Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #32

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cass523 said:
COMPANIES HIRING

Walmart, the largest private employer in the United States, has announced it will hire 150,000 workers from now until the end of May. Those hired will work in stores, distribution centers, clubs and fulfillment centers, Walmart said Thursday.

7-Eleven, the country’s largest convenience store chain, announced Friday it will hire 20,000 new workers for in-store roles, many of whom will work to meet what the company calls a “surge” in mobile orders.

Petra Industries
On March 20, Petra announced plans to hire at least 50 new full-time positions over the next couple weeks. These new jobs will help Petra meet the rising demand for ecommerce fulfillment.

Amazon plans hire 100,000 people to keep up with online orders as the coronavirus spreads and keeps more people at home, shopping online. The company will also raise pay by $2 an hour through the end of April for hourly employees, who work at its warehouses, delivery centers and Whole Foods grocery stores.

Online learning companies: Now that over 30 million children are out of school, it’s boom time for online schools, which are swiftly expanding capacity. Outschool is hiring thousands of teachers to meet demand.

Grocery stores and delivery services: Grocery stores are your friends. Major chains such as Kroger, Meijer, and Safeway are hiring in-store shelf stockers and delivery staff; ditto for regional chains such as Raley’s. Grocery delivery services and apps such as Instacart are also hiring.

Working families: Many working parents are now forced to hire for many months of childcare, now that California’s governor announced that schools likely won’t open before fall. If kidcare is your jam, consider offering cheap, flexible options. Snap up these gigs in the next couple weeks.

Remote meeting and communication companies: Zoom is hiring, as are Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Walmart, 7-Eleven to hire thousands of workers amid coronavirus outbreak

Who is hiring during the coronavirus? Try these industries if you need a job now

LIST: Companies hiring during coronavirus pandemic
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You know all those idiot diseased spring breakers will be taking those jobs... :mad:
 
Herat said:
I KNOW !

Dr. Faucci needs to watch the UK press conferences. 3 Separate podiums and they are all about 5 feet from each other. Only 3 people there

Whomever is producing these WH press conferences needs to be called out and soon:

1. Too many people crammed shoulder to shoulder. 6 of them are not needed (except for their PR photos, IMHO) Seriouly, why is Ben Carson needed? Or 5 other people that never talk?

2. Chose 3 people: Dr. Faucci, Dr. Bix and ONE politician. No more.

3. Each gets their OWN podium, end of statement !!
Trump is the worst at podium-grasping. He is persistently holding onto it for dear life, then he waves his arms and goes back to it again.
Then inexplicably, Faucci follows right behind Trump and grasps EXACTLY the same places Trump has grasped.
Dr. Bix is smart enough to stay away from the COVID-19 Podium.

4. Simplify the messages. Trump goes of on one tangent for 3 minutes. Then Pence duplicates what Trump says and drones on.

5. Keep Trump away from the Q&A sessions. He just departs from the script and distracts from the work of this group.

Or better yet:

Watch what Governor Cuomo does.
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Or note what Prime Minister Trudeau does. He is the only person, and the press conference is outdoors, in the front yard of his home.
 
NJ

A man in his 50s from Monmouth County was among five additional people who have died in New Jersey from COVID-19.

New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli announced that news at a press briefing Saturday.

Three of those deaths were patients at "post-acute facilities," long-term care or rehabilitation centers, she said.

Monmouth County saw 39 new cases since Friday afternoon and Ocean had 13 new cases.

According to the New Jersey COVID-19 dashboard, Monmouth County now has 92 cases and Ocean has 62 in all.

The total number of positive cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey has risen by 442 to 1,327 and deaths have climbed to 16.

Gov. Phil, Murphy announced Saturday that he has signed an executive order for all New Jersey residents to stay home and all but businesses essential to the fight against COVID-19 to close as of 9 p.m. Saturday.

There are exemptions, such as grocery stores, liquor stores, physical therapy offices, all construction companies and trucking firms.

Coronavirus in NJ: Monmouth has 39 more cases; Ocean sees 13
 
10ofRods said:
The reason that many states are urging "no tests" is that they do not have the tests to run.

The swab issue was ridiculous (I mean, srsly) but the fact that the kits have to contain specific reagents for the virus to be detected...that can't be produced by a former car factory. We need major pharma (and maybe related industries in food and health) to step up and produce those kits. I do not think that's happening. Our government claims the power to mandate this production but so far has not done so.
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The swabs in kits are provided with viral transport media ( the pinky-orange liquid). This is a specific sterile compliation of electolytes , proteins, and some stabilizers that are needed for when you need to CULTURE viruses (or bacteria actually). Commercial swabs are set up like this so when a DNA or RNA test for the viral Antigen is negative, the same swab can be used to set up the viral culture to see if you can grow the virus (usually herpes, CMV) as a backup, usually in critically ill patients

But this test is not a CULTURE, like a urine culture is. It is an RNA Antigen test. So it doesn't actually need the pinky-orange viral transport media for the virus to grow, it just needs something like sterile saline to keep the swabs moist.

So laboratories are very quickly ramping up to do the testing using the saline-moistened swabs, not the viral transport-media moistened ones. They are required to prove switching from the media to sterile saline does not affect the sensitivity or specificity of the actual SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing. So they need to run about 500 t0 1000 duplicate samples to be statistically valid.

Then they can switch to sterile saline instead of viral transport media and relieve that shortage.

BTW- Do you know where most all of the sterile saline solution in the US is made????

Puerto Rico

<modsnip>
 
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Herat said:
The swabs in kits were provided with viral transport media ( the pinky-orange liquid). This is a specific sterile compliation of electolytes , proteins, and some stabilizers that are needed for when you need to CULTURE viruses (or bacteria actually).

But this test is not a CULTURE, like a urine culture is. It is an RNA Antigen test. So it doesn't actually need the pinky-orange viral transport media, it just needs something like sterile saline to keep the swabs moist.

So laboratories are very quickly ramping up to do the testing using the saline-moistened swabs, not the viral transport-media moistened ones. They are required to prove switching from the media to sterile saline does not affect the sensitivity or specificity of the actual SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing. So they need to run about 500 t0 1000 duplicate samples to be statistically valid.

Then they can switch to sterile saline instead of viral transport media and relieve that shortage.

BTW- Do you know where most all of the sterile saline solution in the US is made????

Puerto Rico

And can you guess what industry was almost shut down in PR because the US Government refused to give appropriate hurricane relief funds to Puerto Rico????

You only get one guess.

Politics over Science.
Click to expand...

I've been scouring the web for just this explanation about the swabs. Thank you so much. I had a feeling someone here would know.

Crazy that we shipped the wrong swabs (if I'm understanding you properly). And wow - the problem of re-norming the tests never occurred to me.

And wow - who knew that the sterile saline was from PR? I would have bet it was made outside the US (surely we can get some minor Pharma company to do it?)

Politics is about power and this is what happens when the fundamentals of a working democracy are abandoned. It's not about one side overpowering the other, it's about the winning side bringing everyone together into a common plan. Especially right now.
 
PayrollNerd said:
This is the pattern we are using. Me and my friends are making them for ourselves first.

I noticed in this instruction sheet I’ve attached that they use elastic headbands you can get for your hair. You can substitute 1/8” or 1/4” flat elastic. Also the long ties would work too.

Everything I’ve read and researched regarding fabrics states using cotton against the skin side always. A cotton polyester fabric (tshirt) on the outside, if desired, or flannel. Both are more tightly woven but can also restrict breathing more. Anything besides 2 layers of regular cotton here in FL and we’d all roast.

One option is to insert a disposable mask between the layers to increase The protection level. Another option is to insert a clean, dried out baby wipe. Keep in mind they need to be replaced daily and the face mask washed daily. There are a lot of comments at the bottom of the link as to making them more protective. Some comments are clearly not thought through well but there are some good ideas amongst them.

I did get a response from the nurse I know. She said her hospital doesn’t have a shortage of masks. She hadn’t heard anything about sewing home made masks.

I plan to make these and take along to my next cancer treatment on Thursday. I’m going to give them away. They have home made chemo caps people drop off for patients. I figure they may like some masks for family members.

Face Mask Pattern - Free Sewing Patter • Craft Passion

I wonder if my new fur baby, Athena would like sewing lessons?! LOL probably not. She laid at my feet or followed me around like a shadow all day. She laid her head on my leg when we first got home. I think it was her way of saying thank you.
Click to expand...
Providence Hospital's "100 Million Mask Challenge" included distributing kits to volunteers who sew - each kit contains all the materials needed to make 100 masks. The material is medical-grade and lab tested.

There was an overwhelming response from the community and every kit was claimed!

Anyway, all this to say you might be interested in their video tutorial here:

100 Million Masks | Providence
 
musicaljoke said:
Or note what Prime Minister Trudeau does. He is the only person, and the press conference is outdoors, in the front yard of his home.
Click to expand...

Canada certainly separates political message and health message. Politic message is about border closures and financial aid, federal health message is general self care info, provincial health message is about number of cases, containment vs. community transfer, deaths, closures and testing.

Separating the messages really helps with clarity.
 
23 additional positive COVID-19 cases in Iowa, 68 total This is a very rapid increase in a short period of time. IIRC, the last time I posted there were 44, now 68. These cases are all new today. IMO-there was 1 new case yesterday that I didn't post, but no link. IMO-24 new cases since I posted on I think Wednesday. ETA-Iowa sees largest single-day jump in positive COVID-19 cases, total to 68 Yep. This article confirms the last time I posted a numbers article was on Wed. ETA-And this article also shows the strict guidelines Iowa is using to test. NOT just everyone can get tested even if they wanted to. IMO-there are so many frustrated people here.
 
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LadyL said:
Why it's so difficult to get tested for COVID-19 in Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-testing-shortages-1.5503926
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Big gap between capacity and application.

"For days doctors in hospital across Canada watched anxiously as they run low of supplies of nasal swabs needed to test patients.

The Public Health Agency of Canada put out an urgent call to university research groups to donate testing chemicals,, called reagents, along with other products needed to do virus testing "
 
BetteDavisEyes said:
Coronavirus symptoms start slowly, then might worsen quickly

Some patients may feel better before winding up in the hospital.
Click to expand...

Very informative article~thanks BDE
"They say, 'Hey, you know, I think I'm getting over this,' and then within 20 to 24 hours, they've got fevers, severe fatigue, worsening cough and shortness of breath," said Ohl, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "Then they get hospitalized."
Click to expand...

Denson said nearly all of his most critically ill patients have a combination of three specific underlying medical problems: obesity, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Click to expand...

jmo
 
New England Journal of Medicine on saline shortage....
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1800347

"Most drug shortages occur with older, generic, injectable medications that are produced by a small number of suppliers — typically three or fewer. The United States gets its saline from just three companies: Baxter International, B. Braun Medical, and ICU Medical. Most shortages are caused by a quality or production problem at the manufacturing facility — causes that apply to the current saline shortage as well.2,3 In addition, when one supplier experiences a shortage, other suppliers often have insufficient manufacturing capacity to make up the difference. Drug manufacturers are not required to have redundancy in their facilities or even a business contingency plan in case of a disaster, no matter how essential or lifesaving the medication they are producing.1
Saline is an inexpensive product — it’s simply salt water — but proper manufacturing practices are required to keep it sterile, pyrogen-free, and free from particulate matter. Production demands are challenging, since very large quantities are needed: more than 40 million bags per month. Saline is required for virtually all hospitalized patients, whether as a component of a medication infusion or as a hydration, resuscitation, or irrigation fluid.2 Unfortunately, shortages of saline have become commonplace in recent years (see table).

Most drug shortages occur with older, generic, injectable medications that are produced by a small number of suppliers — typically three or fewer. The United States gets its saline from just three companies: Baxter International, B. Braun Medical, and ICU Medical. Most shortages are caused by a quality or production problem at the manufacturing facility — causes that apply to the current saline shortage as well.2,3 In addition, when one supplier experiences a shortage, other suppliers often have insufficient manufacturing capacity to make up the difference. Drug manufacturers are not required to have redundancy in their facilities or even a business contingency plan in case of a disaster, no matter how essential or lifesaving the medication they are producing.1

The shortage of small-volume saline bags (250 ml or less) became dire almost immediately after Baxter’s Puerto Rico manufacturing plant was hit by Hurricane Maria.2 Baxter supplies approximately 50% of U.S. hospitals with this product, which is used as a diluent to deliver a variety of parenteral medications. Despite this tremendous need, Baxter has no redundancy in manufacturing capacity for small-volume saline bags. The other two saline suppliers have not been able to increase their production enough to make up for the shortage.2,3 In fact, saline produced by B. Braun was already in short supply before the hurricane, as the company worked to correct manufacturing-quality problems.3

The saline shortage had actually begun in 2014, affecting large- as well as small-volume products.4 Large-volume saline products (>500 ml) are typically used as maintenance or resuscitation fluids or for irrigation. Although some shortages of large-volume saline solutions are attributable to problems at manufacturing facilities, increased demand for intravenous fluids due to a severe influenza season has also contributed to the current short supply.2
 
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