What is your strategy for avoiding COVID-19 ?

[lsemmens]

I'm still COVID free even after saying goodbye to the love of my life!
I will admit to more than a few drinks, so................. If I don't make any sense, I apologise!

[dorsetUK]

I'm still COVID free even after saying goodbye to the love of my life!
I will admit to more than a few drinks, so................. If I don't make any sense, I apologise!

Hi lsemmens, and you're making perfect sense.

Feel sad, but each time you have a drink, celebrate all the good memories.

ATB to you, your family and friends.

[dm999]

I'm still COVID free even after saying goodbye to the love of my life!
I will admit to more than a few drinks, so................. If I don't make any sense, I apologise!

My heart goes out to you mate, sorry for your loss.

Take care, DM.

[AZgl1800]

I'm still COVID free even after saying goodbye to the love of my life!
I will admit to more than a few drinks, so................. If I don't make any sense, I apologise!

as I mentioned before, I can feel for your situation, as my girl passed over the Rainbow Bridge 3 years ago.

[ZakGordon]

I maintain the best strategy is STILL avoiding other people as much as possible. This article from the head of EU coronavirus response team is worth a read imho:

'Europe should brace for second wave, says EU coronavirus chief':

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... oronavirus

[Pjotr]

I maintain the best strategy is STILL avoiding other people as much as possible.

Especially indoors. There are increasing indications that the main infection vector is exposure to the virus (droplets and aerosols) in the air, during a longer period. Read: in badly ventilated rooms. The outdoors infection risk appears to be much smaller.

Some indoors activities are riskier than others: e.g. singing = coughing, so avoid indoors (church?) choirs. Wear a mask in shops and in public transportation.

[ZakGordon]

I fear the very devout are going to be suffering dissproportionally under this pandemic Virus do not care about your feelings in relation to God etc.

[Pjotr]

Good news:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 20053058v1

TL;DNR:
There's hardly any chance of Covid-19 infection in the open air. Duration of exposure is crucial: passing each other in the street or walking together in the park is almost certainly safe. A long conversation when sitting on a terrace is more risky.

An article about this in a reputable Dutch news paper (if needed, use some translation service):
https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/on ... t~b28c006b

[lsemmens]

Eldest Son & wife returned from China after Chinese New Year. The insanity of the COVID "isolation" was that when they arrived back into Australia a) they had to line up for immigration because they were coming from China - the rest could "self" immigrate
b) they then had to submit to a "medical" check, which wasn't so bad, except - they all had to stay in a group as they were escorted through the arrivals hall where everyone else was picking up their bags, to the other end of the airport for their screening.

If any of their group had the disease they could easily have infected any of hundreds of people!

[ZakGordon]

Some potential 'good' news perhaps?

'French tests show even mild coronavirus illness leads to antibodies':

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... antibodies

A medical study in France suggests even mild cases of coronavirus infection, not requiring hospital treatment, produce antibodies in almost all patients, with the body’s defences against the virus increasing during the weeks of recovery.

The research, led by a team from the Pasteur Institute, raises hopes that everyone who has had the disease could acquire some degree of immunity, although it is not clear for how long or to what degree.

The question of immunity has become one of the most vexed issues concerning coronavirus, in terms of governments’ public health policies – including the controversial herd immunity route – and in the understanding of the mechanics of the disease, which divides scientists. Early reports had suggested an absence or limited presence of antibodies in some individuals with mild symptoms.

The research, jointly led by Olivier Schwartz, head of the Pasteur Institute’s virus and immunity unit, took samples from more than 160 staff from the CHU hospital, in Strasbourg, who became infected with Covid-19 early in March after a “super-propagation” event – linked to a five-day prayer and fasting gathering of the evangelical Christian Open Door church in Mulhouse, eastern France.

While most research into antibody production against coronavirus has examined patients with severe illness who have been admitted to hospital and then recovered, the Pasteur Institute team focused on the mild cases believed to make up about 80% of all the infections.

According to the research report posted on the medRXiv server, 160 hospital staff agreed to participate in the study, all having been confirmed as coronavirus cases after initial tests. They were not ill enough to be admitted to hospital. Two separate assay tests were then used to retest the staff to see if they had produced antibodies.

The first test was a commercially available one, while the second had been developed by the institute to identify the rate of seroconversion (the production of antibodies) and those antibodies’ ability to neutralise the virus.

The second test suggested that 99.4% of the people studied had produced antibodies; only one individual, a 58-year old man, had no antibodies detected.

The research noted that the detected antibody response appeared to grow stronger as the participants recovered and that the antibodies appeared effective in combating (or neutralising) the virus.

“The neutralising activity is present much later than the appearance of antibodies and this is encouraging,” Schwartz told the French newspaper Le Monde, adding that the team hoped to continue studying the participants to establish how long the protection would continue.

Schwartz’s study says: “We further report that the neutralisation activity of the serum increases with time, reaching 97% four weeks after the onset of symptoms. Therefore, it is a fair assumption that the majority of individuals with mild Covid-19 generate neutralising antibodies within a month after onset of symptoms.

“Although not yet demonstrated, several lines of evidence suggest that the presence of neutralising antibodies may be associated with protective immunity for Sars-CoV-2 infection.”

The study concludes: “For patients with [the related] Sars [coronavirus] antibodies persist for at least two years after symptomatic infection.”

And that last sentence is about the other related coronavirus outbreak from a few years back (as obviously the current covid-19 outbreak has not been around long enough).

[carum carvi]

It's noteworthy to mention that many very young kids who DO get Corona do NOT make anti bodies at all. And do NOT spread it to others eithers. And it 's also noteworthy to mention that in the past several years other Corona viruses only created lasting anti bodies for about 1 year or even less. What does this tell us? Nothing much good. And a lot of good as well... Go figure...

THE strategy for avoiding the Corona virus is avoiding people. Period.

AND (Capitol) avoiding everything THING(especially plastic) other people have touched OR breathed upon. Yes, you read that correctly: breathed upon. The only and latest research about INDIRECT contamination via materials was based upon virus particles IN THE AIR landing on materials, of which one was plastic. And the virus stayed active ( on average) for 3 Fng days. It stayed active though (under ideal circumstances (high humidity, low temperature for up to 9 days)

Now, what do you buy at the grocery or supermarket? And WHAT is it wrapped in? And by whom is it packaged? It is plastic, wrapped up by cheap labour workers, often living in horrendous living conditions (close together).

Many thought avoiding going to the supermarket was a safe bet. Think again. Online food delivery is packaged AND TOUCHED by cheap labour as well. They live (no choice of their own) in close proximity, often in illegal accommodations. The PLASTIC packaging you take out of your fridge has got the biggest chance of being contaminated, because Corona can survive on average up to 3 days on PLASTIC. But 9 days under ideal circumstances. Do you wash your hands after you have taken out anything in plastic out of your fridge?

The SWEDES decided to ONLY make decisions based upon scientific evidence. There is almost NONE scientific evidence about Corona viruses. Surprised? I was. The only scientific evidence the SWEDES could find, was to wash your hands. Not even distancing could be traced back to ANY scientific evidence. Neither cheap mouth protection wear. And the SWEDES are not doing great, but they are not doing badly either, considering they have the most RELAXED Corona measures in the ENTIRE world. I trust the SWEDES as I trust a Swiss clock. When they do something, you bet they have thought about it.

One certain SWEDE virologist stated that in the end IT DID NOT MATTER WHAT measures countries took, because in the end the Corona virus will have spread equally throughout ALL of the world. The only thing one can do is either to avoid people altogether or boost one's immune system to the highest level.

[slipstick]

Some new information about why covid-19 produces so many different symptoms - it may be a blood vessel disease:

https://elemental.medium.com/coronaviru ... 4032481ab2

[Moem]

One certain SWEDE virologist stated that in the end IT DID NOT MATTER WHAT measures countries took, because in the end the Corona virus will have spread equally throughout ALL of the world.

I disagree with that. It matters a lot, for several reasons:
- If the spreading happens too fast, there will be too many people getting sick at the same time and it will overwhelm the medical system.
- If the spreading happens slowly, it will give science more time to develop useful stuff like medication and vaccines.

[Bobb24]

One certain SWEDE virologist stated that in the end IT DID NOT MATTER WHAT measures countries took, because in the end the Corona virus will have spread equally throughout ALL of the world.

I disagree with that. It matters a lot, for several reasons:
- If the spreading happens too fast, there will be too many people getting sick at the same time and it will overwhelm the medical system.
- If the spreading happens slowly, it will give science more time to develop useful stuff like medication and vaccines.

Well it didn't happen in Sweden. Really didn't overwhelm most countries. .They credit that to the lock down but that is neither provable or disprovable.Tanzania president has had papaya and a goat test positive. He is highly sceptical of the WHO. One of the reasons the flu season is in the colder months is because people tend to be inside more in colder weather so I am glad they have released some "studies" that show that it's harder to catch it when outdoors, something that was already common knowledge. This new one sure seems to be an enigma as they are so close to a vaccine but the medical experts have been flipping and flopping from the beginning on the symptoms and policies such as restricting air travel to wearing masks and so on. The CDC has even came out and stated the mortality rate was 0.2% or something close to that as was previously reported by Stanford but this was barely mentioned in mainstream media and the world has been placed under medical martial law for something that has now been shown to be no more lethal than the flu.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/n ... 47530.html

[AZgl1800]

trying to stay away from politics, but the WHO is loosing favor fast.
every 3rd word they say is false.

in my country, our commander in chief has divorced us from WHO.

[Moem]

Well it didn't happen in Sweden. Really didn't overwhelm most countries. .They credit that to the lock down but that is neither provable or disprovable.

In the Netherlands, you can see a very clear sharp bend in the graph that shows the number of deaths due to Covid-19. It bends down exactly two weeks after the rules went into effect. That's clear enough for me.
And yes, our medical system was bursting at the seams and it would have been overwhelmed if we had not scaled it up real quick, or if the numbers had stayed on trend. But no, we managed to bend that graph down.
I'm not sure that you can say that it wasn't in fact overwhelmed. They had to postpone a lot of necessary care, resulting in deaths... and some patients were transported across the border to Germany, that has a higher number of IC beds per capita.

Sweden is definitely interesting. They have several factors going for them: a sparse population in most areas, a high level of health care, and they are culturally not at all a huggy/kissy people.

[Pjotr]

So far, I've missed an important element in the official communications, at least in The Netherlands: the urgent desirability to improve one's own immune system. We can do a lot to prevent getting ill from Covid-19:

- Eat healthy food with lots of green vegetables and good beef (iron);

- Take vitamin supplements (containing at least zinc, selenium, vitamin D and vitamin C);

- Take physical exercise (a daily brisk 30 minute walk is already sufficient);

- Spend enough time outdoors in the sun (vitamin D);

- Stop smoking(!!!);

- Lose weight.

That should make most people's immune systems ready to nuke that bloody virus to hell.

The emphasis for the redemption from Covid-19 has been too much on getting a vaccine. Even a vaccine is simply a means to make one's immune system more effective for that particular germ. Therefore it makes a lot of sense to increase the generic effectiveness of your immune system: most (otherwise healthy) people probably won't even need a vaccine then.

[ZakGordon]

In the UK during the peak (about a week or so ago) it had gotten so bad that the figures just coming out are in the ball-park of IF you had to go into a hospital for serious coronavirus complications (difficult breathing etc) you were on a 1 in 3 chance of dying (not matter age or medical conditions!). 1 in 3 died in hospital recently. That was nearly mostly down to an over-whelmed NHS, which was entierly down to bad prep and leadership from government.

Which is why the strict lock-down conditions are necessary in a pandemic, if you don't do this you simply get more deaths that could be avoided otherwise. Fingers crossed for most of us across Europe it seems nicely on the retreat. I won't be changing my behaviors (mask when shopping, avoiding other people, kids at home, washing hands/using anti-viral cleaners etc) for a good few months yet, as we are not 'over' it by any stretch (Russia, USA, Asia, South America all rising etc).

[lsemmens]

It would appear that the common thread in avoiding COVID 19 is avoiding contact with other people and living out doors. Or:- living on the ISS or the Antarctic.

[Bobb24]

Here is a link to the CDC data that I referenced in previous post with appropriate links

https://www.technocracy.news/cdc-confir ... eath-rate/