I am an ER nurse in Denver. Take COVID seriously, stay home.

Co-Flounder wrote:

Hospital name?

https://www.hospitalstats.org/ER-Wait-Time/Denver-CO-Metro.htm

Seeing those wait times and reading the comments does not give me a lot of confidence in our capacity to handle a spike in admissions.

smart dude wrote:

Sorry, but I don't care if you are a 'nurse'. You are spreading untruths. At best, you would have a small anecdotal view of what's going on, and based on your post, it is questionable.

There are plenty of reputable organizations and websites that are tracking the virus, its spread, and the associated mortality and morbidity rate across the population and in various age groups. People need to consult and rely on those for the best information. Period.

I'd take those #s with a grain of salt.

Here in NYC, I know of several people who are under quarantine after close exposure to people (who later tested positive) and suffering COVID symptoms themselves (mild enough not to warrant a hospital visit as of yet.) They've been advised by their doctors NOT to seek out a test because A) doing so will further spread the virus B) tests are almost impossible to obtain.

We are not testing correctly in the US. There are huge #s of people who are likely COVID positive without realizing it.

rojo wrote:

Greg... wrote:

Their silence is deafening

Look. I'll let people be skeptical if they want to deal in facts. Things that are lies will be deleted and result in a ban. I get that you dont' even like us allowing any post wondering if the measures taken in some countries are too draconian.

But here is an example of action we took behind the scenes.

The OP is posting from Colorado Springs. There was a 2nd post from a person also claiming to be a Denver nurse who said the OP's post was a lie. That post was coming from California. That person has banned and the post was deleted.

Rojo, so quick to delete and ban people who say that coronavirus is an issue. Where’s the outrage for people saying it’s not an issue? You yourself have started threads poking holes in the guidance of medical professionals and scientists. SHAME ON YOU

rojo wrote:

Greg... wrote:

Their silence is deafening

Look. I'll let people be skeptical if they want to deal in facts. Things that are lies will be deleted and result in a ban. I get that you dont' even like us allowing any post wondering if the measures taken in some countries are too draconian.

But here is an example of action we took behind the scenes.

The OP is posting from Colorado Springs. There was a 2nd post from a person also claiming to be a Denver nurse who said the OP's post was a lie. That post was coming from California. That person has banned and the post was deleted.

Rojo, your detective work requires another level of understanding prior to outing people based on what some GeoIP locator says.

Carrier signals allocate and this means someone posting from an ip address in Aurora, CO could actually be in Boulder which is a trafficked 35 mile trip away. It could also mean the person sitting next to them with the same carrier -- i.e. min of 6ft -- could be registering from Fort Collins.

These are things to keep in mind. Also, I suggest looking at the routing/connction info too to measure your results.

rojo wrote:

There was a 2nd post from a person also claiming to be a Denver nurse who said the OP's post was a lie. That post was coming from California. That person has banned and the post was deleted.

Oh, for F sakes, Rojo. Do you not have any understanding of how most hospitals, schools, and businesses use NAT or gateways? There are legitimate reasons why a nurse in Denver would have her hospital wifi connection using a gateway in California if that is how their ISP or VPN provider provisioned. Jesus you are dense.

That's fine. I take the numbers for what they are. Health organizations don't lie, and have no reason to. These are professionals who care about their jobs and take them seriously.

It is true, there are a lot of people who may be carrying the virus who aren't being tested - this has always been true and we don't know how widespread CV is in the general population.

My principal issue with the initial post, is that this 'nurse' claims that hospitals are deliberately covering up the seriousness of the situation to minimize hysteria.....I don't believe that to be true.

smart dude wrote:

That's fine. I take the numbers for what they are. Health organizations don't lie, and have no reason to.

Lol, here's a guy who'd have been smoking multi-packs of cigs a day, thinking it was helping his health, per Surgeon General and all the mainstream health orgs of the day, who were getting paid off by smoking industry.

The OP did not claim to be an authority on all of the statistics. He/she provided clear information on the EFFECT this illness has on some young people. This doesn't mean that many of you out there will be fine; it does mean that you should not be so cavalier about thinking this virus is not a big deal and only old people will die. Some of you who dismiss this will end up with serious health problems.

Beyond that, you SHOULD care about the compromised folks who will suffer from this. I can't believe someone would ask about cigarette smokers in CO as a way to dismiss the severity of the problem. Do you think that anyone who actually is harmed by this virus "deserves" it because of some kind of poor health choices? That is delusional and frankly shameful.

I work in an ICU in New York and this week has really been eye opening. Scary times especially for hospital workers. I feel especially bad for ICU nurses who spend a majority of their day going in and out of the rooms of COVID positive patients. I also feel badly for the ER staff because they are overrun and it is very difficult to protect yourself.

From my personal experience, it is worse than I initially anticipated. Largely because of the ages of patients were are treating. We had to transfer a very young patient with seemingly no medical history for ECMO and I have spoken with friends who has had patient in 30-40s pass away. We have about a dozen positive patients in the ICU, most requiring mechanical ventilation, and about 50% won't survive. If they do, they will have lifelong morbidity.

There will be tough decisions ahead. What is an appropriate period of time to leave someone on a ventilator as new patients are coming in with a need? There will be a lot of providers placed in ethically difficult situations.

I am definitely scared to go to work every day. For the general public, I don't think there is any reason to be in hysterics. Be smart, stay 6-feet away from others, wash your hands, and you should all be ok. The issues we are experiencing now is a direct result of us not taking it seriously early on (which most of us are guilty of) and that lack of testing. The message is now clear - we all have to be very careful, this is not a joke.

They just opened free COVID 19 testing to the public in my area. There are two drive through sites open with huge lines. One guy pulled up had such severe symptoms that he was immediately wrapped up in protective gear and taken to an isolation room. The number of positives are going to go through the roof in the US in the next few days. People have been lulled into a false sense of security in many areas because the low testing rates make it appear as though the outbreak was under control. The US will pass Italy in positives by this time next week and may even top China soon thereafter.

For the person talking about the "numbers." There are so many people that are positive and not being tested. I have five friends currently on quarantine from direct exposure and they all have mild symptoms. None of them are being tested.

Sorry last point, someone mentioned the lag in mortality. This is so true. There are people that I am currently taking care of on a ventilators/ECMO and will remain so for the foreseeable future as we continue to do everything possible for them. However, like I mentioned earlier, more than 50% of them won't make it, but the "numbers" won't reflect that for another ten days or so. Expect mortality numbers to continue to rise significantly these next couple of weeks.

The federal response has been crushingly poor. Testing, testing, testing, honesty, national coordination, all are absolutely broken. Dismaying. This failure will remain front of the national collective mind for generations.

HeyKittyGirl wrote:

I'd take those #s with a grain of salt.

Here in NYC, I know of several people who are under quarantine after close exposure to people (who later tested positive) and suffering COVID symptoms themselves (mild enough not to warrant a hospital visit as of yet.) They've been advised by their doctors NOT to seek out a test because A) doing so will further spread the virus B) tests are almost impossible to obtain.

We are not testing correctly in the US. There are huge #s of people who are likely COVID positive without realizing it.

Not the federal response.

Trump response.

Trumpanzee?

Some survivor stories:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/us/coronavirus-patients-stories/index.html

Smart dude ain’t so smart as the nurse advised us to follow what the reporting agencies reported but with personal examples amplified the advice.

HeyKittyGirl wrote:

[quote]smart dude wrote:

We are not testing correctly in the US. There are huge #s of people who are likely COVID positive without realizing it.

So if what you’re saying is true, and tons of people who have it don’t even know it because their symptoms are so mild, this is not such a fatal and dangerous disease. If the number of infected people is significantly higher, that death rate gets watered down dramatically.

Precious Roy wrote:

They just opened free COVID 19 testing to the public in my area. There are two drive through sites open with huge lines.

The number of positives are going to go through the roof in the US in the next few days.

Maybe, maybe not. They closed the drive-thru testing in my area due to scarcity of test kits.

This...

This is the thing people don't seem to get. The fact more people have it than realised is actually a good thing.

We want the severe cases low (and not being in the state that if it rises the hospitals can't cope), but the unknown or mild cases high.

Follow the guidelines, keep the rates at a manageable level, keep your social distance etc. That will change as those stats go up or down (it may need locking down more for example). So follow your local advice.