***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.”

[eDave]

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by KS Smitty

I imagine (hope) we see a lot of manufacturing jobs coming home, it will take some time getting things up and running.

**** China.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Not a hospital but I work in a skilled nursing rehab facility. 60-70 patients at a time with most of those beds being patients who rehab for about 2 weeks before returning home.

We are running out of all Personal Protective Equipment and the orders aren't being filled. We had our transportation drivers going to Walmart, CVS, Target, etc.....looking to buy sanitizer, bleach and hydrogen peroxide today. We are almost to the point of needing to make our own disinfectant. We are down to 50 masks total. It is very scary not to have supplies to protect yourself or your staff.

Our hospital is hoarding PPE and test kits we don’t have an active case yet and we already know we will run out., and we don’t have face shields needed for droplet isolation, my wife hasn’t received her supplies she ordered months ago, she came home and stole the kids nerf eye protection.
The whole world got caught with there pants down.

[Dartgod]

I saw that this morning. Friggen hilarious.

Originally Posted by eDave

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Not a hospital but I work in a skilled nursing rehab facility. 60-70 patients at a time with most of those beds being patients who rehab for about 2 weeks before returning home.

We are running out of all Personal Protective Equipment and the orders aren't being filled. We had our transportation drivers going to Walmart, CVS, Target, etc.....looking to buy sanitizer, bleach and hydrogen peroxide today. We are almost to the point of needing to make our own disinfectant. We are down to 50 masks total. It is very scary not to have supplies to protect yourself or your staff.

thats ****ed up. I thought when the President signed the defense production act that the military and government would ramp up production of medical supplies. Now he’s tweeting that he only signed it “just in case” it’s needed. Your experience is not unique. It’s needed.

Some good news on the hand santizer shortage is that local breweries are converting their production to making hand sanitizer and usually giving it away to hospitals and nursing homes that have shortages. I’m stopping my social distancing to take a car full to a nursing home from one of our local Breweries.

[RunKC]

Finally some good news

China reports no new domestic cases: For the first time, the country where the coronavirus pandemic began has announced no new locally transmitted infections -- a pivotal moment in the battle to contain Covid-19.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

thats ****ed up. I thought when the President signed the defense production act that the military and government would ramp up production of medical supplies. Now he’s tweeting that he only signed it “just in case” it’s needed. Your experience is not unique. It’s needed.

Some good news on the hand santizer shortage is that local breweries are converting their production to making hand sanitizer and usually giving it away to hospitals and nursing homes that have shortages.

Near as I can tell - THIS is the end-game for the attempts at virus suppression. I mean...it has to be. You can't hold this thing back forever no matter how hard you try and the longer you do, the less acquired immunity you'll have built up to slow the inevitable spikes in the winter months.

The 'stop the spread' idea is only temporary. Then with the warmer weather will come some easing on movement to allow for the 'flatten the curve' idea to go into full effect and attempts at herd immunity.

And in that 2-4 weeks where we try to put the clamps down, we'll be trying to ramp up our manufacturing base to try to be able to tread water.

Once you start to get a better handle on what the respective approaches entail, you can actually see how they may dovetail together. Frankly, I think the idea of 'cyclical contractions' is going to be just as bad as simply letting the thing take hold. You give people that kind of uncertainty and we'll continue with this national tension for a year or longer. That's not tenable.

But if you have a genuine plan in place where you squeeze tight at the beginning and then relax before allowing nature to take hold (and improved therapeutic treatments/additional supplies to reduce its impact) you're probably gonna see the best combination of outcomes.

But I think it requires a more clear articulation of intentions by national leadership. Give people a target and they'll chase it. Give them a seemingly interminable grind and they'll give up.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Finally some good news

China can report that but I don't believe it.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Near as I can tell - THIS is the end-game for the attempts at virus suppression. I mean...it has to be. You can't hold this thing back forever no matter how hard you try and the longer you do, the less acquired immunity you'll have built up to slow the inevitable spikes in the winter months.

The 'stop the spread' idea is only temporary. Then with the warmer weather will come some easing on movement to allow for the 'flatten the curve' idea to go into full effect and attempts at herd immunity.

And in that 2-4 weeks where we try to put the clamps down, we'll be trying to ramp up our manufacturing base to try to be able to tread water.

Once you start to get a better handle on what the respective approaches entail, you can actually see how they may dovetail together. Frankly, I think the idea of 'cyclical contractions' is going to be just as bad as simply letting the thing take hold. You give people that kind of uncertainty and we'll continue with this national tension for a year or longer. That's not tenable.

But if you have a genuine plan in place where you squeeze tight at the beginning and then relax before allowing nature to take hold (and improved therapeutic treatments/additional supplies to reduce its impact) you're probably gonna see the best combination of outcomes.

But I think it requires a more clear articulation of intentions by national leadership. Give people a target and they'll chase it. Give them a seemingly interminable grind and they'll give up.

If the anti-malarial drug study is true and repeatable out of France then this virus becomes a whole lot less scary.

[Mr_Tomahawk]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

If the anti-malarial drug study is true and repeatable out of France then this virus becomes a whole lot less scary.

And why aren’t more people talking about it? I can hardly find any coverage on it...

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Finally some good news

For the record - what happens in China over the coming days is MASSIVE.

If they open the taps and this thing explodes in 10 days it means 2 things:

1) They probably weren't sitting on this for as long as theorized and in fact, it did spread extremely quickly and with savage results.

2) That the 'virus suppression' approach is dead in the water.

But if it doesn't explode, that suggests pretty strongly that this thing actually spreads pretty damn slowly, they WERE sitting on it for months (whether they knew about it or not is not for the apolitical thread) and that they've probably acquired just enough herd immunity to prevent another epidemic. That would also likely suggest that the number of unreported cases is exceptionally high and the mortality rate lower than feared.

Oh...and then it could just mean that it's China doing China things and by throwing all foreign journalists out, they've put the clamps on reporting again.

In either event, how China rebounds over the coming weeks can tell us a ton.

[notorious]

Don't believe a ****ing thing China tells us.

They lie. That's what they have always done.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by notorious

Don't believe a ****ing thing China tells us.

They lie. That's what they have always done.

They won't be able to hide it if they have to shut down major cities again.

If they don't, that means something.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

China can report that but I don't believe it.

Nobody can believe anything China says. They are the worst.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by notorious

Don't believe a ****ing thing China tells us.

They lie. That's what they have always done.

didnt they hide that there was an issue for a month until it became so widespread that the western world noticed and then the finally came clean?