***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.”

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

My local clinic/hospital is so irresponsible. The mother****ers aren't wearing masks (used to work there and if you didnt get the flu shot you were required to wear one) and then over the weekend they had their annual block party. A couple hundred people crowded in a small hospital seems like a great idea, especially when no one is wearing a mask or social distancing. A significant number of people that go to this are elderly, so hopefully this doesn't start some type of outbreak.

The main thing that irritates me the most about the staff not wearing masks is that the vast majority of patients in the hospital are from the local nursing home. It just blows my mind that a hospital is being so careless.

Impressive. Where is this?

[TLO]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

CDC is now projecting 11k deaths per week in August. That would be an average of 1466 per day. I really hope they are wildly off.

We'll see what happens. This doesn't seem as outlandish of a prediction as "3000 deaths per day" which I've seen articles claim would happen by June 1st and August 1st both.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by TLO

We'll see what happens. This doesn't seem as outlandish of a prediction as "3000 deaths per day" which I've seen articles claim would happen by June 1st and August 1st both.

Of the claim made a few weeks ago that we would have 500,000 dead in this country in 6 months time.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

My local clinic/hospital is so irresponsible. The mother****ers aren't wearing masks (used to work there and if you didnt get the flu shot you were required to wear one) and then over the weekend they had their annual block party. A couple hundred people crowded in a small hospital seems like a great idea, especially when no one is wearing a mask or social distancing. A significant number of people that go to this are elderly, so hopefully this doesn't start some type of outbreak.

The main thing that irritates me the most about the staff not wearing masks is that the vast majority of patients in the hospital are from the local nursing home. It just blows my mind that a hospital is being so careless.

I almost don't believe you

Pics?

[dirk digler]

Here the new Point of Cares test that got approved by NIH.

The following companies have achieved key RADx milestones and will receive support for manufacturing and scale up.

Point-of-Care Tests


Mesa Biotech, San Diego

The company’s Accula SARS-CoV-2 test employs a hand-held RT-PCR device and a compact, single-use cartridge that detects viral RNA at the point of care. Results can be read from the removable cartridge in 30 minutes.

Quidel, San Diego

The Quidel Sofia SARS Antigen FIA test kit, a lateral flow immunoassay, is used with Sofia and Sofia 2 Analyzers in point-of-care settings, such as a doctor’s office or pharmacy. There are currently thousands of Quidel analyzers in place across the United States and HHS has identified this technology for use in nursing homes. The analyzers give electronic results within 15 minutes.

Talis Biomedical, Menlo Park, California

The Talis One COVID-19 point of care test is a multiplexed cartridge used with the compact Talis One instrument. The test detects SARS-CoV-2 through isothermal amplification of viral RNA and an optical detection system, returning a result in under 30 minutes.

[TLO]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

Here the new Point of Cares test that got approved by NIH.

Quidel, San Diego

The Quidel Sofia SARS Antigen FIA test kit, a lateral flow immunoassay, is used with Sofia and Sofia 2 Analyzers in point-of-care settings, such as a doctor’s office or pharmacy. There are currently thousands of Quidel analyzers in place across the United States and HHS has identified this technology for use in nursing homes. The analyzers give electronic results within 15 minutes.

This is the one I've been big on. One of our Urgent Care centers in town uses it. 15 minute results and supposedly as accurate as your "gold standard" PCR test.

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Impressive. Where is this?

Small town about an hour and a half south of KC. I hate the town. They decided to cancel the annual fair, but the car show was fine to go on. After the car show they caution taped the park because someone came to the car show and shortly after got back a positive COVID test result. They closed off the park, so they could sanitize the park lmao. The block party that is 90% indoors was fine to go on.

The town is just so crappy. Nothing is ever done to benefit the kids. Every tax measure for improving the school is voted down. This year they tried to pass a $0.60 per one hundred dollars of assessed valuation on property taxes, so they could do much needed repairs to the school. They wanted to get it passed in April, so they could take advantage of the lower interest rates right now, but it got voted down.

Right now the tax levy for the school is the 8th lowest in our 10 school conference. The increase would have put us right in the middle at number 5. The increase would have amounted to a $114 increase on $100,000 appraised value. Most property in the district isn't close to $100,000, so peoples out of pocket would have been less than that. That's less than $10 a month and it couldn't pass. I ****ing hate that town and it's backward ass priorities.

It's where I was raised and my mom used to constantly bitch about no one in town caring enough about the school to pass anything to improve it. Now I understand what she meant.

[TLO]

1047 new cases in Missouri today
2 deaths
7 day average of PCR tested individuals dropped from 10.2% to 9.4%

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by TLO

1047 new cases in Missouri today
2 deaths
7 day average of PCR tested individuals dropped from 10.2% to 9.4%

Worldometers is showing half the cases of that

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

My local clinic/hospital is so irresponsible. The mother****ers aren't wearing masks (used to work there and if you didnt get the flu shot you were required to wear one) and then over the weekend they had their annual block party. A couple hundred people crowded in a small hospital seems like a great idea, especially when no one is wearing a mask or social distancing. A significant number of people that go to this are elderly, so hopefully this doesn't start some type of outbreak.

The main thing that irritates me the most about the staff not wearing masks is that the vast majority of patients in the hospital are from the local nursing home. It just blows my mind that a hospital is being so careless.

I call bullshit

[petegz28]

After 6 months without lockdown, Sweden's COVID-19 deaths, infections bottom out

After months without lockdowns, school closures and other mitigation measures widely imposed across the world, Sweden's coronavirus cases and deaths have fallen to such minimal levels as to revive the debate over its so-called herd immunity strategy.

Some Swedish officials are far from declaring victory, warning there could be a second wave and that too many elderly died in the country during its comparatively lax pandemic restrictions. The country's population-adjusted death rate, meanwhile, is in the top 10 worldwide, but lower than the rates for Italy, Spain and even New York, where heavy lockdowns prevailed.

And the dramatic drop in new cases and deaths in that country point to a rapidly improving situation there in defiance of many earlier predictions.
The Swedish government has engaged in minimal interventions and imposed relatively few restrictions upon its citizenry for the duration of the pandemic. Yet the so-called "Swedish model" has for months drawn alarm and derision from countless world health authorities. Many have insisted that sweeping, open-ended restrictions on social and economic activity — including lockdowns, strict "social distancing" measures, and mandatory face mask orders — are the only practical methods by which the coronavirus can be halted.

Though there is relatively little evidence to support such measures, many governments — particularly those in Western Europe and the United States — have for several months imposed such orders on their respective citizens, with numerous European heads of state and U.S. governors indicating that these measures may remain in place until an effective vaccine is developed, a process that could take years, if ever, to come to fruition.

Heavy mitigation has no 'historical scientific basis'

Sweden largely eschewed such policies. Throughout March, as much of the Western world was shutting down large swaths of its economies and strictly limiting individual mobility with stay-at-home orders, Sweden opted for a much lighter touch, refusing to close down service industries, leaving schools largely open, and allowing its borders to remain open. It did restrict large gatherings for a time, while some schools were closed.

According to the World Health Organization, Sweden's daily deaths peaked in late April at 185 and have been declining ever since; on some recent days, the country has recorded as few as nine deaths. Daily new cases were in the low-to-mid-hundreds for most of July, and a few days no new cases were recorded at all.

Anders Tegnell, the country's chief epidemiologist and for months now the public face of the Swedish model, has been openly dismissive of the far-reaching mitigation measures undertaken by so many other countries.

"Closedown, lockdown, closing borders — nothing has a historical scientific basis, in my view," Tegnell said in April. "We have looked at a number of European Union countries to see whether they have published any analysis of the effects of these measures before they were started, and we saw almost none."

"Closing borders, in my opinion, is ridiculous, because COVID-19 is in every European country now," Tegnell said at the time, adding: "Nowhere in Europe has been able to slow down the spread considerably."

Swedish death rate is among highest in the world, but lower than some lockdown countries

The country has been the subject of withering criticism since March. In July, the New York Times said that the country was a "cautionary tale" for the world. The National Post in June said the Swedish model "failed" and that the country "took the pain, but realized no gain." In May, Wired stated that the country's epidemiological experiment "well and truly failed."

Read more....

https://justthenews.com/politics-pol...s-bottomed-out

[Donger]

Do you even see the "politics" in the URL, pete?

[Pants]

I have no idea why they're comparing Sweden to the UK, Italy and Spain instead of say, Finland.

How is Finland faring? How about Norway?

That's like comparing NYC to Salina, KS.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by TLO

This is the one I've been big on. One of our Urgent Care centers in town uses it. 15 minute results and supposedly as accurate as your "gold standard" PCR test.

Cool. This piqued my interest because I read today England was rolling out 2 POC tests but theirs get results in under 90 minutes. One of them though can do a test for both flu and Covid which is perfect timing for fall.

[dlphg9]

Here's a screenshot from a post by a local NP