COVID USA/ Canada

[Cooper]

A simplistic example on how 2 neighbours are fighting the same COVID-19 enemy with significantly differing results.

Someone needs to get serious and get act together as well as working together...just like when they put the first man/person on the moon in July 1969.


Niagara Falls tour boats highlight US and Canada's stark Covid-19 divide.

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/tracey-lindeman

Niagara Falls


His company’s boats can carry up to 700 people, but Ontario’s strict social distancing rules have only permitted them to carry six passengers at a time.
In contrast, the US-owned Maid of the Mist boats – which can normally hold around 500 people – are operating at 50% capacity.

The US side of the falls lies within New York state, an area with a population of 19.5 million, and which has seen 414,000 Covid-19 cases and 32,000 deaths.
On the Canadian side, Ontario – with a population of nearly 15 million – has seen 38,000 coronavirus cases and 2,755 deaths.
The disparity is a consequence of many factors, including universal healthcare, early travel bans and quarantine rules, mask wearing and physical distancing measures.

[Cooper]

I’ll say no more.
Please keep those in your prayers.

[MarylandIUEC]

So embarrassed by the way my country handled COVID from the onset. Not one political party or the other but the country as a whole. My wife is an ER nurse in the city of Baltimore and for the longest time I was scared to death for her.

[azdryheat]

This pandemic has been handled all wrong. If it had been treated like the Swine Flu in 2008-09 (nothing was done), or other recent pandemics, the results would have been much different.

Wearing masks, un-social distancing, and lockdowns (isn't that what they do in prison?) haven't been proven to work and have no scientific basis. Moving Covid patients in with the elderly (and later lying about it) led to thousands of deaths. Closing schools (France never closed schools) and businesses have seriously hurt our children and economy and did nothing to slow the virus. Closing our churches was un-constitutional.

We should not listen to the likes of un-elected government bureaucrats like Dr Fauci (he's old and flip-flopped on issues or the CDC which also was wrong most of the time). Personally, I believe this pandemic was allowed to fester in the US to submarine a US president.

We should, next time, go about our normal lives to achieve herd immunity. Remember that the Covid is over 98% survivable. If you're afraid then stay home so the rest of us can go about our lives. Protect the elderly and vulnerable. Keep the kids in school. Don't kill the economy over a bug. Allow us to reach herd immunity and get the pandemic over with quicker with fewer deaths.

[ATCguy]

I think it's safe to say that we all have our various opinions on both the real severity of the virus itself... and the way various countries, states, and even right on down to the county levels as to how it's been handled.

My personal feeling is that, though serious... I believe the real severity to an otherwise healthy person has been overplayed. I also believe the statistics themselves have been skewed in many ways to either support or defend various interpretations... depending on the position those presenting them wished to make.

I'll not get into the debate here about the severity issue... but I will address the latter one about statistics, as I have first-hand knowledge, having become part of those statistics just recently. Here's the story:

As part of the process of dealing with some other medical issues I have... my doctor wanted me to participate in a sleep study for sleep apnea. This was no real surprise, as I've always been quite sure I have it... I just never had it officially diagnosed before. So I did the study... they confirmed it... and the next step was to follow-up with another overnight stay to do the CPAP mask fitting & tests for proper pressures & such.

As part of this, I would be trying & using different masks while breathing thru their various ventilation systems & filters. To ensure that my use wouldn't contaminate their system, I was required to go get a COVID test. Mind you, I had not had any symptoms of the virus... nor had any virus-related abnormalities showed up in the various blood tests they had performed on me in relation to the other medical issues I was seeing them for. But it was a requirement, so I went to get the test.

I took the test on the morning of Tuesday, January 26th, and didn't think anything else of it. However, on Friday, Jan 29th... I received the following letter in my email:





To say that I was surprised at this is an understatement. I felt fine. No unordinary symptoms... no loss of smell or taste as others who've had the virus have reported... no shortness of breath... etc. Yet here I was... now an official COVID statistic to add to the growing numbers.

So I called the Health Dept to follow-up and report that I wasn't sick, had no symptoms, and to ask a few questions. The lady was very polite, expressed her joy that I had no symptoms, and explained the process. Sure enough, I was to place myself in quarantine here at home for the next 2 weeks, and to document my health 3 times daily on a form they included with the letter & test results. She then asked if I had enough food & supplies in the house to sustain me, and said they could arrange delivery of such if I needed anything.

So I did as requested.. which wasn't really all that difficult since our winter, which had been pretty mild until now, had definitely turned worse. It began snowing almost daily... and for 10 days out of those 14, the temps never went above freezing. So all in all, I was going to simply hibernate inside anyway... and I can't say I was really inconvenienced.

But, back to the issue. On February 4th, I was contacted again by the Health Dept, and was asked about my condition. I reported that no changes had occurred... that I still felt fine.. no fevers, no unordinary aches & pains, no shortness of breath. I was then sent the following letter & Termination of Quarantine Order:




So officially on paper, I'm one of the millions who have been "infected by COVID"... yet I've never been sick. I never went to the doctor, was never admitted into the hospital... hell, other than at the end, no one even checked on me after my test came back positive. I was put on the "honor system" to report my condition.

I can't even say I've been "adversely effected", because I really haven't. Since I'm retired and receiving a pension, my income hasn't been diminished... and because of the weather situation I detailed above, I wasn't really inconvenienced.

So I guess all I'm saying is.. just because one may get the virus, don't mean one's gonna die. It doesn't even mean they're gonna get sick. It just means you got it.

I guess it's kinda like kidney stones. Urinary physicians say that there's a good probability that at least 33% of the population above 20 years old is probably walking around with a kidney stone and don't even know it because it's so small that they'll eventually pass it without any real discomfort. But if we wanted to fly off the handle, and spin it... we could say that we have a urinary-condition epidemic in the world.

[azdryheat]

The motorcyclist in Florida who died in a crash and was listed as a Covid death. NY lied and under-reported the Covid death numbers in nursing homes to avoid a DOJ investigation. Doctors flip-flopping on masks or no masks. The media trying to scare the beejeebers out of us and it seems to be working. Where I live the doctor in charge of the county health department caught the virus. Really? The 'system' has lost all credibility with me.

And to keep this RV related, wife and I have never stopped camping, RZR riding, and touring the US. Did a 3 week trip to Mich in Oct and have done loads of shorter trips to UT, CO, MO, and throughout our home state during this 'crisis'. Amazing to see that most RVers and SXSers we've come across don't believe in masking and social distancing.

[dsol]

Originally Posted by ATCguy

I think it's safe to say that we all have our various opinions on both the real severity of the virus itself... and the way various countries, states, and even right on down to the county levels as to how it's been handled.

My personal feeling is that, though serious... I believe the real severity to an otherwise healthy person has been overplayed. I also believe the statistics themselves have been skewed in many ways to either support or defend various interpretations... depending on the position those presenting them wished to make.

I'll not get into the debate here about the severity issue... but I will address the latter one about statistics, as I have first-hand knowledge, having become part of those statistics just recently. Here's the story:

As part of the process of dealing with some other medical issues I have... my doctor wanted me to participate in a sleep study for sleep apnea. This was no real surprise, as I've always been quite sure I have it... I just never had it officially diagnosed before. So I did the study... they confirmed it... and the next step was to follow-up with another overnight stay to do the CPAP mask fitting & tests for proper pressures & such.

As part of this, I would be trying & using different masks while breathing thru their various ventilation systems & filters. To ensure that my use wouldn't contaminate their system, I was required to go get a COVID test. Mind you, I had not had any symptoms of the virus... nor had any virus-related abnormalities showed up in the various blood tests they had performed on me in relation to the other medical issues I was seeing them for. But it was a requirement, so I went to get the test.

I took the test on the morning of Tuesday, January 26th, and didn't think anything else of it. However, on Friday, Jan 29th... I received the following letter in my email:

Attachment 6699
Attachment 6696


To say that I was surprised at this is an understatement. I felt fine. No unordinary symptoms... no loss of smell or taste as others who've had the virus have reported... no shortness of breath... etc. Yet here I was... now an official COVID statistic to add to the growing numbers.

So I called the Health Dept to follow-up and report that I wasn't sick, had no symptoms, and to ask a few questions. The lady was very polite, expressed her joy that I had no symptoms, and explained the process. Sure enough, I was to place myself in quarantine here at home for the next 2 weeks, and to document my health 3 times daily on a form they included with the letter & test results. She then asked if I had enough food & supplies in the house to sustain me, and said they could arrange delivery of such if I needed anything.

So I did as requested.. which wasn't really all that difficult since our winter, which had been pretty mild until now, had definitely turned worse. It began snowing almost daily... and for 10 days out of those 14, the temps never went above freezing. So all in all, I was going to simply hibernate inside anyway... and I can't say I was really inconvenienced.

But, back to the issue. On February 4th, I was contacted again by the Health Dept, and was asked about my condition. I reported that no changes had occurred... that I still felt fine.. no fevers, no unordinary aches & pains, no shortness of breath. I was then sent the following letter & Termination of Quarantine Order:

Attachment 6697
Attachment 6698

So officially on paper, I'm one of the millions who have been "infected by COVID"... yet I've never been sick. I never went to the doctor, was never admitted into the hospital... hell, other than at the end, no one even checked on me after my test came back positive. I was put on the "honor system" to report my condition.

I can't even say I've been "adversely effected", because I really haven't. Since I'm retired and receiving a pension, my income hasn't been diminished... and because of the weather situation I detailed above, I wasn't really inconvenienced.

So I guess all I'm saying is.. just because one may get the virus, don't mean one's gonna die. It doesn't even mean they're gonna get sick. It just means you got it.

I guess it's kinda like kidney stones. Urinary physicians say that there's a good probability that at least 33% of the population above 20 years old is probably walking around with a kidney stone and don't even know it because it's so small that they'll eventually pass it without any real discomfort. But if we wanted to fly off the handle, and spin it... we could say that we have a urinary-condition epidemic in the world.

I am not sure you are aware but the first letter you posted shows your address. You might want to try and block that out. I wouldn’t worry about the forum members but you never know who is combing the site and other places looking for data to steal.

Glad you were symptom free the entire time. Even better you were made aware so you could do your best to try and avoid passing it unknowingly to other people. My son is in college got it and had very mild symptoms and only for a few days, he was definitely sick and lost some smell and taste and had constant headaches with mild fever but it all went away. However, a friend of mine lost both of his in-laws to it and they were otherwise healthy from what he tells me.

It is a shame this has become so politicized. I will be glad when this is over.

[franktafl]

Is it at all possible that you got a false positive? early on, those tests were not 100% reliable. I know folks that got "it" and they were very, very sick. IMO you were either exceptionally lucky or you got a false positive!

The reaction of your government's policy for positive was done under an abundance of caution. I am sure that there were plenty of false positives as well as false negatives. I know of one person that had two covid tests and they were negative but he almost died from the "mystery" illness he had.