Coronavirus

[djmm1962]

My beautician continues to improve

[Ace2Ace]

My beautician continues to improve

Wishing him well.

[Graveller]

@Rex; the situation in Belgium is as follows:
2800 infections (known ones), 340 people recovered, 67 people died so far.

Today ‘only’ 8 more deaths (compared to 30 yesterday). And we are now 9th day of partial lockdown and 5th day of serious lockdown...
Another mate of mine has Covid19 and is seriously ill (heavy mediation against the pain when coughing). And he is only 40! Have not seen him for quite a while so there in no fear for contamination for me.

[djmm1962]

Best wishes for your friend, Grav. Just terrible!!

My beautician still hasn't been tested

Our task force is coming on soon and I hope Trump isn't with them lying. They are always late (so unprofessional)!! Oh Lord, he's on now ...

[Graveller]

I do not understand the poor state of the US health care.

If I would wake up with a fever tomorrow, I would phone the doctor, they would send me to a hospital, I would get tested and get an exam (of my lungs). All on the same day . if I read stories on how patients are being treated in the US, I find it hard to believe that this can happen in a highly developed western country.

[Ace2Ace]

That's because healthcare is a private industry here. If one doesn't have insurance, he/she is afraid to go to the hospital because the bill that follows is just too high. So people wait and wait and wait ... hoping the self medication will work.
Even when you have insurance, you still delay and delay because the insurance companies don't always cover the entire bill.
Depending on the policy one has, one may still end up with a huge bill. Some insurance will pay 80% of the bill... some 70%, some 50%, etc. The hospitals knowing that, hike the price to make sure you pay.. and they have deals with the insurance companies to slash their part of bill. Sometimes the insurance company only pay 20% of what their part of the bill is. So in the end, the patient ends up paying most of the fees anyway.
It's very wild.
For serious, expensive illnesses, at some point, the insurance refuses to pay and shifts the entire bill to the patient... other times they only cover part of the medical procedure (we don't cover this or that procedure... )

[rex]

@Rex; the situation in Belgium is as follows:
2800 infections (known ones), 340 people recovered, 67 people died so far.

Today ‘only’ 8 more deaths (compared to 30 yesterday). And we are now 9th day of partial lockdown and 5th day of serious lockdown...
Another mate of mine has Covid19 and is seriously ill (heavy mediation against the pain when coughing). And he is only 40! Have not seen him for quite a while so there in no fear for contamination for me.

Thanks for responding, Grav'. This is bad and good news for your Nation. Obviously, the increasing # of people who've expired (67) in Belgium due to this virus is truly tragic. However, the offset is that the # of people recovering from the virus is 5 times greater (340), which is a huge increase from a couple of days ago in Belgium where the data showed 37 citizens expiring and only "one" recovery. That's the good news, people beating the virus in increasing numbers to offset any loss of life, sans a universal vaccine. Therefore, the hope for recovery for the "active cases" is greater by the increasing number of recoveries, establishing a pattern that the local medical authority can use successfully to treat active cases, in addition to hoping your friend recovers.

If you will, what I'd like to know is how the Belgium gov't and local media is communicating information about recommended treatment for this virus, outside of stay-at-home decrees, quarantines, testing, washing hands and social distancing, as it is here in the States and Chicago, specifically, given the high number of recoveries for your Nation over the number who have unfortunately succumbed? Are there any human interest stories in the papers, let alone interviews and reports on the telly, concerning individuals who have overcome this virus, detailing what they did to recover? By revealing these human interest stories of successful recoveries with details, it can possibly enable the masses to be proactive, rather than reactive to this virus, reducing the # of active cases and fatalities as a result. Stay healthy.....

Here in Chicago, our 2 newspapers on Covid-19 today:

Chicago Tribune:

One human interest story on Corona, where a Chicago resident unknowingly caught the virus while skiing in Austria with a friend, who tested positive when he returned to his native land after being tested, who then informed his friend in Chicago the result. After initially being denied the test for the virus, the Chicago resident began suffering symptoms and was then subsequently tested, testing positive. Doctors told him there was no known cure at the moment, but was given a recommendation of OTC meds (Tylenol or Advil, Mucinex, Vapor Rub), tea drinks and gargling with salt water and released, for he was not suffering severe breathing problems to be admitted. After a few days at home in self-containment he is now in recovery and feeling better. The rest of the newspaper focuses on reports of increasing active cases and deaths. No stat on recoveries.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

Chicago Sun-Times:

Corona case increases and deaths. No recovery stories, nor stats on such....

https://chicago.suntimes.com/essential- ... t-pritzker

Respecting the Chicagoan, on YouTube there is a woman who did similar things after she caught the virus. After testing positive she said she beat it in self-containment by using a combination of OTC meds (didn't specify what meds she used) and home remedies to dismiss the symptoms and recover. A successful recovery..... More stories like this are sorely needed today to offset the constant incomplete reports in the press and the poor response by the current administration occupying the White House.

[Graveller]

Hi Rex,
in our news, it is all about how to protect yourself; it is the only new item for the last 14 days.

We are a "small" country (11 M people), and in the dutch speaking part where I live (approx 65% of the population) we have two main TV-boardcasters (each with different channels) that have a news-program from 7 until 8 pm (more or less). One of the daily re-occuring guests of the last months are expert-virologists who give daily updates, recommendations etc... they have become household names, and it looks as if people take them very seriously, incl our politicians who are listening to them and doing a good job:
* Our borders with The Netherlands (who are very relaxed about it, like the UK -they are gonna regret it soon) are now closed, up to the point that roads are blocked with shipping containers. no one gets in/out of Belgium unless really essential.
* Our government made a deal with the banks, so all loans that companies/individuals need to repay, are frozen for at least 6 months (we helped the banks in 2008, now it is their turn)
* the financially weakest people do not need to pay house rent for the moment
* with regard to medical supplies, somehow our government managed to get millions of masks last week, and another 15 million will arrive this week. At the same time, people are making masks at home to give to people working in care-homes etc...
* news are reporting on people recovering, and interview them (to show that you can get better), but at the same time these people do tell that it is a serious illness.

It is too early to say that the very severe measures that were taken 10 days ago are paying off, but the mortality rate seem to stabilize (or decrease) - but it can change rapidly of course:
Reported deaths over the last 4 days:
Thursday: 20
Friday: 30
Saturday: 8
Sunday: 13

Total: 93 (over the last 2 weeks)
So we see no continuous doubling (as we see in other countries) for the moment. The number of new infections/new hospital patients also stopped increasing for two days.
I know, it can change very rapidly, and I expect a lot of more deaths/cases. But the slower, the better (flattening the curve).
For the moment, the hospitals/intensive care still have 50% capacity, so that also helps in keeping the death rate low.

What we do see, is the impact of cultural, social behaviour. Mediterranean/ Arab people have a stronger social community with less social distancing, so the odds of infecting each other is bigger. We see that clearly in a specific Belgian province where there are a lot of people from Turkish background (labor migration in the 1960'ies): about 5% of the people have a Turkish background, but they represent 50% of infected people in that area.

[Graveller]

you will need google-translate (I assume ) but the latest figures for Belgium are in the added link

https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/ov ... ~a3364460/

[sekasi]

That's because healthcare is a private industry here. If one doesn't have insurance, he/she is afraid to go to the hospital because the bill that follows is just too high. So people wait and wait and wait ... hoping the self medication will work.
Even when you have insurance, you still delay and delay because the insurance companies don't always cover the entire bill.
Depending on the policy one has, one may still end up with a huge bill. Some insurance will pay 80% of the bill... some 70%, some 50%, etc. The hospitals knowing that, hike the price to make sure you pay.. and they have deals with the insurance companies to slash their part of bill. Sometimes the insurance company only pay 20% of what their part of the bill is. So in the end, the patient ends up paying most of the fees anyway.
It's very wild.
For serious, expensive illnesses, at some point, the insurance refuses to pay and shifts the entire bill to the patient... other times they only cover part of the medical procedure (we don't cover this or that procedure... )

You only gave one side of this complex issue. The other issue that is a major factor is Americans are always suing hospitals and doctors. Any mistake a doctor makes ends up with a big lawsuit. This drives the insurance up. I read somewhere that more and more American doctors can not afford to run private practices because of the lawsuits. They have to work for hospitals, so they can be covered by the hospital.
Last but not least, America is a very unhealthy nation and people think doctors should fix the diseases caused by their unhealthy habits. You have people diagnosed with diabetes but stubbornly refuse to change their life styles.