Bluegrasscard

Point made that CDC now says it does NOT recommend testing if you are asymptomatic. (Likely because asymptomatic people are not spreaders).

Fayette County Board meeting is tonight as well. So the two largest counties are meeting simultaniously.

We have to have COVID police.

Yes...

Well, my view of long term was a few weeks to ensure the concerns get heard. Will a group with this objective be needed a year from now? Let's hope not but its strange times.

Hard to get a big turn-out on a Monday morning with short notice. Especially when kids are to be in class. This could be a powerful organization given time. Currently still a lot of emotion the postings I see.

UK testing as of 8/20: 22,190 Tests, 248 Positive, 1.1% Positivity rate Also from UK: They are focusing on the Greek organizations as it appears those had positivity rate of around 3%. Also, over 600 non-student tests, only 5 have been been positive. https://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-results UofL changed its policy as of today and will require proactive testing of all on-campus students, faculty and staff. UofL numbers thus far (prior to mandatory testing for on-campus): 2,621 Tests, 53 Positive, 2.0% Positivity Rate https://louisville.edu/coronavirus/testing-results Given that these statistics come from a known population with known criteria for testing and likely have few retests of individuals so far this is probably a good view of the real situation in Kentucky as opposed to the state-wide numbers that swing wildly daily and have no known criteria for testing and not even broken in detail as far as the testing numbers. Some people believe the daily reports of positivity rate indicate we have somewhere around 5 to 7% or more of our entire population "infected". But this seems to be not even close to a much controlled end-to-end testing method result such as UKs (and hopefully UofLs in the next week or two). The actual positivity rate looks to be around 1% before false positives are accounted for. And that could be a noticeable amount of the reported positives. The over number of cases is a factor of overall testing effort - more tests, more cases. As to why the positivity number fluctuates - one has to look at the details behind the testing. The age groups, the reason for testing, the repeats, the reason that any test is being done, etc. Basically the reporting of "cases" and "positivity rates" is essentially meaningless without an understanding of the underlying testing methodology and and understanding of the sample population that the tests come from. At least the college level testing should provide some level of insight that is impossible to glean from the state-wide reporting.

It implied it goes around the nose area. But information does seem sketchy at best.

Ointment to kill the virus approved. https://www.cnbctv18.com/healthcare/us-fda-approved-ointment-found-to-treat-kill-viral-infections-including-covid-19-6703831.htm The research concludes that APT T3X effectively neutralises viral infectivity within seconds. The anti-viral efficacy supports the topical intranasal use of APT T3X to decrease the viral load of exposure. .... The product was initially developed eight years ago for resistant-bacterial infections, but its formulation additionally provides powerful anti-fungal and anti-viral therapies. It has no documented side effects.

I think people, even those who have no use of the mask game, do this to support the business and not put it a risk from the "health officials", who may be monitoring from afar.

UK testing as of today (results from 17th): 21,064 Tests, 231 Positive, 1.1% The crazy and irresponsible college kid theory seems to not be taking too much hold. If these numbers are raw then the rate is likely lower as false positives can be as high or higher than 1% of the tests. https://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-results

I have been working out of home office for 20 years - when not traveling to clients nationwide. When a new team forms there is lots of video being shared. Then less, then no one turns on their video and we just share powerpoints, spreadsheets or web app screens. It is good for 1 hour meetings. It is not good to build and develop client relationships for sure.

I have heard numbers as high as 600% increase in suicide attempts. The question of "are the policies to fight disease worse than the disease itself?" is no longer even in question. The question at this point is - what is the order of magnitude that it is worse. A quick scan of the states CDC numbers shows there is still "excess mortality" or mortality rates that are notably higher than previous years in many states that is not attributable to the direct virus deaths.

Interesting the things HCQ is being used for or being researched - Even here at University of Kentucky. "Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of Recurrent, Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer" Link: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/clinical-trials/search/v?id=NCI-2019-08359&r=1 Lead Organization - University of Kentucky / Markey Cancer Center Principal Investigator - Andrew Callaway James

As of Thursday (posted yesterday) - UK testing. 15,450 Tests, 147 positive, 0.951% (Site show 1.0% with rounding). https://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-results I think this (and other college results) gives a far better view of the issue since: a) the pool of the sample population being tested is known; and b) the criteria for having the test is known (mandatory if you are in the sample pool). These two things are not known with general statewide or nationwide testing and makes conclusions from those numbers all but impossible to understand. If this holds around 1% it seems it would be a good outcome. It would also hopefully mean the concern of football and other sports participants coming out of their summer pseudo-bubble is less.

That website is specific for campus students and staff (is not inter-related to general testing by UK Healthcare). Students have be tested and then do the daily questionnaire. However, staff that is on-campus is NOT required to be regularly tested or even one time tested. They do now have to fill out the health questionnaire daily (even weekends). I think these testing efforts of large but not too-large populations with specific demographics will be interesting. Hopefully less noise in the data with a more controlled population. So far 10,595 test, 70 positive. 0.7% - about 1/10th the rate of the statewide numbers. They keep reporting between 5 - 6% positivity rate statewide. But when I run the number I keep getting around 7%. Not sure where the disconnect is.

University of Kentucky on campus testing: https://www.uky.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-testing-results As of August 9th. Over 8,800 tests. 0.7% positivity rate. I would expect lower positivity rate than general population testing as younger, healthy people probably fight off infection after exposure better than those in the higher risk ages.

New CDC Data out today. The week of 7/18 looks like its nearly complete in terms of data. It is latest week not obviously missing substantial reporting. Age 27-Jun 18-Jul Change Pct Delta Same age 0 -24 14 14 0 0% 0% 25 - 34 28 62 34 2% 121% 35 - 44 80 117 37 3% 46% 45 - 54 239 273 34 2% 14% 55 - 64 503 698 195 14% 39% 65 - 74 750 1084 334 24% 45% 75 - 85 896 1320 424 31% 47% Over 85 1072 1386 314 23% 29% Totals 3582 4954 1372 100% Of note. Is the spike due to college or high school age people? No. No change. Lowest of all age brackets. 25 to 34 year old had highest percentage increase within the same age bracket. But this age bracket only accounted for 2% of the total increase (34 / week). 35 to 54. Up slightly. Accounts for only 5% of the total increase. 55 to 64. Up a notable amount, but less than the older age brackets. 65 on up. These age brackets represent 78% of the total increase in fatalities. The demographics of "the spike" (in terms of fatalities) show that the age is definitely a strong factor. Source of data: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm

From what I saw this weekend. That 25% is being stretched in most places. Lots of mostly full parking lots in some establishments.

Terribly sad story here. I may raise question of accuracy of numbers. But the main take away is to listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Do not assume you have the 'Rona'. If something does flair up - get it checked out. https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200729/coronavirus-did-not-kill-wellington-area-nurse-who-worked-on-pandemicrsquos-front-lines-autopsy-report-says

HCQ and Zinc. Dr. Buckmaster from Henderson, KY. Full interview, 11 minutes. From April. Its one thing to read or watch things from people far away. This is a Kentucky doctor. For me - the more local, the more trusted. Noted comments - No side effects. Need to be on prolonged time with high doses. 10 days - no brainer - Outpatient dosage - 100 to 200 mg twice a day (200 to 400 mg per day). Higher HCQ and zinc can be used during in-patient. - Would you recommend this to other doctors - absolutely, early. Start treatment while waiting for test results. Had negatives that kept on medicine. Sometimes tests are wroing. This is really a must watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdQkZ6gvC8

Egypt doctors and Vitamin-D: https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/88198/Doctors-in-Egypt’s-quarantine-hospitals-to-receive-million-Vitamin-D CAIRO – 1 June 2020: The Egyptian Health Ministry will distribute a million drug doses of Vitamin D to quarantine hospitals, as an important element to support the immune cells of the doctors treating coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. This will help doctors as they stay for long time inside hospitals without being subjected to sunlight, the Health Ministry said....

One potential explanation I heard was that they went back inside to the AC - because its now hot. Especially the older folks. But just a speculative WAG there and really have no idea. Some of this uptick was or should have been expected. Remember the Philly-St. Louis social distancing stories? Remember the graph (link below)? The pandemic hung on longer at a higher rate than Philly. AND it up-ticked later in the cycle. So the uptick should have been expected. The curve was flattened (good), but it is elongated with a less predictable path (bad). It should not be considered a failure to have this uptick as if it is peoples fault. It has nothing to do with masks. It was inevitable after 2-3 months of people mostly living in isolation who now have weakened and damaged immune systems that have to rebuild. https://i0.wp.com/microbialmenagerie.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/StLouis-Philadelphia.jpg?w=1280&ssl=1

Vitamin D study with references to topics above: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7276229/ Long read. From the Conclusion "An inadequate supply of vitamin D has a variety of skeletal and non-skeletal effects. There is ample evidence that various non-communicable diseases (hypertension, diabetes, CVD, metabolic syndrome) are associated with low vitamin D plasma levels. These comorbidities, together with the often concomitant vitamin D deficiency, increase the risk of severe COVID-19 events. Much more attention should be paid to the importance of vitamin D status for the development and course of the disease. Particularly in the methods used to control the pandemic (lockdown), the skin's natural vitamin D synthesis is reduced when people have few opportunities to be exposed to the sun. ..." Emphasis added.

I am somewhat confused on Tennessee comment. They seem, on the surface to be fairing better than Kentucky, at least in terms of fatalities. The sun does not block things. It is the catalyst for humans to create their own vitamin-D. As pointed out above Vitamin-D will not stop the infection from entering but it will fight it once its taken hold. Hence why if you have a serious Vitamin-D deficiency and get infected - its real bad news. The death rate closely maps to the levels of Vitamin-D deficiency in individuals. The problem with lock downs as it pertains to this area is that if people stay indoors more they will not build up natural Vitamin-D. Combined with other weakening of the immune system due to lack of interaction the result is people are much more like to get infected ('Rona or anything else) when they 'come out'.