How has the Pandemic affected you as a cancer patient/survivor

Anonymous

We misunderstood what?

wrenn

Chowdog, thanks for the link. I am following that person now on twitter but struggling to understand it all. If anyone is up for it and feels like dumbing it down I will be so grateful

Anonymous

Chowdog - The QC policy is to monitor hospitalizations, and they lifted mask requirements for secondary school because they weren’t getting hospitalized. Well, those high school kids are showing up in hospitals now.

Chowdog

wrenn, I think he is saying preliminary data suggests omicron is 3.5x more contagious than delta. He also used another model & based on South Africa data to calculate, Rt, the reproduction rate of omicron. Rt in South Africa is 3.5x, similar to the Rt of the covid before all the lockdown/masking were put into place in us & eu. He also thinks it’s likely omicron can evade immunity. Essentially, us will be screwed with the vaccine only strategy.

wrenn

Thank you so much Chowdog. I will keep reading but this really helped. :-)

ErenTo

I saw this posted on twitter about patient profile in South Africa. Still early and there could be sample bias, but I'll hang on to anything remotely hopeful:

A significant early finding in this analysis is the much shorter average length of stay of 2.8 days for SARS-CoV-2 positive patients admitted to the COVID wards over the last two weeks compared to an average length of stay of 8.5 days for the past 18 months. The NICD reports a similar shorter length of stay for all hospitals in Tshwane in its weekly report. It is also less than the Gauteng or National average length of stay reported by the NICD in previous waves.

In summary, the first impression on examination of the 166 patients admitted since the Omicron variant made an appearance, together with the snapshot of the clinical profile of 42 patients currently in the COVID wards at the SBAH/TDH complex, is that the majority of hospital admissions are for diagnoses unrelated to COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 positivity is an incidental finding in these patients and is largely driven by hospital policy requiring testing of all patients requiring admission to the hospital.

Using the proportion of patients on room air as a marker for incidental COVID admission as opposed to severe COVID (pneumonia), 76% of patients at the SBAH/TDH complex are incidental COVID admissions. This very unusual picture is also occurring at other hospitals in Gauteng. On 3 December Helen Joseph Hospital had 37 patients in the COVID wards of whom 31 were on room air (83%); and the Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital had 80 patients of which 14 were on supplemental oxygen and 1 on a ventilator (81% on room air).

The exponential increase in the positivity rate in these patients is a reflection of the rapidly increased case rate for Tshwane but does not appear to be associated with a concomitant increase in the rate of admissions for severe COVID (pneumonia) based on the high proportion of patients not requiring supplemental oxygen.

Link to the full article

ChiSandy

I never said I covet that ONE aspect of the Canadian healthcare system. I never said I believe we’re number one. And I also never said—nor implied—that our case numbers are in any way admirable or superior(so I don’t see the point of your posting that graph). Enough with the hostility.

ChiSandy

And again, the title of this thread asks how the pandemic has affected us vis-a-vis cancer. So let’s get back to that already

Beesie

ChiSandy, I think you missed the point of my posts. The reason Canada, and the EU, had "draconian age restrictions" was because the U.S. screwed the rest of the world on supply. So the U.S. could open vaccine eligibility to all adults, while at the same time in Canada and the EU we were limited to people aged 70+. The only difference was vaccine supply, which the U.S. hoarded.

Anonymous

ChiSandy - The reason for posting the graph was to show you how much vaccine coverage Canada has after you wrote that it was leaving so many of its citizens unprotected. I even quoted your words.

Chowdog

here is a tweet from another expert I follow regarding omicron. Even if omicron turns out to be milder than delta, more transmissible is not good news. I see a lot of experts saying we have tools, but it is useless if ppl in charge don’t want to use these tools. Cdc director was quoted today saying covid will become endemic and comparing it with flu. I am so tired of the ppl in charge seem to worry more about public panicking then telling it like it is. look at the damn curve already and yes it is time to panic and take action rather than sit on ur butt.

https://twitter.com/billhanage/status/1467349426620583942?s=21

And one of Twitter mds calling off ramp today again tweeted unmasking school kids 8-12 weeks (she extended to 12 weeks now) after approval of kids vaccine. I know her kids go to private school. So sick of the mentality of hiding behind “I care about kids and their education loss” but in reality, she doesn’t give $hit about public school kids. her private school kids most likely wont be affected by omicron.

AliceBastable

Chowdog, I think I saw something in the last week that stated, or at least implied, that the Omicron variant is more highly transmissible, but causing fewer problems in most people who got it. I hope that's accurate and agrees with what you've posted, because my brain and charts/graphs do not get along well.

Anonymous

Chowdog - That doctor probably sends her kids to a private school that added ventilation and filtration. My old private school did. Public schools didn't.

Alice - Like Chowdog and the twitter expert stated, even if milder (not the same as mild), omicron being more transmissible is still a problem. We don't have enough data yet. Best we can do now is get more people vaccinated/boosted, get masked, and clean the air. Long COVID can result from a non-hospitalized case, so I worry about kids being unprotected.

Our increasingly rising cases are occurring the most in the under 18 with hospitalizations beginning to rise. Our vaccination rate is very high for 12+. Seeing the rising cases in our highly vaxxed teens after their school mask mandates were lifted shows that masks are very much necessary. How many of our cases are from omicron? Don’t know. They stopped telling us cases by variant.

exbrnxgrl

Re: public schools and air filtration/ventilation

In the US, public schools differ in what they can provide. In CA, there has been some state funding to upgrade air filtration but since these things are ultimately controlled by individual school districts, wealthier districts are able to provide the highest levels of filtration whereas those less well off can not. My former school district was able to provide MERV13 filtration systems via existing HVAC systems and all other measures possible were taken. But, my district has always been fiscally responsible and fortunately had the funds. It’s sad but there is a great deal of inequity under the giant umbrella we call public schools.

Anonymous

I should remember to specify when I’m talking about local stuff. It’s the QC provincial government that refuses to improve ventilation systems in public schools. They took away the French school board a few years ago. The English school board remains and did improve their systems, but they are the minority of schools. I haven’t seen a breakdown of cases by language, but they do report outbreaks by type of location. Daycares and schools tops the list.

Beesie

SerenityStat, ah, I remember back when I was in school, in Quebec (or Montreal at least) we had the Catholic school board (mostly French, all Catholic) and the Protestant school board (everybody else). I didn't realize that now the French school board is gone.

Chowdog

This is deeply disappointing but not surprised. CDC either doesn't really know what its job is, or just doesn't give a damn anymore.

buried at the bottom of this article

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/number-omicron-cas...

" The CDC director dismissed the idea of a nationwide mask mandate when Raddatz asked and said she'd "rather see people get vaccinated, boosted and follow our recommendations." "I'd rather not have requirements in order to do so," she said. "People should do this for themselves." "

and here is the CDC mission statement on its website

https://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm

"Mission

CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation's health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise."

Anonymous

Beesie - The French school boards were replaced by school service centres. My kids graduated many years ago so I don't have personal experience dealing with them. In their weekly media appearances, the provincial leaders are the ones saying that improving air quality in schools is not needed. The English schools and private schools found the money.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-schools-without-air-purifiers-have-3-to-4-times-more-covid-19-cases-says-dad-running-citizen-count-1.5400739

sbelizabeth

A friend's dad died of Covid last night.

He was not vaccinated. I'm heartbroken for my friend but angry as hell. A family has to bury their dad and suffer this terrible grief right here at Christmas, and it could have been avoided so easily.

Anonymous

It’s such a terrible loss. I’m sorry for your friend.

Anonymous

Just saw my MO. For the third dose he said I can wait until I'm 6 months from dose 2 (end of January) and get Pfizer, not Moderna. Will cancel my current appointment.

Masking - I forgot to make paper football triangles. I saw the same clerk still maskless so I asked for blank paper. I wrote out my complaint and gave it to the charge nurse. I saw her show it to the clerk team leader and the clerk put his mask on. There's a cancer patient support centre that I will email with a fresh picture. It shouldn't be this hard.

Anonymous

More on masking - There was a patient who had his mask under his nose. But he had a big wart on the tip of his nose. I kept my distance.

ShetlandPony

I talked to the patient advocate about the problem of unmasked patients and caregivers in the cancer center. And even an employee or volunteer the other day. I told her that the folks who made the policy do not know it is not being enforced. I think every employee should speak up every time they see a person not wearing their mask properly. No mask, no admittance. It is not fair to the rest of us who give a damn about other people.

Chowdog

Press secretary Jen Psaki is getting slammed on twitter today. a reporter asked why not just make rapid test free, and she kind of mocked the reporter saying "should we just send one to every american?, then what happens after every american has 1 test, how much does it cost?"..

https://twitter.com/oni_blackstock/status/14679809...

Alice, you are so right about people like fauci and those in charge of covid response at WH are completely clueless about what's actually happening on the ground.

Anonymous

I could’ve sworn I saw Fauci on the news the other day saying that there were plans to make home tests available for free upon request? Maybe I’m confused or maybe thes people in the administration don’t talk to each other?

Chowdog

Olma, Biden's plan (he announced last week) is you have to pay for these tests first, then jump through hoops with your insurance and get reimbursed. also, it doesn't kick in until Jan 2022, so kind of useless since most of people would want to have these handy for the holiday.

In EU and even India, you can buy these tests for like $1 to $3/test, but in the U.S, the cheapest is $12 for 1 box of Binaxnow (comes with 2 tests), from Walmart. walgreens & CVS still charge $24 for the same1 box of Binaxnow test.

Anonymous

thanks for the correction, maybe it was the President I saw speaking about distribution of tests. So “free” means covered by insurance then? I can walk over to the urgent care place and get a test covered by insurance and be more confident it was done correctly

Chowdog

Olma,

I think the rapid test is more useful to have it at home for just in case, especially if you have school aged kids or can't work from home, and also before any type of gatherings. these tests expire too. I was lucky to get 2 boxes back in Sept, and they will expire in Feb, so it's not like I can stock up a dozen of these and just file 1 claim with insurance. furthermore, with a lot of people on high detectible plans, I wonder if insurance will deny claims if you haven't met your detectible? Anyway, why do we have to make things so complicated? it shouldn't be.

Edit to add, rapid test is important if once those oral antiviral meds are (Merck's already got EUAed) approved since these have to be taken within like a few days symptom onset.

Jelson

Thank you Chowdog, I just brought two Binaxnow kits to my kids in Chicago as a guest gift (what has the world come to?) and now that I am back home, I was going to pick some up for my family here to use WHENEVER. I look for expiration dates on everything else, but forgot to look on the rapid test kits!! I will text them to look for the expiration dates.

Anonymous

agree that the home testing can be useful and even essential for people who are home bound or can’t easily access a test another way. I thought it was a good idea when I saw (whoever it was) speaking about distributing tests to every household