***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.”

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by DaFace

We've discussed it, and it probably isn't too far off. However, I think there's a tiny bit of value value in people who make it clear how far off the deep end a lot of anti-vaxxers are.

Yeah, or they could spend 30 seconds in CP DC.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Ex-girlfriend of mine from HS is now a pediatrician. She posted this to Facebook, with attribution to the author.

Written by Benjamin Cook and posted by Jennifer Haas Mellick. Please read-health care workers are having a difficult time. #getvaccinatedtobeprotected

PSA:

1). Vaccines work. Period. Exactly zero vaccines are 100% effective. Zero. So when a breakthrough infection occurs, it doesn’t mean the vaccine is garbage—it means that there are too many unvaccinated people spreading the disease. This already happened with measles. We don’t blame the vaccine, we blame the unvaccinated.

2). The vaccine is safe and effective. 4,480,000,000 vaccine doses have been given without any widespread vaccine-related morbidity or mortality. Countless doctors, infectious disease specialists, peer-reviewed studies, and epidemiologists have already proven this more than once. These are people significantly smarter and better trained than any of us. Googling for 15 minutes doesn’t trump what literally all of science is telling us. You do not somehow know more than these people.

3). Masks are effective, and you’re not going to suffocate wearing one. If you refuse to wear a mask in public, you’re selfish. You care more about your self-invented freedoms than the health of your country. It’s a trivial inconvenience that has exactly zero to do with your “American right”. Like vaccines, no mask is 100%. But to say masks are 0% effective is blatantly ignorant. Since you’re not putting your body in a spacesuit, you’re not getting 100% protection, but some protection is still protection. Here are 49 peer-reviewed, published studies showing masks are effective. Yes, I’m sure you can find some tiny study that says otherwise, but the overwhelming data says they help. http://www.kxan.com/.../do-face-mask...re-are.../amp/

4). Variants exist because of the unvaccinated. These variants often originate in areas where vaccination rates are low. Those that refused the vaccine become hosts for the virus, allowing mutant strains to form that then get passed onto other unvaccinated hosts. Those mutant strains harm our current vaccines’ efficacies thus putting even the vaccinated at risk, and we all take a step backwards because of it.

5). Covid is back solely because of the unvaccinated. We closed businesses, wore masks, and self-quarantined. We made countless sacrifices to curtail this virus. People died—4,322,022. But that wasn’t enough because of the unvaccinated. Those that got vaccinated did so bravely knowing there was a potential risk, but did it selflessly for the sake of both public health and our future. The unvaccinated cowered behind fake science, social media, and uneducated politicians until enough people were vaccinated that COVID cases plummeted. Then when those cases plummeted, our country opened back up and relaxed restrictions. That same unvaccinated population then got to ride on the coattails of the vaccinated, take off their masks, go to beaches, and enjoy an almost-normal life again. Until they caught COVID-19 for being selfish and started spreading it to all their unvaccinated friends. And now we are hurled backwards toward the beginning of this pandemic with little forward progress because the unvaccinated were irresponsible and enjoyed freedoms they didn’t contribute to. Breakthrough infections do not drive pandemics, the unvaccinated do. We had a chance to stop this, and the unvaccinated have caused us to fail.

7). If you won’t get a vaccine, go home and stay home until this is over. And when it is, know that you didn’t contribute to its end.

8 ). Be kind to your healthcare workers. Many of them are being pushed off of a mental cliff to leave medicine for good during a time when they are needed the most. We are tired. We are tired of being ridiculed and screamed at for your own faults or because “you know your body more”. We are tired of being lied to. Tired of being yelled at about wait times. Tired of seeing the same bad outcome over and over again because people won’t listen to us. We are tired of leaving work several hours late—unappreciated, hungry, physically exhausted, and mentally drained. We are not wizards; there are no magic wands. We put our personal lives on hold so you can live yours. We were “heroes”, but now we are fast food workers serving a line of customers who just walk up, demand what they want, and complain to a manager if you don’t get what our medical degrees told you you didn’t need. Be respectful, we are only human. We are all scared. We never know if that next patient with a cough is the time where we contract your COVID-19 and die a horrible death because you had to go to that concert last week.

9). Be safe, be smart, be responsible. Science is real whether you believe in it or not.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

6). If someone doesn’t want you in their business because you refused to get vaccinated because Donald Trump whispered in your ear that Science isn’t real, then shop somewhere else.

Was a pretty decent tirade, but then they had to throw this in and ensure that there is zero chance of the message being received by the intended target.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

4). Variants exist because of the unvaccinated. These variants often originate in areas where vaccination rates are low. Those that refused the vaccine become hosts for the virus, allowing mutant strains to form that then get passed onto other unvaccinated hosts. Those mutant strains harm our current vaccines’ efficacies thus putting even the vaccinated at risk, and we all take a step backwards because of it.

No, it was people in India that weren't even offered a vaccine


I don't think they refused vaccines

[loochy]

Originally Posted by wazu

Was a pretty decent tirade, but then they had to throw this in and ensure that there is zero chance of the message being received by the intended target.

well the fact that it was posted on facebook pretty much ensures that there is zero chance of the message being received by the intended target.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by loochy

No, it was people in India that weren't even offered a vaccine


I don't think they refused vaccines

Correct on the origin, but the author's point is if U.S. people had gotten vaccinated we would have been largely unaffected by Delta.

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

Far less preposterous than your total lack of grasp of the actual facts.

In fact, I'm starting to believe that no one could be so absolutely clueless and that your whole persona here is an act and that are in fact just a troll.

I should probably study some of those vaccine fact-checks funded by the companies that produce them, so I can collect some actual facts.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by loochy

well the fact that it was posted on facebook pretty much ensures that there is zero chance of the message being received by the intended target.

Yeah, but it was a pretty good timeline of events being listed, and then out of nowhere let's make it somehow about Trump.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by wazu

Was a pretty decent tirade, but then they had to throw this in and ensure that there is zero chance of the message being received by the intended target.

Good point. I'll remove that section.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by wazu

Yeah, but it was a pretty good timeline of events being listed, and then out of nowhere let's make it somehow about Trump.

Hey, that's what people are gonna do on facebook. You have to appeal to your echo chamber

[Kiimo]

Saying you can't trust facts because follow the money sheeple is the last desperate attempt to believe what you wanted to believe originally, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

It's the main problem with these antivax idiots. When direct evidence is contrary to their beliefs they say CONSIDER THE SOURCE while simultaneously ignoring the source of all their disinformation horseshit.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by wazu

Yeah, but it was a pretty good timeline of events being listed, and then out of nowhere let's make it somehow about Trump.

I'd also personally leave masks out of it. Not that they're bad, but there's obviously a ton of history around perceptions of masks and their effectiveness. I'd rather fight the vaccination battle (for the thing that is non-intrusive, semi-permanent, and 90%+ effective) than try and change someone's mind about masks (which are far more intrusive, only work in the moment, and are probably more like 30-40% effective).

"Science is real" doesn't really help either.

The points are all valid. But when you come off as a condescending asshole, people shut down.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by DaFace

I'd also personally leave masks out of it. Not that they're bad, but there's obviously a ton of history around perceptions of masks and their effectiveness. I'd rather fight the vaccination battle (for the thing that is non-intrusive, semi-permanent, and 90%+ effective) than try and change someone's mind about masks (which are far more intrusive, only work in the moment, and are probably more like 30-40% effective).

"Science is real" doesn't really help either.

The points are all valid. But when you come off as a condescending asshole, people shut down.

Agreed. Masks work really well, but I don't typically wear one (fully understanding their utility).

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by Fish

There are plenty of medical professionals/experts voicing their concerns about the safety of the vaccines and trying to reach a wider audience. Plenty more who are worried about their careers.

There are obviously more reasons to keep your mouth shut than to publicly challenge the narrative. The response is the equivalent of this thread plus career suicide. Not exactly shocking that many throw up their hands and say **** it.

[SupDock]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

There are plenty of medical professionals/experts voicing their concerns about the safety of the vaccines and trying to reach a wider audience. Plenty more who are worried about their careers.

There are obviously more reasons to keep your mouth shut than to publicly challenge the narrative. The response is the equivalent of this thread plus career suicide. Not exactly shocking that many throw up their hands and say **** it.

Maybe so, but I would wager that they are the vast minority.