Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) added 121 new COVID-19 positive cases to the county total on Wednesday.
One death has been removed from North County Unincorporated and reallocated to Los Angeles County in order to prevent duplication of reporting, making the total deaths within Santa Barbara County back to 29.
Also, an adjustment was made to remove 55 previous cases due to duplication, negative results and/or the case was found to be out of the jurisdiction.
The grand total is now 3,808 cases, with 444 of those currently active in the community. There are now 72 hospitalizations with 21 in the intensive care unit.
More data can be found here.
Thanks anti-mask culture warriors. Looks like July and August will be shut down.
The number of hospitalizations and ICU beds are what is important at this point. Total cases, percent infected, etc. are unimportant. We will be shut down if the bed space decreases to a critical point, and when the stash of PPE for healthcare workers is depleted. This could happen in the next few weeks. If you care about this and the potential for a shut down, then please do your best to comply with the mask order, social distancing, and just be careful. It’s not that difficult and the consequences should be motivation enough if your really care.
CSF – Your hypocrisy is over the top. – some weeks ago you were applauding the anti-mask rally.
Wrong. I never applauded the anti-mask rally. I’ve always promoted mask wearing and even posted peer-reviewed studies on the comparison between N95 masks and surgical makes, as well as efficacy of various materials used in homemade masks. You, anonymous, are a liar. If anything, I have questioned the allowance of BLM protests with respect to the prohibition of anti-mask protests. All should be allowed, or none. I have always abhorred double standards.
CSF I mixed you up with another screen name from past posts. Apologies – I am sorry. However, I wasn’t aware that any anti-masks protests had been subverted here. I also despise double standards. And thank you for promoting mask use – I’m on edge thinking where we all will be if we can’t slow this down.
8:01 PM – CSF did not applaud any of the rallies. However, he only complained the BLM protests, not the earlier anti-mask protests. That’s where the double standard issue arose.
You’ve got a lot of integrity to admit that, and I’m impressed and appreciative. You are a gem. I share your concern on how this is going to turn out if we can’t slow down COVID. I’m a biochemist, and have lots of experience and publications on proteins and nucleic acids, though admittedly not in the development of vaccines or virology. I really don’t think a vaccine is possible in the next 12 months, despite the hopes or promises of many, so forget that being on the horizon. The laboratory work is extremely time consuming, and I’ve often be overly optimistic in my own projection of results, because we’re never really honest when factoring in problems. Then you have all the concerns of skipping to human trials without proper animal experimentation, which is naïve and driven by desire to pump pharma stock prices. Figure in 1000 failures for each lead, issues with viral recombination, adverse reactions, etc., and you’re looking at a long time for a stable vaccine. That’s reality. Herd immunity is questionable for two reasons. One, you only have around 1% of the US population infected, and you need between 35% to 75%. We have a long way to go, assuming immunity is lasting, which as yet to be determined. So, in the meantime the best we have is to no be infected, and that is on us. Each of us. I’ll do my part.
Hi MAC: Thanks. Cheers!
MAC: Despite coming to my side, I found a comment that proves you aren’t telling whole truth, yet again. From EdHat, May 12, article titled “Two Separate Rallies Take to the Streets on May Day”. I wrote the following, mocking the anti-mask crowd, “I have a great idea! Why don’t those who want to be released from the lockdown just volunteer to become infected and get us closer to the 29-74% HIT required for herd immunity? It would only take a couple of weeks, unlike the mythic vaccine.” MAC, care to apologize???
If your mask works so well you needn’t worry about the maskless.
I see no specific mention of masks in that comment, so that’s not the whole truth, yet again.
CSF: it’s good to see you back in the fray. Here’s the link to Cottage Hospital’s Covid-19 status page *** https://www.cottagehealth.org/coronavirus-covid-19/updates/ *** Here’s today’s numbers: ***** COVID-19 Update from Cottage Health *****
Below is a status update as of July 8, 2020. *******
Cottage Health is caring for a total of 303 patients across all campuses. ******
244 are acute care patients; 129 acute care beds remain available. ******
In surge planning, capacity is identified for adding 270 acute care beds. ******
Of the 244 acute care patients, 13 patients are on ventilators. 73 ventilators remain available (adult, pediatric and neonatal ventilators). *****
Of the 244 acute care patients, 26 are in isolation with COVID-19 symptoms; 25 are confirmed COVID-19 positive. *****
Of the 25 patients in isolation, 7 patients are in critical care. *****
SHASTA: I miss mountaineering. No trips for me and my dare-devil wife this year. She’s a solid belayer and I literally trust her with my life, and aside from being cute as all hell that’s a bonus to have married her 😉 National Parks seem like a mess. We’ve been trying to summit Mount Lyell in Yosemite for a few years, and made one attempt in late summer 2018. It and neighboring McClure are the last glaciers in the park, and basically downgraded to ice fields these days. We found it nearly impassible in late summer as the talus moraines eat up so much time boldering. I think that route is best in early spring before the thaw when crampons and ice axes are used. So maybe next year if there’s some change in COVID. I’m glad to be back here commenting, as I was put in the penalty box for freedom of speech on topics that are verboten. Anyway, nice to see you keeping up on the numbers. Stay safe.
CSF: Good for you with your partner in adventure. In a week I’m off to Mount Shasta for two weeks with mine. No climbing this year, but lots of alpine hikes. If I get my act together I’ll post here on Edhat the beauty of the region. We are having one or two SB families rendezvous with us up there to give them an up close and personal Shasta experience. Do you still need a Shasta climbing book because I’ll be able to pick one up at the 5th Season which is the outfitting place for summiteers. All of Siskiyou County has had only 30 Covid-19 cases, so it will be fantastic to be in a very low virus environment.
Thanks for your thoughtful and informative post CSF. With the likely reality of a proven vaccine not on the immediate horizon I can only assume we are in it for the long haul if we can’t get our numbers down like some other countries have. The more I think about that the more my mind goes down the rabbit hole regarding the uncertainty of what life could be like over the next several years. Stay safe and keepb the info and insights coming.
SHASTA: No need for a book right now, but thank you for the offer. I’m a member of the Mountaineers, so I probably can get the book through them when I need it, which won’t be for some time unfortunately. If I can’t and we’re still in touch, I’ll reach out. Sounds like you’re getting a dream vacation and I am definitely jealous. What a beautiful mountain and I hope you will post some info on the trip here. I’m finishing an important research project and will probably take some time off next year. Shasta and Lassen are on my immediate list because of the proximity. Then maybe some time in Europe to explore the Alps and Pyrenees. I seriously need a long break. In the meantime have fun, stay safe and please share photos/videos of your trip. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would love to see Shasta.
Absolutely a great question. SBPDH is not forthcoming in details, but if you want you can comb through their press releases for the past three months and tease out that information for yourself, as I have had to do for simple things such as tests per day. SBPDH is trying to make things as difficult as possible in order to hide the shortcomings of Van Do and Asborg. I’ll probably be deleted from saying this, but our PHD is as inept as Fauci and the rest of these so called experts. Most have an M.D. attached to their name which should tell you a lot.
THEREALBEBE There are actually several self-proclaimed experts who frequently post. One actually stated it is up to him to police the other commenters for accuracy—as if we are to accept his superiority without even knowing him or his verified credentials. Then they post some cherry-picked links they googled as if that proves their credibility. All of us can google. I would be more impressed by citations from articles that are available to professionals, who have access to professional journals not generally available to any random google search. Since commenters don’t use real names or verify credentials, no commenter is automatically a “top authority.” I personally think all comments are of interest, even when I don’t agree, but I won’t make medical or legal decisions based on what’s stated here.
or you can call them and ask? how many people with brown hair have died? how many people with blue eyes died…. do you see how far this can go? they cant provide an infinite list of details and still keep people on track. when we talked about the older generations being hit harder, people got distracted my topics and opinions on why older people were dieing more. Makes sense that they provide clear to the point info, as the public has demonstrated….. we cant keep our focus.
what the dumb….?
@CSF, statements like this last one are exactly why people don’t take you seriously and call you a hypocrite. Can you outline your training in medicine, epidemiology, and public health? You’re just some guy behind a keyboard, yet you scoff at M.D.s with actual training. Why do people hate higher education so much? Glorifying the cult of ignorance in this country.
@ Potif, they have given vague details on the ages of those who died. Usually, it’s “this individual was over the age of 70,” and they stated most had underlying health conditions. I do believe I saw that one individual was in her 40s.
CSF you commented that bacteria are engineered to be antibiotic resistant for research purposes. Really? This is the first I’ve heard of that. I’ve also read up on how bad our labs are in terms of safety. Makes one wonder, we hear about antibiotic resistant infections – how many of these were the result of lab accidents?
BIGMAN: Yes, bacterial are given antibiotic resistance purposefully and here’s the reason why. If you want to use E. coli to express a human protein for research purposes, then you need to give the bacterial the DNA (gene) to make it. The delivery system is a circular piece of DNA called a plasmid, which contains the gene of interest as well as DNA coding for other things, such as beta-lactamase which is an enzyme that breaks down antibiotics such as ampicillin. You deliver the plasmid to the bacteria in a process call transformation, the streak the bacteria on to a petri dish loading with ampicillin. Any colonies of bacteria that survive the ampicillin and grow on the plate have the plasmid that codes for beta-lactamase AND the gene you’re interested in. The antibiotic resistance is called a selectivity marker and helps you differentiate bacteria with the gene you’re interested in from those cells that didn’t get it.
BENE: Agreed. Don’t believe any advice on the internet, period. I’ve seen advice on how to mix lemon juice with baking soda to make a facial mask. Any kid who made a volcano as a science project knows that these to things neutralize each other and produce a lot of bubbles a process that ultimately produces foamy salt water. So you can just put salt water on your face and skip the theatrics. I’m not sure that you’re singling me out with this comment, but I have a PhD in biochemistry and have lot of experience with nucleic acids (which viruses have), protein-based enzymes (which viruses use), and experience with pathogens. I won’t release my personal info or list my peer-reviewed publications for obvious reasons. But if you doubt me, then feel free to set a time here to quiz me on any subject that I’m proficient at, and you’re free to ask anyone to help you with the questions. I have expertise in biochemistry, computational chemistry, and physical chemistry (thermodynamics and quantum mechanics). I’m just okay in organic chemistry and suck at inorganic chemistry. I’ll make myself available to real-time interrogation and will even do calculations on questions of your own design if you worry that I might just look up answers. Consider the gauntlet dropped and I await your response, or you can simply slink away after making such a terrible generalization about many of the thoughtful contributions some EdHat users have endeavored to make.
THEREALBEBE: I have published papers in ACS journals in topics such as antisense therapy, where I used bioorganic chemistry to make oligonucleotide analogs to target telomerase, which is the enzyme that interferes with the molecular clock that prevents the shortening of chromosomes as cells divide. Cancer cells use this enzyme to remain “immortal”, while regular somatic cells are deficient in this enzyme and the result is that your chromosomes lose information and effectively age you. I’ve also worked on elucidating the kinetics and mechanism of enzymes that produce oncometabolites, such as 2-hydroxyglutarate. These enzymes are upregulated in cancer and their products are implicated in transforming normal cells into cancerous ones. Furthermore, these enzymes produce NADH/NADPH, by virtue of their proximity to the Citric Acid Cycle, and may serve as a source of energy to rapidly dividing cancer cells. My problem with M.D.s is complicated. Surgeons have my deep respect, but most M.D. these days are simply drug pushers. If you’ve every been in a doctors office take a look behind the receptionist desk and you’ll often see a grease board where they list the pharma companies scheduled drug rep visit, and the details of the catered lunch they bring. These reps show up and bring free food and samples and tell the doctors the best stuff to prescribe. M.D.s get some really difficult training early on, which is tough and I fully appreciate how hard med school is. But afterwards most just get lazy and are basically just promoting what the drug reps give them as samples. The doctors I have the least respect for are the ones who are become bureaucrats, such as Fauci and our local PHD officials. They are basically politicians.