats this as a "hoax" even though he thinks he had it early on.
He's an optometrist so he should know science better but sorry to say he believes crap he sees on Facebook as gospel truth.
He's anti-mask and anti-vaccine.

I will not go anywhere near him.

I'm 59 and he's 63. It shouldn't be like this at this point in our lives however my health is more important to me than his stupidity.