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That one is pretty good with some accuracy too. The only thing missing is the length of the hair. I took my motorcycle for a ride the other day and was still able to get my helmet on, so it must not be too bad yet...
And if you like to figure out graphs here is challenge. This is our province of BC (most westerly province) explanation as to where the virus came from. I think they are basically blaming it on all the other provinces in Canada...
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Original Poster
Sleep
Enthusiast
I saw a graph that seemed to indicate that the virus across large sections of the globe was all traced back to someone in Seattle.
Anyway surely the hair issue is way more important, unless you can afford a larger helmet, so I have found another graph that shows the true magnitude of the impact of this terrible virus!
It answers some questions and raises even more but perhaps the most urgent concern is what implications this will have for the development and effectiveness of a vaccine?
Just to put all of this back into a CPAP context, I had thought that we might have a reasonable window here in Australia before the virus got into the greater community. A chance to get some medical and technical stuff sorted (like trying out some new masks) with a minimal risk of exposure and, if that failed, then I had hoped that there would be more effective treatments in place later this year and a viable vaccine available early in the new year and that I could make my existing mask last until then.
All else failing I had assumed that, once the virus had gone through enough mutations, it would be less dangerous, but now it seems that most of those hopes and assumptions might be unfounded.
My mask is no longer working (don't ask) so there is some urgency to find a replacement.
How do I do that when it might not be safe to go into a Sleep clinic and look at some or try one or two for fit?
It looks like I will have to buy a new mask, unseen, untried and non-returnable.
Which mask would be a safe bet? Does anybody have suggestions or advice?
Yeah I reckon things will get bad here soon. What's wrong with your old mask? Why get a different one? Can't you just get the same one again or buy some parts?
Yes, there seems to be an anti-immunity crowd growing. It seems that those that get an asymptomatic version of the virus get the least immunity, and it does not last as long. The early vaccine testing seems to be showing immunity levels 2-3 times higher than achieved by actually getting COVID. The Moderna vaccine seems to have suffered a setback in the testing. They are new to making vaccines and can't get their act together with a testing protocol. Perhaps the Oxford vaccine trials will go better.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Original Poster
Sleep
Enthusiast
If I was developing a vaccine in today's climate I would be more worried about the potential impact of future litigation than the efficacy and production of the vaccine, especially in the USA.
I imagine that law firms are already speculating on the potential for the biggest class action ever launched.
This is just one more hurdle that will have to be dealt with before we can hope to see what the new 'normal' might look like.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
over 4 years
ago
Original Poster
Sleep
Enthusiast
Apparently only 10% of vaccines are really effective in the long term so the first vaccines that become available might just serve as a stop gap till we find a better one.
I'm beginning to think that the long term social effects could be more damaging and longer lasting than the health impact of the virus.
So what are the potential social effects?
Our efforts to restrain this virus will push our economies into totally new terrain but I suspect that most national economies were an artificial construct in the first place and can probably be re-invented with enough goodwill and global co-operation but the businesses and jobs are going to take a long time to rebuild and that will have profound effects over time.
Many of the readers in this forum are 'oldies' and can probably relate to the feeling that our value to the younger folk is not what it might have been for past generations. Any skills or wisdom that we may possess are largely irrelevant nowadays. Add to this the accelerated pace of life for younger people and this global catastrophe could easily be seen as a generational problem, us old folk destroying their world in a futile attempt to stop what, to them, is just a new version of the flu.
Probably the biggest contributor to social issues will be government restrictions, which cause uncertainty and resentment and adversely impact on the outlook and well being of many people.
Another element that has dangerous potential is the way in which this world is so 'connected' that the conspiracy theorists and scare-mongers, and anybody else who wants a moment of fame or infamy, can start an inflammatory process that travels faster than the virus and is equally contagious and incurable.
All of these factors combine to fuel a level of social unrest that may be irreversible, even in what would previously have been considered conservative, law abiding countries.
So what has this got to do with CPAP?
Perhaps, instead of buying toilet paper or stocking up on meat, I should buy a spare mask and battery, and I really shouldn't watch the news if I want to get better sleep.
It seems to be under control here now and even the news guys are looking for new stuff to talk about so we might be ok until we get careless. The nursing homes seem to be the hardest thing to manage.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
about 3 years
ago
Original Poster
Sleep
Enthusiast
They are talking about opening up here shortly and sending the kids back to school over the next few weeks.
We would be in a much better position if the politicians hadn't been stripping funds from the public hospitals for the past few decades.
The problem with opening up is that once initiated there is no turning back.
The next few months will test the health systems to and beyond their limits so it will be a bad time to get injured or end up with a common illness like appendicitis.
In Canada it varies widely by province. Alberta where I am has been the most recent bad boys, with a pretty nasty 4th wave. It seems we have recovered quite a bit, but there were 38 deaths reported yesterday in a province of 4.2 million. So while cases are down, the impact of the cases is still taking a toll. Saskatchewan and North West Territories are the current bad boys with the highest case rated. but, earlier on other provinces have been really bad as well. It seems that when the virus takes a hold it has to get pretty bad before cases start to decline. ICU capacity has been overwhelmed in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Ontario was hit hard earlier.
Our problem is opening up too fast with not enough of the population vaccinated. Canada as a whole has 72% of the total population full vaccinated with two doses. Alberta is at 64.9%. Our premier refused to use vaccination passports but now finally has, and as a result we are starting to catch up. I see Australia is at 53%, which is kind of low to be thinking about opening up. Our history is that we close down too late and open up too early, and there is a big price to be paid for doing that.
Biguglygremlin
+0 points
·
about 3 years
ago
Original Poster
Sleep
Enthusiast
Yes, we are being misled here as per usual by a belligerent, dishonest government and their tame 'experts' so, as far as the general population is concerned, it is 'an epidemic of the unvaccinated' and we have almost reached 80% vaccination.
I am not an anti-vac activist like the US dissidents who seem to be so active in our population but I do take some interest in the facts behind the fiction.
The vaccination numbers in Australia are fabricated by excluding large segments of the population on the all too convenient pretext, that was never really true, that children are somehow not involved.
The 'epidemic of the unvaccinated' concept does have some merit but it is not as clear as they would convey with their careful manipulation of the data and the media coverage. It's like watching a street stall with simple tricks depending totally on distraction and misdirection, and what astonishes me is that we seem, collectively, to buy it! Public Perception
I note that in Canada there are lovely charts showing the shocking rate of deaths of the 'unvaccinated' and the nice low rates amongst the vaccinated but they include the entire population back to when vaccinations first started and guess how many sick people were vaccinated at that early stage? Canada Deaths by Vaccination Status
Those numbers, when adjusted for the bigger picture would tell a significantly different story.
When you look at one short term recent Canadian study, which is not so easily distorted, the proportion of VACCINATED deaths was well beyond 40% if you include the partially vaccinated, which, whilst regrettable, is probably understandable, but if we are individually trying to plan a way forward surely we are entitled to see the whole picture more clearly. Covid Deaths Saskatchewan
It seems that if you line up the death rates with the vaccination rates there is not the vast disparity that many are claiming.
Just to finish on the right note. There can be no doubt that vaccination is the key to moving forward. The wife and I have both been fully vaccinated. We will come into contact with the real thing, eventually, but that does not mean that we can afford to expose ourselves to Covid, or even the flu, in the middle of a collapsing health system.
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