***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.”

[SupDock]

Originally Posted by WhawhaWhat

Always love stories like this.

Me too. Appreciate the share

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Of course we know that the mitigation and social distancing helped to suppress the spread. Otherwise, there would be hundreds of thousands, if not millions more cases across the country. I can't believe that's in question.

That said, are there still questions about the effectiveness of masks, gloves and the near sterilization of items brought into the home? Yes, especially given that the WHO and CDC have found that it's highly unlikely that someone can acquire the virus from a contaminated surface.

How would we know about millions of more cases because TESTING?

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Lzen

Do you trust the WHO completely? Do you believe they are politically unbiased? Or do they have a slant? I believe they are extremely biased in favor of China and therefore cannot be completley trusted.

I'd argue that most people complaining about the WHO have almost no knowledge of their history and wouldn't have been able to speak with any merit as to what they did before two months ago (or their history even now). I'd also argue that those claiming the WHO is in the back pocket of China are digesting their information from a very narrow band of sources, which isn't sufficiently explaining how it operates and what China's push to promote certain leaders in that organization did.

The WHO was the organization that put boots on the ground to eliminate smallpox, a disease that killed 300 million people in the 20th century alone. It's the only virus that has ever been eradicated, and they were as responsible for that success as anyone else.

They also provided the framework for the first international effort to address and tackle AIDS, which was led by an American named Johnathan Mann. Eventually, internal disputes about his role led to him resigning and the office went from 250 people down to four. The leadership vacuum was later assumed by UNAIDS. They are not perfect. The response to Ebola was criticized, but they also performed a number of other public health roles that have saved millions of lives that people have never heard about.

I'm not going to claim that they handled the situation well; they didn't. The reasons behind the decline of the WHO are interesting to read on their own, FWIW. But it's also easy to complain about that stuff three years later when faced with a terrible global pandemic, and it rings hollow when the same people in positions of power complaining about the WHO's actions were praising China's at the beginning of the year. Given that the US is the largest funding source of the WHO, one would expect a little more understanding of the WHO's internal functions at that time. Most bitching about the WHO's screwups is blame-shifting.

There exists a reality wherein China suppressed information and silenced whistleblowers that led to this becoming much worse (they did), the WHO bungled the response by not being sufficiently critical of China and listening to reports from others in Taiwan and southeast Asia (they weren't/didn't) and the US wasted weeks and weeks of forewarning (they did).

If we really believe in the idea of personal responsibility, then we also need to acknowledge our own failure in keeping this in check. It's not like the US didn't have preparedness plans or an outline for adequate stockpiles in place.

[jdubya]

Just came home from a block party and am happy to report folks are living life again. Noticed quite a few neighbors who were clean cut and shaven and they explained they called their barber privately and got haircuts "bandito style". lol. Good for them! Most civilians are out ahead of our "politicians" in getting back to work and that is ****ing phenomenal in my opinion. Heard quite a few restaurants are serving business as normal again. WE will decide how we live thank you very much. Tomorrow there is a parade on my street for all graduates with pizza, drinks and all you can eat or drink. Fauci is invited if he wants to come

[Donger]

More than 2 million New Yorkers had been infected with Covid-19 by the end of March – about 10 times the official count, according to a new study.

State data, however, shows only about 189,000 cases by the end of March. That means about 1.8 million cases potentially went undetected.

Why cases may have been undercounted: There are several reasons why those cases were not detected, said study coauthor David Holtgrave, dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany.

Some infected people may have had no symptoms, or only mild symptoms, and so never went to the doctor, Holtgrave said. Others might have wanted to get tested but couldn’t find a doctor to test them, given the shortage of tests in February and March.

In the study, researchers drew blood from more than 15,000 New York adults and found that about 14%, or 1 out of 7, had antibodies to the virus, which means they had previously been infected. The researchers extrapolated that number to the entire population.

[Kidd Lex]

Originally Posted by Donger

More than 2 million New Yorkers had been infected with Covid-19 by the end of March – about 10 times the official count, according to a new study.

State data, however, shows only about 189,000 cases by the end of March. That means about 1.8 million cases potentially went undetected.

Why cases may have been undercounted: There are several reasons why those cases were not detected, said study coauthor David Holtgrave, dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany.

Some infected people may have had no symptoms, or only mild symptoms, and so never went to the doctor, Holtgrave said. Others might have wanted to get tested but couldn’t find a doctor to test them, given the shortage of tests in February and March.

In the study, researchers drew blood from more than 15,000 New York adults and found that about 14%, or 1 out of 7, had antibodies to the virus, which means they had previously been infected. The researchers extrapolated that number to the entire population.

Wonder what that means for IFR? Shouldn’t be hard but I don’t have the latest figures in front of me.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Kidd Lex

Wonder what that means for IFR? Shouldn’t be hard but I don’t have the latest figures in front of me.

1.4%

[Kidd Lex]

Originally Posted by Donger

1.4%

That’s still higher than I expected, but I’d guess that’s due to the nursing home statute that the state of NY followed. I’d like to see what that data means for the IFR as it relates to ages under 70.

[AustinChief]

Gang of monkeys attack lab worker and snatch blood samples of suspected Covid-19 patients in India

https://www.mercurynews.com/gang-of-...ients-in-india

So, what "gang" do they belong to? Bloods?

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

[Donger]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Gang of monkeys attack lab worker and snatch blood samples of suspected Covid-19 patients in India

https://www.mercurynews.com/gang-of-...ients-in-india

So, what "gang" do they belong to? Bloods?

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

Cheeks.

[sedated]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

Gang of monkeys attack lab worker and snatch blood samples of suspected Covid-19 patients in India

https://www.mercurynews.com/gang-of-...ients-in-india

So, what "gang" do they belong to? Bloods?

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

My first thought was "wow that's a really racist headline", but then saw its literally true.

[petegz28]

550 of the 738 deaths in Mo are people 70+. I would be curious to know how many of those people were in nursing homes or similar.

[eDave]

Originally Posted by sedated

My first thought was "wow that's a really racist headline", but then saw its literally true.

You missed the last sentence.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by petegz28

550 of the 738 deaths in Mo are people 70+. I would be curious to know how many of those people were in nursing homes or similar.

Not curious why or how the 188 under 70 died?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Monticore

Not curious why or how the 188 under 70 died?

Do you have a ****ing reading comprehension problem? Did I say I wondered how these people died? No. I said I wondered how many of them were in a nursing home.

If you're going to intentionally be a dick do a better job of it.