topic Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home in Community Chat

Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Mindy D — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:37:15 GMT

Governor Cuomo of New York said that a surprising 66% of newly hospitalized cases in New York were described in the data from 100 hospitals as being people that were sheltering at home and venturing out little. About 1,000 patients are involved. The data was to include where newly admitted patients were staying just before admission to the hospital with COVID-19 infections. Investigating how contacts were made with this group is vitally important to tracking the spread of the disease.

According to NBC News:

"Hospitals were asked to document where their most recent COVID-19 patients had been staying before admission, Cuomo said, and 66 percent came from their own homes.

About 18 percent came from nursing homes, 4 percent from assisted-living facilities, 2 percent were homeless, 2 percent had been at other "congregate" settings, fewer than 1 percent were prison or jail inmates, and 8 percent were classified as "other."

"This is a surprise," the governor told reporters at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York. "Sixty-six percent of the people were at home, which is shocking to us."

The data came from 113 hospitals reporting information on patients being treated over three recent days, according to state health officials.

"They're not working; they're not traveling," Cuomo said of these recently hospitalized coronavirus patients. "We were thinking that maybe we were going to find a higher percent of essential employees who were getting sick because they were going to work — that these may be nurses, doctors, transit workers. That's not the case. They were predominantly at home."

The state also reported that among these recently hospitalized patients, only 17 percent are currently employed, while 37 percent are retirees and 46 percent are unemployed.

"The largest group of us are still at home, so it's not surprising that the largest source (of recent hospitalizations) are people at home," Kumi Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, told NBC News."

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

happycat — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:46:19 GMT

If these people are in apartments, could the virus be traveling thru air ducts?

It seems like I have heard it can and cannot go thru air ducts and I think it just depends on who you ask.

I wonder how long these folks had been sheltering at home?

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Janey2 — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:52:45 GMT

I am wondering if these people have had company over. Some people say they are staying home, but are not alone.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

reiki604 — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:57:09 GMT

As I stated in another thread, although these people may have been sheltering at home, they might be living with an essential worker or someone else who does the shopping and outside chores for them. This disease is so insidious and contagious, tracking is an essential part of containment.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

FiddleDeeDee — Thu, 07 May 2020 23:02:46 GMT

Unless the person was living alone, had not left their home for 6 weeks or so prior to coming down ill and saw NO ONE in that entire time, I don't care about the research on the 66%.

Just because the person may have never left their home, doesn't mean that OTHERS did the same. If you really want to look at this in depth, you'll have to remove any of those who fit into the group in paragraph 1. Until that happens, not interested.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

noodleann — Thu, 07 May 2020 23:12:32 GMT

People lie, and sometimes they don't realize they're misrepresenting the facts.

I have a friend in NYC who says repeatedly that he's staying at home. But he markets at 2 or 3 stores daily, visits a friend across town weekly, and spent time with other friends at their house upstate. I know all this because he tells me. He doesn't count the lapses. It's like someone on a diet who fails to enter the family-size bag of chips they demolished in their food journal. But my friend insists that he's obeying the lockdown. He's married and his wife is with him, so it's not as if he has no company.

This is why people will continue to get sick. They just can't stand to be inside, so they're going out and being exposed.

In my observation, men are worse about conforming to virus hygiene than women.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

willdob3 — Thu, 07 May 2020 23:12:46 GMT

They probably went to a grocery store. Or someone brought them food. It only takes one person, one time to be in contact with someone. I doubt these people were home alone, never seeing anyone at all.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Barbara-QVC — Thu, 07 May 2020 23:25:00 GMT

This post has been removed by QVC because it is political.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Mindy D — Fri, 08 May 2020 19:02:23 GMT

@reiki604 wrote:
As I stated in another thread, although these people may have been sheltering at home, they might be living with an essential worker or someone else who does the shopping and outside chores for them. This disease is so insidious and contagious, tracking is an essential part of containment.

@reiki604 This is just one reason why the contacts made with these people will need further investigation. This can lead to a better understanding of how the virus is spreading. Did any person catch the virus from touching delivered packaging? Did anyone get it from contact at their front door? Did anyone get it while making only one trip to a grocery store? What about multiple trips? Did a relative drop by and was then then let inside the home? Did a patient get it from a trip involving just a drive through pick up at a pharmacy? There are so many possibile routes of infection. That's why this presents a good opportunity to learn.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

mspatmac — Fri, 08 May 2020 01:47:23 GMT

What about necessary services like ac/heat system repair, replacement appliance, plumbing service, where a repair person needs home access. I have a neighbor who had new wall to wall carpet installed yesterday but she didn't leave her house.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Mindy D — Fri, 08 May 2020 01:50:47 GMT

@mspatmac wrote:
What about necessary services like ac/heat system repair, replacement appliance, plumbing service, where a repair person needs home access. I have a neighbor who had new wall to wall carpet installed yesterday but she didn't leave her house.

Hopefully, investigators will be able to get this information from the patients or their families. Even the mail could be a source.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Foxxee — Fri, 08 May 2020 01:58:48 GMT

This is ridiculous. The virus didn't knock their doors down to get in.

They got it from someone.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

shoesnbags — Fri, 08 May 2020 01:59:45 GMT

@noodleann wrote:
People lie, and sometimes they don't realize they're misrepresenting the facts.

I have a friend in NYC who says repeatedly that he's staying at home. But he markets at 2 or 3 stores daily, visits a friend across town weekly, and spent time with other friends at their house upstate. I know all this because he tells me. He doesn't count the lapses. It's like someone on a diet who fails to enter the family-size bag of chips they demolished in their food journal. But my friend insists that he's obeying the lockdown. He's married and his wife is with him, so it's not as if he has no company.

This is why people will continue to get sick. They just can't stand to be inside, so they're going out and being exposed.

In my observation, men are worse about conforming to virus hygiene than women.

Bingo! This is what I think they will find out when they investigate further. Someone's idea of "staying at home" isn't necessarily the ideal Dr. Fauci version of staying at home. Also, even if the only place a person goes is the grocery, there's a tremendous amount of potential exposure. Even people who are wearing masks and gloves are often using them incorrectly and it only takes one slip to cause an infection.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Lucky Charm — Fri, 08 May 2020 02:22:21 GMT

They need to find out the facts with these people to get a correct assessment.

I had a neighbor look at me with crazy eyes when I told him I went to the grocery store 2 times since March 22nd.

He says he's been in place (stay at home) that whole time.

I know for a fact he worked until after April 1st. He had home health care workers come in for 12 hours a day for a family member until the first weekend of April.

A poster here said she had been in home for 4 weeks, but if you looked at her history, she had been to Costco and told of all the items she saw on the shelves only 19 days prior. That's an 9 day difference. Big difference.

I've had people tell me they are *serious* about staying at home, self distancing, etc. and yet have actually seen them handle items that could be contaminated and wearing no gloves, no masks, and not self distancing.

I am concerned, myself, at how far we may have to go to rid ourselves of this disease. Taking everything off from head to toe if we do go out. Did someone sneeze or cough before I turned the corner? How long did the items I wiped down stay *wet*?

I haven't hugged a grandchild in a long time. I don't even know when I'll be able to again.

I'm petrified of restaurants, prepared food in the grocery store, mishandling my own groceries and even contaminating my masks. Too afraid to wear my cloth masks, and have only worn N95 and KN95 masks.

66% is a very high percentage for hospitalized people who say they were strict about staying at home and following all the guidelines, if they did go out.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

pitdakota — Fri, 08 May 2020 02:25:10 GMT

I think it will be interesting to see what they document. Always important to learn about what happened or is happening.

That was the case in China, South Korea, and Italy. When they started going back to do the contact tracing, they found out how readily the virus was transmitted in environments where people were talking and having very little interaction. Office settings were mapped out where people were traced, restaurant tables placed, seating areas in whatever they call bars in Italy, etc. that demonstrated oral particles ended up being the mode of transmission between people that had little contact with the exception of sharing the same space for a short period of time. One reason that when this evidence started coming out, they started encouraging the public to wear masks here in the US. When they had the results of all that contact tracing from those other countries, it gave us some information to apply to try and help cut down on community transmission here.

Through that aggressive testing and contact tracing in South Korea, they directly associated 1,000 cases of covid-19 to one lady attending a church in South Korea. Wow! Not to mention that South Korea never really had to shut down because they had such an aggressive testing and contact tracing program. Not only did they identify people they needed to either isolate or quarantine, they learned quite a bit about the transmission of the virus.

So it will be interesting to see what they document in this case.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

bonnielu — Fri, 08 May 2020 02:26:22 GMT

I feel that exposure might be better than isolation... builds immunity. From my thirty year teacher experience... I never took sick leave... and kids were sick all around me. I don't pretent to be a scientist or doctor but that was my experience.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Biftu — Fri, 08 May 2020 02:56:38 GMT

@happycat wrote:
If these people are in apartments, could the virus be traveling thru air ducts?
It seems like I have heard it can and cannot go thru air ducts and I think it just depends on who you ask.
I wonder how long these folks had been sheltering at home?

Remember Legionnaires disease which was caused by AC vents in a Philadelphia hotel.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

Pook — Fri, 08 May 2020 09:31:06 GMT

Many who say they are staying home go to grocery stores daily and several each day and also stop by to see family and friends who are supposedly staying at home. Just because you are not working or retired doesn't mean you are home and do not go out or have contact with others!

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

CelticCrafter — Fri, 08 May 2020 13:07:16 GMT

Just because they were living in their own homes doesn't mean they were staying at home.

We are staying home except for a weekly trip to the grocery store, so technically are we really staying home?

The virus didn't just sneak in during the night, they got it from someone.

Re: Investigating the contacts of the 66% that stayed at home

CherryHugs — Fri, 08 May 2020 13:18:08 GMT

I wonder about that too. Maybe from groceries? Mail? People visiting? Deliveries?