***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.”

[Mecca]

To add to honestly just how ****ing stupid people really are these days.

The fact that handling a deadly pandemic has been turned into a culture war and partisan issue in the States on a level that no other major country has any parallel to is a searing indictment of the way news is covered in the US.

The people leading the "protests" against quarantines right now are militia nuts, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and people getting paid by billionaires looking for an astroturf opportunity, but we'll still get the New York Times interviewing both the governor of Michigan and a leading protestor and giving them equal billing in their headlines, since "both sides need to be heard."

Spoiler alert: NO, THEY ****ING WELL DO NOT BOTH NEED TO BE HEARD, NOR GIVEN EQUAL CREDENCE, YOU INSUFFERABLE COWARDS.

There's an old article about the failure of American media over the past few decades called "The View from Nowhere"; basically, the longtime accusation that the media is "liberal" has created an atmosphere where editors want their journalists to avoid ever making anything even resembling a value judgment, so coverage has to be "Well, Side A says that oxygen is necessary for human beings to breathe and live, while Side B argues that giraffes emit high-frequency, tumor-inducing microwaves and thus must all be hunted to extinction. Who's correct? Really, who can say? We're just shining daylight on the issue."

Basically, they're afraid of offending partisans and potentially losing their business. Instead, the biggest media coverage will go to stories that aren't as likely to set off partisan rancor, like celebrity scandals, plane crashes, college aged girls going missing during Spring Break, etc.

This goes along with an old lie, that "sunlight is the best disinfectant", the idea that if you put the spotlight on a ridiculous, awful, or downright evil set of ideas that it'll get people talking about them and reveal to the world how bad they are, that you'll "start a conversation" about them and that will fix everything. Problem is: there is zero evidence of this being effective. If anything, the evidence points to giving a stage to conspiracy theorists, Nazis, climate change deniers, misogynists, anti-vaxxers, and other assorted tools leading to, get this...more people getting exposed to their uninformed or harmful opinions and agreeing with them, because you've just leant them credibility by giving them space on your TV network/newspaper/etc. What a twist! But since the paper/channel/news outlet gave them a platform, they'll use that to say "You can't accuse us of being biased, we heard from BOTH SIDES!"...again, when one side says "Clean water is good" and the other argues "**** that, drink mercury, it's great", no, there are not two sides to that issue.

So, yeah, even though literally over 2/3rds of America believes businesses mostly need to remain closed or otherwise highly limited during this (and percentages are much higher with regards to keeping things like schools closed and other places that aren't directly tied to people's ability to make money), the protests were still given breathless coverage by our news media, and surprise-surprise, they're being used by nihilistic politicians to turn what should be a unified national effort to save lives into a partisan fight over "muh freedoms", guns (for some reason), conspiracies about communism, and "very good people" storming statehouses and threatening to kill a duly elected governor. It's a goddamned disaster.

And now I'm rather sure I probably offended someone with that take on the dumbassery of people during all of this.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by TLO

How much would you pay to have an antibody test done right now?

It doesn't answer your question, but it's actually a thing here and costs $94.

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Mo DoH says 6 deaths state wide in the last 24 hours.....

Kansas City area is both. Kansas and Missouri and KMBC is where I heard it. Maybe it's fake news wouldnt that be something? Fail to see the point of your post.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

KC area had one of its highest positive cases today and 8 deaths.

Reported cases that is

[TLO]

Originally Posted by DaFace

It doesn't answer your question, but it's actually a thing here and costs $94.

I'd pay $94 to know

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

I see that Menards is now requiring masks for everyone in the store. Lowe’s and Home Depot can’t be far behind. I know Hy-Vee is requiring masks for employees. I’m sure this trend will continue among major retailers and I think that is better than government mandates as people are less likely to get upset if it’s each store doing it on their own.

I'm perfectly okay with this, but having just moved into a new house from a condo, I've been frequenting my local Mendards quite a bit. Went in thinking I could buy online and pull up curbside for load up. Nope, have to go in, walk all the way to the back and flag someone down to help. As my orders are being gathered, it's the employees just hanging out in groups yucking it up that was more concerning than the shoppers. I even had to finger signature for an order I already paid for online. I get it, it's a hardware chain but **** me its a shit show every time.

[Titty Meat]

Originally Posted by O.city

Reported cases that is

Yeah 123 reported. 5 deaths in Wyandotte 3 in Johnson County. I'm not seeing proof that it has flattened in the metro area?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by TLO

I'd pay $94 to know

I've got a friend who did it. Don't think he's gotten any results back yet, though.

Though anyone can do it, they have pretty limited capacity, so I've decided it's not worth it for now.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

We all get that, you know 100K died of heart disease in the same time frame right? Another 50K every month following will die as well.

Wow!! I always knew you could catch the ghey from another ghey but heart disease too!? Who knew heart disease and covid-19 were all contagious!

[Kiimo]

Depends on the accuracy of the antibody test because as many know there are a shitload of antibody tests out there not FDA approved.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Mecca

To add to honestly just how ****ing stupid people really are these days.

JFC, are you trying to get booted from this thread?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Titty Meat

Yeah 123 reported. 5 deaths in Wyandotte 3 in Johnson County. I'm not seeing proof that it has flattened in the metro area?

Wonder when those tests were taken? Would probably be from a few days ago atleast?

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

JFC, are you trying to get booted from this thread?

Probably got a little to close to the sun there, I'll refrain.

[TLO]

Originally Posted by Kiimosabi

Depends on the accuracy of the antibody test because as many know there are a shitload of antibody tests out there not FDA approved.

For arguments sake let's say it's 99.98% accurate.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by TLO

For arguments sake let's say it's 99.98% accurate.

Hold on....



Now I'm ready to answer!!