Stay Safe Everyone!

[Reza]

Reza, I'd be curious how people in Pakistan are taking the virus. The leadership in both Brazil and the USA are heavily denying the impact of the virus in word and deed. The lack of a consistent uniform response is defenestrating them. Whereas countries like South Korea and Australia actually have lower deaths per capita than Pakistan

Precious Doll's assertion about the impact to care homes shouldn't be underestimated. In Canada the impact to long term care facilities have been devastating.

I think you may be right as our government is also probably tweeking figures to look good. The govt has an app which monitors cases daily.

The latest report in Pakistan is:

282,645 confirmed cases
258,099 recovered cases
6,052 deaths

I'm quite sure the figures are much higher as not everyone who comes down with symptoms gets themselves tested. They maybe quarantining themselves and recover without anybody finding out. A huge number also think it's some conspiracy and don't believe there's any virus. Many go around without masks - I've had to shame many store owners into getting them to throw out customers who they have allowed in without masks, once even getting into an altercation with a guy (without a mask) holding a toddler (also no mask) accompanied by a bunch of women in burqas (nose/mouth covered) holding assorted kids (no masks). The man accompanying this group had the gall to argue that I was wrong to point them out. They were all thrown out. The govt insists that masks are to be worn in shops all the time but not many shopkeepers take it seriously. Unfortunately there is no monetary fine imposed, like in Western countries, so people here are lax.

It has now been announced that all shops open on August 10 - previously only bakeries, grocery stores, restaurants with take-away service and pharmacies were allowed. Schools, gyms, wedding halls, cinemas all opening this month. There is bound to be an upsurge in covid cases now.

There is no system of care homes for the old here. So any old people dying do so at home. Also there is a stigma attached to people dying of the disease as the offcials cart off infected dead with protocols applied during burial. So people avoid divulging if death is by covid so they can go through their normal burial rituals with entire familes, neighborhoods and friends participating at graveyards. Quite insane, but that's the unfortunate reality here.

[Okri]

Reza, I'd be curious how people in Pakistan are taking the virus. The leadership in both Brazil and the USA are heavily denying the impact of the virus in word and deed. The lack of a consistent uniform response is defenestrating them. Whereas countries like South Korea and Australia actually have lower deaths per capita than Pakistan

Precious Doll's assertion about the impact to care homes shouldn't be underestimated. In Canada the impact to long term care facilities have been devastating.

[Precious Doll]

It seems the Covid strain in the USA is different to the one in Pakistan. Most of the population here is going about without social distancing or masks and the death rate is low. People here should be dropping like flies but they are not. Wondering why places like the USA and Brazil are so badly hit.

There are probably several factors.

One of the biggest may have to do with median age. In Pakistan the median age in 2018 is 24.1. In the U.S. is was 38.4 in 2019 and in Brazil in 2019 was 33.5. The older the median age the more likely the higher death per capita. This is partly why Western countries have been harder hit when it comes to deaths as they have a much higher number of people in the older population bracket.

Also maybe Pakistan just lucked out. The lockdowns that did take place may have done the trick and led to limited transmission and and as a result deaths.

Also, deaths for the most part are being under reported in most countries around the world for a number of reasons. In some cases it is because people haven't been tested so their deaths are attributed do an underlining health condition (very convenient for most Governments who want to underplay the real number of deaths). In other cases due to quick burials for religious reasons are also contributing to under reporting of COVID related deaths.

Furthermore, most deaths in Western countries are occurring in aged care homes. Still none of this should give anybody cause to dismiss just how devastating this virus can be on anybody - long term effects of even catching the virus with little or no symptoms are still to be determined.

A more accurate death rate will be known as the monthly country by country death figures are released and compared to the last five years.

The offical worldwide death count according to Wikipedia as I type this post is 691,740. The real figure is probably someone between 1.2 to 1.5 million but a high number would not surprise me.

It terms of 'strains' of the virus it does appear there are several going around as it changes slightly as it spreads though it is still unknown if some 'strains' are more deadly. It is generally believed not to be the case. For example there is a major outbreak in Melbourne and the state of Victoria. This has spilled over into a couple of other states (NSW, Queensland & South Australia) and all the people testing positive in the other states can be genetically traced back to the 'Melbourne strain'.

Actually, through this process it has been determined that Australia had eliminated community spread of the virus but now Victoria is in a far worse state than the entire country was in March. Actually, today the final nail in the coffin was applied to people wanting to return from Victoria to their home states. They must now spend 14 days in hotel quarantine at their own expense.

It is expected that Victoria will remain 'cut-off' from the rest of Australia indefinitely and should the virus look like it is going to get a foothold anywhere else in the country the respective city and/or state will be locked down until the virus is eliminated.

[Precious Doll]

Power came back on at 2:45 a.m.

Thanks good to hear. A power outage or internet outage are really painful.

[Reza]

It seems the Covid strain in the USA is different to the one in Pakistan. Most of the population here is going about without social distancing or masks and the death rate is low. People here should be dropping like flies but they are not. Wondering why places like the USA and Brazil are so badly hit.

[Big Magilla]

Power came back on at 2:45 a.m.

[Big Magilla]

My power has been out since 12:26 p.m
They are saying could be out for 3 days. Not fun.

[Precious Doll]

Here is the full transcript of the interview: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/t ... 8bc64a1c40

[Sabin]

Trump's embarrassing Axios interview turned into the end of a Veep episode.

https://mobile.twitter.com/brendanmc84/ ... 6001965056

[Precious Doll]

Precious, my advise to you is that you get nothing from reading these articles aside from getting even more scared.

There will always be cases like this either from Covid or any other disease.

I can share my personal story. My daughter, who is now 14 years old, was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 when she was 9. She has no family record of diabetes either from my side of the family (which is pretty large) ir from her mother’s side of the family. Most probably it was a bad case of flu or chicken pots she contracted in the beginning of 2015 which attacked her pancreas and thus killing the cells that produce insulin. She will need to inject insulin into her body for the rest of her life. But her case is a clear exception, such as the cases of side effects from COVID. They all stand in the minority number.

This is to say that side effects can come from any disease. We just have to live with it.

So, wear a mask and chill. This is my advise.

I'm not scared - just concerned and then only to a certain point because there is little that can be done. I just think it's a good idea to keep informed as to what is happening in relation to the outbreak and the disease itself. The article I posted is from a small selection of news sites that I read on a daily basis so if there is something of interest I read it.

Until yesterday I had not undertaken any additional research into COVID since about March by which time I had absorbed all I needed to know. What more I had learnt was from my usual news sources. More than five months later the world really doesn't know much more about the disease than when it first emerged and it terms of long term effects more extensive studies and of course time itself are needed.

As far mask wearing there is not doubt that they can make a difference and reduce the chances of infection or transmission but they are hardly full proof. Thankfully, there is currently minimal COVID transmissions in Sydney (the small number of community transmission are dropping as most a known contacts - thousands of people have been placed in home quarantine over the last three weeks). We have been encouraged by the State Government to wear masks but they are not mandatory. So until such times as we are directed to wear masks in public or I personally feel there is a need (whichever is first) I'll go without. I'm barely coming into contact with anybody anyway. The streets are deserted again as people are spooked by the level 4 lockdown in Melbourne.

Tonight I'm going to the closing night film at the French Film Festival which has sold out in two large cinemas. However, each cinema which seats hundreds of people are only permitting 40 people in each screening which has become the new normal.

I don't know how cinemas are going to survive because since they have opened one month ago I have yet to attend a crowded session. On Thursday my partner and I went to two new releases. One film at 10.40am in a cinema not far from were we live near the city centre. The other in the early evening at 5.10 at the cinema that we regularly attend (it is two suburbs away and a quick 10 minute drive). We were the only people at both screenings and there was barely a sole at either cinema complex.

The release schedule for the rest of August is dire - next to nothing I'm interested in seeing but the Melbourne Film Festival starts on-line later in the week so that will give me a steady flow of newer releases but I've really been enjoying visiting old friends (i.e. films) again so much.

[OscarGuy]

And this is the kind of article that might convince those who cannot otherwise be convinced that this virus is far more impactful than they think. Even mild cases have been shown to have detrimental long-term health effects and saying it's really not that bad is dismissing the harm it can do to otherwise healthy people who act cavalierly towards the virus.

[Okri]

The challenge, mlrg, is that there is still a substantial portion of COVID-19 that we don't understand and that includes the depth and breadth of the side effects.

[mlrg]

Precious, my advise to you is that you get nothing from reading these articles aside from getting even more scared.

There will always be cases like this either from Covid or any other disease.

I can share my personal story. My daughter, who is now 14 years old, was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 when she was 9. She has no family record of diabetes either from my side of the family (which is pretty large) ir from her mother’s side of the family. Most probably it was a bad case of flu or chicken pots she contracted in the beginning of 2015 which attacked her pancreas and thus killing the cells that produce insulin. She will need to inject insulin into her body for the rest of her life. But her case is a clear exception, such as the cases of side effects from COVID. They all stand in the minority number.

This is to say that side effects can come from any disease. We just have to live with it.

So, wear a mask and chill. This is my advise.

[Precious Doll]

I am copying a story (I can't like to it for reasons to long to explain) on the Sydney Morning Herald site from today that is a must read:

'I am not allowed to drive a car': COVID-19 leaves scar on Sydney doctor's heart

By Esther Han

A healthy, fit doctor in his 50s has been forced to give up exercise and driving after the coronavirus left a devastating mark on his heart.

Dr Warren Lee, a GP of 20 years in Mosman, Sydney, said he contracted COVID-19 in April and after experiencing several days of "flu-like" symptoms at home he made what he thought was a full recovery.

But when he struggled to ride his bike 1km to the barber and noticed an irregular heartbeat, he realised something was wrong.

His colleagues sent him to a cardiologist who ran tests on him.

Six weeks after he was "cleared from the virus" he had an epileptic seizure at work and spent four days in hospital.

Soon after, the doctors found a "scar right down the middle of [his] heart" called myocarditis, which was left by the coronavirus.

"Scans of my brain looked okay, scans of my lungs looked alright, but an EEG showed I had new onset epilepsy, I’ve never had that before," he said in a widely shared video on social media.

"I am no longer allowed to ride a bicycle, I am not allowed to drive a car, I’m on medication now."

Dr Lee said he was in shock because he thought he was fit, having raced on his road bike in Australia and overseas.

"What we are going through now in July is absolutely no different from where we were in March, so I do urge everyone to be careful," he said.

"I think social distancing is the only thing we have, nothing else works. We don’t have medication for this, we don’t have immunisation for this.

"It’s going to be hard but I think we just have to adjust because if you get the virus, the chances are you’re probably going to be fine, you might be okay but there is every chance you may not be. And that has massive impact to your lifestyle."

My comment: There are more and more reports of these sorts of thing occurring in people along with lung/respiratory, neurological issues and effects on other organs including the kidneys and liver. A recent report I read on a recent study of 100 people, most of whom had very mild symptoms and that nearly 80% of them had heart damage. The age range was something like 45 to 59.

[Precious Doll]

Sabin,

Sorry to hear your father has tested positive. Please keep us updated on how he is going.

Wes,

Sorry to hear about your friend. Hopefully he won't have COVID. Shortness of breath can be caused by a number of things including being stressed. Please let us know how he is going.