I grew up in a house where both of my parents were heavy smokers. This may have been the main factor to my childhood asthmatic condition. Although I wasn't sickly, cigarette smoke, perfume and chemicals would bring on asthma attacks. We lived down the street from the incinerator (with 2 smoke stacks) and across the road from a company that packed aerosol containers. Not a neighborhood to brag about.
Moving to Miami was better as we were a few miles from the ocean and never were concerned about pollution. The issue I had was my neighbors with night blooming jasmine bushes that could bring on an asthma attack in a heartbeat. As I got older things got better and in my teenage years, I played sports and my asthma subsided. I controlled attacks with an over-the-counter inhaler.
In the last 30 years I've been involved with the manufacture of cabinets. From production kitchen cabinets to high-end custom furniture. This environment had me directly in contact with products that were painted. First it was lacquer and over the years finishing materials evolved to catalyzed acrylics which are far more hazardous to the environment.
One business, had the office above the factory and the fumes from the freshly painted products would bleed into the air conditioning system. They finished spraying paint around 4pm and I was there until 7 with the garage door open and large fans pulling fresh air into the building. It was unsafe to be in the building with the doors closed and no fans.
I did a project with enamel paint and used multi-layer filter masks. That wasn't enough. I should have used a mask with carbon cartridges. The asthma lingered and my family doctor sent me to a Pulmonologist for an x-ray and evaluation. Steroids and prescription inhaler. That was around ten years ago. Since then, I've become highly sensitive to chemicals in my environment.
The last place I worked at used to supply the air freshener Febreeze in the restrooms. To me, that stuff is like Kryptonite to Superman. I would place a can of Lysol disinfectant next to the Febreze and to my liking my coworkers would use the Lysol!
Under normal circumstances I only use an inhaler once or twice a week. However, I'm now working for a remodeling company and their warehouse is stocked with all kinds of supplies including tile, carpet underlayment and cabinets. The a/c is shared between the office and warehouse and as soon as I enter the building, I start sneezing. Within 2 hours, I have asthma bad enough to restrict my breathing and have been using the inhaler 4 times a day, often no relief until an hour or two after I leave the building.
My outside appointments are 2 or 3 per day and I'm allowed to work from home, but we have walk-in clients and I need to be there or the leads will go to the other salesmen.
Moving 50 miles from the medical center in Miami, I found a one near my office. My new doctor referred me to a specialist who called for x-rays, steroid based inhaler and a lung capacity test coming up at the end of the month.
In the mean time, I bought a special 3-stage HEPA air purification system and ran it in the office all night. The air was noticeably better and I was able to make it to noon before the asthma started affecting me. I need to go through the warehouse and find out what (exactly) is bothering me and possibly cover at area with tarp or plastic sheeting.
Worst case scenario actually has a few possibilities... No decision as I'm not going there. At least not for now.
online today!
... He comes out and says he never realized how interactions with police are so stressful for the average Negro male. Say what? Puleeze, my man.
Don't get me wrong, if he means it, and is prepared to work to improve things, it's good news. But I thought most turtles lived above, not below, large rocks.
Sure, the rates of Negro crime, including violent crime, against Whites, and even much more (access ?) against other Blacks, is quite at the top of the list. For every Black killed by police, hundreds, yes hundreds, are killed by other Brothers. As with the increases in {CO 2} since the industrial "revolution", the line has been sloped upward, especially since the Negro migration from the South, the decreases in Jim Crow policies, the Democrat public assistance fiasco ruin of the intact Black family, and the rise in Democrat rule in municipalities.
Negroes in my family, when asked about this, agree. But not without eyes up to the ceiling. Maybe the epiphany will spread about in the ranks of the Republican Party, then generalize onto the lefties, and we can finally take an important turn in MAGA. MAGA should have lots of facets. Not exactly rocket science, but perhaps it is a bit of brain surgery in a few right places.
Biden will be more of the same old, especially with a Negro female running mate. Don't take my words for it, just look who's running almost all American mid to large sized municipalities. Where the real action has been for decades.
At least with Red Man Bad, for complex dynamics, in term two, a chance exists.
But as with the past several years, for their own nefarious reasons, his ideas could come down from JC Himself on high, and the Democrats will reflexively fight it all, tooth and nail.
Turtles and ducks. We are lucky that the Donald lets almost all of this roll off his back, like drops of scummy pond water.
It seems that perhaps a cheap widely available steroid helps reduce the death rate in severe cases of Covid-19. However, this does not mean that the risk of death from Covid-19 is no longer real. In addition it does not mean that you should be taking this steroid at home.
From CNN;
In response to:
Commonly used steroid reduces risk of death in sickest coronavirus patients, preliminary study results suggest
The widely available steroid drug dexamethasone may be key in helping to treat the sickest Covid-19 patients who require ventilation or oxygen, according to researchers in the United Kingdom.
Their findings are preliminary, still being compiled, and have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal -- but some not involved with the study called the results a breakthrough.
The two lead investigators of the Recovery Trial, a large UK-based trial investigating potential Covid-19 treatments, announced to reporters in a virtual press conference on Tuesday that a low-dose regimen of dexamethasone for 10 days was found to reduce the risk of death by a third among hospitalized patients requiring ventilation in the trial.
"That's a highly statistically significant result," Martin Landray, deputy chief investigator of the trial and a professor at the University of Oxford, said on Tuesday.
"This is a completely compelling result. If one looks at the patients who did not require ventilators but were on oxygen, there was also a significant risk reduction of about one-fifth," Landray said. "However, we didn't see any benefit in those patients who were in hospital, had Covid, but whose lungs were working sufficiently well -- they were not taking either oxygen or on ventilators."
Landray added that "there are outstanding questions" and people treating Covid-19 at home should not be taking dexamethasone on the back of these results.
"We have not studied patients in the community," Landray said. "We show no effect in the patients who are not on oxygen and we did not study the patients who are not in hospital."
The dexamethasone arm of the Recovery Trial closed last week and researchers are now compiling its data. It included about 2,100 hospitalized Covid-19 patients who were randomized to receive dexamethasone, and about 4,300 hospitalized Covid-19 patients who were randomized to receive the usual standard of care at their hospitals.
In the trial, dexamethasone was provided at a dose of 6mg once a day for up to 10 days, administered either as an injection or taken orally. The researchers reported no serious adverse events among the patients taking dexamethasone, but the results are preliminary.
"At this stage, we found no clear adverse effects of doing this. Let's recognize that there are sort of two messages here. In the people who required oxygen or ventilation, it clearly works, and the benefits are biggest for those on ventilators. In the people in hospital with Covid who do not require oxygen -- so, their lungs are working moderately well -- then actually there's no benefit," Landray said on Tuesday.
"In the trial, our focus was on mortality, which obviously a drug can affect in either direction, but the overall results in the patients on oxygen and ventilation was a clear, clear benefit," Landray said, adding that deaths in the study were examined over a 28-day period. "We've looked, for example, were there deaths due to other forms of infection, which are sometimes considered a risk? And the answer is no, there was no excess of any other particular cause of death."
Dexamethasone is typically used to treat certain forms of arthritis, severe allergies and asthma, among other conditions, including certain types of cancer. Side effects can include upset stomach, headache, dizziness, insomnia and depression. GoodRx estimates the drug can cost as low as about $8. ...
(continued in my first comment below)
On May 21st Dr. Anthony Fauci warned, contrary to Trump, that if states opened back up quickly, there would be a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases and thus, deaths.
The wise not only listened, but took appropriate precautions about opening up and did so with gradual steps, while keeping a close eye on the resultant data. Perhaps New York under the leadership of their governor is the finest example of this, going from the worst state to the best state for percent transmission of the virus. Good job !!
However, Trump helped turn the re-openings into a political circus.
He misled the governors of lots of states to rush back to re-open.
The results have been devastating. Experts now predict that the total number of deaths in the USA
largely due to recent Covid-19 outbreaks in 21 of those quick to open states will more than double the total of what they were predicting just weeks ago.
From The Washington Post;
In response to:
As coronavirus infections surge nationwide, 21 states see increase in average daily new cases
June 13, 2020 at 10:06 p.m. EDT
Twenty-one states have seen an increase in their average daily new coronavirus cases this week in comparison to the previous week, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. New infections nationwide also surged.
Alabama, Oregon and South Carolina are among the states with the biggest increases. Alabama saw a 92 percent change in its seven-day average, while Oregon’s seven-day average was up 83.8 percent and South Carolina’s was up 60.3 percent. Hospitalizations have risen as well. For example, Arkansas has seen a 120.7 percent increase in hospitalizations, from 92 cases to 203, since Memorial Day.
Health officials warn that mass gatherings of any type could worsen the spread of the virus, as the 2020 election heats up and nationwide protests against racism and police brutality stretch into their third week.
Here are some significant developments:
Washington state health officials warned Saturday that coronavirus transmission is increasing in the eastern part of the state. Benton, Franklin, Spokane and Yakima counties are of greatest concern and could see “increasingly explosive growth” in cases and deaths if the current rate of transmission continues.
Several new studies published this month support wearing masks to curb the transmission of the virus.
Beijing’s biggest meat and vegetable market was shut down after the discovery of a cluster of coronavirus cases, raising the prospect of a second wave of infections.
Brazil’s official coronavirus death toll overtook Britain to become the world’s second-worst hit country.
Russia more than doubled its official death toll related to covid-19 for April, days after the World Health Organization raised questions about its numbers.
I check the Florida statistics every few days and no longer have hope the number of new cases will decline. We are required to wear masks in the showroom I'm working at. The clients coming in also wear masks. The same for outside appointments.
This weekend at the model airfield, masks are optional and all of us maintained distance. Thankfully no one in my circle of contacts has been directly affected. A few guys my age all agreed they no longer go out to restaurants and don't order delivery. Grocery shopping only when necessary and all their meals are cooked at home.
This is what we do for now.
I bought 100 surgical masks a few months ago and another 100 came in 2 weeks ago. My boss and I made a sales call Friday... he forgot to bring a mask and I supplied one for him. Accidentally, I left my mask in the office, I had to resort to an N95 mask I was keeping for emergency. A year ago I was wearing them for drywall patching and sanding project. I forgot how restrictive they are compared to the surgical masks. However, they didn't fog my glasses. I'm waiting to try the cloth variety. This may encourage me to rethink my sewing machine & mask experiments.
Travels on Saturday, took me to the house I recently sold. My (ex) neighbor was holding several storage bins of tools and collectables of mine and it was time to retrieve those items. Construction at my old house was going as expected. I chatted with the new owner. She and her remodeling crew were doing electrical upgrades and fitting for central air conditioning. While my neighbor and I had masks, none of the remodeling people wore any.
The house is in Dade County... one of the hot-spots for the state of Florida where people who test positive have the highest concentration of COVID-19.
Today in Bloomberg;
Moderna Vaccine Trials Moving Fast With Final Study in July
By Robert Langreth
June 11, 2020
Moderna Inc. said it had selected a dose for a final-stage clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine that should begin in July, as the company moves ahead rapidly with its innovative approach to trying to prevent Covid-19.
The final study, which will include 30,000 people, will be conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the U.S. Its primary goal will be to show the vaccine prevents people from developing symptoms of Covid-19, Moderna said in a statement. A secondary goal will be to show the vaccine keeps people from getting severe cases requiring hospitalization.
Shares of Moderna climbed 3.2% to $61.98 at 8:26 a.m. in New York. The stock has more than tripled in value since the start of this year.
The announcement is another indication that coronavirus vaccine trials are moving ahead at a remarkable pace. On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson said it would begin early trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in the second half of July, ahead of its previous schedule to begin testing in September.
Last month, Moderna began a second-stage study of its vaccine, called mRNA-1273, in 600 healthy adults. In the statement Thursday, the company said it had already enrolled 350 people in the trial, including a cohort of 300 healthy adults 54 years and younger, and the first 50 of 300 older adults.
Some vaccines are moving into clinical trials even faster than Moderna’s. A shot co-developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc is starting final-stage clinical trials this month -- and the U.K. company said Thursday it had recruited Emergent BioSolutions Inc. to help with development and manufacturing.
China has begun offering employees of some large state-run companies the option of being inoculated with two coronavirus vaccines currently in development.
I enjoy reading the few blogs here
But some go too far beyond the
Realms of possibility. What l like is
To learn different customs and see
More culture.
The pandemic we are fighting is now
Showing how different measures of
Lockdown give different results. The
US and UK have recorded the largest
Death totals but l believe Belgium has
The highest total by ratio (84 per 100k,
UK is 60).
Please don't misjudge me. Up until last year I was pretty normal but this year things have gone hectic. I get in my car and I put a few drops of alcohol on my hands and wipe them. I go to see a client and as soon as I get back to the car it's a few more drops of alcohol on my hands.
Grocery shopping? It's the same addiction to alcohol.
It seems that everywhere I go a visit with alcohol is only a few steps away.
online today!
The government employee quality epidemiologists at the WHO, (is my fat pension ready yet?), stopped their study of this issue early, raising ethical grounds.They claimed a slight increase of mortality in the non placebo arm of their analyses. Notably, the method of sequential trials doesn't seem to have been employed. And the specific causes of death could have been better characterized. The many biostatisticians at the New York Times might consider ongoing edumacation.
We now see growing new, more valid, evidence, beginning with the results of the largest study to date, that such differences may not exist. And even if these were there in the data, and true, if small, allow the use of a medicine, using prudent clinical judgment. As with nearly all agents to date. Even aspirin and acupuncture. I've blogged on the details of such, especially with the connections between heart and lung and inflammatory illnesses.
Trump Derangement-Hilary Deficit Syndrome may be progressive. Back to the drawing boards.
I again thank some here for both content of ideas, and ad hominem comments on physiognomy. Both entertain, have validity and are a clue to character.
As reported in the New York Times yesterday, the results are in from the first carefully controlled trial
which exposed 821 people to others with Covid-19. No difference from the control group.
"What have you got to lose ?" Time, money, hope, and side effects, including heart problems.
Plus, it may prevent you from taking something that does work.
Please stick to doing your actual job Mr. "so-called" president and stop pretending you know it all.
The truth is, that you are a dope !