Novel Coronavirus

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ChemGal said:
There's more support for the blood types and severe cases - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2020283
I still suspect it's likely not a direct mechanism of the blood types themselves, rather another factor that is more common due to when the mutations occurred. I haven't gotten into the details of the paper.
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I read that....again...too. I also found myself wondering if ancestors that encountered the spanish flu years ago, played a part in some kind of immunity that could have been passed down through DNA? Or is that even possible?
 
Waterfall said:
I read that....again...too. I also found myself wondering if ancestors that encountered the spanish flu years ago, played a part in some kind of immunity that could have been passed down through DNA? Or is that even possible?
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In relation to the blood type study? I don't see a connection there.

In terms of immunity, passive immunity typically just passes down 1 generation - mother to child. The child isn't actually producing the antibodies themselves, they get some from the mother while in the womb & through breastmilk. There can be population differences those in terms of who survived something vs. not that would be more generations. There's also stuff with epigenetics that I'm really not up to date on to comment.

For antibodies though - the genes that result in a specific antibody are not inherited. Those come from mutations in an individual over time, those genes are not like chromosomal DNA and basically must mutate in order to be functional. The recognition of self can influence which ones are turned on though, so chromosomal genes can affect which mutated antibody genes end up replicating. This is why some autoimmune disorders (where antibodies to 'self') are more common with particular chromosomal genes.

That's a lot of concepts thrown into 1 post!
 
ChemGal said:
In relation to the blood type study? I don't see a connection there.

In terms of immunity, passive immunity typically just passes down 1 generation - mother to child. The child isn't actually producing the antibodies themselves, they get some from the mother while in the womb & through breastmilk. There can be population differences those in terms of who survived something vs. not that would be more generations. There's also stuff with epigenetics that I'm really not up to date on to comment.

For antibodies though - the genes that result in a specific antibody are not inherited. Those come from mutations in an individual over time, those genes are not like chromosomal DNA and basically must mutate in order to be functional. The recognition of self can influence which ones are turned on though, so chromosomal genes can affect which mutated antibody genes end up replicating. This is why some autoimmune disorders (where antibodies to 'self') are more common with particular chromosomal genes.

That's a lot of concepts thrown into 1 post!
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Thankyou....I appreciate it.
 
Nova Scotia is opening up to 10 people without social distancing and Up to 50 people with social distancing. Also considering the “ Atlantic bubble”, which would help the tourism sector. However, it would not make me leave the Province. Because, if there happens to be an outbreak and one happens to have to quarantine, this will be two weeks of unpaid time, as my employer already made clear.
Germany has outbreaks in one meat plant ( after they had tested everyone working there and hardly any cases), which led to closing of all the schools and daycares again and 7000 people in quarantine.
In Berlin a street block was quarantined after an outbreak stemming from a Christian commune. I suppose, this might be what we will be looking at over the year until a vaccine is found. One step forward and another one back, with reacting to hotspots. See Peking.
 
I can understand quarantine time being unpaid if you left the area and put yourself and others at risk. Would it be unpaid if the virus essentially came to you and you had to quarantine?
 
Northwind said:
I can understand quarantine time being unpaid if you left the area and put yourself and others at risk. Would it be unpaid if the virus essentially came to you and you had to quarantine?
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That's how my employer was. Chemguy had to talk to one person who was considering travelling back in March and he did explain that he would have to stay home upon his return (maybe even before he legally had to do this) and not come to work. He could do some work from home, but as the trip was for fun, he would be using additional vacation days.
The coworkers who were stuck in China longer than anticipated were paid as expected.
 
Northwind said:
I can understand quarantine time being unpaid if you left the area and put yourself and others at risk. Would it be unpaid if the virus essentially came to you and you had to quarantine?
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If you cat h covid, it would be simply sick time. If you left the Province and something happens and they declare again that you have to quarantine because you had left the province, it would be unpaid or your vacation.
 
ChemGal said:
He could do some work from home, but as the trip was for fun, he would be using additional vacation days.
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One of my guys had to quarantine after a trip and we just told him to work from home when he got back. There's no f-ing way I was going play shorthanded for two more weeks. As it turned out, we all started working from home the day he returned to Canada.

More generally, our corporate group instituted COVID Days. You take up to 14 days paid leave if you or a family member has COVID, if you are quarantined, if you need to care for your kids, etc. Only one of my staff has used them so far.
 
Mendalla said:
One of my guys had to quarantine after a trip and we just told him to work from home when he got back. There's no f-ing way I was going play shorthanded for two more weeks. As it turned out, we all started working from home the day he returned to Canada.
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Not everything can be done from home, and a fair bit of what he needed to do wasn't at the time. There was a fair bit of field work. He would have been able to be paid for some days, but it would have significantly cut into his workload being at home.
Chemguy has been making work trips throughout this, and he has a smaller portion of field work compared to some.
 
ChemGal said:
Not everything can be done from home, and a fair bit of what he needed to do wasn't at the time. There was a fair bit of field work. He would have been able to be paid for some days, but it would have significantly cut into his workload being at home.
Chemguy has been making work trips throughout this, and he has a smaller portion of field work compared to some.
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We really can't either. My guys go in one day or half day a week (of course, the one who was quarantined couldn't do that until he was cleared). Once my co-op student starts, one of us will have to be in the office every day. We will set up a weekly rotation of some kind.
 
Mendalla said:
We really can't either. My guys go in one day or half day a week (of course, the one who was quarantined couldn't do that until he was cleared). Once my co-op student starts, one of us will have to be in the office every day. We will set up a weekly rotation of some kind.
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The difference here would be though, we're not talking about a central location, we're talking field work. The guy isn't based in the Edmonton lab like Chemguy. Chemguy and his boss worked out a bit between the 2 of the them for the lab/office for quite a while, but it doesn't make sense for one person/a few people to be running around large areas of AB while other people stay home just because someone chooses to travel internationally.
 
Mendalla - may I ask a question out of plain curiosity? How do patients get oxygen services without being close to the deliverer? Do the medically fragile patients have to disinfect any new supplies etc??? Just feeling nosy!
 
KayTheCurler said:
Mendalla - may I ask a question out of plain curiosity? How do patients get oxygen services without being close to the deliverer? Do the medically fragile patients have to disinfect any new supplies etc??? Just feeling nosy!
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We call ahead to screen the patient for risks. If there are risk factors or it is an actual Covid patient (we have several of those), staff don full PPE going in and doff it coming out. If not, then just masks and gloves, IIRC (remember that I'm in IT not clinical). Cylinder deliveries are generally left on the porch for the patient or family to retrieve and they put the empties out for us to pick up. Concentrator maintenance is done by talking the client through it on the phone if possible, from a safe distance otherwise. Outgoing equipment is sanitized at curbside before going in the truck. RTs do a lot of their assessments by phone, though an in-person visit is required for some situations (e.g. a new patient's first visit).

The biggest complication has been longterm care, where we often keep pools of equipment in homes that we have a relationship with. With most homes, even ones not in outbreak, on varying degrees of lockdown, managing and maintaining that equipment has been a challenge.

IT-wise, we had to add some features to the app staff use, such as letting them close off deliveries and assessments without a patient signature (to keep distance and avoid having their devices contaminated) and a flag for assessments to show whether or not they were "virtual" (i.e. done by phone or, in the case of clients in our virtual care pilot, through the virtual care app).
 
I have been resisting the urge to post this, since it gives away a lot about where I work, but it does relate to Kay's question so here we go. A while back, CTV Kitchener did a story on how we are helping COVID patients who need oxygen, but not to the extent of having to be in an ICU, remain in their homes by providing oxygen therapy, similar to other conditions we treat. I know both of the ProResp employees in the video, the second one very well (Miriam is our VP and GM and was my second interview back when I got the job so I've known her for over twenty years).

kitchener.ctvnews.ca

Kitchener: Latest Video News, Interviews & Analysis

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And, FYI, the government is paying for it under the same program that covers our regular oxygen patients.
 
I would be worried if you have covid that badly that you need oxygen, that one could easily turn into one of those cases that go downhill so quickly that they died at home.
 
Mrs.Anteater said:
I would be worried if you have covid that badly that you need oxygen, that one could easily turn into one of those cases that go downhill so quickly that they died at home.
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Oh for sure, but even among hospitalized cases, some only need supplemental oxygen so clearly some stop there without getting worse. And some of the ones who do end up vented may need O2 when they get out, too. Even outside COVID, we sometimes get short term patients recovering from pneumonia and the like.
 
That was an interesting answer Mendalla. It sounds like a well thought out plan of action that should serve patients well and protect them and staff.
 
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