Respiratory Treatment Guidelines for Covid

https://coemv.ca/covid-19-message-to-respiratory-therapists/

interesting. You would need to interpret the mechanical side - but the 'prone position' was new to me.

"It is early to say for sure, but it seems that there are different profiles, which means very different management. "
That seems to be a real problem...

1) "Recruiters" & "Non-recruiters"? I don't get the terminology

2) If the virus is so spreadable because it is the upper airway wouldn't it be less lethal than deep-lung concentrations?

1.) Recruiter and non-recruiters refers to the aveoli. To "recruit" aveoli you usually increase the PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure). The increased end pressure helps open up and keep open aveoli. If you can do this, oxygenation improves significantly. When they can't be recruited it means the pressure required to open them is too high and we can't get them open.

2.) I believe that is correct. When it's in the upper airway the symptoms should be milder. As it spreads to the lungs is when you start getting pneumonias.

Adriano Decarli, an epidemiologist and medical statistics professor at the University of Milan, said there had been a "significant" increase in the number of people hospitalised for pneumonia and flu in the areas of Milan and Lodi between October and December last year.

He told Reuters he could not give exact figures but "hundreds" more people than usual had been taken to hospital in the last three months of 2019 in those areas - two of Lombardy's worst hit cities - with pneumonia and flu-like symptoms, and some of those had died.

[https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/03/virus-may-have-reached-italy-as-long-ago-as-october-doctor.html]

All those celebrity corona cases (always mild) have made me wonder if this virus wasn't far more widely spread BEFORE it's detection in China...

I absolutely believe the virus was circulating long before it was discovered in China. It's resemebles the cold or flu so it would easily go undetected for a long time. The "flu" I had last year wasn't the normal fluand it got me thinking...most people in my office had a head cold...a couple of us got destroyed with a weird respiratory infection. The infection I had created a dark and tenacios mucus. It progressed from a head cold to bronchitis in less than 48 hours for me...and left me short of breath for a week. At one point I actually thought I may need medical assistance. Eventually it cleared and I felt better within 3 weeks of initial sickness. I highly doubt this was covid-19 but it was a different type of flu than I had previous experienced. With covid-19 and the eagerness to blame China, it got me thinking that a new "flu" could potentially be undiscovered for months...possibly a year? It would require someone catching it, going to a hospital for treatment, that hospital would then have to take a swab and have access to PCR machines for genetic squencing in order to discover a new virus. The rate at which influenza's spread is pretty impressive and I figure within a year any flu will eventually makes its way to a nation that has access to that equipment and education for detection...and because of that reason, everyone should be questioning the "blame China" story line.

I have been twitter fighting a lot again and the right is heavily pouring a lot of resources into making everyone think China is behind it.

Saw this oxygen/CPAP treatment for Covid used in Italy. It was both cool and strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eCMUzYM3KI

The head-bubble was cool: The Future of CPAP here Today!

Could a person sleep comfortably with that contraption over their heads?

That's a good question. I doubt it, but if they are in the ICU they are probably very uncomfortable already. They will likely have an uninary cathether, several IVs, and non stop people around you...and not being able to breathe is probably the most uncomfortable thing for them.

However, you can tell when they turn it on that the guys gets uncomfortable immediately. THe ear plugs are because there would be pressure against the ears that at higher pressure would also become quite uncomfortablle.

I couldn't see this being used in a home setting for treatment of sleep apnea. This is an ICU or CCU application.

It's really cool though! The port access to get to the pt's face/mouth/airway, etc. would be super handy.