***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.”

[DanT]

Originally Posted by srvy

I wonder what % of the population gets flu shots and also wonder what the number of deaths before flu shots were a thing.

For the 2018-19 flu season, the CDC reported this (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/c...9estimates.htm)

Originally Posted by CDC

Vaccination coverage with ≥1 dose of flu vaccine was 62.6% among children 6 months through 17 years, an increase of 4.7 percentage points from the 2017–18 flu season and 3.6 percentage points higher than coverage in the 2016–17 season. Flu vaccination coverage among adults ≥18 years was 45.3%, an increase of 8.2 percentage points from the 2017–18 flu season and 2.0 percentage points higher than the 2016–17 season.

The CDC estimates that in the 2017-18 flu season, flu vaccination prevented about 5,700 influenza-associated deaths in the US (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/vaccineeffect.htm).

[arrwheader]

Originally Posted by DanT

In the United States in 2017, there were 647,457 deaths from heart disease, about 1,800 per day.( https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lea...s-of-death.htm ) The total number of deaths that year was 2,813,503 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm), about 7,700 per day. Having a 2 or 3 thousand die in one day from a virus is notable, which is why the Surgeon General made the remarks he did. In the first source I cited, the number of "influenza and pneumonia" deaths for 2017 was 55,672, about 150 per day.

Sorry didn't mean a day and not coming after you but I just don't know why we have to compare everything to war. If you want to compare casualties of health care workers helping patients in this pandemic to war casualties ok I can reason with that. I just think it is a disservice to those who died for a specific cause who put their lives on the line for their countries not people who just got sick. I know there were civilian casualties at Pearl and obviously 911 was all civilian but they themselves were casualties of conflicts between two cognitive humans sides non the less. Not the same here.



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[DanT]

Originally Posted by arrwheader

Sorry didn't mean a day and not coming after you but I just don't know why we have to compare everything to war. If you want to compare casualties of health care workers helping patients in this pandemic to war casualties ok I can reason with that. I just think it is a disservice to those who died for a specific cause who put their lives on the line for their countries not people who just got sick. I know there were civilian casualties at Pearl and obviously 911 was all civilian but they themselves were casualties of conflicts between two cognitive humans sides non the less. Not the same here.



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

I think I understand what you mean. You're right that disease-related deaths don't necessarily involve conflicts among humans, the way that the attacks on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001 did.

I think the Surgeon General was just trying to acknowledge the magnitude of the loss of life and communicate that as a nation we're about to go though a period with very grim daily death counts of the sort we rarely see.

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by arrwheader

Sorry didn't mean a day and not coming after you but I just don't know why we have to compare everything to war. If you want to compare casualties of health care workers helping patients in this pandemic to war casualties ok I can reason with that. I just think it is a disservice to those who died for a specific cause who put their lives on the line for their countries not people who just got sick. I know there were civilian casualties at Pearl and obviously 911 was all civilian but they themselves were casualties of conflicts between two cognitive humans sides non the less. Not the same here.



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Very good point man. I agree.

[KurtCobain]

Originally Posted by DanT

In the United States in 2017, there were 647,457 deaths from heart disease, about 1,800 per day.( https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lea...s-of-death.htm ) The total number of deaths that year was 2,813,503 (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm), about 7,700 per day. Having a 2 or 3 thousand die in one day from a virus is notable, which is why the Surgeon General made the remarks he did. In the first source I cited, the number of "influenza and pneumonia" deaths for 2017 was 55,672, about 150 per day.

Still, it's dumb to compare anything like a virus to violent acts of murder.

[arrwheader]

Originally Posted by DanT

I think I understand what you mean. You're right that disease-related deaths don't necessarily involve conflicts among humans, the way that the attacks on December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001 did.



I think the Surgeon General was just trying to acknowledge the magnitude of the loss of life and communicate that as a nation we're about to go though a period with very grim daily death counts of the sort we rarely see.

For sure, and I think I understand the reasoning why he uses the comparison. It is a way of uniting during a crisis.

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[eDave]

Originally Posted by jdubya

Interesting

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coron...yvYY4GjDWqpzF0

Man, I don't know about that...

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by jerryaldini

Missouri is one of seven remaining states with an F grade for distancing using cell phone data. The others are Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wyoming. Jackson County has a D grade. That's why there's so much upside in their data if they improve quickly.

https://www.unacast.com/covid19/soci...ing-scoreboard

Wyoming?



How the hell can Wyoming get an F? Hell, there are 31 US cities that have a higher population than the entire ****ing state. As I just mentioned in another thread, you would be practicing social distancing simply by being there.

[Bugeater]

Yeah **** that site...New York and New Jersey both have Bs...give me a ****ing break.

[JakeF]

Originally Posted by Donger

In Spain, officials said fatality numbers had fallen for the third straight day while France reported its lowest daily toll in a week.

That's really good.

Hopefully, that trend continues all over the world.

[2112]

NY city MTA workers taking a toll from the corona virus

https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavir...-worker-deaths

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced Sunday that 22 of its employees working on buses and subways have died from COVID-19 -- more deaths than what the city police and fire departments have reported, combined.

The MTA has employed 70,000 people, with 50,000 of them working for NYC transit. The agency reported that 1,092 of its employees have tested positive for the coronavirus while another 5,430 were home in self-quarantine.

The MTA recently announced it would be operating on an Essential Service plan to help shuttle health-care workers, first responders and other essential employees to their jobs, but it was encouraging everyone else to stay home.

MTA officials said they have distributed 240,000 masks and 3.2 million gloves to workers continuing to serve commuters.

Since the pandemic began, workers have sanitized subway stations regularly and handed out some 50,000 gallons of cleaning supplies and 7,000 boxes of sanitizing wipes to aid in the efforts.

Buses have implemented rear-door boarding to limit interactions between riders and bus operators and subway stations have gone cash-less, with most transactions being done via vending machines.

[PAChiefsGuy]

Spain and Italy death rate slows: On Sunday, 674 people died in Spain from coronavirus, the lowest daily rise since early March. And Italy recorded its lowest death rate within a 24-hour period in two weeks with 525 fatalities.

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/...-20/index.html

[Mr_Tomahawk]

I wonder if the media/health officials will continue to paint a doom and gloom picture for a while even when we begin to see the curve flatten? I’m guessing the minute the health officials state that there is improvement and the curve is flattening out, youre going to have part of the population resume their daily routine as much as possible and then we will see an explosion of new cases again due to this...

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by TLO

They updated this - Holy smokes things have changed.

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

Wasnt it 83k last week?

[PAChiefsGuy]

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

I wonder if the media/health officials will continue to paint a doom and gloom picture for a while even when we begin to see the curve flatten? I’m guessing the minute the health officials state that there is improvement and the curve is flattening out, youre going to have part of the population resume their daily routine as much as possible and then we will see an explosion of new cases again due to this...

You call it a doom and gloom picture I say they were just trying to get people to practice social distancing.

Yes I agree you'll see more people going out next week, maybe even this weekend. Hopefully we don't see a spike.