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Covid 19 Part XXIV-37,063 ROI (1,801 deaths) 12,886 NI (582 deaths) (02/10) Read OP

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    #152
    Paddygreen
    Registered Users Posts: 716 ✭✭✭Paddygreen


    [Deleted User] wrote: »
    As spoof posts go, that’s quite a good one :)

    Deadly serious. Operation Elder Shelter, make the oldies feel like they are part of something special as they cocoon.


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    #153
    ACitizenErased
    Registered Users Posts: 11,639 ✭✭✭✭ACitizenErased


    Another study showing low vitamin D levels can result in serious outcomes.
    Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide pandemic. The aim of this study was to evaluate associations of plasma 25(OH)D levels with the likelihood of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) infection and hospitalization. The study population included the 14 000 members of Leumit Health Services, who were tested for COVID‐19 infection from February 1st to April 30th, 2020, and who had at least one previous blood test for the plasma 25(OH)D level. ‘Suboptimal’ or ‘low’ plasma 25(OH)D level was defined as plasma 25‐hydroxyvitamin D, or 25(OH)D, concentration below the level of 30 ng/mL. Of 7807 individuals, 782 (10.02%) were COVID‐19‐positive, and 7025 (89.98%) COVID‐19‐negative. The mean plasma vitamin D level was significantly lower among those who tested positive than negative for COVID‐19 [19.00 ng/mL (95% confidence interval (CI) 18.41–19.59) vs. 20.55 (95% CI: 20.32–20.78)]. Univariate analysis demonstrated an association between the low plasma 25(OH)D level and increased likelihood of COVID‐19 infection [crude odds ratio (OR) of 1.58 (95% CI: 1.24–2.01, P < 0.001)], and of hospitalization due to the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus [crude OR of 2.09 (95% CI: 1.01–4.30, P < 0.05)]. In multivariate analyses that controlled for demographic variables, and psychiatric and somatic disorders, the adjusted OR of COVID‐19 infection [1.45 (95% CI: 1.08–1.95, P < 0.001)] and of hospitalization due to the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus [1.95 (95% CI: 0.98–4.845, P = 0.061)] were preserved. In the multivariate analyses, age over 50 years, male gender and low–medium socioeconomic status were also positively associated with the risk of COVID‐19 infection; age over 50 years was positively associated with the likelihood of hospitalization due to COVID‐19. We concluded that low plasma 25(OH)D levels appear to be an independent risk factor for COVID‐19 infection and hospitalization.

    https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.15495


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    #154
    caveat emptor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,134 ✭✭✭caveat emptor


    Paddygreen wrote: »
    Deadly serious. Operation Elder Shelter, make the oldies feel like they are part of something special as they cocoon.

    Cocoon while waiting to die by old age or by this horrible virus. Not great options and certainly not a great quality of life.


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    #155
    Paddygreen
    Registered Users Posts: 716 ✭✭✭Paddygreen


    ACitizenErased wrote: »
    Another study showing low vitamin D levels can result in serious outcomes.

    https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.15495

    Stay at home, save lives (especially most at risk oldies) . Cover up with your mask. Low vit D levels is not an excuse to be topless drinking cans of Galahad down at the park or the beach.


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    #156
    ACitizenErased
    Registered Users Posts: 11,639 ✭✭✭✭ACitizenErased


    Paddygreen wrote: »
    Stay at home, save lives (especially most at risk oldies) . Cover up with your mask. Low vit D levels is not an excuse to be topless drinking cans of Galahad down at the park or the beach.

    You never lost it Paddy, as good as ever


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    #157
    Drumpot
    Registered Users Posts: 19,306 ✭✭✭✭Drumpot


    Martina1991 wrote: »
    If the tests aren't sufficiently accurate it'd be a bit like using a match stick to keep a barn door bolted. The virus will still get in! Cases will rise, hospitals fill up and we're back to restrictions.

    Everyone wants society to open up ASAP but it's a balancing act between the economy and the health service. Its up to NPHET and the powers that be to explore all options and find that balance.

    I have to admit, I cant get my head around this , maybe I am looking at this the wrong way but I dont understand why "near perfect testing" or nothing is seen as the only options in the testing department.

    If you have a test that is lets say 80% accurate in most cases, if you are testing for example, every person in the population daily, is it not better to catch 80% of cases then probably a tiny fraction of this and having more rigid measures in place until a vaccine?

    I understand the concern that "people will just think they are bullet proof", but isnt this just focusing on one aspect of this potential strategy? If its mass testing regularly, if I get a negative (when I am positive) today isn't there a good chance I get a positive tomorrow ? If I test positive, I can just take another cheap test immediately to double check its validity, doesn't that at least take out the potential for people thinking they are positive when they are not ? Right now the only way we have of finding Asymptomatic cases is random testing or if they were close contacts, is that better then knowing alot more of the people who are positive ?

    Sporting events, travelling and many other things could be opened up. I am of course looking at the longer term if the virus is going to be around for 12 months without a vaccine.

    As I understand it, we arent going down full eradication route, we are trying to protect hospitals. We also dont actually know how many people have it at any given time, would knowing alot more people who have it not actually help?


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    #158
    mandrake04
    Registered Users Posts: 4,435 ✭✭✭mandrake04


    Martina1991 wrote: »
    Here's an opinion piece from an American Dr. with a background in laboratory science Geoffrey Baird, MD, PhD about the use of rapid tests.
    https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/88612?fbclid=IwAR3NkjI4MtNP0Pu_iLx7pqMEoezEtkUomLPHgLzLmnl7di31dl8UiQ46uPQ

    To use rapid tests, you have to sacrifice accuracy for speed. Current testing is diagnostic. Rapid testing at airports would be screening.
    With screening you have to accept that it will miss some cases as these tests will not be as accurate.

    To produce them at such a vast scale would be very expensive. Maybe the airlines would cover the cost. I doubt the government would.

    So it comes down to cost v benefit. Do we want to spend millions on tests that may catch some but will miss cases too.

    Plus these rapid tests still have to be performed by trained healthcare professionals, they cannot be done at home. They are point of care tests.

    have you heard this?

    https://www.newstalk.com/podcast/covid-testing-panel-medical-scientists-marie-culliton-kevin-oboyle


    Good point on Rapid testing 11:50

    Also I head that Trump did a deal with Abbott for initial 150m rapid tests but it might be exclusive and yo wont see them outside USA...probably doesn't want them to go to poor countries.


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    #159
    DangerScouse
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 466 ✭✭DangerScouse


    Paddygreen wrote: »
    Make it illegal for them to be anywhere other than in a shop that they have picked for the purchase of their essentials. House arrest, but for their own good.

    Maybe we couid brand them with a star or something.


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    #160
    blanch152
    Registered Users Posts: 27,272 ✭✭✭✭blanch152


    PhilipsR wrote: »
    Reading articles about Australia and outside of the state of Victoria, it really is a triumph against Covid so far.

    I think the contrast between Melbourne and Sydney is incredible and shows the benefits of a remarkable track and trace team. After an outbreak from Melbourne in Sydney after community transmission had been eradicated, it looks like Sydney has again eliminate the virus.

    A real pity we haven't got the capabilities here in Ireland to get the same job done.

    With capacity for 100k tests a week, we have the capabilities.

    Let's compare to Northern Ireland for a minute

    https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0922/1166688-coronavirus-northern-ireland/

    "There were 75 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Northern Ireland today, from tests on 2,360 people. "

    So 2,360 per day, 16,000 per week, one-third the size of the South, puts them at 50,000 per week if they were the same size as us. We are therefore testing at twice the rate of Northern Ireland.

    I suspect that the public health authorities are afraid to call it in terms of priorities for testing as that would require at least social profiling, if not other profiling as well.

    I also think that the GP service is referring too many cases where there are little or no symptoms from an overly cautious perspective.


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    #161
    Eod100
    Registered Users Posts: 11,689 ✭✭✭✭Eod100


    Singapore has the right approach https://twitter.com/PeterHoskinsTV/status/1308717098026307584?s=19


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    #162
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    mandrake04 wrote: »
    have you heard this?

    https://www.newstalk.com/podcast/covid-testing-panel-medical-scientists-marie-culliton-kevin-oboyle


    Good point on Rapid testing 11:50

    Also I head that Trump did a deal with Abbott for initial 150m rapid tests but it might be exclusive and yo wont see them outside USA...probably doesn't want them to go to poor countries.

    Sounds like Abbot having such an exclusive deal with the US may effect their business elsewhere. Most of the revenue growth in the sector is outside the US


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    #163
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Eod100 wrote: »
    Singapore has the right approach https://twitter.com/PeterHoskinsTV/status/1308717098026307584?s=19
    The clue is in the Tweet: "A quick swipe of my ID card". Prevents hording and profiteering.

    Singapore is a police state where you can do things like this. It has some benefits, but also plenty of drawbacks.


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    #164
    Blondini
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,480 ✭✭✭Blondini


    In case the hospitals get really busy, do we still have good stock levels of all that imported PPE (except the dealz stuff that was craap)?


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    #165
    Paddygreen
    Registered Users Posts: 716 ✭✭✭Paddygreen


    DangerScouse wrote: »
    Maybe we couid brand them with a star or something.

    Absolutely not, too many negative connotations. A lanyard or bracelet would be more appropriate.


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    #166
    TonyMaloney
    Registered Users Posts: 2,147 ✭✭✭TonyMaloney


    Scotland - 486 new cases. 2 deaths.

    224 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

    Hard to conclude anything really definitive from their experience, except that their strict household restrictions (no visitors) which is the same as our level 4, are not particularly effective.


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    #167
    What Username Guidelines
    Registered Users Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭What Username Guidelines


    TonyMaloney wrote: »
    Scotland - 486 new cases. 2 deaths.

    224 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area.

    Hard to conclude anything really definitive from their experience, except that their strict household restrictions (no visitors) which is the same as our level 4, are not particularly effective.

    Did they introduce the household restrictions recently or has it been a while? Time is a blur :)


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    #168
    Drumpot
    Registered Users Posts: 19,306 ✭✭✭✭Drumpot


    ACitizenErased wrote: »
    Another study showing low vitamin D levels can result in serious outcomes.



    https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/febs.15495

    The weirdest thing about this is how much its not been addressed or even tried out in tests. I heard about this in February and have been taking VIT D since but its completely unknown quantity to most people.

    Was speaking with a family member (who was in a coma with COVID back in March) and he said the first thing they did when he got to hospital was pump him with VIT D. I don't understand why more hasn't been done to find out definitively how much VIT D deficiency can be a factor in COVID or getting a bad dose.

    There is so much evidence to suggest it may play a significant factor, but little desire to find out one way or another. I just don't get it, we could be encouraging our entire population to make sure VIT D levels are at normal levels. Its easy and cheap, a tablet a day.

    People are presuming the deaths in nursing homes are all age related. Is there any evidence of nursing homes that give clients VIT D v nursing homes that dont ? Alot of people in nursing homes may not get out into the sun much. This is just an example of the kind of research we should be doing to find multiple ways of fighting the virus.

    I Actually heard of another test in China that suggested people who wear glasses in Wuhan got infected in a lower proportion to those who don't. Why the f**k cant WHO or somebody do some research on this stuff ? Test everybody for VIT D deficiency or even just have a simple set of questions for those who test positive ("Do you wear glasses indoors or shopping"). There are simple things we can do to start trying to workout what are the things that can protect us from the virus.


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    #169
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    TonyMaloney wrote: »
    Hard to conclude anything really definitive from their experience, except that their strict household restrictions (no visitors) which is the same as our level 4, are not particularly effective.
    Their restrictions haven't been in place long enough to see any major improvement.


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    #170
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,917 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Eod100 wrote: »
    Singapore has the right approach https://twitter.com/PeterHoskinsTV/status/1308717098026307584?s=19

    A friend of mine worked over there and they are big into things like this, for example they have mandatory vaccinations for certain diseases like measles
    https://www.nir.hpb.gov.sg/nirp/eservices/immunisationSchedule


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    #171
    TonyMaloney
    Registered Users Posts: 2,147 ✭✭✭TonyMaloney


    What Username Guidelines wrote: »
    Did they introduce the household restrictions recently or has it been a while? Time is a blur :)

    Over 3 weeks ago in the Glasgow and Clyde region.
    They had roughly 65 local cases on the day they applied them I think.

    Pubs, restaurants and schools open - with some restrictions obviously.


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    #172
    TonyMaloney
    Registered Users Posts: 2,147 ✭✭✭TonyMaloney


    seamus wrote: »
    Their restrictions haven't been in place long enough to see any major improvement.

    How long do they need?


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    #173
    ACitizenErased
    Registered Users Posts: 11,639 ✭✭✭✭ACitizenErased


    I think everyone should be taking vitamin D at this stage to be honest. If you aren’t, start.


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    #174
    Assetbacked
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,969 ✭✭✭Assetbacked


    Assetbacked wrote: »
    Any expert that has banged the drum of no COVID (ie McConkey, Scally, Ryan, Mills etc.) should not be followed as they have this as their dogma. Literally, to them, nothing else is worth doing. Therefore, any news article which quotes them is necessarily to be discounted. I mean, not even worth reading the point of the article if their quotes are used to convey the message.

    For example, McConkey's 5,000 cases per day by the end of October BS;

    https://www.thesun.ie/news/5902549/coronavirus-ireland-sam-mcconkey-dublin-covid-cases-october/

    Also McConkey, "Dublin could go to Level 4 or 5";

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/dublin-could-go-to-level-4-or-level-5-if-cases-continue-to-rise-1.4362266

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-health-experts-lack-data-for-targeted-measures-1.4362340

    McConkey and Ryan both quoted here so the second half of this article can be discounted. Ryan trying to use Korea and Taiwan to justify his BS and McConkey talking vaguely of planning for 7 years with covid!

    You get the picture when you see these names so should ignore what they are saying.


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    #175
    mandrake04
    Registered Users Posts: 4,435 ✭✭✭mandrake04


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Sounds like Abbot having such an exclusive deal with the US may effect their business elsewhere. Most of the revenue growth in the sector is outside the US

    Its made in the US and you know what Trump is like.


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    #176
    What Username Guidelines
    Registered Users Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭What Username Guidelines


    ACitizenErased wrote: »
    I think everyone should be taking vitamin D at this stage to be honest. If you aren’t, start.

    I'm not saying it's the definitive and sole cause, but I wonder did our relatively sunny summer help lower numbers at all? As soon as I read about Vit D in April I started taking it, but also made sure to get out into the sun as much as possible.


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    #177
    What Username Guidelines
    Registered Users Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭What Username Guidelines


    Posted on the vaccine thread but big enough news

    J&J starting phase 3 studies with 60,000(!) participants but this is a single dose, unlike the others is phase 3 which are two-dose, and does not have the same logistical constraints of low-temps req'd for transport

    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=114704499&postcount=2455


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    #178
    amadangomor
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,148 ✭✭✭amadangomor


    What Username Guidelines wrote: »
    I'm not saying it's the definitive and sole cause, but I wonder did our relatively sunny summer help lower numbers at all? As soon as I read about Vit D in April I started taking it, but also made sure to get out into the sun as much as possible.

    ? Was sunny in Springtime but in some places was the dullest summer since records began.

    Must get some Vit D into me alright.


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    #179
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Drumpot wrote: »
    I Actually heard of another test in China that suggested people who wear glasses in Wuhan got infected in a lower proportion to those who don't. Why the f**k cant WHO or somebody do some research on this stuff ? Test everybody for VIT D deficiency or even just have a simple set of questions for those who test positive ("Do you wear glasses indoors or shopping"). There are simple things we can do to start trying to workout what are the things that can protect us from the virus.
    It was called out by some in the early days of this pandemic, and has been discovered to be more and more true as time goes on; A lot of the studies, tests and suggestions that came out of Wuhan in the first 3 months of this year, are fairly crap.

    Granted, it was the only place in the world to have any insight at all, but for one reason or another, a lot of the assumptions that were initially made based on the Wuhan experience, as well as claims of what does and doesn't work, have turned out to be wrong or otherwise not reproducible.

    It seems like China poured lots of effort in researching anything and everything about the virus, and happily published even the most flimsy and preliminary of data. The media of course are always more than happy to print anything vaguely interesting. Whether it has any validity or not is irrelevant.

    If the WHO were to explore all of these iffy suggestions, a lot of resources could be wasted on dead ends.


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    #180
    wadacrack
    Registered Users Posts: 4,172 ✭✭✭wadacrack


    Likely to be a problem here too. Most courses cannot be 100% online

    https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1308731893278478337


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    #181
    rovers_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 2,649 ✭✭✭rovers_runner


    ACitizenErased wrote: »
    I think everyone should be taking vitamin D at this stage to be honest. If you aren’t, start.

    Likewise anyone with a BMI over 30 should start getting some exercise.


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