Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #41

[justbeachy]

My friend's mom (in her 80s) tested positive for Covid-19 and is in the hospital in NY. Of course no one can see her, so my friend is beside herself with worry.

The "interesting" thing is that when she went to the hospital (on Friday) they thought she had diverticulitis because she has had it in the past and the symptoms were similar in her mind. She had diarrhea and abdominal pain, but no fever and no coughing. They admitted her and found that she does NOT have diverticulitis, but DOES have coronavirus. She did get a fever eventually and is now on oxygen and has double pneumonia.

The daughter who brought her to the hospital (she was not allowed to go in) and the other 5 siblings who regularly care for her were told to self-isolate but will not be tested unless they show symptoms.

 

[gngr~snap]

Today I learned that bats are mammals. That blows my mind. I thought they were some kind of mutant bird. That's why the virus jumps so easily to people - finally makes sense.

Nothing about the pangolin?
(Scaly anteater)
I know the research is evolving, but my understanding was the bat gave it to the pangolin, which is a delicacy in the "wet markets" and the scales are used a medicine or supplements.
I'll have to do more research now!
Thanks!
Moo

 

[Love Never Fails]

I'm half amused. Apparently there is a competition between Kentucky and Indiana to see who has the least cases. This is a Kentucky news station btw. Indiana has a lot more people. Notice how they are tracking Louisville as a separate entity from the state of Kentucky. Kind of petty. Jmo

WAVE 3 News

Likely because Louisville is the largest city in KY.

 

[RANCH]

Something else I've been wondering. I thought I had read where the virus gets into the lungs to do its damage, and that if the virus is on/in something that goes into the esophagus and into the stomach rather than following the trachea into the lungs, it can't survive the stomach acids.

This must not be true, though, given the description above of it getting to humans when they ate an infected animal. Plus the whole focus of not putting fingers in mouth, you'd think that wouldn't even be a concern if it wouldn't survive the stomach. Or else I'm missing something about how it moves about in a host.

Air that you breathe in through your mouth goes into your lungs. Putting the virus into your mouth with your fingers can cause it to get into you lungs. JMO

 

[gngr~snap]

Unbelievable that people eat bats knowing that they carry coronavirus and that they are mammals. The Chinese seem to be attracted to rare food - the more rare, the more expensive, the more prestigious. Bears and gorilla have been mutilated to serve rare menus. I think Prince Charles has it right - preserve and protect animals, get rid of the special prestigious menu.

The pangolin is a protected species, thus making it more of a delicacy for the Chinese menu.

"The shy, harmless pangolin is becoming increasingly well known for one reason: It’s believed to be the world’s most trafficked non-human mammal. Tens of thousands of pangolins are poached every year, killed for their scales for use in traditional Chinese medicine and for their meat, a delicacy among some ultra-wealthy in China and Vietnam.
...

Pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same material that makes up fingernails, hair, and horn. Pangolin scales, like rhino horn, have no proven medicinal value, yet they are used in traditional Chinese medicine to help with ailments ranging from lactation difficulties to arthritis. The scales typically dried and ground up into powder, which may be turned into a pill.

For many years, the Asian species were the primary target of poachers and traffickers. But now that their numbers have been depleted, smugglers are increasingly turning to African pangolins. In two record-breaking seizures in the space of a week in April 2019, Singapore seized a 14.2-ton shipment and and a 14-ton shipment of pangolin scales—from an estimated 72,000 pangolins—coming from Nigeria."​

Pangolins

There is my answer!
: )
Moo

 

[stattlich1]

This is where my heart is engaged. People are really stressed out and many do not understand this virus very well. Killing one's family out of fear of a virus is (of course) madness, but we all know here on WS that when stress goes up, things can go very south in a household.

Think about all the strange relations that have been interrupted by the virus. People who were having affairs and already plotting their way out of a relationship, welp, they're more likely to get irritable. People who had underlying health problems they didn't like to discuss, even with family...they feel increasingly suicidal. Etc.

At a time of great social isolation, we are also called upon to speak what we're thinking and to ask our questions. Kids and teens (and even 20 and 30 somethings) don't really know what a viral outbreak is. Some of us grew up in a world with mumps, and two kinds of measles. A few of us remember polio. My parents remembered small pox. Small pox was still alive on this planet (although largely quarantined) when I was 25.

Small pox was eradicated only through a massive vaccination campaign.

Mumps, measles, chicken pox, and rocky mountain spotted fever. Words from my youth. I have that scar on my arm Good Lord, standin' in line, as a young boy, seeing those ahead of me, like scared me to death. Traumatizing, and I ain't kiddin'.

Good luck all. My wife and I have had to establish 30 feet of social distancing for our own safety 6 feet was too close, could still get hit with stuff she's throwin'.

Just kiddin'. I'm 60, she's, well, a wee bit younger. I see folk my age dyin'. I'm stayin' put. I really think NOW is the time to hunker down. For several weeks.

peace.

 

[10ofRods]

We have a bat house at the back of our yard, they really do keep the mosquito population away and we can enjoy our yard and deck. Beats spraying or applying chemicals just to enjoy your yard.

Just don't invite them over to dinner regularly. Once a year is probably okay.

 

[Cool Cats]

Seems to be mutating but not becoming more dangerous.

Coronavirus is mutating and now has 8 strains, doctors say | TribLIVE.com

The novel coronavirus is mutating, as viruses do, and eight strains are now making the rounds globally, medical experts say.

The good news is that the mutations are not more lethal, said Trevor Bedford, whose website, NextStrain.org, is tracking the virus’s genome from samples provided to him from throughout the world. But they are informative.

Coronavirus mutates into 40 strains. How this changes the pandemic outlook: Experts

Scientists in Iceland claim they have found FORTY mutations of the coronavirus

The mutations were discovered by analysing swabs of COVID-19 patients in Iceland, where almost 600 cases have been reported so far.

Using genetic sequencing, the researchers identified how many mutations the virus had accumulated.

These genetic variants can act as the fingerprints of the virus to indicate where in the world it originated.

The Icelandic scientists were able to trace the corona virus back to three European countries – Austria, Italy – the epicentre of the outbreak – and England.

Seven infected people all went to the same, undisclosed football match in England, the team claim.

 

[gngr~snap]

Exercose:
Don't have a treadmill?
This could work.
I'd break a hip!

 

[margarita25]

Colorado COVID-19 outbreak could peak April 17, modeling shows
3 minutes ago

“As of noon Monday, Colorado has more than 2,600 known positive cases.”

[...]

“Based on 414 hospitalizations, Colborn says modeling predicts the true number of infected patients in Colorado stands at more than 9,400.”

-more at link

 

[CSIDreamer]

Likely because Louisville is the largest city in KY.

It's not Louisville, Louisville. It's Louisville, Kentucky is my point. They can separate all they want, it's a state count at the end of the day. Just sayin'.

 

[10ofRods]

This is what I don't understand -- if there is a stockpile of 1.5 million masks and the elastic is out of date but the cloth part is ok, why not have people replace the elastic? Just like all the folks making cloth masks, some people would be thrilled to use their sewing skills to make the "expired" masks usable!

In the past few days (ie somewhere in the previous million posts lol) someone posted an explanation of how the virus found live after 17 days was not viable in the sense of being transmissible. It was something along the lines of DNA/RNA distinctions. Maybe @Henry2326 posted it? Can't recall but I remember feeling a tiny bit relieved after reading it.

I have that book waiting for me in audiobook format on Overdrive. A few other books to finish first but I'm looking forward to reading it.

Hey. Wait. Wait up there a minute.

That smacks of common sense.

Almost everything about the "public procurement" sector is stupid crazy. There are years when some governmental agency would give our schools tons of money (but with weird rules about spending it and a 30 day deadline; so we'd end up with tons of stuff that we didn't need and none of the stuff we did need). We don't need much in education, btw, but still. They were happy to fund us building more warehouses (construction lobby is powerful) but only so long as we stocked it with what they said we needed.

In medicine, SO many eyes go on a purchase order, with all these struggles between top notch medical doctors who want what they want (and have to be told, no you already have 3 MRI machines you can't have another) and the nurses (who actually know what goes out of supply on a daily basis) and pharmacists (ditto, but they often come and go from hospital settings as the hours are brutal and the politics are brutal too). Better hospitals at least try to emulate and scale the purchases of, say, Johns Hopkins or UCLA or at least a research hospital.

Most people who are out on the front lines of medicine are not finding time to calculate how many masks should have been purchased by the procurement department.

Sometimes poorer hospitals actually have more stock of the very basics (masks, gowns) but other times they have no storage space and are dependent on regular restock (which isn't happening right now because it all comes from China - or at least most of it did; some from Italy or Puerto Rico - we do not have much supply from any of those three places).

 

[Hatfield]

Exercose:
Don't have a treadmill?
This could work.
I'd break a hip!

LOL Yeah, with my luck I would have a broken neck with the first attempt.

Reminds me of years ago when I got one of those "spring things" that had a handle on each end with metal spring coils in the middle. The idea of that simple but deadly workout device was that you put one hand in each handle and pull apart to workout the arm muscles.

Problem was I decided to go against the intructions and used my foot to hold down one handle on the floor while I used both hands to pull upwards. Worked fine until the handle on the floor slipped out from under my foot and clocked me right in the chin. It felt like Mike Tyson gave me an uppercut and I got a cut lip out of the deal.

 

[margarita25]

“New York City has reported its first death of a child to COVID-19, one of hundreds new state fatalities overnight that brought the grim toll to 1,342 by Monday evening, officials said.

The age of the minor wasn't released, but the victim did have an underlying condition. The sobering news comes as the city's health commissioner warns the upcoming month could be even deadlier than this one -- and Gov. Andrew Cuomo races to shore up defenses before the worst of the storm.

"If there was ever a moment for unity, this is the moment. This virus doesn't discriminate. It attacks everyone, and it attacks everywhere," Cuomo said at his daily briefing Monday. "This virus has been ahead of us from Day 1. I'm tired of playing catch-up with this virus. You never win when you're playing catch-up. If you are not prepared for the apex, for the high point, you are missing the point of the operation. It is a fundamental blunder to only prepare for today."”

[...]

"”We've lost more than 1,000 New Yorkers," the governor said. "To me, we're beyond 'staggering' already. We've reached 'staggering.' The point is to save every life that you can, that's what this is all about."”

‘It Attacks Everyone:’ NYC Loses 1st Child to Virus as State Deaths Eclipse 1,300; NJ Cases Soar

 

[otto]

Something else I've been wondering. I thought I had read where the virus gets into the lungs to do its damage, and that if the virus is on/in something that goes into the esophagus and into the stomach rather than following the trachea into the lungs, it can't survive the stomach acids.

This must not be true, though, given the description above of it getting to humans when they ate an infected animal. Plus the whole focus of not putting fingers in mouth, you'd think that wouldn't even be a concern if it wouldn't survive the stomach. Or else I'm missing something about how it moves about in a host.

This is entirely based on what I've been reading and learning about the virus.

It gets into the liver, and don't quote me on this, but I think kidneys is a secondary point. The virus sits quietly multiplying and then attacks the lungs, and the nervous system is also compromised in some patients. This virus infects us but we have no symptoms for 1-2 days. We might sneeze, but we're not yet sick.

This is from a webinar earlier today - will post the link as soon as the podcast is published - so many ways that it kills.

The virus kills the cells, the immune system over-reacts and kills cells that are infected, both virus and immune system killing cells in our bodies that we need.

 

[cass523]

There is a special for kids too, on Nickelodeon channels, App, Youtube

“#KidsTogether: The Nickelodeon Town Hall” (7pm Nickelodeon)

I looked up the show on my cable Verizon Fios, the show will be on again Tues at 8:30 am and 4:30 pm. More ways to view are listed at the bottom

WVLT) -- The spread of the coronavirus has brought up questions for many people, but it could be particularly challenging to explain to kids.

Children across the world have had their routines disrupted with school closures, playground closures and social distancing.

Nickelodeon is giving kids the floor to ask all their questions about coronavirus in a town hall event.

#KidsTogether: The Nickelodeon Town Hall is an hour-long special giving a kid-friendly explanation of the coronavirus pandemic.

Medical experts will also provide tips on ways to stay healthy at home.

Guests on the special include, Knoxville native Kelsea Ballerini, Ellen DeGeneres, David Dobrik, John Cena, Alicia Keys and Serena Williams.

Hosted by actress Kristen Bell (“The Good Place,” “Frozen”) and featuring a performance by Alicia Keys, the program will directly address kids’ questions and concerns, include tips and insights from medical experts on ways to be healthy, and give first-person accounts from kids and families around the country who are social distancing and making changes to their everyday lives and relationships.

“#KidsTogether: The Nickelodeon Town Hall” will simulcast across Nickelodeon, TeenNick and Nicktoons, and will be available on Nick on Demand, Nickelodeon YouTube, the Nick App and the Nick Pluto TV channel following the premiere.

Nickelodeon hosts kids town hall to address coronavirus questions

'America Rising: Fighting the Pandemic,' new special, airing on ABC

The Kids' Guide to Coronavirus w/ Kristen Bell! | #KidsTogether

 

[10ofRods]

The first strain is quite lethal to some populations. If the L and S type get together often enough, we might see a new mutation in a second wave that is more deadly to other populations.

Yeah, and some people are getting both (with no known results as to how that works out). Does one confer any kind of immunity to the other? At that level, it's all about technical rNA and protease and stuff I don't understand. Or is it just plain bad to get both? Are the people who are dying the ones who got both? We don't know.

Normally, I'd say it would take a year or more to know that, but I'm seeing so much research in pre-publication on this topic that I'm hopeful our virologists (worldwide) will get a handle on this. I worry that the US will be the last to know about it, from a planning point of view.

 

[Cool Cats]

Mumps, measles, chicken pox, and rocky mountain spotted fever. Words from my youth. I have that scar on my arm Good Lord, standin' in line, as a young boy, seeing those ahead of me, like scared me to death. Traumatizing, and I ain't kiddin'.

Good luck all. My wife and I have had to establish 30 feet of social distancing for our own safety 6 feet was too close, could still get hit with stuff she's throwin'.

Just kiddin'. I'm 60, she's, well, a wee bit younger. I see folk my age dyin'. I'm stayin' put. I really think NOW is the time to hunker down. For several weeks.

peace.

Humor is good! I love your joke!

Another reason to hunker down is because we all want to keep safe from injuries as well. There isn't a lot of room in the hospitals.

So no speeding, mountain climbing, walking 2 miles when you haven't walked for exercise in a year,
oh, don't slip in the shower!

 

[otto]

That is interesting about the different strains.

I wonder for those certain cluster breakouts where like at the wedding in I think it was Austrailia or like at some of the churches where there were large clusters breaking out, I have to wonder if they can make a correlation that the most cluster breakouts were from the L type blue strain that was the more virulent.

If that becomes a fact then cities, hospitals, and certain places can be more concerned and take more actions when they see that strain hitting their community.

If you look closely, you can see the countries where the strain is currently present in this image. It kind of tells a story about air travel and then community transmission.

A vaccine needs to hit both types and all 8 strains. I hope that both strains are not in too many countries at the same time, as that might be the ideal environment for the L and S strains to become a new, more lethal strain.



Reference is on the graphic.

 

[I'm Just Here]

So, my 23 year old daughter just brought a couple of bags from our local grocery store and put them on the counter. My eyes bugged! I explained to her how things are done as this is her first trip out as she is good about hanging at home. She also clorox wiped it all down. I am sad she had to stop working for now. Kind of not even fun to hang out together because I am more of a nervous person than she is. Pretty much texts friends for company and actually she gave the two dogs a bath from the muddy walk. She must be bored.