***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.”

[Strongside]

Well, my mom works as a nurse at Menorah (not in the unit the patient was diagnosed) and never gets sick. She’s been down with a low grade fever and dry cough since Friday morning. If she doesn’t feel better in the AM, she’s going in to get tested.

She’s only in her mid 50’s and is in excellent health, but this is scary shit nonetheless.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Well, my mom works as a nurse at Menorah (not in the unit the patient was diagnosed) and never gets sick. She’s been down with a low grade fever and dry cough since Friday morning. If she doesn’t feel better in the AM, she’s going in to get tested.

She’s only in her mid 50’s and is in excellent health, but this is scary shit nonetheless.

Now it hits close to home. Damn man. Will be thinking of and wishing for the best.

[TLO]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Well, my mom works as a nurse at Menorah (not in the unit the patient was diagnosed) and never gets sick. She’s been down with a low grade fever and dry cough since Friday morning. If she doesn’t feel better in the AM, she’s going in to get tested.

She’s only in her mid 50’s and is in excellent health, but this is scary shit nonetheless.

Don't let it overwhelm you. Low grade fever and dry cough could be a myriad of things. I'm sure she'll be just fine.

Keep us updated! Best wishes that it's nothing more than a cold

[suzzer99]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus...ergamo_in_the/

I still remember my night shift a week ago spent without any rest, waiting for a call from the microbiology department. I was waiting for the results of a swab taken from the first suspect case in our hospital, thinking about what consequences it would have for us and the hospital. If I think about it, my agitation for one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I have seen what is happening. Well, the situation is now nothing short of dramatic. No other words come to mind. The war has literally exploded and battles are uninterrupted day and night. One after the other, these unfortunate people come to the emergency room. They have far from the complications of a flu. Let's stop saying it's a bad flu. In my two years working in Bergamo, I have learned that the people here do not come to the emergency room for no reason. They did well this time too. They followed all the recommendations given: a week or ten days at home with a fever without going out to prevent contagion, but now they can't take it anymore. They don't breathe enough, they need oxygen. Drug therapies for this virus are few.

Because that's the difference (now I get a little technical): in classical flu, besides that it infects much less population over several months, cases are complicated less frequently: only when the virus has destroyed the protective barriers of our airways and as such it allows bacteria (which normally resident in the upper airways) to invade the bronchi and lungs, causing a more serious disease. Covid 19 causes a banal flu in many young people, but in many elderly people (and not only) a real SARS because it invades the alveoli of the lungs directly, and it infects them making them unable to perform their function. The resulting respiratory failure is often serious and after a few days of hospitalization, the simple oxygen that can be administered in a ward may not be enough. Sorry, but to me, as a doctor, it's not reassuring that the most serious are mainly elderly people with other pathologies. The elderly population is the most represented in our country and it is difficult to find someone who, above 65 years of age, does not take at least a pill for high blood pressure or diabetes.

I can also assure you that when you see young people who end up intubated in the ICU, pronated or worse, in ECMO (a machine for the worst cases, which extracts the blood, re-oxygenates it and returns it to the body, waiting for the lungs to hopefully heal), all this confidence for your young age goes away. And while there are still people on social media who boast of not being afraid by ignoring the recommendations, protesting that their normal lifestyle habits have "temporarily" halted, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.

3 weeks ago Italy had 3 confirmed cases. Now they're overwhelmed.

[Reerun_KC]

How many dead world wide so far?

[Fat Elvis]

These people typify why we are about to enter a giant storm in the US....

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...67LViIQ7eyBCtU

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

These people typify why we are about to enter a giant storm in the US....

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...67LViIQ7eyBCtU

Good lord. Morons

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

These people typify why we are about to enter a giant storm in the US....

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...67LViIQ7eyBCtU

This is within the realm of expected behaviors within a population of thousands. Policies need to account for this.

[RINGLEADER]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

How many dead world wide so far?

3,830, up from 3600 yesterday.

Still want to see how China has stunted the cases and deaths. There is no evidence that sequestering does much good at this point but I guess hauling people away in boxes might do the trick...

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

3,830, up from 3600 yesterday.

Still want to see how China has stunted the cases and deaths. There is no evidence that sequestering does much good at this point but I guess hauling people away in boxes might do the trick...

They are either fudging the data or fudging the data and imposing police state tactics.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

These people typify why we are about to enter a giant storm in the US....

https://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...67LViIQ7eyBCtU

Is a answering a survey before I can read an article becoming a thing?

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

3,830, up from 3600 yesterday.

Still want to see how China has stunted the cases and deaths. There is no evidence that sequestering does much good at this point but I guess hauling people away in boxes might do the trick...

They put all of Hubei province on lockdown with orders to shoot if anyone is out on the street.

[Eleazar]

The chances that China is honestly reporting the number of cases is zero

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

3,830, up from 3600 yesterday.

Still want to see how China has stunted the cases and deaths. There is no evidence that sequestering does much good at this point but I guess hauling people away in boxes might do the trick...

With 7.7 billion people worldwide wide. At what point do you become concerned?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Strongside

Well, my mom works as a nurse at Menorah (not in the unit the patient was diagnosed) and never gets sick. She’s been down with a low grade fever and dry cough since Friday morning. If she doesn’t feel better in the AM, she’s going in to get tested.

She’s only in her mid 50’s and is in excellent health, but this is scary shit nonetheless.

your going to worry. So will she. Just try to focus in on the facts. This is just a new version of the flu. She’s in excellent health. It will run its course like every other flu she or you have ever had. No one in excellent health before catching the virus has been hospitalized in the USA.

What’s not normal is how it’s spread. Remember SARS a few years ago? It caused symptoms right away. This virus can remain dormant for 10 days without symptoms. That’s why it’s a pandemic risk to all of us. But, again, don’t focus on a worse case scenerio, keep telling yourself this over and over, she’s in excellent health to tolerate a case of the flu.