For those keeping track at home, I haven't had a fever in at least a week but I've had a mild cough for ten days and exhaustion for about that long. Somehow I ended up with a really shitty ear infection. I'm well enough to go grocery shopping and make meals, so I'm going grocery shopping and making meals.
Yeah, fuck you. I'm going grocery shopping and making meals. I haven't had a fever in a week, I'm self-isolating to the best of my abilities and as the owner of a medical clinic, allow me to say with no quaver in my voice that eight hours of calls by our receptionist on Thursday revealed zero (0) pathways for testing. Quest is rolling out a "every virus except the coronavirus" panel which we hope to have some of by Tuesday and we've been told that Lab Corps has a test we can request "with discretion" that will be sent to their headquarters in St. Louis for a 4-5 day turnaround. And while yeah - theoretically UW can test 1000 samples a day we know people at UW, we transport to UW, we're known to UW and we hit an absolute brick wall. Meanwhile Evergreen has stone cold stopped testing outpatients because according to the CDC, coronavirus is "endemic to the region" which means when they find it, well what did you expect anyway.
Now go play with this shiny tool from am_Unition's post
And recognize that by any reasonable model we're off the charts by Wednesday.
The most personally frustrating thing part of this is seeing people I know who are RNs, Pas, etc. posting on social media comparing this to the seasonal flu. HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS. Spreading misinformation. Don’t worry though. There still zero reported cases in pierce county so idk what the hell youre all doing one county north. We’re so good down here it’s a disease free utopia. And I have no recourse because fuck me they have the job title and training. Edit: Am I overreacting? Why is most of the puget sound still allowed to travel
I've compared it to the seasonal flu myself - I think I said something like "think of it as a particularly nasty flu season." "10x worse than our worst flu season" is a public health way to talk about it - we can predict what our disaster preparedness is but I'll bet we're heading into a real "fog of war" situation where we'll never really know how bad it is. I'll have you know I'm two counties north, by the way, and what we're doing up here is hoarding toilet paper, same as anyone else. And complaining about our chapped hands, particularly if you're one of our doctors, who are washing their hands two or three times an hour for eight hours with medical soap. Because as I understand it, travel restriction is a star-spangled clusterfuck.Am I overreacting? Why is most of the puget sound still allowed to travel
You’re right in that it’s certainly nothing like the flu, virologically, but we do have to water this down to a very simple, relatable narrative. “At least about 10x worse than the annual flu, according to our best estimates” is accurate, but probably doesn’t do enough in most people’s minds to justify massive changes in our lifestyles. That will change after widespread loss of life, but by then, it’s much too late, obviously. Especially right now, before we’ve really tracked this thing, it’s mostly up to us to change our behavior, on a personal level. And most of us aren’t or can’t. I went to the gym two days ago, and I’ve been feeling more than a little guilty about it. I might hit one more leg day before canceling my membership. For now, I can work out at home well enough with the equipment I have. After the initial shocks to the market, I would buy Amazon stock. In about two months, maybe? There’s going to be a lot more delivering. I have very much enjoyed talking about this here with everyone, it’s been great. We’re doing better than the White House, but to be fair, I don’t count that as an accomplishment.
Oh fucking wow. That's the CDC saying that the amount of tests they have is so low that each one is too precious to waste in an epicenter. That doesn't make much sense if we actually have 1.5 million tests on hand, as claimed by HHS. So, guys, I guess it's possible that someone in the Trump administration is lying. Let's hope the R0 is that low.... according to the CDC, coronavirus is "endemic to the region" which means when they find it, well what did you expect anyway.