***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.”

[TLO]

Speaking of the flu. It turns out social distancing and people washing their hands puts an end to flu season rather quickly. Missouri's flu activity has all but halted.

[BleedingRed]

Originally Posted by TLO

Speaking of the flu. It turns out social distancing and people washing their hands puts an end to flu season rather quickly. Missouri's flu activity has all but halted.

We are also coming to the end of flu season. But I'm sure it helped.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

Anyone claiming to know what IT is right now is ignorant. Serology might show us 100+ million had it. Who knows, but I know I dont and YOU dont.

So yeah it could STILL be very much like the flu.

Actually, in small population studies we know that is not even close. And that this likely has a higher death rate that China originally reported.

This is a much stronger virus that we anticipated or previously thought.

[BleedingRed]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Actually, in small population studies we know that is not even close. And that this likely has a higher death rate that China originally reported.

This is a much stronger virus that we anticipated or previously thought.

based on what? Is it based on South Korea's sub 1% mortality rate or what?

We have NO ****ing clue how many people have had it, and not been tested.

[BleedingRed]

Germany and USA are the ONLY two countries doing testing in large scale.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

based on what? Is it based on South Korea's sub 1% mortality rate or what?

We have NO ****ing clue how many people have had it, and not been tested.

We don't have exact numbers on who died from it either , we might not know the extent of this for decades to come.

[BleedingRed]

Originally Posted by Monticore

We don't have exact numbers on who died from it either , we might not know the extent of this for decades to come.

True we don't even know if the number that are being reported of dying from it are 100% accurate based on other countries certain metrics for calculating it.

But it wont take decades to know.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

True we don't even know if the number that are being reported of dying from it are 100% accurate based on other countries certain metrics for calculating it.

But it wont take decades to know.

We don’t even know the real numbers in the US

From worldometers

An estimated additional 180 - 195 deaths per day occurring at home in New York City due to COVID-19 are not being counted in the official figures. "Early on in this crisis we were able to swab people who died at home, and thus got a coronavirus reading. But those days are long gone. We simply don't have the testing capacity for the large numbers dying at home. Now only those few who had a test confirmation *before* dying are marked as victims of coronavirus on their death certificate. This almost certainly means we are undercounting the total number of victims of this pandemic," said Mark Levine, Chair of New York City Council health committee [source]
[source]

[DaneMcCloud]

I went to Costco for the first time in nearly 4 weeks.

What a waste of time.

Besides the fact they didn't have toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, bleach, disinfectant wipes, dish soap, windex and any other cleaning and paper related products, there just wasn't a whole helluva lot of other food available.

Surprisingly, Costco was out of microwave popcorn! WTF? So, I drove to another Costco (which I hate) and they didn't have popcorn, either. I went online and saw that people are selling Kirkland Microwave Popcorn, which is normally $9.99 for 44 bags, for $44.95! Others are price-gouging big time as well.

Toilet paper, I get. Microwave popcorn? We have a shortage of microwave popcorn in this country? I'm just at a loss for words.

Also, gasoline is still $3.79 a gallon out here.

Probably 70% of the people I saw were wearing a mask and around 50% had on gloves. Social Distancing wasn't an issue in Burbank but in Los Feliz/Glendale, NO ONE was SDing.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

True we don't even know if the number that are being reported of dying from it are 100% accurate based on other countries certain metrics for calculating it.

But it wont take decades to know.

There are still questions regarding the pandemic in 1918.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I went to Costco for the first time in nearly 4 weeks.

What a waste of time.

Besides the fact they didn't have toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, bleach, disinfectant wipes, dish soap, windex and any other cleaning and paper related products, there just wasn't a whole helluva lot of other food available.

Surprisingly, Costco was out of microwave popcorn! WTF? So, I drove to another Costco (which I hate) and they didn't have popcorn, either. I went online and saw that people are selling Kirkland Microwave Popcorn, which is normally $9.99 for 44 bags, for $44.95! Others are price-gouging big time as well.

Toilet paper, I get. Microwave popcorn? We have a shortage of microwave popcorn in this country? I'm just at a loss for words.

Also, gasoline is still $3.79 a gallon out here.

They are trying to put in a price gouging law in Ontario not sure where they are with it. Just seems like an evil thing to do during a crisis, even with popcorn.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by BleedingRed

based on what? Is it based on South Korea's sub 1% mortality rate or what?

We have NO ****ing clue how many people have had it, and not been tested.

Glad you brought that up. South Korea is the closest we can find to broad testing of everyone, including asymptomatic in a given area. They tested almost 500k. 186 deaths. 6,598 recovered. 186/6,784 = 2.75%.

They also aren't fat pieces of shit and are a very healthy population.

This idea that it is as lethal as the flu is ridiculous. This idea that it has been here community spreading since December and all of this is just a product of the media is ridiculous.

We've tested 1.9M people in USA and 362k have it. These are almost all primarily people who have flu or cold symptoms. Not all, but definitely the majority. If only 19% of people who take a Covid-19 test have it who have flu and cold like symptoms, there is no way that 50% or even 25% of our population have it like some people want to claim.

I am grateful we enacted social distancing measures when we could but many states like Georgia and Louisiana really dropped the ball.

[SAUTO]

A study by disease modelers at the University of Texas at Austin states that "Given the low testing rates throughout the country, we assume that 1 in 10 cases are tested and reported. If a county has detected only 1 case of COVID-19, there is a 51%
chance that there is already a growing outbreak underway" [source]

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I went to Costco for the first time in nearly 4 weeks.

What a waste of time.

Besides the fact they didn't have toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, bleach, disinfectant wipes, dish soap, windex and any other cleaning and paper related products, there just wasn't a whole helluva lot of other food available.

Surprisingly, Costco was out of microwave popcorn! WTF? So, I drove to another Costco (which I hate) and they didn't have popcorn, either. I went online and saw that people are selling Kirkland Microwave Popcorn, which is normally $9.99 for 44 bags, for $44.95! Others are price-gouging big time as well.

Toilet paper, I get. Microwave popcorn? We have a shortage of microwave popcorn in this country? I'm just at a loss for words.

Also, gasoline is still $3.79 a gallon out here.

Probably 70% of the people I saw were wearing a mask and around 50% had on gloves. Social Distancing wasn't an issue in Burbank but in Los Feliz/Glendale, NO ONE was SDing.

I mean, I get the TP and cleaning products, but popcorn? What in the ever living hell?

Prices seem to be all over the board on Amazon.

[SuperBowl4]

Originally Posted by Monticore

We don't have exact numbers on who died from it either , we might not know the extent of this for decades to come.

Stay Tuned..............