***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.”

[bdj23]

Originally Posted by TLO

South Africa's case fatality rate falls again to 0.5%. The theory that Omicron causes milder symptoms is becoming very hard to ignore... pic.twitter.com/rYxZDTOoGw

— Tom Calver (@tomhcalver) December 13, 2021

Isn't this what we want?

[TLO]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Isn't this what we want?

Yes

[TLO]

Man... Our hospital is absolutely slammed with covid patients. Ugh

[IA_Chiefs_fan]

Found out last night that three people I know are at the local hospital and not doing very well. One is definitely on a ventilator and I heard rumors the other two were as well. Family is trying to get two of them moved to a bigger hospital but they're all at capacity. Supposedly they checked with Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City, and Omaha. Are KC hospitals really at or near capacity right now?

[O.city]

That sucks man.

My buddy I grew up with is still on ECMO, haven't heard in a day or two though.

Not ideal.

[O.city]

So what is the actual endgame for this for everyone at this point? I mean, we can't go on forever like this.

[ping2000]

Originally Posted by O.city

So what is the actual endgame for this for everyone at this point? I mean, we can't go on forever like this.

You are asking the most important question in clown world. For all of this, not just Covid. There is no endgame. The only way to win is not to play.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by IA_Chiefs_fan

Found out last night that three people I know are at the local hospital and not doing very well. One is definitely on a ventilator and I heard rumors the other two were as well. Family is trying to get two of them moved to a bigger hospital but they're all at capacity. Supposedly they checked with Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City, and Omaha. Are KC hospitals really at or near capacity right now?

Originally Posted by O.city

That sucks man.

My buddy I grew up with is still on ECMO, haven't heard in a day or two though.

Not ideal.

This sucks. I'm sorry guys.

[TLO]

Originally Posted by O.city

So what is the actual endgame for this for everyone at this point? I mean, we can't go on forever like this.

I've been asking myself the same thing

[007]

I finally get to go back to work tomorrow. Still tired but two weeks at home is enough.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by O.city

So what is the actual endgame for this for everyone at this point? I mean, we can't go on forever like this.

You can and you will.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by 007

There are a lot of nurses leaving the profession. But not just because of patients and families. Because of the way they are treated by management.

People forget the vaccine mandates a lot of hospitals have implemented have made them even more short staffed so its quite the snowball effect.

[Kidd Lex]

Originally Posted by BDj23

Isn't this what we want?

Look deeper. Cases exploded so the CFR dropped but that’s just until deaths catch up. Not good.

[Donger]

FWIW:

Despite rampant Omicron, this COVID expert believes South Africa is "in a good space"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-o...pitalizations/

Johannesburg — Among the legions of scientists working around the clock in South Africa to track and study the coronavirus, including those who quickly detected the Omicron variant and alerted global authorities to it, a phrase has become increasingly common in recent days: describing this fourth wave as very different.

The lack of high death and hospitalization rates, despite the fact that Omicron has spread at breakneck speed across the country and accounts for most of the infections over the past three weeks, is the most glaring difference.

2 Pfizer doses 70% effective against Omicron hospitalization, data show

Professor Shabir Madhi, a vaccinologist at Wits University in Johannesburg who ran trials on AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine, believes it is the substantial percentage of the population in places like Gauteng province — which includes the urban hubs of Pretoria and Johannesburg and has seen a dramatic uptick in new infections — with underlying T-cell immunity that is preventing the disease from becoming more severe.

T-cells are one of the body's immune responses to infection that can be prompted by vaccination, or by prior infection. Antibodies are also induced, which help to prevent reinfection, but T-cells work more to prevent any future infection from causing such a severe reaction. They dull the blow, in other words.

Already in Gauteng, experts say the number of new infections appears to have plateaued relative to the still-rapid increase elsewhere in the country, and in other places where it's more recently taken root.

"We will be in a much better space"

Madhi told CBS News that this trend can be compared to the end of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.

"They had like three rough rides of waves, and then there was this population immunity that started to evolve, which probably resulted in the Spanish flu becoming more, sort of endemic."

Madhi believes that South Africa may be experiencing something similar now, though he cautions that it's still early days.

"I think we are going into a good space, at least in settings such as South Africa where we have substantial amount of underlying immunity — largely driven through natural infection, inadvertently — I think, we are in a good space."

He adds that, of course, there is no predicting what the coronavirus might do next, and what other mutations may arise.

"But for this particular wave, I think we will be in a much better space, and we will experience much fewer hospitalizations, as well as deaths, from COVID-19 compared with what we had experienced in any of the previous three waves."

A "true test" for the vaccines

Madhi stressed that while previous infection alone, without vaccination, does appear to prompt a strong T-cell response, there's no reason to believe there's any advantage over vaccination — and there's every reason for countries to try to avoid the high death rates that come as a side effect of widespread natural immunity.

"Certainly, the vaccine still gives you T-cell immunity," he said.

"This is going to be a true test of the vaccines, at least when it comes to preventing severe disease." Madhi said. "In many high-income countries, most of the immunity that currently is prevalent is because of vaccine-induced immunity, unlike in South Africa where most of it is probably through natural infection. So, whether the same thing transpires in the U.S. and in the U.K. — where you get this uncoupling of infections and severe disease — I think that remains to be tested."

But Madhi said he was "optimistic that we will see the same sort of uncoupling," with Omicron infections rising steadily but not leading to a corresponding sharp rise in hospitalizations.

"Certainly,* vaccines are still very much required, and if anything, this hybrid — where people have been infected, and then sort of get a boost with the vaccine — in a sense, that probably induces even a much more resilient, both an antibody response, as well as a T-cell response."

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by O.city

So what is the actual endgame for this for everyone at this point? I mean, we can't go on forever like this.

No. I think in the long run we are all dead.