***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.”

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by SAUTO

Yeah the guy trying to comfort a friend is the piece of shit here...


I think you have it backwards.

No one needed your point. I think we all ****ing know it’s an option.

The only worthless mother****er here is you. As always. Piece of shit I’d add in too honestly.

Now either take it to pms or shut the **** to about it. Here’s not really the place

stumppy took my point just as offered and intended. I'd wager stevie appreciated my point.

But you, as always, have to butt into the conversations of others with your godawful takes.

Telling someone they're worried about the future that everything always works out perfectly fine and dandy, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, isn't the comfort you might think. That's the point, and it's a better point than anything you've offered up here, and it was received just fine, for the people it was intended.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by Monticore

Grow up.

Go **** yourself, Canada boy. Boris is a shit human being.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by SAUTO

When leaders start dying is when problems are going to start

Good leaders never die.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Good leaders never die.

Legends never die!

[BigCatDaddy]

Take the shit to DC please.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by O.city

Legends never die!

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Go **** yourself, Canada boy. Boris is a shit human being.

You are making quite a the case for yourself there as well.

[stumppy]

Originally Posted by O.city

Boris Johnson hospitalized

Damn virus is the worst kind of equalizer.

[stumppy]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Go **** yourself, Canada boy. Boris is a shit human being.

The irony.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by stevieray

I don't have a clue if my career is even going to come back at this point. I celebrate 25 years in June, and had works on the books.

Do you commission smaller works? Could you do custom work where someone sends in a photo that they want turned into a piece to be hung on a wall? Is there any way you could set up an online storefront in the interim?

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by stumppy

The irony.

Yep, I suck because I want to keep my employees financially stable and think it is stupid to hurt tens of millions of people to save a few thousand. **** me, right?

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Go **** yourself, Canada boy. Boris is a shit human being.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by petegz28

In reality little will change from this aside from people maybe doing things they should have been doing before like washing their hands and staying home when they don't feel good. What else is really going to change? Bars and gyms and theaters going to limit crowds to 50 people and keep everyone 6ft apart?

I am not sure what is going to change compared to things that changed with say 9/11?

I think it likely will have as long lasting effects as 911 or the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

I don't want to get banned and I have given up on trying to have discussions in DC. But let me throw out some things hopefully in a neutral enough manner:

Even in a super optimistic scenario, where we get things under control in 4 to 6 weeks and can slowly open things up without another surge:

The Feds are pumping $2 trillion into the economy. The Feds are going to be more tied up in the economy than they have before. That won't disappear overnight. After 2009 the Feds were far more involved with the large banks than they were before. To take just one example, the Feds are going to be far more involved with Boeing and the airline industry than they were pre-pandemic.

A lot of small businesses probably won't make it. There is going to be more consolidation in the economy. Chipotle isn't going out of business. The local mom and pop restaurant might.

And it gets worse the worse the pandemic is. It could be that even if you recover from the virus, you can get it again a year later. It remains to be seen how long the anti-body response lasts. They tend to fade with time. The virus might mutate so you can get a new strain. Mutation would make a vaccine much harder.

So the economic hit could be far worse.

The people who graduated from college during the 2009 financial crisis are on track to have less lifetime earnings than people who came before or after. Some did fine, but there was a greater percentage of graduates who never got that important first job, or not as good of job, and their career ladder was never as lucrative.

After 2009 some older workers and marginal workers never rejoined the labor force. That can happen this time around also. After 2009 it took years for the economy to get back to pre-peak.

I think this is very likely for the current crisis.

Now that there has been a massive precedent for the Feds to keep things going during the pandemic, there will be calls to have the Feds do more during the next, garden-variety recession.

It may take a herculean effort to keep the virus under control. China and South Korea have clearly had some success with using phone data for contact tracing. If you take a subway in South Korea, and someone on that specific subway car (car, not train) later tests positive, you get notified that you may have been exposed.

In order to open the economy up, the US may decide that if you test positive, your phone data will officially be used to see who you had contact with like China and South Korea is doing. That would obviously be an expansion of the surveillance state.

More office workers are likely to continue working from home. We may switch to mail in ballots for November and keep doing that afterwards. I could come up with plenty more ways life might never be the same.

[stumppy]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf

Yep, I suck because I want to keep my employees financially stable and think it is stupid to hurt tens of millions of people to save a few thousand. **** me, right?

And Boris Johnson caused that?

[Donger]

Currently at 21,237 new cases. 1,052 deaths.

Yesterday was 34,196 and 1,331 deaths.