Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #37

[katydid23]

Interested to hear all opinions on this ... How does HIPAA apply? There is actually a place near me in this situation I'm not happy.

I'm not sure the implications of HIPAA vs public safety including being at risk of death ...

One way around HIPAA is having the patient agree to share the diagnosis with others...maybe?

 

[Sundog]

Double Post.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

"Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West announced Thursday that it located 39 million N95 masks and will make them available to state and local governments and health care systems that are fighting the novel coronavirus outbreak.


The union found a distributor with the masks, which are cleared for surgical use, after pleas from health care workers as new coronavirus cases surge across the state and the country as a whole.

Union officials said they also found a supplier that can produce some 20 million protective masks per week and another that can supply millions of protective face shields."

"Hmm… SEIU Union in California Suddenly Finds Mysterious Stash of 39 Million Face Masks — 3 Days After AG Bill Barr Announces They’re Going After Hoarders"

Fantastic! Of course they have them. Service employees always need them, and many of them are going to work right now without them. And in California, my understanding is that some businesses keep PPE handy for the wildfires (that's what Facebook said about their stash, anyway). I appreciate the union making them available! We need this kind of initiative and organization higher up.

 

[cody22]

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that he planned to label different areas of the country as at a “high risk, medium risk or low risk” to the spread of the coronavirus, as part of new federal guidelines to help states decide whether to relax or enhance their quarantine and social distancing measures.

“Our expanded testing capabilities will quickly enable us to publish criteria, developed in close coordination with the nation’s public health officials and scientists, to help classify counties with respect to continued risks posed by the virus,” Mr. Trump said in a letter to the nation’s governors.

Trump Says He Will Label Regions by Risk of Coronavirus Threat

Attention - If my part of the country is labeled "Low Risk", would yall all please stay home where you are, and do not move to my part of the country. The lines are already long, and the shortages are already many, here in my "Low Risk" country......... That is all......Thank you......moo

 

[margarita25]

Any idea when it will reach New York?

“Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the ship was likely to arrive by mid-April.”

Source / my post Monday:
Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #34

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Bringing forward content re: USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort:
Video at link
SD-Based Navy Hospital Ship to Aid Non-Coronavirus Patients in Los Angeles


“A San Diego-based Navy hospital ship is going to Los Angeles to provide extra support amid the area's surge of coronavirus patients, President Trump said Sunday.

"The Department of Defense has been given direction to dispatch it to Los Angeles immediately. DOD has advised Mercy can get into position within a week or less of today’s order,” FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor said.

USNS Mercy -- one of the Navy's two 1,000-bed hospital ships -- will depart from Naval Station San Diego on March 23, the U.S. Navy said. Over 800 Navy medical personnel and support staff, and more than 70 civil service mariners will be aboard the ship.

[...]

"The ship will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals, and will provide a full spectrum of medical care to include critical and urgent care for adults," the Navy said.

The additional support will allow local health professionals to focus on treating COVID-19 patients and for shore-based hospitals to use their Intensive Care Units and ventilators for those patients, according to the Navy.

[...]

<modsnip: snipped to comply with 10% copyright rule>

Last edited: Monday at 6:47 AM

 

[Herat]

Texas governor orders 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving from New York or New Orleans and threatens fines or six months JAIL for violators

US coronavirus: Texas governor orders 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving from New York or NOLA | Daily Mail Online

He should probably add Michigan to that edict

 

[10ofRods]

TRAJECTORY

"The trajectory of the U.S. #COVID19 epidemic just couldn't be worse, especially compared to other nations.
We've outpaced China and we're racing to hell at a clip well beyond Italy or Spain. "
Laurie Garrett on Twitter

Laurie Garrett on Twitter

It's true it's going to get bad in the US, but graphs like this are a little misleading. It's about total number of cases. Italy has 60M people, we have 330M. So we should have 5X the cases as Italy to be as bad as Italy. It's true our trajectory looks steeper - but that's partly a function of testing. In the past 4-5 days, NY has gotten tons more testing kits (and so has California - other places too). Italy was slower at testing so the known case trajectory is different.

Our death rates are still way below Italy's and that's important. Every time we test a person who does not develop serious illness and is merely quarantined, that goes in our number pile. In Italy, most of the people getting tests are already in hospital and some are upon autopsy.

 

[Trudie]

Epidemiologist: Coronavirus deaths in the US could peak in 3 weeks
A leading epidemiologist advising the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated the peak of deaths in the US coronavirus pandemic will be three weeks from now, after which “most of the damage will be done,” and says it may be possible to only isolate the vulnerable, allowing many back to work.


Ok, 4 days. Not too far off the mark. Here is the quote:

"...after which “most of the damage will be done,” and says it may be possible to only isolate the vulnerable, allowing many back to work."


So, 4 days after Easter, many may be allowed back to work....Sounds like what the administration is aspiring to?

And Dr. Birx believes the numbers allow this, correct? Based on her earlier comment about numbers not adding up. Moo

 

[Cool Cats]

6:18 pm EDT • March 26, 2020
US now has the world’s most coronavirus cases – TechCrunch

Number of cases is misleading because except for China, the U.S. has more people then all these other Countries on this list, and China was counting Corona virus cases as the flu on death certificates and covering up for months what was going on.
This Is How China Is Hiding The True Number Of Coronavirus Deaths – The Burning Platform
"...instead of putting down coronavirus as the cause of death for an unknown number of Wuhan casualties, China’s coroners and hospitals merely ascribe death to “viral pneumonia”, case closed."

#Corona Virus Cases & Population

83,507 - US - under 332 Million
81,782 - China - 1 and 1/2 Billion
80,589 - Italy - under 61 Million
57,786 - Spain - under 47 Million
43,938 - Germany - under 84 Million
29,551 - France - under 66 Million
29,406 - Iran - under 84 Million
11,811 - Switzerland - under 11 Million
11,809 - United Kingdom - under 68 Million
9,241 - Korea, South - under 52 Million
7,459 - Netherlands - under 18 Million

 

[Gardenista]

It's true it's going to get bad in the US, but graphs like this are a little misleading. It's about total number of cases. Italy has 60M people, we have 330M. So we should have 5X the cases as Italy to be as bad as Italy. It's true our trajectory looks steeper - but that's partly a function of testing. In the past 4-5 days, NY has gotten tons more testing kits (and so has California - other places too). Italy was slower at testing so the known case trajectory is different.

Our death rates are still way below Italy's and that's important. Every time we test a person who does not develop serious illness and is merely quarantined, that goes in our number pile. In Italy, most of the people getting tests are already in hospital and some are upon autopsy.

But tweets with info like yours don't get as many clicks.

 

[Tadpole12]

Is there a link to rewatch Task Force presser?

Okay found the March 26 th on youtube but unable to post link.
On yt, entitled,
'WATCH LIVE: White House coronavirus task force holds news briefing --
March 26, 2020'

 

[Caylee Advocate]

This breaks my heart.


For the first time since 9/11, NYC sets up makeshift morgues in anticipation of coronavirus deaths

 

[cass523]

FDA OKs anesthesia gas machines as ventilators amid coronavirus shortage fears

• FDA in an emergency use authorization this week allowed modifications to certain respiratory devices amid fears of a shortage in the supply and availability of agency-cleared ventilators for treating patients during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
• 
  
• The policy for manufacturers authorizes the "emergency use of ventilators, anesthesia gas machines modified for use as ventilators, and positive pressure breathing devices modified for use as ventilators" as well as related ventilator tubing connectors and accessories.

GE Healthcare, which has a global installed base of more than 100,000 anesthesia devices, noted on its website distinctions from ventilators but acknowledged the need during the pandemic. The company also said it doubled its ventilator production capacity since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak and plans to double it again by the end of the second quarter.

Dive Insight:

According to FDA's EUA, the "known and potential benefits" of anesthesia gas machines and positive pressure breathing devices modified for use as ventilators "when used to treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, outweigh the known and potential risks of such products."

"Ventilators that are currently used by anesthesiologists, that are used in outpatient clinics and in other procedures, can be converted to be used as ventilators for people struggling with the effects of the coronavirus," said Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, in a press briefing over the weekend. "We’ve confirmed that a particular screen in that device can be changed readily."

For the sickest COVID-19 patients in hospital ICUs, a shortage of the breathing machines could mean the difference between life and death. AdvaMed on Tuesday sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency asking for designation of a single agency to make allocation decisions to ensure the devices get to those who need them most.

FDA OKs anesthesia gas machines as ventilators amid coronavirus shortage fears

 

[Windsorite]

The National Cathedral in Washington, DC, is donating 5,000 N95 respirator masks to hospitals after finding them in the cathedral's crypt level. They were bought more than a decade ago when Americans were concerned about the bird flu. National Cathedral finds 5,000 masks that had been stashed away by its crypt for over 10 years - CNNPolitics

CNN International on Twitter

Cathedral in Washington, DC just donated gobs of new in box surgical masks to hospitals. Wondering where they got them? Source: Fox News on TV

 

[Henry2326]

<modsnip: quoted post was removed>

This site you can drill down to each state and see the breakdown.

IMO, the CDC has accumulated the data and presented in totality. But that doesn't exist anymore.

The COVID Tracking Project

 

[Henry2326]

Do you know if a source exists that shows Apx number of tests conducted by nation? I would be really interested in seeing that with a comparison to the positive case count.

The COVID Tracking Project

 

[Trudie]

Dr. Deborah Birx listed two counties: Wayne County in Michigan and Cook County in Illinois.

She said at Thursday’s White House briefing that the task force is not only looking at where the cases are today, but where they will be in the future so the Federal Emergency Management Agency can be alerted to where the next hotspots will be.

Birx says the two counties both are in urban areas or in communities that serve an urban area. Chicago is the seat of Cook County, which is one of the most populous counties in the United States. Wayne County is outside Detroit.The Latest: Feds concerned about virus spikes in 2 counties – Sentinel and Enterprise

 

[CSIDreamer]

The President said that it will leave Saturday and arrive in New York on Monday (remarks at today's White House press briefing).

Thank you! I missed part of it.

 

[JaneEyre]

That is quite an attack on Dr. Birx's integrity, do you have a link for this viewpoint or is it your personal opinion only?

She clearly wrote IMO.

 

[margarita25]

Case data | Colorado COVID-19 Updates

Colorado Case Summary (Updated 3/26/20 at 4:00 p.m.) PDF version
Note: This summary only includes data through 3/25 and does not reflect cases since then.

1,430 cases*
184 hospitalized
39 counties
10,122 people tested
24 deaths
9 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities

*Positive cases include people who tested positive, as well as cases where epidemiological investigation has determined that there is a high likelihood that an untested individual has COVID-19 due to their symptoms and close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The number of untested positive individuals included in the total positive sum is a very small portion of the total positives reported. This number only includes individuals identified through epidemiological investigations and does not include general members of the public who may have experienced symptoms of COVID-19 but did not complete testing.”

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“5:05 p.m. — A Sterling parole officer tested positive for COVID-19
A parole officer at the state Department of Corrections has tested positive for COVID-19.

The staffer, who worked in Sterling, did not work inside a prison, but officials are working to track down the parolees and others the staffer may have been in contact with...”

Colorado Coronavirus Updates: There Are 1,430 Cases Of COVID-19
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