SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)

Question for the experts: why do all of the curve models assume that the ICU capacity is static? Surely if the peak can be delayed by 4-6 months this gives time to increase ICU capacity by converting standard wards to ICUs?

Because you need nurses and doctors for those new ICU beds and it takes more than 4-6 months to form them. You are always limited by the amount of staff available.
 
Where the feck did you get the idea that 5% of the hospitalized go to ICU? Are you making it up as you go? I don't know the real number, but that is an absurdly low estimate.

On the surface it looks like 20-40%.

Firstly I'm talking young people in my age group. Secondly at the moment in the UK we can assume the rate of hospitalisations due to confirmed COVID19 in all age groups is essentially 100%.

I can't find the paper where the estimates were given but I remember it as 3.2% 30s hospitalised. 5% of that group tubed. 20-40% hospitalised young people is a load of bollocks when accounting for the lack of testing.
 
You're saying that people are comparing Covid to Swine Flu. I'm saying that just because Covid hasn't killed anywhere near as many people yet, it could do in time so the comparisons are not ridiculous.
I think you need to go back and read the full sentence that I said and have a think about it.
 
Question for the experts: why do all of the curve models assume that the ICU capacity is static? Surely if the peak can be delayed by 4-6 months this gives time to increase ICU capacity by converting standard wards to ICUs?
Because the logistics of that are incredibly difficult.

Standard wards wont have the same high flow oxygen systems installed, they may lack room for the basic ICU machinery, they'd need extra ICU trained staff which are gold-dust at the moment.

It's for these reasons that they branch into ED resus bays first as they have the capacity to support ventilation etc.
 
The point is the number of confirmed cases in Ireland is an underestimate and probably a large one. It’s misleading to look at what percentage of those who died or ended up in hospital from only the confirmed cases.

I don't really get what your point is here, everyone understands the fact that the final numbers will look a lot different, but do you want everyone to just essentially ignore the only facts available now, because of this?
 
Because the logistics of that are incredibly difficult.

Standard wards wont have the same high flow oxygen systems installed, they may lack room for the basic ICU machinery, they'd need extra ICU trained staff which are gold-dust at the moment.

It's for these reasons that they branch into ED resus bays first as they have the capacity to support ventilation etc.


Is it possible to just quickly train people on ventilator use and patient support?
 
I think you need to go back and read the full sentence that I said and have a think about it.
I did. You seem to think that people bringing up Swine Flu aren't taking this seriously. I'm saying that it doesn't follow as half a million people died from Swine Flu.
 
I did. You seem to think that people bringing up Swine Flu aren't taking this seriously. I'm saying that it doesn't follow as half a million people died from Swine Flu.
I've literally told you people aren't taking this seriously and bringing up swine flu as a basis for that opinion, so I'm not sure what your point is. Are you taking this seriously or not? Aren't you the same poster that said this isn't effecting people's jobs because you can't think of anyone personally?
 
I don't really get what your point is here, everyone understands the fact that the final numbers will look a lot different, but do you want everyone to just essentially ignore the only facts available now, because of this?

Not at all. The comment I originally replied to said 15% of those infected aged between 25-40 ended up in hospital. I was just pointing out why this is misleading and it’s actually much lower.
 
I've literally told you people aren't taking this seriously and bringing up swine flu as a basis for that opinion, so I'm not sure what your point is. Are you taking this seriously or not? Aren't you the same poster that said this isn't effecting people's jobs because you can't think of anyone personally?
If they're comparing it to Swine Flu then they are taking it seriously!
 
Is it possible to just quickly train people on ventilator use and patient support?
Not when the patient is very sick and unstable. I've been involved with ventilated patients being cared for at home by relatives on a long-term basis, but they weren't acutely ill.

I've looked after vented patients myself, but they were premature neonates and it's a completely different scenario.
 
If they're comparing it to Swine Flu then they are taking it seriously!
What? Even when they are posting things like:

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Such a load of shit.

SARS was gonna kill us all. Swine flu and Bird flu was gonna kill us all. Ebola was gonna kill us all. I'm sure it's a serious illness but it's deadliness is amplified 6000% to fill 24 news cycles. No-one will care about this in two weeks.
Just curious, how much bashing you received.

I really hope you are staying safe and not too casual about it.
 
The point is the number of confirmed cases in Ireland is an underestimate and probably a large one. It’s misleading to look at what percentage of those who died or ended up in hospital from only the confirmed cases.

You're right, the stat I posted didn't take into account the unidentified cases. But neither does the 3.2% stat I was responding to, with fergieisold saying it would actually be a lot lower than 3.2% once unidentified cases were taken into account. So unidentified cases don't explain away the gap between what he was asserting and what the Spanish and Irish figures are reporting.
 
Ireland should be getting more confirmed cases if theyre testing those who are more likely to have it.
Which is a great sign that its not going up too much
 
Where the feck did you get the idea that 5% of the hospitalized go to ICU? Are you making it up as you go? I don't know the real number, but that is an absurdly low estimate.

On the surface it looks like 20-40%.

In one of the first large-scale studies of the characteristics of the coronavirus in Wuhan, 5 percent of patients required the intensive care unit and 2.3 percent required a ventilator.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/opinion/health/ventilator-shortage-coronavirus-solution.html
 
Is it possible to just quickly train people on ventilator use and patient support?
I wouldn't say so, not safely anyway. There are far too many variables within the scope of acutely unwell ventilated patients. It's not just a case of knowing what settings and how the machine works, its the skill of trying to pre-empt deterioration and recognising that which ICU trained specialists are very good at, unfortunately that really only comes with experience.
 

Thanks.

I doubt this applies to Europe though. I think (am happy to be corrected on this) that China hospitalized a far greater share of diagnosed cases, even assymptomatic ones (for isolation purposes). They never lost control of the situation outside Wuhan.

@fergieisold says we should assume 100% of cases are being hospitalized in England. You can't assume that, you either know or you don't. If that's currently true, I assure you it will not be the case in a couple of weeks.
 
they ran out of kits in the pairc today

The number of kits available seems to be have been a problem alright.

Even still though, our level of testing per capita is relatively high and has still increased over the period that the percentage increase in cases has been in decline. So the trend is still positive atm.
 
Supposedly at least 5 houses in our estate have had medics in hazmat suits removing people.
I am not leaving the fecking house
 
Surely that must be Chinese whispers @golden_blunder ??

Keep safe fella.
We’re on a WhatsApp group that’s just the estate neighbourhood watch and management group, it’s from trusted people who constantly ping when something happens out of the ordinary

it’s getting a bit close for comfort now
 
Almost my whole department has been furloughed, so whilst initially working 14 hours a day 7 days a week seemed like a bit of a shitter, at least it keeps me away from the news.
Just seen that today’s Spanish deaths have overtaken Italy’s :eek: they were in a couple of hundred last time I saw the daily totals
 
Where the feck did you get the idea that 5% of the hospitalized go to ICU? Are you making it up as you go? I don't know the real number, but that is an absurdly low estimate.

On the surface it looks like 20-40%.

About a week ago I saw estimates that 20% of those with Covid needed hospitalisation and of those 5-7% needed an ICU bed. Of course we don't really know how many people actually have it yet (as opposed to how many of those tested have it) but I would have thought that the 5-7% figure would have some basis in fact although of course things can vary from country to country depending in many factors.

Edit found the (or a) source:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...id-19-icu-beds-ventilators-hospitals/12090420
based on this paper
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762130