***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.”

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Great8

Bars still not allowed to have indoor seating.
Obviously, no fans at MLB, and our minor league team had it's season canceled.
Movie theatres still closed in Virginia.
No in person learning in the state until at least mid October.
Our Governor is a complete dipshit.

Take out Richmond and a 40 mile radius around DC, and this state would be great.

Did he really just ask you if you can go to a ballgame as long as you wear a mask????

[Great8]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Did he really just ask you if you can go to a ballgame as long as you wear a mask????

No shit, I'd be at the ballpark in a hot second if I could.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Great8

Bars still not allowed to have indoor seating.
Obviously, no fans at MLB, and our minor league team had it's season canceled.
Movie theatres still closed in Virginia.
No in person learning in the state until at least mid October.
Our Governor is a complete dipshit.

Take out Richmond and a 40 mile radius around DC, and this state would be great.

Thanks. Sounds like there's a pandemic going on.

[mr. tegu]

Any doctor, scientists, epidemiologist, etc. that supports the notion the protest gatherings are okay due to the content while others are not, are letting their emotions dictate their thoughts instead of sticking with the science. Pretty simple. Either all large gatherings are okay or they aren’t. If you want an example of why there is distrust in scientists on this topic and others from many people there you go.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by TLO

Missouri's numbers have improved some since the backlog was cleared, but they still don't look good.

We've been at a steady incline for quite some time now but hospitalizations have held fairly steady. Deaths haven't increased a lot either.

The Gov is supposed to speak at 3pm today. We'll see what info, if any, he has to share.

Yeah, I've been keeping up with that closely. Not sure what he's gonna do.

I was hopeful we could avoid a surge but it's looking more and more likely we just happen to be on deck.

[Great8]

Originally Posted by Donger

Thanks. Sounds like there's a pandemic going on.

Didn't you ask me what I couldn't do today that I normally could, as long as I was masked up, or am I crazy?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Considering they have 125 million people - mostly packed into ultra-dense cities, Japan is still doing massively better than us or most other places who aren't taking it seriously.

They're currently having a pretty large spike.

Sure, they're better off than we are now, but we'll see. Isn't that how I'm supposed to do it? Wait a few weeks and see?

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Great8

Didn't you ask me what I couldn't do today that I normally could, as long as I was masked up, or am I crazy?

I don't know if you're crazy. But yes, I did ask that. Thanks for your answer.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, I've been keeping up with that closely. Not sure what he's gonna do.

I was hopeful we could avoid a surge but it's looking more and more likely we just happen to be on deck.

I'm not sure there is much you can do at this point. You lock down and businesses will die now as there isn't any more Fed Gov help and the states are not going to provide help.

As with anything we are going to have to start defining what is an acceptable level of risk vs what is an acceptable level of locking down.

For all intents and purposes it seems like we have found a bit of a middle-ground for the most part here locally. Businesses are being allowed to operate to a degree but we are still not wide open. By the same token cases have increased some but we are not seeing the deaths and hospital resource shortages.

Until we develop effective therapeutics I think this is life as we know it.

[Discuss Thrower]

I'm amused each time I pass the "temporarily" shut down Urgent Care building off Shawnee Mission. Not like the metro area could use decentralized point of care access points or anything right now, right?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by petegz28

I'm not sure there is much you can do at this point. You lock down and businesses will die now as there isn't any more Fed Gov help and the states are not going to provide help.

As with anything we are going to have to start defining what is an acceptable level of risk vs what is an acceptable level of locking down.

For all intents and purposes it seems like we have found a bit of a middle-ground for the most part here locally. Businesses are being allowed to operate to a degree but we are still not wide open. By the same token cases have increased some but we are not seeing the deaths and hospital resource shortages.

Until we develop effective therapeutics I think this is life as we know it.

I don't really think it's any of the interventions at this point keeping people out of anywhere. People are doing it themselves so this is probably what you get for a while.

If Texas and Arizona and Florida and California keep coming down as they are which is pretty quick and faster than i thought they would, we have some hope.

I'm actually coming around on the fact that I don't think we'll have as bad or as much of a second wave as we thought, simply because the outbreak is so widespread now, by then we'll be fairly far along the immune spectrum.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by O.city

Does a virus care about race?

No but blacks seem to care about racism in your country for some reason.

[TLO]

Gov of Missouri and Dr. Williams has stated that the KC area is showing some real improvement. The R0 is actually below 1 in the KC area. St. Louis is kind of a shit show with an R0 of 1.6 - the rest of the state is hovering just above the 1 mark. Central Missouri not doing so well either.

Said hospitalizations are stable. Doing a lot more testing compared to even a month ago. The CDC is heading to St. Louis to try and help out.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

Any doctor, scientists, epidemiologist, etc. that supports the notion the protest gatherings are okay due to the content while others are not, are letting their emotions dictate their thoughts instead of sticking with the science. Pretty simple. Either all large gatherings are okay or they aren’t. If you want an example of why there is distrust in scientists on this topic and others from many people there you go.

Did you really need an expert to tell you that gatherings during a pandemic was a bad idea?

[MahomesMagic]

Physical distancing, mask-wearing could be in place for 2-3 years even with vaccine,
@CPHO_Canada
Dr. Theresa Tam warns

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cov...-tam-1.5673729