***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.”

[Donger]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

Coronavirus: Why everyone was wrong
The immune response to the virus is stronger than everyone thought

The original article was published in the Swiss magazine Weltwoche (World Week) on June 10th. The author, Beda M Stadler is the former director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Bern, a biologist and professor emeritus.

The fairy tale of no immunity

From the World Health Organisation (WHO) to every Facebook-virologist, everyone claimed this virus was particularly dangerous, because there was no immunity against it, because it was a novel virus. Even Anthony Fauci, the most important advisor to the Trump administration noted at the beginning at every public appearance that the danger of the virus lay in the fact that there was no immunity against it. Tony and I often sat next to each other at immunology seminars at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda in the US, because we worked in related fields back then. So for a while I was pretty uncritical of his statements, since he was a respectable colleague of mine. The penny dropped only when I realised that the first commercially available antibody test [for Sars-CoV-2] was put together from an old antibody test that was meant to detect Sars-1.

For every other disease that doesn’t afflict a certain group of people, we would come to the conclusion that that group is immune. When people are sadly dying in a retirement home, but in the same place other pensioners with the same risk factors are left entirely unharmed, we should also conclude that they were presumably immune.

But this common sense seems to have eluded many, let’s call them “immunity deniers” just for fun. This new breed of deniers had to observe that the majority of people who tested positive for this virus, i.e. the virus was present in their throats, did not get sick. The term “silent carriers” was conjured out of a hat and it was claimed that one could be sick without having symptoms. Wouldn’t that be something!

https://medium.com/@vernunftundricht...g-fce6db5ba809

Seems legit...

So: Sars-Cov-2 isn’t all that new, but merely a seasonal cold virus that mutated and disappears in summer, as all cold viruses do — which is what we’re observing globally right now.

[suzzer99]

Covid will disappear in summer? Sweet! When does summer start?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Covid will disappear in summer? Sweet! When does summer start?

Which hemisphere?

[displacedinMN]

A part of the immune system that appears to be suppressed in severe COVID-19 cases is now being used in a clinical trial against the infectious disease at the University of Minnesota.

A female COVID-19 patient in her 50s received an infusion on Wednesday with an experimental therapy containing natural killer (NK) cells, innate components of the immune system that can wipe out tumors or infected cells.

“They attack sick cells, and when we say sick that typically means malignant or virally infected cells,” said Dr. Joshua Rhein, the U physician leading the trial.

The U’s work with NK cells until now has primarily been in the development of therapies for leukemia and other cancers. The COVID-19 trial is using an experimental therapy called FT516, which is manufactured by Fate Therapeutics and was developed through U research.

U researchers have spent months planning the COVID-19 clinical trial and gaining the signoff of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Jeffrey Miller, deputy director of the U’s Masonic Cancer Center and a national leader in NK cell research.

Given that many cases of severe COVID-19 involve inflammation and an overreaction by the immune system, there is concern about using a therapy that boosts the immune system, Rhein said. On the other hand, NK cells have antiviral properties. And research in China showed a suppression of NK cells in severe COVID-19 patients, suggesting they are not part of the immune system overreaction and could instead be a solution.

“We think that the cells are going to help as an antiviral,” Rhein said, “but there’s that possibility that somebody who is headed toward that inflammation type of picture — the worry was that we could push them over the edge.”

Researchers are seeking patients who have been hospitalized for COVID-19 and have biomarkers that suggest they are at risk for such an immune system overreaction — but haven’t suffered it yet. Infusions are happening one patient at a time to monitor the outcomes, with doses increasing in subsequent patients.

The NK study is the latest in an aggressive response by the U to the COVID-19 pandemic. U researchers launched the first double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials of hydroxychloroquine, ultimately determining that it did not prevent the onset of COVID-19 or the development of symptoms in people exposed to the virus. The U also was part of the national study of remdesivir, an antiviral that has been federally approved for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Donger

Seems legit...

So: Sars-Cov-2 isn’t all that new, but merely a seasonal cold virus that mutated and disappears in summer, as all cold viruses do — which is what we’re observing globally right now.

The Phoenix heat seemed to spike it here.

Neat.

[MahomesMagic]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Covid will disappear in summer? Sweet! When does summer start?

I think this is based on the work of Hope-Simpson. New York, UK, Sweden would be now fine...while Texas, California, Arizona are in a different climate zone.

[jdubya]

Our "spike" in my county in NorCal seemed to be solely from LTCF`s.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by MahomesMagic

I think this is based on the work of Hope-Simpson. New York, UK, Sweden would be now fine...while Texas, California, Arizona are in a different climate zone.

I agree that with reasonable social distancing and not including places where it's so hot that people spend 95% of their time indoors in AC, the virus should be struggling in summer.

There are several studies that show the virus doesn't do well in heat and humidity.

I've also read experts who think that in winter - going from cold/dry air outside to hot/dry heated air inside causes our mucus membranes to be much more vulnerable to infection, and possibly leads to more severe infections.

However we gave up on reasonable social distancing in a lot of places. And more importantly, we use far more AC than anywhere else in the world. There aren't that many other hot/humid 1st world countries.

At least in a month the AC use should drop dramatically.

[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by lewdog

The Phoenix heat seemed to spike it here.

Neat.

You mean when you could literally die if you're outside for more than an hour?

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by jdubya

Our "spike" in my county in NorCal seemed to be solely from LTCF`s.

I have heard several say that the heat drove people indoors into the AC where the virus actually spread. But that would require understanding that people tend to go inside into the AC when it is very hot outside. I am not sure I can believe such a thing.

[MahomesMagic]

I lived in Tucson, Arizona for a few years. Yes, it feels like a different planet than New York.

[petegz28]

Fauci: U.S. doesn't need another lockdown to survive coronavirus

'You don't have to lock down again, but everybody has got to be on board,' said White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci.

https://justthenews.com/politics-pol...ol-coronavirus

[petegz28]

Barring a late day surge it looks like we will come in at least a few hundred deaths fewer than last Thursday.

[RunKC]

Just got my test. Negative. Also negative for strep. Hmmm maybe Laryngitis

[TLO]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Barring a late day surge it looks like we will come in at least a few hundred deaths fewer than last Thursday.

1465 a week ago
1179 today.

Cases are down too.