***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.”

[srvy]

Originally Posted by eDave

Arizona

Cases: The 7-day avg has hit a new high. Cases shot up significantly from yesterday, 2nd highest number of cases reported ever.

Testing: PCR testing increased by about 1,200 tests from yesterday.

Spread: Overall PCR positive percentage ticked up again to 7.7% (up from a 6.6% low) and the average for this week is currently 14% (up from 12% last week). ⚠️ That's roughly 1 in 7 testing positive for COVID, up from 1 in 20 a month ago.

Hospital Utilization: ICU beds usage went up 76% to 79%. Inpatient bed occupancy shot up 78% to 83%. Hospitalizations for positive or suspected COVID-19 patients ticked up by 1%. Intubations increased by about 25% since yesterday. Ventilators in use shot up from 641 to 979, largest spike to date (could be weird data since number of vents available only went down by 40).

Did you buy a Mega Millions Lottery ticket? If so you may be a 400 million winner. Only one winner drawn and it was sold in Arizona.

[R Clark]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Do they? I am not saying they don't but what I said was it would be cool if we had the same exact situation without masks to see if masks did really work and if so to what degree???

I agree with a lot of your posts but damn that post reminds me of donger

[lewdog]

Pete, read this and report back. Thoughts?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN23G37V

[O.city]

Is wearing a mask a problem for some?

With my job I’m pretty used to it but wasn’t sure why it was such an issue for some?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by O.city

Is wearing a mask a problem for some?

With my job I’m pretty used to it but wasn’t sure why it was such an issue for some?

I get the minor reasons people don't like them. They're a bit uncomfortable, especially for long periods of time. They're a mild pain to remember to take along. They make it harder to understand. And they look funny.

None of those seem like a big deal to me, but couple that with a desire to not be a "sheep" or whatever, and you can understand it even if it is pretty silly.

I just wish people could understand that masks are the most likely path to preventing a repeat of lock downs this fall. Pick your poison I suppose.

[BigCatDaddy]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I get the minor reasons people don't like them. They're a bit uncomfortable, especially for long periods of time. They're a mild pain to remember to take along. They make it harder to understand. And they look funny.

None of those seem like a big deal to me, but couple that with a desire to not be a "sheep" or whatever, and you can understand it even if it is pretty silly.

I just wish people could understand that masks are the most likely path to preventing a repeat of lock downs this fall. Pick your poison I suppose.

Odds of another lockdown in MO occurring in your opinion?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Pete, read this and report back. Thoughts?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN23G37V

You're missing my point. I would like to, though I understand it is impossible, tp have two side by side, real, actual life scenarios where one had masks and one did not. It's impossible to do. But it would be truly the only way to get the actual real answer as to what degree do masks really help.

It's all an educated guess at this point. That doesn't mean they do or do not help it just means we have no way of knowing the exact results.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I get the minor reasons people don't like them. They're a bit uncomfortable, especially for long periods of time. They're a mild pain to remember to take along. They make it harder to understand. And they look funny.

None of those seem like a big deal to me, but couple that with a desire to not be a "sheep" or whatever, and you can understand it even if it is pretty silly.

I just wish people could understand that masks are the most likely path to preventing a repeat of lock downs this fall. Pick your poison I suppose.

Again I think masks in large are mostly psychological unless you have symptoms. I have not yet been sold on the asymptomatic people being super spreaders or whatever. And we are inching our way closer and closer to that being the case.

When we hear about all these breakouts or "clusters" and literally 90% of the people are either asymptomatic or otherwise have symptoms so mild they don't even notice it or chalk it up to allergies I start questioning a lot of what we think we know.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Again I think masks in large are mostly psychological unless you have symptoms. I have not yet been sold on the asymptomatic people being super spreaders or whatever. And we are inching our way closer and closer to that being the case.



When we hear about all these breakouts or "clusters" and literally 90% of the people are either asymptomatic or otherwise have symptoms so mild they don't even notice it or chalk it up to allergies I start questioning a lot of what we think we know.

Yeah, but there's literally no study that supports the use of masks that you wouldn't try to explain away.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

Odds of another lockdown in MO occurring in your opinion?

No clue. Just depends on whether the heat is a lot of the reason things have gotten better recently.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Again I think masks in large are mostly psychological unless you have symptoms. I have not yet been sold on the asymptomatic people being super spreaders or whatever. And we are inching our way closer and closer to that being the case.

When we hear about all these breakouts or "clusters" and literally 90% of the people are either asymptomatic or otherwise have symptoms so mild they don't even notice it or chalk it up to allergies I start questioning a lot of what we think we know.

The mildly symptomatic people are a large problem. If they’re having mild symptoms and thinking it’s something like allergies, mask wearing could help slow the spread of these people in the community if they were wearing masks. These people don’t have enough symptoms to think about getting tested and many are going on about their daily lives not realizing they’re spreading it. Even if mask wearing helps as poorly as you think (you’re wrong), even if it was a measly 5% difference in spread, you’d still do a lot of good having everyone wearing masks. You treat EVERYONE like they have it so the spread can be less, this helps stop the spread from presymptomatic and mildly symptomatic.

This is as simple as I can make it.

I realize you’ll come up with some reeruned argument, however.

[Eleazar]

Thank you, everyone, for mostly keeping pete out of DC. We are going to send a BBQ tray to this thread as a token of our gratitude.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Again I think masks in large are mostly psychological unless you have symptoms. I have not yet been sold on the asymptomatic people being super spreaders or whatever. And we are inching our way closer and closer to that being the case.

When we hear about all these breakouts or "clusters" and literally 90% of the people are either asymptomatic or otherwise have symptoms so mild they don't even notice it or chalk it up to allergies I start questioning a lot of what we think we know.

Pre- symptomatic and mildly symptomatic is the issue which at first were lumped into the asymptotic spread pile causing confusion, I understand it doesn’t make sense to wear a masks because a person has diarrhea but it is a symptom and wearing a mask could help even a little, R0.9 vs R1.1 is a huge difference.

[R Clark]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

Thank you, everyone, for mostly keeping pete out of DC. We are going to send a BBQ tray to this thread as a token of our gratitude.

No just take donger back to his home ,before this thread he was never in the lounge.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by R Clark

No just take donger back to his home ,before this thread he was never in the lounge.

If you guys would just answer his questions he wouldn't have anything more to say.