COVID needs to be taken seriously. It's easy to get complacent.
I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed.
Judging from the most recent photos I could find (the one in the obit is old) he was overweight but not obese. (Being overweight increases your risk, according to CDC.) He didn't appear to be a mask-denier. Plenty of photos of him wearing a mask. (But a cautious person wouldn't spend any time socializing indoors, mask or not. I don't!)
There haven’t been any reports of fatigue as an underlying condition in this instance. It seems best not to speculate and rather to acknowledge that covid can be lethal even for relatively young and perfectly healthy people without preexisting conditions. Speculating on unproven possible complications from fatigue only does a disservice to downplay the lethality of covid, even for healthy people.
Have to say, there's a decent number of photos on his Twitter feed of him doing campaign events with folks who don't have masks on (though it looks like he himself was consistently wearing a mask as of late). It might be that he personally wasn't a mask denier, but the Republican base has often taken mask wearing as "weak" or "cowardly," and he felt obligated to not require a mask at these events to not alienate his base.
I think we can all agree that it's totally bonkers that mask-wearing is somehow seen as political. Imagine if it were the case for carrying an umbrella or wearing warm gear in winter.
Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic.
It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic.
It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic.
And perhaps he might be still alive had he worn his masks.
Masks significantly decrease the bolus of the virus you get hit with. Multiplicatively so if the virus emitter is also wearing a mask.
There seems to be some solid research linking the severity of your Covid with how heavy a bolus you get hit with. Younger, non-precondition deaths from Covid seem to be correlated with getting hit with a large bolus.
I got Covid via community transmission and had a "moderate" case. I wouldn't have stopped wearing masks even had I known I was going to get Covid anyway.
And, now, I simply view it as a "community service" to provide a good example. I still wear my masks even though I am probably immune.
What about them? Masks reduce the chances of transmission. Condoms are 98% effective when used correctly. No-one is calling out the 2 out of 100 couples getting pregnant after using condoms as a good reason to stop using them.
If I have it and you do not, for me to infect you requires that (1) I release viruses, (2) those viruses make their way to you, and (3) enough of them get into you to give you COVID.
The biggest benefit from masks in most public situations comes from reducing #1 and #2, because almost all viruses I'll be releasing in public will be coming out via my mouth and nose in respiratory droplets.
My mask will catch and stop many of those from getting out. Those that do get through the mask will do so with less force than they would have without the mask, which will limit the range of their spread.
On the receiving end, #3, a good mask should reduce the number of viruses that you take in directly through the mouth and nose, but it won't help with the eyes. Your tear ducts connect inside your head to your nasal system, so if you get viral laden droplets in your eyes they can make it in.
If we are both wearing masks, the combination of my mask reducing the number of viruses reaching you, and your mask reducing the number that get in directly through the nose and mouth, leaving only those the get in via other means such as your tear ducts, hopefully reduces in most cases the number you take in to below the infectious load.
> I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed.
I think that talking about underlying conditions is pointless. Fewer people without any underlying conditions have died but that doesn't really matter. You still can die from it.
More Americans will die of covid in 2021 than have in 2020.
The newly-available vaccines will help, but lots of people won't take them just as lots of people haven't worn and still don't wear masks. The effective reproduction number won't be less than one anytime in the near future.
The important point is that in January 2020 the percentage of the general public who were contagious was very low. Still, 350,000 people died this year. In January of 2021, the contagious percentage will be much higher. That more people will die in the following year is simple arithmetic.
Or “just require at-risk groups to isolate so the rest of us can get back to our lives.” Sometimes the callousness and selfishness is truly heartbreaking.
Keep in mind that such things are said by people who are themselves hurting. In functioning societies, the government provides material support to citizens when it halts commerce. Wealthy and powerful people choose that USA does not have such a functioning society. They are our true enemies, and they only benefit when we confuse them with people like ourselves who are in untenable situations.
To add to this - I have heard people say, "There is just more testing being done, which is why you have more positives."
I personally needed a Covid test yesterday when I had a number of symptoms. I live in the liberal / Democratic state of Washington, where most of the public officials have taken Covid seriously. To my horror, I discovered it was VERY difficult to get a Covid test. I searched online for facilities that did testing, and called 10 of them. Most of them either put me into eternal hold or told me I wasn't an existing patient. Finally, I drove to a Walgreens after being told by a rep that I would be tested there. Nope, pharmacist refused. Finally, I went o a private testing company. I spent 4-5 hours calling and driving just to get this done.
Imagine how many people are quitting sooner than I did and actually have it.
I liner is WA too (Bothell), and got a test scheduled very fast, within 24 hours I got tested. Got results within 12 hours. My provider is Kaiser Permanente, so perhaps they are better in getting testing done quickly.
The reasons to wait for the vaccine are very different (and legitimate) than the reasons not to wear masks.
The vaccines seem to be causing serious side effects. People are going into anaphylaxis (at higher rates than usual) with the vaccines. Bell's palsy, 105 degree fevers... This isn't like the annual flu shot, or getting vaccinated for measles, where you get the shot and that's it.
Holding off on vaccinations for SARS-COV-2 is not at all the same as the stupidity of not wearing a mask.
> The vaccines seem to be causing serious side effects. People are going into anaphylaxis (at higher rates than usual) with the vaccines. Bell's palsy, 105 degree fevers... This isn't like the annual flu shot, or getting vaccinated for measles, where you get the shot and that's it.
Source? I'd had heard about very rare allergic reactions, but all the rest is news to me.
First link: ...the rate of Bell’s palsy in the clinical trials is lower than the overall rate in the general population...
Second: FDA scientists have said that the documented cases of Bell’s palsy are “consistent with the expected background rate in the general population”...
Third: The adverse effects of the vaccine—even if, at worst, they all happen at once—are transient and a normal sign of reactogenicity signaling an effective immune response. But I worry that they could be a major barrier to vaccine uptake.
Note the subtle word choice and masking, he did not die FROM covid, but at the time he died he happen to have covid in his system. The desperate desire to make this a panic should not come at the cost of truth
"LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection."
He died from complications of it. So yes, he died from it.
If we didn't do it like that, pretty much no one would die from AIDS, people would just die of, let's say, pneumonia or some other opportunistic infections.
I agree with you as the media has been treating the whole thing pretty badly but if you end up at the hospital because of COVID and you die there, COVID brought you there...
41 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 78.8 ms ] threadI haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed.
Judging from the most recent photos I could find (the one in the obit is old) he was overweight but not obese. (Being overweight increases your risk, according to CDC.) He didn't appear to be a mask-denier. Plenty of photos of him wearing a mask. (But a cautious person wouldn't spend any time socializing indoors, mask or not. I don't!)
This is too terrible.
And I'm certainly not commenting about it as some form of excuse making for a young person dying from covid.
I can't help but think of the ol' "I never thought the leopards would eat _my_ face" tweet: https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=...
It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
Masks significantly decrease the bolus of the virus you get hit with. Multiplicatively so if the virus emitter is also wearing a mask.
There seems to be some solid research linking the severity of your Covid with how heavy a bolus you get hit with. Younger, non-precondition deaths from Covid seem to be correlated with getting hit with a large bolus.
I got Covid via community transmission and had a "moderate" case. I wouldn't have stopped wearing masks even had I known I was going to get Covid anyway.
And, now, I simply view it as a "community service" to provide a good example. I still wear my masks even though I am probably immune.
It isn't accepted science. We don't even know the viral dose required for infection!
The biggest benefit from masks in most public situations comes from reducing #1 and #2, because almost all viruses I'll be releasing in public will be coming out via my mouth and nose in respiratory droplets.
My mask will catch and stop many of those from getting out. Those that do get through the mask will do so with less force than they would have without the mask, which will limit the range of their spread.
On the receiving end, #3, a good mask should reduce the number of viruses that you take in directly through the mouth and nose, but it won't help with the eyes. Your tear ducts connect inside your head to your nasal system, so if you get viral laden droplets in your eyes they can make it in.
If we are both wearing masks, the combination of my mask reducing the number of viruses reaching you, and your mask reducing the number that get in directly through the nose and mouth, leaving only those the get in via other means such as your tear ducts, hopefully reduces in most cases the number you take in to below the infectious load.
I think that talking about underlying conditions is pointless. Fewer people without any underlying conditions have died but that doesn't really matter. You still can die from it.
It's not a mystery how he caught it.
There's your underlying cause. Does anyone have any idea what "procedure" may have been attempted here?
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/us/covid-coronavirus-vict...
https://news.yahoo.com/41-old-mom-dies-flu-170521130.html
Death existed before COVID ...
The newly-available vaccines will help, but lots of people won't take them just as lots of people haven't worn and still don't wear masks. The effective reproduction number won't be less than one anytime in the near future.
The important point is that in January 2020 the percentage of the general public who were contagious was very low. Still, 350,000 people died this year. In January of 2021, the contagious percentage will be much higher. That more people will die in the following year is simple arithmetic.
I personally needed a Covid test yesterday when I had a number of symptoms. I live in the liberal / Democratic state of Washington, where most of the public officials have taken Covid seriously. To my horror, I discovered it was VERY difficult to get a Covid test. I searched online for facilities that did testing, and called 10 of them. Most of them either put me into eternal hold or told me I wasn't an existing patient. Finally, I drove to a Walgreens after being told by a rep that I would be tested there. Nope, pharmacist refused. Finally, I went o a private testing company. I spent 4-5 hours calling and driving just to get this done.
Imagine how many people are quitting sooner than I did and actually have it.
The vaccines seem to be causing serious side effects. People are going into anaphylaxis (at higher rates than usual) with the vaccines. Bell's palsy, 105 degree fevers... This isn't like the annual flu shot, or getting vaccinated for measles, where you get the shot and that's it.
Holding off on vaccinations for SARS-COV-2 is not at all the same as the stupidity of not wearing a mask.
Source? I'd had heard about very rare allergic reactions, but all the rest is news to me.
https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/2020121...
https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2020/...
Fever:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullar...
Second: FDA scientists have said that the documented cases of Bell’s palsy are “consistent with the expected background rate in the general population”...
Third: The adverse effects of the vaccine—even if, at worst, they all happen at once—are transient and a normal sign of reactogenicity signaling an effective immune response. But I worry that they could be a major barrier to vaccine uptake.
Reading is fundamental.
Does anyone know enough to expand on what likely happened here? What risky procedure could have been so necessary?
"LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection."
If we didn't do it like that, pretty much no one would die from AIDS, people would just die of, let's say, pneumonia or some other opportunistic infections.
I agree with you as the media has been treating the whole thing pretty badly but if you end up at the hospital because of COVID and you die there, COVID brought you there...