***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.”

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by Monticore

Have you ever taken any medication ever? I would assume at somE point you did and that medication had most likely worse potential side effects than the flu vaccine , from aspirin to chemotherapy there will always be a risk With any medication but often than not the benefits outweighs the negatives or else it would not be recommended .

The radiation emitted from granite countertop probably causes more harm than flu shots.

I feel like you must have missed the main point here. This/These vaccines are being rushed through without proper due diligence with the standard trials that weed out most of the problems to know what the side effects are that comes with said vaccine. Once the vaccine has been out and they know more about it and it has been "refined" then I might get the shot, might.
I have never take the flu shot because it just isn't what I want to do. Flu doesn't kill. The pneumonia you get from it can. I believe in letting my body build its own immunity as much as possible. I do take the Pneumonia shot every year and will continue that practice.
I have COPD so yes I take meds, but those meds have been tested for decades before they hit the market to know what the side effects are and the severity of those side effects and the signs that would show that a person needs to stop taking them or that a person needs to seek medical help due to a certain reaction.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by Chief Roundup

I feel like you must have missed the main point here. This/These vaccines are being rushed through without proper due diligence with the standard trials that weed out most of the problems to know what the side effects are that comes with said vaccine. Once the vaccine has been out and they know more about it and it has been "refined" then I might get the shot, might.
I have never take the flu shot because it just isn't what I want to do. Flu doesn't kill. The pneumonia you get from it can. I believe in letting my body build its own immunity as much as possible. I do take the Pneumonia shot every year and will continue that practice.
I have COPD so yes I take meds, but those meds have been tested for decades before they hit the market to know what the side effects are and the severity of those side effects and the signs that would show that a person needs to stop taking them or that a person needs to seek medical help due to a certain reaction.

I assumed you developed COPD from smoking cigarettes, it always baffles me when smokers are afraid to ingest anything so called untested or potentially harmful, they always seem to be the ones who come in for x ray worried the radiation will give them cancer.

And yes the pneumonia kills you but unlike bacterial version which can be treated the viral version acquired potentially from getting influenza isn’t and although rare it can still trigger similar inflammatory damage we are seeing with

covid .

It is just funny by how some people screaming about the covid fear mongering are fear mongering about vaccines , how many times have the flu deaths stats been posted in this thread and still people minimize it.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by Monticore

I assumed you developed COPD from smoking cigarettes, it always baffles me when smokers are afraid to ingest anything so called untested or potentially harmful, they always seem to be the ones who come in for x ray worried the radiation will give them cancer.

And yes the pneumonia kills you but unlike bacterial version which can be treated the viral version acquired potentially from getting influenza isn’t and although rare it can still trigger similar inflammatory damage we are seeing with

covid .

It is just funny by how some people screaming about the covid fear mongering are fear mongering about vaccines , how many times have the flu deaths stats been posted in this thread and still people minimize it.

Flu is very dangerous. It's deadlier than Covid for the very young. It's also deadly for the elderly with multiple co-morbidities..just like Covid, although Covid appears much deadlier for the elderly than the normal, seasonal flu.

[dirk digler]

Top Hospital Doctors Warn Kansas City Is On The Verge Of Uncontrolled Coronavirus Spread

https://www.kcur.org/health/2020-09-...-HKSgGfEqDcAFQ

The Kansas City area is poised to become the next major U.S. hotspot for COVID-19, risking a dangerous and previously unseen stage of the virus for the region.

Chief medical officers of some of Kansas City’s leading hospitals and civic leaders warned during an online event Wednesday that residents urgently need to take action to shift the Kansas City area's course.

“Either we get greater control of the virus or the virus will take greater control of our health, our economy, our daily activities,” said Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas Mayor David Alvey, who hosted the event.

University of Kansas Health Systems Chief Medical Officer Steven Stites and others on the call said area residents need to increase preventive measures, including the wearing of masks indoors and outdoors, maintaining social distancing and limiting group gatherings to no more than 10 people.

An average of 90 people are currently being admitted to hospitals for COVID-19 each day in the metro area, and representatives of several hospitals said those patients were already straining their capacity.

Dr. Larry Botts, chief medical officer of AventHealth Shawnee Mission in Merriam, Kansas, described the last few six weeks as a “very emotional and stressful period” for hospital staff, who have treated a sustained high number of patients exceeding those during any other time of the pandemic.

“Our greatest source of anxiety is that we will experience a surge which overwhelms our system and will be unable to care for our patients,” Botts said.

Both Kansas and Missouri are currently regarded as “red zones,” defined by the White House Coronavirus Task Force as having at least 10% percent of COVID-19 tests coming back positive.

Kansas currently has a 16% positivity rate and Missouri has a 13.6% rate, according to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The Kansas City metro area is currently averaging 331 new cases each day and reported 22 deaths in the last seven days.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

STAY HOME, BE SAFE, CASES, LET'S CLOSE DOWN ALL SMALL BUSINESSES! MEGA CORPORATIONS FOR ALL...THOSE BUSINESSES ARE SAFE!

[O.city]

Well if we’re anything like the other areas, we’re about halfway thru the surge

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball

STAY HOME, BE SAFE, CASES, LET'S CLOSE DOWN ALL SMALL BUSINESSES!

Costco will still be open...

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Costco will still be open...

We can cram a million people into a Costco and Wal-Mart throughout the whole ordeal. Public safety my ass.

[kgrund]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

Top Hospital Doctors Warn Kansas City Is On The Verge Of Uncontrolled Coronavirus Spread

https://www.kcur.org/health/2020-09-...-HKSgGfEqDcAFQ

So the Shawnee Mission Hospital is overwhelmed when the new hospitalization average rate (per Johnson County COVID site) is 1.2 per day with a peak of 3.5 per day way back on July 21st? Nothing about hospitalizations on the Johnson County site would hint at anything remotely resembling a crisis. Somebody is being overly dramatic or the County is not being completely transparent. Something does not add up on that comment IMO.

[MahomesMagic]

Current antibody tests fail to identify people who had mild infections

Testing for severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes covid-19, is complex and politically sensitive. Seroprevalence studies use antibodies as markers of pathogen exposure to estimate the proportion of the population that has been infected.

Considerable variation has been observed in the results of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence studies.1 A recent survey in Spain suggested that a small fraction of the population was seropositive, despite the country being severely affected by the virus.2 However, within-individual variation has been observed in immune responses to viral exposure, particularly in those with mild or asymptomatic disease. For example, a pilot study from the Karolinska Institute found the percentage of people mounting T cell responses after mild covid-19, asymptomatic disease, or exposure to infected family members, consistently exceeded the percentage mounting detectable IgG serological responses against the virus.3 Such discordant results could have major implications for epidemiological modelling of disease transmission and herd immunity.

A recent seroprevalence survey of 1473 residents (79% of the local population) in Ischgl, Austria, using a combined IgG and IgA approach found SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 42.4% of those tested, far higher than rates in previous population based surveys of other infection hotspots.19 Similarly, IgA antibodies were detected in 11% of 1862 people sampled from the general population in Luxembourg, whereas IgG antibodies were found in only 1.9%.20

Finally, mucosal and bloodborne immune responses may provide complementary information crucial for accurate assessment of viral exposure in both individuals and populations. In a cross sectional study of UK healthcare workers, combined IgG, IgA, and IgM testing for SARS-Cov-2 spike protein in saliva samples identified 15% of participants as positive despite a negative serum test result.4

In conclusion, current seroprevalence studies may fail to detect people who have had mild covid-19.

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3364

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by kgrund

So the Shawnee Mission Hospital is overwhelmed when the new hospitalization average rate (per Johnson County COVID site) is 1.2 per day with a peak of 3.5 per day way back on July 21st? Nothing about hospitalizations on the Johnson County site would hint at anything remotely resembling a crisis. Somebody is being overly dramatic or the County is not being completely transparenft. Something does not add up on that comment IMO.

There isn't. Hospitals are far from overwhelmed. It's fear mongering bullshit.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by kgrund

So the Shawnee Mission Hospital is overwhelmed when the new hospitalization average rate (per Johnson County COVID site) is 1.2 per day with a peak of 3.5 per day way back on July 21st? Nothing about hospitalizations on the Johnson County site would hint at anything remotely resembling a crisis. Somebody is being overly dramatic or the County is not being completely transparent. Something does not add up on that comment IMO.

They didn't say they were overwhelmed...yet. They just are warning that they are seeing increased hospitalizations and don't want it to happen.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball

There isn't. Hospitals are far from overwhelmed. It's fear mongering bullshit.

You say this with such conviction.

Do you work in the administrative offices of AventHealth Shawnee Mission?

[kgrund]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

They didn't say they were overwhelmed...yet. They just are warning that they are seeing increased hospitalizations and don't want it to happen.

I get that, but his quote suggests they have been swamped when the tracking for the entire County would suggest that has not been the case.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

It's deadlier than Covid for the very young.

Let's see your numbers.