Not to get too gross, but could testing stool samples be an alternative for the more recently discussed anal swabs? Seems like it would be less embarrassing for us uptight Americans?
Then again, our HCWs are already going through so much, I don’t want to throw even more shit their way…
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Testing anything from our asses isn’t something most labs are able to do, due to safety concerns and regulations.
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It didn’t have to be like this.
We’ve been expecting a mental health epidemic, but damn if this isn’t a weird and unenlightening “personal interest” lead-in. He killed himself because he had to play flag football?
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After a case of suspected food poisoning at a restaurant, I was given a stool sample kit to use at home. This was in the '90s. Not sure if this is something lab chains handled or if it was something unique to the department of health. Still, those labs do a lot of pre-employment testing for profit. If there are any regulations against it, surely those could be changed to enable a faster response during a pandemic.
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Adolescence is an inherently hard time of life, with a lot of stressors, insecurities and transitions built in. The pandemic has multiplied that by a lot. Depression and anxiety are rampant, my pediatric practice has become a psychiatric practice and we have lost more patients to suicide in the last few months than in the previous few years. The virus is claiming far more victims than just those who get ill with it. When this is analysed in retrospect, the excess mortality by age group will be fascinating if depressing data, but for the present we need to be supportive of each other and know to seek help if you need it. It is available and accessible, remotely and safely.
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Just like copaganda, promotion of stories like this can be used as part of the effort to convince parents to push for in-person school and sports. Those doing that have a vested interest in “getting back to normal” as soon as possible. The issues of mental and physical health are too often ignored in the face of that.
This story could be used as a cautionary tale on a few points. The loss of school part makes me wonder if young children are still taught how to be OK alone vs. needing external influences to keep them interested, entertained, thinking, or happy. Are people warned about promoting or enabling kids to pursue a singular interest, rather than encouraging a broad range of activities and interests? It’s part of a larger societal and educational problem. Rather than examining and changing it, they just want to pick it up again right where they left off.
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To be compared with the response next door:
An in-depth article lays out that the spread of the virus in Brazil was effectively organised by the Bolsoranists.
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Bolsonarsonists
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I certainly feel like the mental cost of Grandma and Grandpa (if not mom and dad) dying in the same year is elided in these articles.
I’ll repost this rant:
I’m very, very tired of people pretending the world didn’t burn down. I’m sick to the back teeth of it.
Screentime is the new Dungeons & Dragons, because every generation has to have one. It’s even been screentime before, which allows the agents of our discourse some much needed leisure.
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That rant was great - thanks for sharing it!
I’m still trying to lower my blood pressure at the suggestion that students need to gather in person to process their grief. If the result is more dead people to grieve over, who is that really helping? I’m starting to wonder if some of these folks are fans of the movie Heathers.
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They don’t need much these days. My last visit to a community clinic in Chula Vista (south San Diego), I was given a poop-based test kit for colon cancer that you could mail in to the lab. All they need is for you to touch the sampler to the poop, seal it in the package, and drop it in the mail (the sample, not the poops).
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test kit for colon cancer
Known colloquially in Ontario 
as the province’s “birthday card for your 50th”…
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I keep thinking how surprising it is that the board game Pandemic of all things should actually have an opposing team, but here we are.
Which is horrible to see, but since we already knew what happened, I’m glad to see at least it is being called out for what it actually is. In many ways the response in America, where sensible measures were interfered with and deaths allowed because they were mostly in “Democrat states” and among groups like black and poor people, is similar. It would be nice if media there would say the same thing, that the Republicans were not just incapable, they were genuinely pro-virus.
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Maybe it’s a sign of how I’m an unfeeling introvert non-human, but I just vacillate at high speed between anger and incomprehension at the “hugs are worth killing people” crowd.
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Some media outlets have said it, but that didn’t lead to the reaction of outrage or demands for change that many expected. Too many still are fine with the pro-virus policy, because they don’t believe the virus will affect them - or anyone they care about. They always pushed the narrative of recovering (or getting over it) more than the deaths and long-haul cases. There are still people who think kids cannot be infected, or that no children have died from it, which is partly why they endorse in-person classes.
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Unless I am mistaken, that version is testing for occult blood. A legit test for cancer, but very high false positive rate. The Cologuard test does require you to package and ship poo, pretty simple with the set up they send with the test. It actually tests for altered DNA typical of cancer cells. Much more accurate, but costs $600, vs. about $0.25 for the hemoccult test.
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Blood hidden in the sample, before anyone else goes down the same “intrigued then vaguely disappointed” rabbit hole that I just experienced.
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Do not waste anything.
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