SARS-2-CoV (COVID-19)

[Erik88]

1 hour ago, Links2k said:

He was in doubt because he said old people aren’t known for having the most trustful sources of news. The story I found was two days old from News3. 

I think @MacGyver is only in his mid 40's. At least 20 years below TGO members median age 

Edited December 13, 2020 by Erik88

[Links2k]

11 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

I think @MacGyver is only in his mid 40's. At least 20 years below TGO members median age 

My son was taking a jab at me. We used to wrestle, now it’s reminding me of his youth every chance he gets. There was a time when I thought a thirty year old was ancient. 

Edited December 13, 2020 by Links2k

[MacGyver]

2 hours ago, Erik88 said:

I think @MacGyver is only in his mid 40's. At least 20 years below TGO members median age 

I hope I get to be as old as some of you guys...

I’m going to be great at it. 

[GlockSpock]

2 hours ago, Erik88 said:

I think @MacGyver is only in his mid 40's. At least 20 years below TGO members median age 

Well...then I suppose I'm at least half the median? I guess you could say I'm trying to uptalk? Am I doing it right?

 

[Grayfox54]

Y'all can argue masks all you want. The big thing is to stay away from other people as much as possible. People were warned not to travel or gather for Thanksgiving. Did they listen? HELL NO! And now, just a few weeks later,  Covid is setting new records almost daily. Shelby County is adding a couple of hundred new cases every day. The death toll is now at 726 here.  

Now Christmas and New Years are right around the corner.  Do you think people will be smart enough to stay home, not travel, avoid large gatherings/parties? OH HELL NO! Why? Because basically most Americans are a bunch of self centered AZZHOLES! They don't give a damn about anybody but themselves.  I expect another huge surge right about the middle of January and it'll be our own damned fault. 

You wanna talk about being stuck at home? I've mentioned before that I got bad sick in August 2019. Three hospital stays of at least a week each the last in December 2019. When I was at home I was weak as a kitten and didn't have the energy to do anything. I just sat at home. I finally got to feeling like my old self around February of this year and then BOOM! Covid 19!  You wanna gripe about being in isolation/lockdown for 9 months? Hell, that's where I've been for a year and a half! Yeah! I'm bored out of my mind! Got serious cabin fever. But I'm also 66 years old and now have COPD. I'm smart enough and man enough to deal with it without doing anything stupid or whining and griping like a two year old. 

I have gone out some. Been to the outdoor range a couple of times, a couple of social visits. But for the most part I stay at home and only go to the store when needed. But now winter is setting in and I don't do well with cold weather. So yet another reason to stay home. 

You wanna gripe about choices, personal freedom or government over reach? Hey, Dumbazz! It ain't about freedom. Its about staying alive!

So quit yer damned b itchin'! Man up! And deal with it! 

And YES, I do wear a mask when I go out! 

[jgradyc]

13 hours ago, MacGyver said:

I hope I get to be as old as some of you guys...

I’m going to be great at it. 

To do that, you need to get serious about antiaging starting now.  I'm far more interested in competitive running than firearms and twenty years ago I had a severe injury that kept me from running for two years. When I finally recovered, I made a goal of staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible. That means weightlifting, cardio, losing weight or maintaining it you're not overweight, eating right, reducing stress, and taking supplements.  These steps might not increase your life span, but they will definitely increase the quality of those years. And they will reduce your out of pocket medical expenses and trips to the doctor.  

I think I had COVID back in June, but I sailed through it almost asymptomatically. Only the severe shortness of breath lingered on for four months. Being in great shape helped, but I think it's mostly because I take supplements to keep my immune system strong. I take 7,500 IU of vitamin D3 every day. The research is out there, but vitamin D is not being recommended because our public health officials would rather see people die than recommend something that hasn't passed FDA-approved clinical trials. I know that sounds harsh and I'm sure that they would disagree, but their lack of emphasis on steps the individual can take speaks louder than their words. Specially, everyone should be exercising, losing weight if obese or overweight, and taking supplements to strengthen their immune systems.  Failure to do these steps is strongly correlated to the severity of COVID 19. The supplements that seem to have the best results with COVID are vitamins C, D3, B12, K2, zinc, magnesium, and melatonin. Pepcid *might* help, but the other major heartburn medications increase risk of COVID. Of these, the most important seems to be vitamin D3. Not only is it a powerful antiviral, it also helps prevent the cytokine storm that's killing people. 

[DaveTN]

Anyone taking vitamin D, or anything else should do their research. I did when I saw it being used to help with Covid. Too much vitamin D can cause serious problems like bone loss and kidney failure.

I am not a Doctor and don’t pretend to be. But it does not take much research to find out if there are any problems with taking too much of any vitamin. I was always told that your body will only use the amount of vitamin it needs and will pass the excess. It appears that may not be true with all vitamins.

[E4 No More]

53 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

Anyone taking vitamin D, or anything else should do their research. I did when I saw it being used to help with Covid. Too much vitamin D can cause serious problems like bone loss and kidney failure.

I am not a Doctor and don’t pretend to be. But it does not take much research to find out if there are any problems with taking too much of any vitamin. I was always told that your body will only use the amount of vitamin it needs and will pass the excess. It appears that may not be true with all vitamins.

That applies to water-soluble vitamins like B and C. It's not the case for fat-soluble vitamins such as E and D. They do get stored.

[jgradyc]

1 hour ago, DaveTN said:

Anyone taking vitamin D, or anything else should do their research. I did when I saw it being used to help with Covid. Too much vitamin D can cause serious problems like bone loss and kidney failure.

I am not a Doctor and don’t pretend to be. But it does not take much research to find out if there are any problems with taking too much of any vitamin. I was always told that your body will only use the amount of vitamin it needs and will pass the excess. It appears that may not be true with all vitamins.

Vitamin D can be stored. Too much vitamin D can cause problems. Studies show it takes about 8 months for it to build up and level off in your body.  However, the majority of Americans, especially seniors, the obese, and African Americans, are deficient in vitamin D.  If you're really concerned about your vitamin D levels, get a blood test.  Your doctor can request it or you can just go to a lab and pay for it.  After 5 months of 7,500 IU/day, my D level was 82. Doctors consider 30-100 the normal range. The breakpoints for severe covid reaction appear to be below 30 and again below 20.  Now, this is only anecdotal, but I asked my doctor and he says that D levels in the typical senior citizen that he sees is 16-18.  

Yes, there is risk.  I'll continue to have my D levels checked every six months or so.  By April, some of the 63 FDA-approved clinical trials on vitamin D should be reporting results. You could wait until then. Or, you could start vitamin D3 now and stop it in April if the results aren't satisfactory. 

 

[Oh Shoot]

TN average daily deaths (updated 2PM daily):

March      0.7  (first death 3/21/20)
April          5.8
May          5.3
June         8.0
July        14.7
Aug       22.5
Sept      23.2
Oct        29.0
Nov       41.9
Dec       67.0  (thru 14th)             

total TN deaths:  5,541

IHME projection based on current projection scenario by April 1, 2021:  8,735
(This down from 10,494 in last projection -- didn't probe into it, but mainly due to vaccine being figured in I guess?)

- OS

[Oh Shoot]

6 hours ago, jgradyc said:

Vitamin D can be stored. Too much vitamin D can cause problems. Studies show it takes about 8 months for it to build up and level off in your body.  However, the majority of Americans, especially seniors, the obese, and African Americans, are deficient in vitamin D.  If you're really concerned about your vitamin D levels, get a blood test.  Your doctor can request it or you can just go to a lab and pay for it.  After 5 months of 7,500 IU/day, my D level was 82. Doctors consider 30-100 the normal range. The breakpoints for severe covid reaction appear to be below 30 and again below 20.  Now, this is only anecdotal, but I asked my doctor and he says that D levels in the typical senior citizen that he sees is 16-18.  Yes, there is risk.  I'll continue to have my D levels checked every six months or so.  By April, some of the 63 FDA-approved clinical trials on vitamin D should be reporting results. You could wait until then. Or, you could start vitamin D3 now and stop it in April if the results aren't satisfactory.

I don't know exact levels, but 3 yrs ago after routine physical, mine was low, doc said take 2K IU/day for a year, next year was okay, so I've stayed with it. Didn't get a real physical this year, just a "telemedical" which didn't work (I could hear/see him but he couldn't me), so we just chatted over phone.

- OS

[E4 No More]

30 minutes ago, Oh Shoot said:

I don't know exact levels, but 3 yrs ago after routine physical, mine was low, doc said take 2K IU/day for a year, next year was okay, so I've stayed with it. Didn't get a real physical this year, just a "telemedical" which didn't work (I could hear/see him but he couldn't me), so we just chatted over phone.

- OS

2,000 iu per day is what I take. Been on it since around January. My levels were just checked, and they were "normal" for what it's worth.

[dralarms]

I take 5000iu a day, I don’t spend a lot of time in the sun.

[Grayfox54]

                            

And that folks is exactly the kind of attitude I was talking about.  

[Omega]

46 minutes ago, Grayfox54 said:

                            

And that folks is exactly the kind of attitude I was talking about.  

Count me in that too, way too much fear and misinformation being doled out by the media and "experts" all the while they don't practice what they preach.  I'll go on record as saying this is a hoax, not so much the virus, that is real and we are losing some good people over it.  But the reaction to it, I do not know the real reason for this, but "Flattening the curve" is not it.  When the numbers of total US dead comes out, unless manipulated like the election, it will show no significant increase in 2020 numbers vs 2019 or 2018.  Preliminary numbers already show this, only like a 1.5 percent increase, which has happened before, due to population increase and other, non China Flu related reasons.  

[The Big Guy]

8 hours ago, Big Gai Anti-Gun Communist said:

So Flu cases are down, because people are social distancing, wearing masks more, and traveling less, but more people are dying from COVID recently because people aren't social distancing enough and "selfishly" spending time with their friends and family. That's California logic in a nutshell. California logic isn't good for anyone’s health, where gay orgies spreading AIDS are deemed essential, but family gatherings for more than 3 people are selfish and killing people.

It's flu season and Kung Flu has essentially replaced the regular flu. Respiratory diseases always spread faster when people's Vitman D intake is low, they are eating less fresh vitamin rich foods, they are inside longer (breathing the same circulated air and getting less sunlight), and the relative humidity and temperature is low. It's why major respiratory pandemics generally coincide with periods of extended darkness and lower global temperatures (you aren't seeing these spikes in more tropical countries that also have winter holidays). Rearranging the entire economy and culture to stop one respiratory disease, with little real results to support these changes, doesn’t seem like it’s worth the trade-offs. 

Young and healthy people aren't putting the elderly and immune comprised at risk by enjoying their lives. Young and healthy people contracting the virus and recovering before they can spread it to the sick and vulnerable is essential to achieving heard humidity. When I was a child, parents used to have “chickenpox parties” to infect their kids with chickenpox to prevent them from getting it when they were old when it can be deadly. If young people aren’t inoculated against this virus now, they could very well be more subceptbale to diseases like it in the future when they are old and more vulnerable as it mutates and potentially becomes seasonal. The fact that most of them are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms is probably a good thing. Asymptomatic people are never as contagious as symptomatic people, so the odds of them unknowingly infecting someone is lower. We need about 2/3rds of the population to be infected to achieve herd immunity and we are far from that. I don’t trust the experimental and rushed mRNA vaccine is going to be safe enough for 2/3rds of people to take it. I am not a physician or claim to be an expert. I could be wrong and I hope the new mRNA vaccines are effective and COVID dies off.

Moreover, you have entire industries built around travel and tourism. You want the entire travel industry and seasonal holiday industries to collapse? Who is going to bail out the airline industries when they go bankrupt from lack of holiday travel (they are already on the verge of bankruptcy)? Who is going to bail out the small holiday stores and shops? Who is going to bail out all the small business restaurants that lost all their customers or have to operate at an unsustainable reduced capacity? Is the government going to bail them out? With who’s money?  They destroyed their entire tax base, so they are going to have to print money. Prices are going to skyrocket and scarcity is going to be the new normal. You can’t shut down large parts of the economy and ruin people’s livelihood because of a potentially deadly Boomer Doomer. Communist China isn’t doing that anymore, so why are we? 

Family gatherings are what make life worth living. Why are people earning money and working if they can’t spend time with their loved ones when they aren’t working? Everyone is working to support their family. We aren’t working to keep other people’s families alive and safe. Each family makes decisions based on the wishes and best interests of their personal loved ones. Capitalism produces prosperity precisely because it allows people to selfishly keep what they earn and support themselves rather than demanding others to “unselfishly” take care of others at the expense of their own personal happiness. If we start accusing people of being selfish for working to support their families and enjoy what little life they have, we are going to have a breakdown in civility and of Western values. Freedom is what makes life worth living and is something worth dying for. Why be alive if we aren’t free to make our own choices and enjoy precious time with our loved ones? If survival is the only point of life, we should all just be hooked up to feeding machines and forgoe all of life experiences.

I assessed the personal risk to myself and my family and determined that I have a higher probability of dying due to driving on dangerous roads with unlicensed drivers in TN than from contracting Kung Flu. I built a house with my family and for my family during the outbreak of the Wu Flu from January to April. I didn’t put my building plans on hold because of communist propaganda and fear porn. I continue to eat out at restaurants and shop like normal. We continued to travel and visit places during the summer. I spoke with one owner of a little Mexican food truck, who said she was left bad reviews on Yelp because she wasn’t wearing a mask, so now she wears a face shield. She was glad when I told her she doesn’t need to wear one when preparing my food. Is this what society is now? Karens condemning small business owners for not wearing a piece of cloth on their face? I go to fast food places, and all the workers are masked, but they are constantly touching their faces to readjust their compulsory virtue masks. How is that more sanitary? What happened to reason and logic?  

This Christmas we will be flying to visit family out of state. Yes, we will wear our compulsory masks and social distance, and do whatever is asked to keep concerned people happy, but we aren’t canceling our holiday plans. My mother had unexpected triple bypass surgery this summer and nearly died. This could be the last Christmas we see each other face to face, and as a nurse for most of her life, she understands the risk of COVID, but would rather have us spend Christmas as a family than live her remaining golden years locked away from her children and grandchildren. Because yes, freedom and family are things that she thinks are worth dying for. I wouldn’t accuse others of being selfish for wanting to do the same with their families and I understand if others would rather spend their holidays apart to minimize risk.

Huh, I wonder if Covid is being used to crush the economy and bring in the Great Reset? 

"You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy" -World Economic Forum (Billionaire private club, essentially) 

This is the real reason everyone in power hated Trump; he was in the way.

Edited December 16, 2020 by The Big Guy

[Raoul]

I've got tin foil for sale.

[The Big Guy]

1 hour ago, Raoul said:

I've got tin foil for sale.

You're going to eat those words one day. 

[Raoul]

8 hours ago, Omega said:

Count me in that too, way too much fear and misinformation being doled out by the media and "experts" all the while they don't practice what they preach.  I'll go on record as saying this is a hoax, not so much the virus, that is real and we are losing some good people over it.  But the reaction to it, I do not know the real reason for this, but "Flattening the curve" is not it.  When the numbers of total US dead comes out, unless manipulated like the election, it will show no significant increase in 2020 numbers vs 2019 or 2018.  Preliminary numbers already show this, only like a 1.5 percent increase, which has happened before, due to population increase and other, non China Flu related reasons.  

I bet your wrong. It ain't the end of the world, but it's real.

[Omega]

Just now, Raoul said:

I bet your wrong. It ain't the end of the world, but it's real.

Ummm, thanks for agreeing with me??

[Omega]

1 hour ago, Raoul said:

I've got tin foil for sale.

Got any in blaze orange?

[JunkiCosmonaut]

1 hour ago, Raoul said:

I've got tin foil for sale.

Sell it for scrap. The hat market was looking red this year. 

[MacGyver]

This thread is really starting to wear my patience. 

[Raoul]

17 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

This thread is really starting to wear my patience. 

What took so long?

[Erik88]

Ya know, once a upon a time there was a really good post about members not sharing COVID conspiracy theories...