Covid19 and Nitrox

[ermaclob]

I live in Miami Florida, one of the most Covid infested places in the USA. This last December - January we had a gigantic spike in Covid cases from Omicron in Miami Dade county. Our lovely state has a very funny way of dealing with the virus, you simply just pretend it doesn't exist so it kind of just spreads like wild fire here. I myself got it along with about 10 of my direct friends as well as like 4 family members including my aunt that is like 70 and my mother who is ~55 and takes immune suppressants do to a chronic illness she has. i know of many other cases just through acquaintances as well . Pretty much everyone was fine after about 2 - 5 days of Flu Symptoms with minor trailing coughs for about a few more days. I stopped testing positive about 5 days after all my major symptoms went away. No one I know seems to of have had any sort of bad experience as long as they had at least 1 dose. 2 will still get you the Covid Flu symptoms but its nothing that binge watching a few Netflix series or movies cant deal with while at home for 2 or 3 days.

if your saying that 90% of your country has 2 doses I'm pretty sure you should be fine. Its spreads easy so its likely you might get it. Just pretend your in Florida and don't sweet it.......to much.

I'm no doctor, the nitrox thing in the tank was something i though about when covid first came out. but i doubt it will be useful unless some very specific situation happened.

 

[ermaclob]

My wife works at a hospital, not in patient care, so this is certainly 3rd hand info, but for the original variant and delta, people would go on vents and either get better relatively quickly (several days), would be on the vents for weeks to months, and would kinda get better, or would die. With omicron, people go on vents and are dead 3-5 days later.

that last sentence is contradictory to everything i have seen and heard. i have buddy that works at Jackson Miami and the only thing that he can 100% confirm is that the almost all people that are really getting bad and die are the people that have not taken any vaccine. but at that point it could be Omicron, Delta or The OG Vid.

 

[sea_ledford]

that last sentence is contradictory to everything i have seen and heard. i have buddy that works at Jackson Miami and the only thing that he can 100% confirm is that the almost all people that are really getting bad and die are the people that have not taken any vaccine. but at that point it could be Omicron, Delta or The OG Vid.

I should clarify my statement; Most recently, people that go on vents don't have good outcomes. Not that most people that go to the hospital end up on a vent and die.

And yes, my understanding is most of those that do go on vents are not vaccinated and have comorbidities.

 

[GJC]

New Zealand has been one of the most locked down countries in the world for the past two years. Subsequently very few Covid19 infections to date and only 53 deaths (with or of Covid19) out of a population of 5M. While 90% of the population have been doubly vaccinated we have almost no natural immunity.

Recently the new Omicron variant has hit these shores and out in the community. The health system is not well equipped to handle the large number of expected cases. I had the LDS fill all five of my scuba tanks with 40% nitrox thinking that it may be useful if one of our family developed breathing difficulties but was unable to get a spot in the hospital.

I welcome information from medically qualified SB members on the advisability of this idea.

Unless you like breathing through a scuba mouthpiece for hours (or days) at a time, you're going to need a different regulator and a medical face mask.

If used, you will probably need to deliver 10-15 liters per minute for your patient to receive the 40% oxygen that you have in the tanks. You can do the math to figure out how long your supply will last, but each tank will probably only be good for few hours.

Bottom line is:

-You need some specialized equipment.
-You need training on managing a patient on oxygen over a long period of time.
-You need a lot more tanks if you're going to do this for more than a day.

 

[rjack321]

An a80 at 15L/min will last about 2.5 hours. You'll need A LOT of tanks.

Also if you do genuinely need supplemental O2 go to a hospital. They are the ones prepared to manage that (including having appropriate PPE) way moreso than your family members trying to help and getting infected themselves.

In the meantime you are better off following your country's health advice on vaccinations, masks, and limiting crowds (NZ has been pretty good) than stocking up on quasi medical supplies like 40%

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I had the vid in October and ended up on O2 for about two weeks after an overnight in the hospital. I needed an O2 machine 24 hours per day.

The most important thing you need is a pulse oximeter to monitor your O2 levels to see if you're on the downhill slope.

Not sure if that helps your question

Every bit of information helps - thanks.

Got the pulse oxidizer. Bought enough of them to hand out to grown son and daughter and a spare.

Unless you like breathing through a scuba mouthpiece for hours (or days) at a time, you're going to need a different regulator and a medical face mask.

If used, you will probably need to deliver 10-15 liters per minute for your patient to receive the 40% oxygen that you have in the tanks. You can do the math to figure out how long your supply will last, but each tank will probably only be good for few hours.

Bottom line is:

-You need some specialized equipment.
-You need training on managing a patient on oxygen over a long period of time.
-You need a lot more tanks if you're going to do this for more than a day.

Thanks for the info. The tanks would only be used if the hospitals were overrun and unable to accept anyone. Hopefully the tanks could also be refilled if required. The LDS is 8 minutes away.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Pulse oximeter.

Darn autocorrect!

 

[Wibble]

One of the biggest problems with covid is fear and uncertainty.

Note that the vaccines do not stop you from catching covid; they attenuate the symptoms so it's normally just a cold. Omicron seems to be a cold with added fear.

As one of the few countries with basically no deaths (50 / 5m = sod all, more die from pianos falling from the sky), the problem you've all got to overcome is the fear. The only way to avoid this is to carry on as you are; literally cut yourselves off from the known universe North Korea style.

The rest of the world however is suffering from continued lockdowns and fear. In the UK we're all still working from home, but more than 50% of the population's had a dose. Double vaccinated me caught it from double vaccinated wife who caught it from double vaccinated colleague... etc.

Now the UK's pretty much all vaccinated, it's not killing people in the way it did. The people in the intensive care units "with covid" are predominantly people who've not been vaccinated. Our death toll is very high though; over 150,000 deaths in a population of 68m (≈2300 deaths per million, which is not far off the USA's 2700/million)

The cost has been a ruined economy, ruined schooling, radical economic change (working from home, etc.), accelerated destruction of the high street and a visceral hatred of politicians. Not mentioning the incredible backlog of medical referrals as the sainted NHS (peas be upon it) simply turned into the National Covid Service.

At least New Zealand's avoided all the deaths. The true cost for the fear is anyone's guess.


And to answer your question. No worries. Get on with life. Stashing oxygen (especially with your challenges in buying and testing cylinders) isn't necessary.

 

[rongoodman]

Note that the vaccines do not stop you from catching covid; they attenuate the symptoms so it's normally just a cold.

The vaccines did a very good job of stopping you from catching COVID when the strains infecting people were the ones the vaccines were designed to combat. Unfortunately, corona viruses mutate rapidly, presenting the vaccines with a moving target. We don't see this type of problem with more stable viruses, such as smallpox.

 

[-JD-]

The vaccines did a very good job of stopping you from catching COVID when the strains infecting people were the ones the vaccines were designed to combat. Unfortunately, corona viruses mutate rapidly, presenting the vaccines with a moving target. We don't see this type of problem with more stable viruses, such as smallpox.

Delta and Omicron have been significant/quantum degrees more transmissible than earlier variants.. Do you have links to data showing that infection rates do not show proportionate increases in both vaxed/unvaxed populations?