***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.”

[MahomesMagic]

after either natural infection or vaccination for COVID. If we can believe the B cell & T cell half-life data (and why wouldn't we? This group has been doing careful work since beginning), vaccine-induced immunity may last a lifetime or at least (initial SARS-CoV data)>10 years

— Monica Gandhi MD, MPH (@MonicaGandhi9) March 7, 2021

[vailpass]

Got my first Pfizer shot this weekend, no symptoms at all. I hear the second one is where it gets you. I'll find out in three weeks.

My son works part-time at a local nursery here; good college job. The nursery maintains a house on-site where 12 H2A visa workers from Mexico live. They got here a couple weeks ago. Today they told the other employees that half of the H2A guys are quarantined with COVID and the other half are still working.

Quarantined? 12 guys living in one little house, no way they can effectively stay spaced enough for quarantine. I have not known a single person first-hand who had COVID. It's strange having an encounter this close. And it's concerning how it gets spread like this.

[R Clark]

It’s amazing that you don’t know anyone that’s had it

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Got my first Pfizer shot this weekend, no symptoms at all. I hear the second one is where it gets you. I'll find out in three weeks.

My son works part-time at a local nursery here; good college job. The nursery maintains a house on-site where 12 H2A visa workers from Mexico live. They got here a couple weeks ago. Today they told the other employees that half of the H2A guys are quarantined with COVID and the other half are still working.

Quarantined? 12 guys living in one little house, no way they can effectively stay spaced enough for quarantine. I have not known a single person first-hand who had COVID. It's strange having an encounter this close. And it's concerning how it gets spread like this.

We barely had any cases up here , then one guy who had travelled for work was quarantined in his apartment because tested positive, 19 cases within a week at the same complex and 3 deaths , even Though he never left his apartment, it was the SA variant ,it’s crazy how contagious it can be but not always, .

[ChiliConCarnage]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

after either natural infection or vaccination for COVID. If we can believe the B cell & T cell half-life data (and why wouldn't we? This group has been doing careful work since beginning), vaccine-induced immunity may last a lifetime or at least (initial SARS-CoV data)>10 years

— Monica Gandhi MD, MPH (@MonicaGandhi9) March 7, 2021

Hopefully, that holds up. That'd be amazing

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by ChiliConCarnage

Hopefully, that holds up. That'd be amazing

You hope it would be enough to convince people to get the vaccine , and hopefully it won’t change enough to need more vaccines.

[Sure-Oz]

My mom and dad got shot 1 of moderna last week. Mom had a little fever for a day and felt tired and dad just had arm pain.

Lost my uncle to covid in November he was gone within a week. ****ing sucks.

Not sure why some are cool risking serious illness by not getting a vaccine.

[Sure-Oz]

Originally Posted by TinyEvel

My friend got Covid in early February (he’s a tall healthy 48 year old cyclist) and was admitted to UCLA ICU February 14th. Two days later he was intubated and out under forced sedation and immobilized (basically a coma) for 20 days while medical teams worked in ways to keep his oxygen levels up and fevers down. Ultimately he was given a tracheotomy.
Every day his wife would post updates.
Nobody should have to go through what that family has gone through.
After 20 days they revived him and a week later he’s about to get the trach tube out. He is re-learning how to walk and eat and use his hands.
Here is an update he posted today...

Covid feels like a lot of things. It feels like pressure on your chest. It feels like a fever ripping down your spine. Mostly, though, it feels like drowning. As if you’re drowning yourself from the inside.

The moment I started to understand what it was to have Covid was when my lungs started to fill with fluid. Phlegm, it looks like me. Secretions, the doctors call it. Covid attacks the linings of your lungs, and they respond by secreting mucus to protect themselves. That’s what overwhelms you.

It’s not drowning as if you’ve fallen overboard in a storm. It’s drowning as if you’re tied to the ocean floor and the tide is rising. You feel a tickle at the bottom, and you ignore it. It’s a long way from the surface. It starts to rise and you notice it when you breathe, a little ragged catch. It’s halfway up and you’re actively fighting against it. Then it’s at the top and there’s only a fistful of air left, and there’s no way to swim away.

My recovery time has been a fight against that tide in my chest. I was always aware of its climb, listening to every gurgle. Feeling the pressure in my chest increase. As soon as I could hold it, they gave me a suction tube, and it never left my hand. Every time I coughed something up, I would suction it out. At first it was mostly red, then odd colors, then finally clear.

I realized that I was thinking of my lungs in two halves. The top half, the top that was getting secretions to my mouth and out of my body, belonged to me. The bottom half belonged to someone else, unnamed. And they were not doing their job. I learned how to shape my coughs so that they reached higher, so I could clear more.

The respiratory techs would come in to give me treatments—the IPV treatment that shakes your chest like a jackhammer to loosen phlegm, a nebulizer to open up the airways. But the most important was their suction. Unlike me, who was limited to suctioning the mouth, the RTs could put a suction tube right into my tracheotomy and reach down in my lungs, to do the job of the people who had skipped out on their responsibilities.

They’d place a long red rubber catheter on the end of the suction tube, coil it around their wrist as it hissed like a snake. Then they’d feed it in until I could feel it and I was forced to cough. The catheter would slurp it up. I had been afraid of coughing the night blood sprayed out of my trachea tube, but I became an expert on coughing as hard as I could, as long as I could. I became an expert at breathing and listening to my lungs and knowing exactly how much was left, how many more passes I would need. I’d catch my breath, wipe the tears from my eyes, and nod at the RT. “Do it again,” I’d say.

The last two days, my lungs have been empty. The only time I have to clear my lungs is when I drink liquid that is too thin, too fast. But I still listen for the raggedness at the edge of my breath.

The second night after I woke up for good, Sunny talked them into finally giving me my sleep meds again, and I had my first true sleep since coming to the hospital. It didn’t last long. I woke in the darkness, but lay there in twilight for hours. I listened to my breathing. I was aware of the secretions but they didn’t alarm me this time. My lungs had weight. It was as if they had wrapped themselves around my heart for protection. Each breath traveled through the fluid like waves.

I thought maybe I had the secretions wrong. I thought of the movie The Abyss, where they use a pink goo to breathe underwater. It fills your lungs and oxygenates you. You just have to swallow it in, let it fill your lungs. You have to fight past the panic because you know it will work. Maybe these secretions were like that, I thought.

Then I woke up for real, and suctioned my mouth. These secretions were pink, too. But that was from the blood.

Jesus. Hope your friend gets better soon. Scary shit

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Monticore

We barely had any cases up here , then one guy who had travelled for work was quarantined in his apartment because tested positive, 19 cases within a week at the same complex and 3 deaths , even Though he never left his apartment, it was the SA variant ,it’s crazy how contagious it can be but not always, .

God that’s nasty how it blew through people like that.

[F150]

We get number 2 on Friday-Moderna

[Hawker007]

I'm getting the J&J shot tomorrow...anybody have any experience with it or have any hesitancy with it?

[IA_Chiefs_fan]

Originally Posted by Hawker007

I'm getting the J&J shot tomorrow...anybody have any experience with it or have any hesitancy with it?

No hesitancy. I got there Pfizer but would have gotten the J&J if that's what they had.

[F150]

(Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co said on Wednesday that its combination antibody therapy to fight COVID-19 reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 87% in a study of more than 750 high-risk COVID-19 patients.



It is the second large, late-stage study to show that combination therapy of two antibodies, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, is effective at treating mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.

The previous study, which published data in January, used a higher dose of the drugs and reduced risk of hospitalization by 70%.

“I expect this data to continue to drive more utilization” of the antibodies,” said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly.

“We have few other diseases where we have drugs that can offer this magnitude of benefit.”

U.S. regulators authorized the combination therapy in February for use in COVID-19 patients 12 and over with a high risk of developing serious complications. European regulators greenlighted its use in March.

The United States agreed in February to purchase a minimum of 100,000 doses of the combination treatment.

Regulators authorized bamlanivimab alone for use against COVID-19 last year and the U.S. government agreed to purchase nearly 1.5 million doses.

Skovronsky said the combination therapy has the benefit of offering greater protection against new strains of COVID-19.

A variant of COVID-19 originally discovered in Britain has infected patients in most U.S. states and is expected to become the country's dominant strain. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)

“We are quite confident this combo covers all of the variants in the U.S.,” Skovronsky said, adding Lilly is studying an additional treatment for new COVID strains first identified in South Africa and Brazil, which have not become widespread in the United States.

Skovronsky said that Lilly is prepared to manufacture 1 million doses of the combination therapy in the coming months and is in active talks to supply governments around the world with the treatment.

Reporting by Carl O’Donnell and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN2B21C0

[TLO]

Go back to page 17 to see where we were a year ago today.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Got my first Pfizer shot this weekend, no symptoms at all. I hear the second one is where it gets you. I'll find out in three weeks.

MiL got her 2nd shot last week and ran a high fever for a couple of days and was basically bed-ridden because it would spike to 102-103 and just cash her out.

Quarantined? 12 guys living in one little house, no way they can effectively stay spaced enough for quarantine. I have not known a single person first-hand who had COVID. It's strange having an encounter this close. And it's concerning how it gets spread like this.

I have not come into contact with anyone who has had COVID. My brother had it but I haven't seen him since Thanksgiving and he lives an hour away.