***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.”

[suzzer99]

That doesn't even make sense.

[KCUnited]

You're weighting conditions, which is fine, as long as you know you're doing it.

[suzzer99]

No one is saying there shouldn't be a balance and we shouldn't care about super vulnerable people. All I see is the same crowd who said it was a hoax until that didn't work anymore, but now thinks only 6% actually died of covid, armed with a new talking point about mental health. It seems like just whatever they can throw against a wall.

Maybe not you as you seem pretty consistently focused on mental health itt.

I'm asking what balance exactly are we not doing right now? It's not like we're anything like China lockdown or even the more hardcore European lockdowns. Practically everything is open to some degree right? Schools have to shut down occasionally, but they seem to keep trying to reopen. Aren't even bars open now in MO (which I think is crazy)? It sucks that singing in church is one of the most dangerous things you can do - but you have to take that up with covid.

[Bowser]

"Healthy person privilege"

Haha, Jesus. Please say that was a joke.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

No one is saying there shouldn't be a balance and we shouldn't care about super vulnerable people. All I see is the same crowd who said it was a hoax until that didn't work anymore, but now thinks only 6% actually died of covid, armed with a new talking point about mental health. It seems like just whatever they can throw against a wall.

Maybe not you as you seem pretty consistently focused on mental health itt.

I'm asking what balance exactly are we not doing right now? It's not like we're anything like China lockdown or even the more hardcore European lockdowns. Practically everything is open to some degree right? Schools have to shut down occasionally, but they seem to keep trying to reopen. Aren't even bars open now in MO (which I think is crazy)? It sucks that singing in church is one of the most dangerous things you can do - but you have to take that up with covid.

You equated a young person contemplating suicide due to covid restrictions to probably not going to do well in real life. Whatever the **** that means. But someone commenting on people with one foot already in the grave as holding our economy back is problematic.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

No one is saying there shouldn't be a balance and we shouldn't care about super vulnerable people. All I see is the same crowd who said it was a hoax until that didn't work anymore, but now thinks only 6% actually died of covid, armed with a new talking point about mental health. It seems like just whatever they can throw against a wall.

Maybe not you as you seem pretty consistently focused on mental health itt.

I'm asking what balance exactly are we not doing right now? It's not like we're anything like China lockdown or even the more hardcore European lockdowns. Practically everything is open to some degree right? Schools have to shut down occasionally, but they seem to keep trying to reopen. Aren't even bars open now in MO (which I think is crazy)? It sucks that singing in church is one of the most dangerous things you can do - but you have to take that up with covid.

I spent 4 years working with teenage kids. I've been pretty focused on depression/mental health since this thing started because it's a huge issue for them. It's not about them being mentally weak either. It's a combination of factors but they were feeling VERY isolated before this started, that's my issue.

Other than the impact on local small businesses, that's really the only consistent issue I've had.

[lewdog]

The problem with all of this is talking in absolutes. The mental health issue is very real and given the surge once lockdowns are over, should be added into the full picture about full lockdown decisions and their entire impact on society.

That being said, if you feel that strongly about mental health and COVID, do you propose we forget all other mitigation strategies? No masks for anything? All business open with no restrictions?

Contrary to what some of the posters here think about my posts, I have changed my view in the past few months. Full lockdowns will only work if extended indefinitely, and that is just not possible from an economic and mental health standpoint for a 1+ year timeline. This virus is highly contagious and will simply start running it's course once those full lockdowns end. However, that does not mean that simple mitigation efforts such as a national mask mandate while allowing business to be open, should not be used. This can control the spread as far as numbers are concerned and prevent surges in states that would then have to close many businesses to combat a rush on hospitals like we had in southern states in summer. Before AZ went to a mask mandate, hospitals reached capacity and businesses were shut down for months at a time. This was the second shutdown as businesses were closed in March and April here as well. A mask mandate from the start absolutely would have prevented this surge of cases all at one time and would have kept businesses from closing down again here.

I also wonder about providing free grocery delivery for seniors? It seems like an easy way to keep the more vulnerable at home but it wasn't done here, in a city with a large senior community.

[htismaqe]

We had tons of small businesses shut down here. Some of them will never open their doors again. Walmart never shut down and never even followed their own rules (50 people per store, my ass) and nothing was, nor will be, done about it. That's just plain not right.

The biggest outbreak we had here that wasn't in a nursing home was in a factory that is, for all intents and purposes, immune from ever being held responsible for how it treats employees. They had over 200 cases IIRC and not only never shut down, some employees had to fight even to get time off. Some of them got fired.

What I want to see is common sense applied EVENLY across all of society. Money and political influence shouldn't be able to exempt a business from compliance.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

We had tons of small businesses shut down here. Some of them will never open their doors again. Walmart never shut down and never even followed their own rules (50 people per store, my ass) and nothing was, nor will be, done about it. That's just plain not right.

The biggest outbreak we had here that wasn't in a nursing home was in a factory that is, for all intents and purposes, immune from ever being held responsible for how it treats employees. They had over 200 cases IIRC and not only never shut down, some employees had to fight even to get time off. Some of them got fired.

What I want to see is common sense applied EVENLY across all of society. Money and political influence shouldn't be able to exempt a business from compliance.

I agree. With a mask mandate in place, small businesses would have been able to follow mitigation strategies better than a place like Walmart.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I agree. With a mask mandate in place, small businesses would have been able to follow mitigation strategies better than a place like Walmart.

Walmart put a mask mandate in place almost immediately and they enforced it, at least here.

The problem was that they didn't follow any of the other measures they put in place.

1. They said they wouldn't have more than 50 people in the store at a time. There was never LESS than 50 when I was there.

2. They went to one-way lanes but didn't have any way to enforce them.

3. They mandated 6 foot spacing but didn't enforce them.

4. They went from 24x7 to 8am to 8pm in order to "allow for restocking of shelves". In almost every case I saw where rules 1-3 above were being broken, it was EMPLOYEES doing it. It wasn't uncommon to have 5 or 6 associates clogging up a single aisle in the middle of the day, simultaneously violating every safety measure EXCEPT the mask mandate.

Maybe I'm getting old and grouchy but it seems like every time I leave the house now all I can see is idiocy. The average person is just ****ing stupid and doesn't have a grasp on basic logic and common sense.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Walmart put a mask mandate in place almost immediately and they enforced it, at least here.

The problem was that they didn't follow any of the other measures they put in place.

1. They said they wouldn't have more than 50 people in the store at a time. There was never LESS than 50 when I was there.

2. They went to one-way lanes but didn't have any way to enforce them.

3. They mandated 6 foot spacing but didn't enforce them.

4. They went from 24x7 to 8am to 8pm in order to "allow for restocking of shelves". In almost every case I saw where rules 1-3 above were being broken, it was EMPLOYEES doing it. It wasn't uncommon to have 5 or 6 associates clogging up a single aisle in the middle of the day, simultaneously violating every safety measure EXCEPT the mask mandate.

Maybe I'm getting old and grouchy but it seems like every time I leave the house now all I can see is idiocy. The average person is just ****ing stupid and doesn't have a grasp on basic logic and common sense.

You're making a lot of sense. Are you sure you're from Iowa?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by lewdog

You're making a lot of sense. Are you sure you're from Iowa?

In body only. My spirit is elsewhere. Just about anywhere "elsewhere" at this point.

[TLO]

The Big Man about to hold an unscheduled news conference. Last time this happened on a Sunday we got news on a theraputic.

Not sure what today's briefing is about.

[KCUnited]

An easy solution would be to stop minimizing each other’s struggles through this

[TLO]

Originally Posted by TLO

The Big Man about to hold an unscheduled news conference. Last time this happened on a Sunday we got news on a theraputic.

Not sure what today's briefing is about.

*Disclaimer*

This press conference may have nothing to do with the virus whatsoever. If this is the case, I apologize and in no way is the post above meant to be political