buctootim

There is also the issue of deaths amongst people who have had their elective surgery or other treatment postponed. For example I know a 30 year old who has rheumatoid arthritis. She was due to have her ankle joints fused so she could walk without pain. That has been delayed for at least three months due to COVID-19. If you cant walk peoples level of health often drops rapidly and they become more likely to develop a whole range of diseases including, paradoxically, things like pneumonia. Its unlikely to happen to her but will happen to a number of older people waiting for things like hip replacements. Calculating overall health benefits / dis-benefits from something like a lockdown is fiendishly complicated.

I don't know anything specific about the tragic case of those two young people, but in general if fit people without underlying conditions succumb to a disease which most others survive then its often due to an overreaction of the immune system called a cytokine storm. Its not in any way specifically related to COVID-19, it could be anything - including flu and even very rarely colds.

Hungary has just given the government the ability to rule by decree, exactly what the authoritarian Orben has wanted for years, long before corona. Its a slippery slope.

Yes its a good thing. It will help people less severely affected to breathe easier. But afaik there was never particular shortage of cpaps - they are widely available for domestic use, so I'm not sure how much this is really going to help. https://www.1800cpap.com/

A cpap machine is very simple - basically just an airtight mask with a pump. Useful for mild cases of breathing difficulty like sleep apnea but nothing like a venitlator far less ECMO. The problem with severe COVID patients is not that their airways have collapsed but that they are inflamed and flooded.

Haha thats hilairious. Love the deadpan.

Tesco's meat, especially the beef, is uniquely bad imo.

There is a sophisticated statistical model to calculate 'excess' winter flu deaths so that it can be determined, as you said for COVID-19, who died from the disease and who simply died with it. If that model was used for COVID-19 I'm sure the numbers would lower. Also agree about death rates being highly influenced by how many tests you carry out.

I used to be responsible for commissioning health services for HIV patients in London. One of the diseases that used to kill patients prematurely was a form of pneumonia called PCP. I was responsible for negotiating a contract with the Royal Brompton to provide tertiary ECMO care to HIV patients. Thats why I know about ECMO. The number of ECMO units is pretty much the same as it was in the 1990s when it was introduced as a trial. Maximum surge capacity is 28 patients nationally. Given each patient normally only requires ECMO for 24-72 hours one additional bed could theoretically save up to 45 lives during a three month pandemic. Having 28 beds when middle income countries like Russia and China have hundreds is a disgrace. https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Management-of-surge-and-escalation-for-adult-respiratory-extra-corporeal-membrane-oxygenation.pdf

The actual stats by age and co-morbidity are here https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ If you have no underlying conditions the average death rate for all ages is 0.9%. For younger people its much lower

Yep you should. Their opinion is in contradiction to NICE guidelines on treatment of COVID-19. If they really worked on an ECMO unit, which of course they don't because you made them up, they should recuse themselves from practice because they don't have the requisite knowledge. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng159/resources/covid19-rapid-guideline-critical-care-pdf-66141848681413 Haha. I see you changed your post again to remove the imaginary person working on an Elmo unit (arf)

Your GF is a nurse. Nurses are not trained in ECMO unless they are working in an ECMO unit ""EK-MO" et al that normally work for severe pneumonia is not working" If she said this, and personally I think you made it up to save face, it shows a fundamental ignorance of what ECMO is and does. Even the fact you spell it with a K betrays ignorance. Its Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation. The corporeal being body.

FFs Jamie its pretty straight forward. Some milder case are given oxygen through a face mask. Severe cases are intubated and put on a ventilator. The most severe cases cannot make sufficient gas exchange even when intubated and on a ventilator and will die without access to ECMO.

COVID-19 pneumonia is caused by a virus - antibiotics will have no effect. The whole point is that intubation alone isnt enough for some patients. If their lungs are full of fluid they cant exchange sufficient gases no matter how much you ventilate them or turn oxygen levels up.

What seems to be killing people is the severe pneumonia. Ventilators can only keep people breathing but are little help if the lungs are so flooded they can no longer exchange sufficient CO2 and oxygen. Thats why ECMO is so important - it keeps people alive until their immune system if able to fight the infection. Only 2% of CCU have them.

Those are pretty poor outcomes. In part its very likely due to the UK's extremely poor provision of ECMO units - which oxygenates blood when the lungs temporarily no longer can. It is hugely important in treatment of COVID-19. England has 5 adult units, Scotland Wales and NI have none. By contrast Japan has something like 1,300. Germany around 50. That may well explain their much lower death rates

Oi! I live in Brighton thanks very much

Pension funds rarely invest with hedge funds, they're too volatile

The dead will be largely those drawing pensions and on Medicare - two of the most substantial Federal costs. Wouldn't be surprised if Trump sees that as a windfall

He's got the biggest and best infection rate

uhu. Away strip

Its like people who smoke outside hospital with drips in their arms. Whilst some people diagnosed with a lifestyle related condition will radically change their habits some just wont

Its not as simple as that. Most of the repeat users / abusers have mental health issues, frequently are addicts or have have OCD and are living on benefits. How exactly are you going to stop them?

Health and diet advice is always first step but many people dont do the exercise or change their diets.

When I worked at St Marys Paddington in the 1990s it had one of the busiest A&E depts in the country with around 65,000 attendances pa. Now its nearer 130,000 pa.