Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[ramssuperbowl99]

Thank god we have real vaccine candidates. If we didn't have light at the end of the tunnel, I don't know what we'd do at this point without the CDC.

[Shanedorf]

8 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Thank god we have real vaccine candidates. If we didn't have light at the end of the tunnel, I don't know what we'd do at this point without the CDC.

Forward on all fronts
I think the drug cocktail answer comes first-  and that should make a big difference in mortality rates. Then the vaccine deployment to stop the spread
Here's one article on some of the work: "Go to War with the Army you have"

https://medcitynews.com/2020/07/go-to-war-with-the-army-you-have-until-theres-a-vaccine-a-cocktail-can-fight-covid-19/

...Repurposing approved drugs has the advantages of speed and safety, and the viral life cycle model provides a framework to guide the selection of therapeutic combinations. To illustrate this, we draw from current Covid-19 trial literature. For example, remdesivir alone is proving to improve median recovery time in patients hospitalized with lower respiratory tract impact from 15 to 11 days.

A triple combination of interferon-b-1b with ribavarin and lopinavir/ritonavir decreases both productive cell death and virion release, reducing viral shedding by 5 days, vs. lopinavir/ritonavir alone, aligning with our findings that combinations can prove more effective than single therapies. We found that building on this kind of combination by adding convalescent plasma or monoclonal antibodies to remdesivir or lopinavir/ritonavir, and interferon would target three parts of the viral life cycle— virion release, productive cell death and target cell infection— at the same time.
 

There's multiple stages of the viral infection - and rather than trying to hit one stage really hard (high doses) they're talking about hitting 3 different stages, with more moderate doses. It worked in HIV, so its a proven approach, just gotta figure out the best dosing regimens

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

49 minutes ago, Shanedorf said:

That statement is so pathetic, I can't imagine any thinking person not seeing through that whitewash job

But they did manage to feebly acknowledge this at the very end in small type:

*Some children have developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) after exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). (https://www.cdc.gov/mis-c/cases/index.html)  In one targeted surveillance study for MIS-C associated with SARS-CoV-2, however, the majority of children who were hospitalized with COVID-related MIS-C (70 percent) had recovered by the end date of the study period.
 

But hey, the majority of kids who were HOSPITALIZED were allegedly "recovered" by the time we stopped collecting data -
- so no worries at all parents & teachers !

 

I love this:

> the majority of children who were hospitalized with COVID-related MIS-C (70 percent) had recovered by the end date of the study period.

"the majority" can mean anywhere from 50% upwards. And if that number is not 99.999999%, it's unacceptable, because you know the second one child dies at a school there's going to be protests and riots again.

[ramssuperbowl99]

58 minutes ago, Shanedorf said:

That statement is so pathetic, I can't imagine any thinking person not seeing through that whitewash job

It helps when the target audience is "scientifically illiterate people".

[ramssuperbowl99]

21 minutes ago, Shanedorf said:

Forward on all fronts
I think the drug cocktail answer comes first-  and that should make a big difference in mortality rates. Then the vaccine deployment to stop the spread
Here's one article on some of the work: "Go to War with the Army you have"

https://medcitynews.com/2020/07/go-to-war-with-the-army-you-have-until-theres-a-vaccine-a-cocktail-can-fight-covid-19/

...Repurposing approved drugs has the advantages of speed and safety, and the viral life cycle model provides a framework to guide the selection of therapeutic combinations. To illustrate this, we draw from current Covid-19 trial literature. For example, remdesivir alone is proving to improve median recovery time in patients hospitalized with lower respiratory tract impact from 15 to 11 days.

A triple combination of interferon-b-1b with ribavarin and lopinavir/ritonavir decreases both productive cell death and virion release, reducing viral shedding by 5 days, vs. lopinavir/ritonavir alone, aligning with our findings that combinations can prove more effective than single therapies. We found that building on this kind of combination by adding convalescent plasma or monoclonal antibodies to remdesivir or lopinavir/ritonavir, and interferon would target three parts of the viral life cycle— virion release, productive cell death and target cell infection— at the same time.
 

There's multiple stages of the viral infection - and rather than trying to hit one stage really hard (high doses) they're talking about hitting 3 different stages, with more moderate doses. It worked in HIV, so its a proven approach, just gotta figure out the best dosing regimens

That helps at the treatment level, but in terms of the societal level, facing a pandemic without a coordinated, societal response feels like trying to win a rowing race with a ping pong paddle.

I loved how Laurent Duvernay-Tardif referred to COVID in his tweet yesterday:

 

"Given the worldwide sanitary crisis we are experiencing" is perfect. Calling it a pandemic externalizes the problem.

[kingseanjohn]

This was posted on the Kansas City sub-reddit. It's from a teacher in a local school district sharing a memo that was sent out. I added the spacing myself to the memo to make it easier to read, rather than one large block, but made no changes to the content.

Quote

Dear Colleagues:

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. We currently have 13,868 responses from our request to parents to find out whether their kids will attend on-site or online. We do have some duplicates that we are trying to clean up; but at this point in time we have approximately 83% that want their kids on-site and approximately 17% who want their kids distance learning. We will start to follow up with parents who have not responded to the survey next week.

In addition, we have sent out a survey regarding transportation to find out how many parents want their kids to ride our busses to school. As you know, because of current county requirements, all children on the busses will be required to wear face masks with no more than one child per seat unless they are from the same household. The survey encourages parents to transport their children to school for the 2020-2021 school year if they are able.

I have been reluctant to reach out to you about social media but wanted to make you aware of public perception and support. Please know that these comments are meant to be constructive and informative and not critical of anyone. There are people in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. watching what happens with public education perception. If you don’t already know, our current Secretary of Education has siphoned CARES money that should have gone to public schools into private schools. As an example, Rockhurst High School has received $2.5 million in CARES money for 800 students, while the Blue Springs School District has received $1.2 million in CARES funds for 15,000 students.

There are others besides our Secretary of Education who would like to see public education totally gutted. These individuals are looking for any reason(s) to do that. In the age of social media, finding information against public schools has been easier for them. Some of us have been on social media posting about our fears for returning to on-site, some issues of concern if we do that, and families and the community not understanding the risks. Please understand, as a board of education and district administration, we are doing everything we can to make things as safe as possible for teaching on-site.

We are, however, beginning to see backlash from our community – parents in particular – regarding comments posted online and shared amongst individuals and groups. We had numerous requests this week from parents that their child not be placed in particular teachers’ classrooms because of comments posted on social media. I am asking you to please be very careful about posting online regarding this coming school year. We are not trying to tread on your First Amendment rights but feel it is necessary to communicate with you that sometimes social media can be perceived as negative even when that was not the intention. I hope you all continue to stay safe and be healthy. These are very trying times and together we will get through this.

Thoughts @MWil23 @MookieMonstah @EaglesPeteC and other teachers? Is this the standard response so far from your districts?

[Xenos]

14 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

It helps when the target audience is "scientifically illiterate people".

And that’s the saddest part.

[SwAg]

18 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

I love this:

> the majority of children who were hospitalized with COVID-related MIS-C (70 percent) had recovered by the end date of the study period.

"the majority" can mean anywhere from 50% upwards. And if that number is not 99.999999%, it's unacceptable, because you know the second one child dies at a school there's going to be protests and riots again.

Bold strategy, for sure.  I’m sure a bunch of children dying in September and October will accomplish... uh... whatever it is that they are hoping to accomplish.

[Xenos]

24 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

I love this:

> the majority of children who were hospitalized with COVID-related MIS-C (70 percent) had recovered by the end date of the study period.

"the majority" can mean anywhere from 50% upwards. And if that number is not 99.999999%, it's unacceptable, because you know the second one child dies at a school there's going to be protests and riots again.

Wait, what does the 70% mean then?

[EaglesPeteC]

7 minutes ago, kingseanjohn said:

This was posted on the Kansas City sub-reddit. It's from a teacher in a local school district sharing a memo that was sent out. I added the spacing myself to the memo to make it easier to read, rather than one large block, but made no changes to the content.

Thoughts @MWil23 @MookieMonstah @EaglesPeteC and other teachers? Is this the standard response so far from your districts?

Ours district 49% of the kids signed up for Virtual Academy. We are starting full Virtual for the first few weeks. 
 

that social media part is b.s though.....

Where do you live? 

 

[ramssuperbowl99]

5 minutes ago, kingseanjohn said:

This was posted on the Kansas City sub-reddit. It's from a teacher in a local school district sharing a memo that was sent out. I added the spacing myself to the memo to make it easier to read, rather than one large block, but made no changes to the content.

Thoughts @MWil23 @MookieMonstah @EaglesPeteC and other teachers? Is this the standard response so far from your districts?

The beatings will continue until morale improves. Bold strategy.

[MWil23]

7 minutes ago, kingseanjohn said:

This was posted on the Kansas City sub-reddit. It's from a teacher in a local school district sharing a memo that was sent out. I added the spacing myself to the memo to make it easier to read, rather than one large block, but made no changes to the content.

Thoughts @MWil23 @MookieMonstah @EaglesPeteC and other teachers? Is this the standard response so far from your districts?

92% of parents want face to face in our district, 13% of whom said only if proper measures were in place (LOL, 79% were like “TAKE MY KIDS!!!!!”).

We are offering both face to face and online.

As for our DoE (useless, always has been and will be) secretary, who has never held a job or degree in education, she’s absolutely unqualified and THE WORST. That synopsis, while oversimplified, is accurate. 

[Malfatron]

6 minutes ago, SwAg said:

Bold strategy, for sure.  I’m sure a bunch of children dying in September and October will accomplish... uh... whatever it is that they are hoping to accomplish.

less competition for my kid

[MWil23]

PS, we also were given social media reminders and/or warnings of being critical of our employers return to school protocols or any other policies. (I don’t have a social media account, unless you count here).

[SwAg]

Tbh, I agree with that person.  Sending children back to school with no liability shield could be a critical blow for public education.  May be intended given how hostile this administration’s DoE is to public education.