***NON-POLITICAL COVID-19 Discussion Thread***

[JakeF]

A couple of reminders...

Originally Posted by Bwana

Once again, don't come in this thread with some kind of political agenda, or you will be shown the door. If you want to go that route, there is a thread about this in DC.

Originally Posted by Dartgod

People, there is a lot of good information in this thread, let's try to keep the petty bickering to a minimum.

We all have varying opinions about the impact of this, the numbers, etc. We will all never agree with each other. But we can all keep it civil.

Thanks!

Click here for the original OP:

Spoiler!

Apparently the CoronaVirus can survive on a inanimate objects, such as door knobs, for 9 days.

California coronavirus case could be first spread within U.S. community, CDC says
By SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, JACLYN COSGROVE
FEB. 26, 2020 8:04 PM

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what could be the first case of novel coronavirus in the United States involving a patient in California who neither recently traveled out of the country nor was in contact with someone who did.

“At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown. It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. “Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. It’s also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.”

The individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in Sacramento County, according to the state Department of Public Health.

The CDC said the “case was detected through the U.S. public health system — picked up by astute clinicians.”

Officials at UC Davis Medical Center expanded on what the federal agency might have meant by that in an email sent Wednesday, as reported by the Davis Enterprise newspaper.

The patient arrived at UC Davis Medical Center from another hospital Feb. 19 and “had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” according to an email sent by UC Davis officials that was obtained by the Davis Enterprise.

The staff at UC Davis requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, but because the patient didn’t fit the CDC’s existing criteria for the virus, a test wasn’t immediately administered, according to the email. The CDC then ordered the test Sunday, and results were announced Wednesday. Hospital administrators reportedly said in the email that despite these issues, there has been minimal exposure at the hospital because of safety protocols they have in place.

A UC Davis Health spokesperson declined Wednesday evening to share the email with The Times.

Since Feb. 2, more than 8,400 returning travelers from China have entered California, according to the state health department. They have been advised to self-quarantine for 14 days and limit interactions with others as much as possible, officials said.

“This is a new virus, and while we are still learning about it, there is a lot we already know,” Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California.”

It is not clear how the person became infected, but public health workers could not identify any contacts with people who had traveled to China or other areas where the virus is widespread. That raises concern that the virus is spreading in the United States, creating a challenge for public health officials, experts say.

“It’s the first signal that we could be having silent transmission in the community,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “It probably means there are many more cases out there, and it probably means this individual has infected others, and now it’s a race to try to find out who that person has infected.”

On Tuesday, the CDC offered its most serious warning to date that the United States should expect and prepare for the coronavirus to become a more widespread health issue.

“Ultimately, we expect we will see coronavirus spread in this country,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “It’s not so much a question of if, but a question of when.”

According to the CDC’s latest count Wednesday morning, 59 U.S. residents have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus — 42 of whom are repatriated citizens from a Diamond Princess cruise. That number has grown by two since Messonnier’s last count Tuesday, although the CDC was not immediately available to offer details on the additional cases.

More than 82,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported globally, and more than 2,700 people have died, with the majority in mainland China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

But public health leaders have repeatedly reminded residents that the health risk from the novel coronavirus to the general public remains low.

“While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday. “From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80% do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization. There have been no confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States to date.”

CDC officials have also warned that although the virus is likely to spread in U.S. communities, the flu still poses a greater risk.

Gostin said the news of potential silent transmission does not eliminate the possibility of containing the virus in the U.S. and preventing an outbreak.

“There are few enough cases that we should at least try,” he said. “Most of us are not optimistic that that will be successful, but we’re still in the position to try.”

[TLO]

Originally Posted by NotDonger

Updated breakthrough case numbers which resulted in hospitalization:

3,729 out of 144 million fully vaccinated.

Hoo boy

[loochy]

Originally Posted by NotDonger

Updated breakthrough case numbers which resulted in hospitalization:

3,729 out of 144 million fully vaccinated.

.0026%. Nice!

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Someone could go through the effort to break down that survey, and the twitter user's suspect math. But we all know it wouldn't matter. You won't care. You won't learn anything. You won't change your mind. You'll just find something new to throw against the wall tomorrow.

It takes you 5 seconds to repost that stuff, and someone else all day to debunk it. You eventually win by exhaustion.

Remember when you point the finger at someone else there are even more pointing back at yourself.

But learning nothing is a great summary for the last year.

You did get that part right.

[NotDonger]

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday the highly contagious delta variant is the “greatest threat” to the nation’s attempt to eliminate Covid-19.

Delta, first identified in India, now makes up about 20% of all new cases in the United States, up from 10% about two weeks ago, Fauci said during a White House news conference on the pandemic.

He said delta appears to be “following the same pattern” as alpha, the variant first found in the U.K., with infections doubling in the U.S. about every two weeks.

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Nearly half the country is fully vaccinated? Sounds like bullshit.

Btw, I get that everyone wants to downplay the number of cases involving side effects/death/etc, but we have no clue about longterm effects. Or even current underlying problems that aren't detected or reported. It's kind of like beginning a study on the safety of cigarette smoking, and then concluding after two months that it's generally safe.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly trust these manufacturers. What have they done to earn this trust? This is ****ing Big Pharma! All they do is get sued constantly for products that are killing or endangering people. Now they release something that was rushed to market, for which they have NO liability and everyone lines up with no questions asked?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly trust these manufacturers. What have they done to earn this trust?

For starters... they passed the normal regulatory clinical trials with surprisingly good results.

[NotDonger]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

Nearly half the country is fully vaccinated? Sounds like bullshit.

Btw, I get that everyone wants to downplay the number of cases involving side effects/death/etc, but we have no clue about longterm effects. Or even current underlying problems that aren't detected or reported. It's kind of like beginning a study on the safety of cigarette smoking, and then concluding after two months that it's generally safe.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly trust these manufacturers. What have they done to earn this trust? This is ****ing Big Pharma! All they do is get sued constantly for products that are killing or endangering people. Now they release something that was rushed to market, for which they have NO liability and everyone lines up with no questions asked?

Well, the mRNA vaccines did go through the three phase trials, and people started getting stuck over a year ago. So, I suppose it depends on how you define "long-term" effects and what you think those effects might be. If you think they alter DNA, that's wrong. They don't.

And yes, we just passed 150 million Americans who are fully-vaccinated.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

Nearly half the country is fully vaccinated? Sounds like bullshit.

That is bullshit. We're over half.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

Nearly half the country is fully vaccinated? Sounds like bullshit.

Why? That's pretty easy to count...

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

Btw, I get that everyone wants to downplay the number of cases involving side effects/death/etc, but we have no clue about longterm effects. Or even current underlying problems that aren't detected or reported. It's kind of like beginning a study on the safety of cigarette smoking, and then concluding after two months that it's generally safe.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly trust these manufacturers. What have they done to earn this trust? This is ****ing Big Pharma! All they do is get sued constantly for products that are killing or endangering people. Now they release something that was rushed to market, for which they have NO liability and everyone lines up with no questions asked?

Btw, I get that everyone wants to downplay the number of cases involving side effects/death/etc, but we have no clue about longterm effects. Or even current underlying problems that aren't detected or reported. It's kind of like beginning a study on AIDS and then concluding after 12 months that it's no big deal.

I'm not arguing that people should get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly dismiss evidence that vaccines might be beneficial. Why would a novel virus not be taken seriously? This is a brand new virus! All it has done is spread quickly and easily, caused many to become very ill, and has cause a great number of people worldwide to die. Now we have a way to potentially stop this with good effectivity and few side effects, and people immediately dismiss it because of paranoia?








See how that works? It's probably best to not dismiss either side, but take in the whole of the evidence and proceed with caution, not jumping to either side with wreckless abandon.

[NotDonger]

Originally Posted by wazu

That is bullshit. We're over half.

No, we're at 45.2%

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by loochy

I'm just craving the markedly less effective vaccine with more side effects!

But only one stick in the arm! And none of that mRNA Bill Gates 5G voodoo.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by NotDonger

No, we're at 45.2%

But we're at 53% with one shot. So we're slowly getting to that magic number of 60% fully vaccinated.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

Nearly half the country is fully vaccinated? Sounds like bullshit.

Btw, I get that everyone wants to downplay the number of cases involving side effects/death/etc, but we have no clue about longterm effects. Or even current underlying problems that aren't detected or reported. It's kind of like beginning a study on the safety of cigarette smoking, and then concluding after two months that it's generally safe.

I'm not arguing that people shouldn't get vaccinated, but it does baffle me that so many are willing to blindly trust these manufacturers. What have they done to earn this trust? This is ****ing Big Pharma! All they do is get sued constantly for products that are killing or endangering people. Now they release something that was rushed to market, for which they have NO liability and everyone lines up with no questions asked?

Unless you plan to start producing you own vaccine/meds at some point you are going to have to trust somebody .

[NotDonger]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

But we're at 53% with one shot. So we're slowly getting to that magic number of 60% fully vaccinated.

Yep. If the CDC's estimates are correct, and there have been around 114 million cases here, and add that to the percentage fully-vaccinated, we are pretty close to 75% already.

[wazu]

Seems like China should be getting a lot of praise these days. Entire pandemic they have had less than 5K die. Pretty impressive.