Links: Covid and IWW

[sonia]

COVID probably killed 150,000 more people in its first two years than official U.S. tolls show by Meghan Bartels.

The untallied cases show the burden of the pandemic in the U.S. fell most heavily on marginalized people.

“These vulnerable groups are just taking a higher risk at every step, and the accumulation of all of that is this disparity in COVID mortality at the end,” says Mathew Kiang, an epidemiologist at Stanford University and a co-author of the study.

Nine observations from carbon dioxide monitoring by A. Grieve-Smith.

I’ve been checking carbon dioxide levels for over three years now, and I’ve started to see patterns. I don’t have to keep checking the same places, because they have the same levels under similar conditions. [...] I’d like to share some of the things I’ve learned, so that you can benefit even if you haven’t been monitoring carbon dioxide on your own.

A couple of interesting links from Industrial Workers of the World, a union for all workers. Direct Action and Sabotage and The Black Cat (Sabo-Tabby).

Comments

[sheafrotherdon]

The observations from the CO2 monitor are so helpful! I'm glad that the early hunches about airplane travel have proved to be true. I've been following that pattern (only take my mask off for a drink or something mid-flight) and so far it's been okay.

[sonia]

I'm glad it's helpful! Good point about using it to guide when to get a quick sip on a plane.

[melannen]

I got a CO2 monitor for Christmas and have noted that Covid aside, I start feeling cruddy around 1000 pmm and get a small headache after more than a couple minutes at 1200. (My bedroom can get up to 1600 overnight if the windows are closed and the electric heat is running, and on those nights my sleep quality is terrible.) I've been recording how I feel when I wake up and then checking the co2 just to blind it a little bit, and it's pretty strong. And there really isn't a better solution than opening the windows and taking a hit on the heating bill - no matter where you pull the fresh air from, you're going to have to heat it up first. :/ We really need to solve the ventilation problem.

[sonia]

Interesting that it affects sleep quality for you! I haven't tracked that, but I do notice that I get restless when trying to work if it gets above 750 or so.

And good point about needing to heat fresh air. That's why after the 1918 flu pandemic they installed all that steam heat that makes it so warm you have to open a window.

[sanguinity]

Re Covid deaths vs. the official totals, I'm surprised Oregon's official count and its estimated corrected count were so close (one falling within the uncertainty of the other). I'm not going to pull up the numbers from those years, but my impression at the time was that our excess deaths was a good chunk higher than our official number of COVID deaths.

Then again, Oregon did a good job controlling COVID's spread, and had one of the lowest incidence rates in the nation, so maybe there just wasn't enough disease here for the model to pick up a measurable difference. We had the fifth-lowest COVID rate in the nation, and I note that, possibly not coincidentally, we're fifth from the bottom on the chart in the article, too.

[sonia]

I was surprised to notice that about Oregon too! I didn't know about the low incidence rate - thanks for sharing stats. I bet you're right that they're correlated.

[sabotabby]

Yup it wouldn't make sense for the death toll to be anything less than undercounted, honestly.

Also oh hey it me. and my cat.

[sonia]

Yeah, it's been clear that Covid causes later deaths from heart failure and strokes for quite a while.

Yes, that's what grabbed my attention about those IWW articles! I was sadly ignorant of the background of your username. Love the icon!

[sabotabby]

Yep, also the name of my cat (full name: Sabot of House Tabby, Second of Her Name, Mother of Kittens).

[sonia]

<3

[ljgeoff]

As a data point, I was working as a nurse in a nursing home during Covid. We had a population of about 65. Even with daily testing of staff, masking, and vigilant hand hygiene, about 30 of those residents caught Covid over the summer and autumn of 2022. Five residents died that year of Covid.

In 2023, 21 residents died, all who'd had Covid the previous year - from complications of heart failure, kidney failure, and respiratory failure. None of those deaths were attributed to Covid.

The average death rate in nursing homes in the US is 31% over three years. That means, for this home, we'd expect to lose 6-7 residents per year.