Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #51

[LadyL]

This is great! Do you have a link for this? I'd like to share it.

I edited my post to include where it came from: Curve Lake First Nation

 

[musicaljoke]

rsbm
Sometimes I feel that older people don't matter very much. It's so hard to watch younger people find it SO difficult to stay 6 feet away from people obviously older. It is getting better, I know the young ones don't really dislike us older ones, but sometimes I think I should get a cane out and dye my hair completely silver and carry an afghan around so that they'll stay away from me.

You posted a very heart-felt and thoughtful message on the thread before this one, and it's left me thinking about the bleak side of humanity, in particular, those who are willing to disobey stay-at-home orders and appear willing to sacrifice vulnerable people in order to follow their own interests.

I am guilty of letting it go when people promote this kind of agenda. I'm not sure how to address someone who doesn't seem willing to protect all people, nor value all human life.

 

[musicaljoke]

I edited my post to include where it came from: Curve Lake First Nation

Thanks LadyL. Speaking of First Nation, our local First Nations are so on top of this effort to prevent CoV-19 spread. They've been absolute leaders in every way. Meanwhile, our municipal leaders dilly dally in group stupidity.

 

[Curious Me]

I am currently working in a hospital discharge team here in the UK. We have had so many unspeakable tragedies happening to families here, but today we had something really lovely to celebrate - a couple in their late eighties who have both been in intensive care fighting Covid 19 have both survived and were both declared fit for discharge today, meaning they could finally be re-united and discharged together. There wasn't a dry eye in the room when they were both wheeled out to go home.

Sending you all the honor, love, and respect you most definitely deserve fighting in the front lines of this Covid battle. Thank You.

So happy to hear of the couple reuniting. An amazing story of their survival.

 

[Trino]

Bringing over post by @BHughes from Thread 50, thanks:

Everyone getting ready for the second wave?

 

[zecats]

I can't get in to read this article, but it is an interesting phenomenon - the return of the family dinner.

The return of family dinner - The Boston Globe

My 3 year old grandson is currently living with us along with his parents (daughter and SIL) and he has discovered family dinners. He sits there and repeats over and over, "I love family dinner." So cute.

His parents normally work in Manhattan and get home 6-6:30 in the evening. Then it's takeout for dinner or eating around the coffee table in the living room with a quick meal. So family dinner at a home table is a rare thing for him.

 

[margarita25]

Here is the link to the full paper re: mutations released Sunday (probably already posted, its impossible to keep up here):

Patient-derived mutations impact pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2

“Abstract
The sudden outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has spread globally with more than 1,300,000 patients diagnosed and a death toll of 70,000. Current genomic survey data suggest that single nucleotide variants (SNVs) are abundant. However, no mutation has been directly linked with functional changes in viral pathogenicity. Here we report functional characterizations of 11 patient-derived viral isolates, all of which have at least one mutation. Importantly, these viral isolates show significant variation in cytopathic effects and viral load, up to 270-fold differences, when infecting Vero-E6 cells. We observed intrapersonal variation and 6 different mutations in the spike glycoprotein (S protein), including 2 different SNVs that led to the same missense mutation. Therefore, we provide direct evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity”

 

[10ofRods]

@ 10ofRods
Agree whole heartily. DrTony hasn’t found work in 1 month because there’s no clinical locum for a diagnostic radiologist. So we are on retirement funds now.

What a career though! Radiologists are rad. (buh-dmmm...I'll be here all night).

Radiologists are super smart and often very geeky. I went to 2 years of medical school on a special joint program with my doctoral program. I did not get units for the actual credits, I got method units over in my program - so I was not graded, was just observing. It was super tough for me at the time and of course made my mind up permanently that I could never, ever be a physician.

The surgeons would say "Well, you could always be ______ specialty," and they'd name radiology or psychiatry (no blood). Nopity nope to both of those too - WAY too much responsibility on a day to day basis. So many elements of balancing "routine" with "extraordinary."

My project was observing heart transplant surgeons, so, well, there's a bias in that view. As for radiology, I couldn't even pass the basics. Couldn't see a thing in most x-rays. Yeah, I could tell if a kid swallowed a thumbtack.

Whereas, give me an ear of fossil corn and I'll tell you when it was planted (give or take 100 years). Radiology was not for me and it took me years to be good with similar materials in my own field (xrays of tombs, or whatever).

So I'm picturing MrTony as being much like the (now fairly well known) young man who could read x-rays and other remote viewing techniques of graveyards in pre-Aztec, Aztec, and post-Aztec Mexico. First he had to find the graveyards, wasn't allowed to dig in them, then get some sampling done. He was part of a team, btw, it wasn't his idea - but he could do it.

I hope he can find some really interesting hobbies and interests (you too). That's kind of what I'm struggling with (so I chose CoVid, ha). But...I also decided to pick up a musical instrument or two that I abandoned years ago. It's been really rewarded, even if aurally somewhat unpleasant.

 

[CSIDreamer]

Then we must take it on ourselves as individuals to buck the trend and appeal to everyone's better nature We have come a long way since then, and this is not nearly as bad as the plague for most of us. BTW I did briefly ponder how many of us might have been burned as witches back then for our sassy ways.

I would have been! Lol.

 

[margarita25]

South China Morning Post:
Superpower drive to lure companies out of China post-virus gathers momentum

• “Three of the world’s four largest economies, the United States, Japan and the European Union, are drawing up separate plans to lure their companies out of China
• But business figures warn not to conflate political statements with the economic realities of manufacturing

This is the first in a series of five stories exploring the global backlash that China may face as a result of its actions and rhetoric during the coronavirus pandemic. The first story examines the push by foreign powers to bring home production of some goods, particularly vital medical equipment and medicines, due to an overreliance on China exposed by the pandemic.”

 

[dotr]

Upsetting material.(no photos involved)
‘Cruelty’ in reports black cats killed for COVID-19 cure
''The gruesome practice is said to be centred around the city of Hanoi, but the concoction also is being sold online, the news outlet reported.''

 

[Satchie]

California did things a bit differently than New York, they started social distancing sooner than NY did...

California's coronavirus death toll is way below New York's. Here's why

New York became the epicenter of the disease in America because of several factors. The virus arrived there earlier than elsewhere and in more locations; it is denser than any other U.S. city; it depends more on public transportation, putting people close to one another; and it was behind California and Washington state in imposing restrictions on public movement, said Nicholas Jewell, a UC Berkeley biostatistician.

Thanks. So that would mean that the much higher number of deaths in New York is entirely due to social distancing? And, reducing social distancing in California will result in numbers of deaths in similar proportion to New York, ie 36,000, tho no doubt numbers will be much higher as NY slowly slides down the slope.

I guess the exception would be if New York lost their ability to adequately care for patients and some?, many? have died in New York, who would survive in less overwhelmed California.

As I said in my earlier post, I'm not so much interested in the number of cases, because testing varies so widely.

 

[Seattle1]

Locally, we now have a confirmed case of the NEW STRAIN of coronavirus.

It's a 30-year-old male, lives just north of Seattle with no underlying health issues that returned from China January 15. He was hospitalized for pneumonia.

The newly discovered virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. It has infected more than 400 people, nearly all of them in China, and killed 17 people in Hubei province, Chinese authorities said Wednesday. Most of the dead were age 60 or older, and at least some had a previous medical condition.

[..]

The Snohomish County patient said he didn’t visit an animal market where the virus is believed to have originated and wasn’t in contact with anyone he knew to be ill, Spitters said.

Snohomish County man has the United States’ first known case of the new coronavirus

ETA: This was from an article updated April 11, but the initial date was January. (Hate it when online newspaper runs archive news front page on slow new Friday).

 

[musicaljoke]

Locally, we now have a confirmed case of the NEW STRAIN of coronavirus.

It's a 30-year-old male, lives just north of Seattle with no underlying health issues that returned from China January 15. He was hospitalized for pneumonia.

The newly discovered virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. It has infected more than 400 people, nearly all of them in China, and killed 17 people in Hubei province, Chinese authorities said Wednesday. Most of the dead were age 60 or older, and at least some had a previous medical condition.

[..]

The Snohomish County patient said he didn’t visit an animal market where the virus is believed to have originated and wasn’t in contact with anyone he knew to be ill, Spitters said.

Snohomish County man has the United States’ first known case of the new coronavirus

What's the date on that? Is the article from back in January, or from March?

 

[firebird]

https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/hydroxychloroquine-most-effective-coronavirus-treatment-poll/


An international poll of thousands of doctors rated the Trump-touted anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine the best treatment for the novel coronavirus.

Of the 2,171 physicians surveyed, 37 percent rated hydroxychloroquine the “most effective therapy” for combating the potentially deadly illness, according to the results released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by the global health care polling company Sermo, also found that 23 percent of medical professionals had prescribed the drug in the US — far less than other countries.

 

[Seattle1]

What's the date on that? Is the article from back in January, or from March?

Updated April 11. Thank you -- I wasn't aware of the original date.

Typical of Seattle Times and using archive headlines on Friday. MOO

 

[Spider92]

United States Coronavirus: 923,612 Cases and 52,092 Deaths - Worldometer
Case counts seem to be increasing significantly today especially in MA with 4,946 cases. This is the first day I can remember any state other than NY or NJ having more than 4,000 cases in a day. Similar trends in PA and IL. I think daily US cases are at a new high of about 37,000 cases. Maybe it's an increase in testing but I don't feel like this is getting any better.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

Upsetting material.(no photos involved)
‘Cruelty’ in reports black cats killed for COVID-19 cure
''The gruesome practice is said to be centred around the city of Hanoi, but the concoction also is being sold online, the news outlet reported.''

I cannot comprehend the ignorance.

 

[Tigerlily75]

Responding to a post from the previous thread

@katydid23

How would the government had convinced the entire nation to shutdown when there was only 11 deaths at that point?

It seems this article is just pointing blame, based on 20/20 hindsight. JMO

I don’t know that it’s pointing blame, we did this here in Australia (& New Zealand). I’m not sure exactly how many deaths there were when we started (I’m losing track of time!) but it’s been a few weeks and as of now Australia has 78 deaths and NZ has 17. I think NZ might have been just one death when they shut down, IIRC.

There has been strong public support for the shutdowns. We all saw what was happening in China, Italy, Spain and the growing number of cases in the US (many of our cases had come from travelers to/from the US while they were still reporting low numbers). A shutdown was inevitable, so why wait for many more deaths and an overwhelmed healthcare system.

We also shut our borders fairly early, firstly to anyone who had traveled to China, followed by Iran, Italy & South Korea. Then we just shut the borders to everyone completely. Strong contact tracing of every single case has been in place since the beginning. At first suppression and control of any outbreaks was the plan, never allowing it to overwhelm us, now eradication is potentially a real possibility.

All steps were taken with a fair bit of foresight, and many still thought our government was too slow!

At this stage we’ll be keeping our international borders shut for a long time, while carefully opening up our domestic economy (and potentially allowing travel between the two countries). But not for a few more weeks yet.

moo

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Not political, just noting the President is human. Of course, he wants to offer hope. But he - and the press - need to back away from statements promoting different drugs or saying vaccines are in trial and will be available whenever.

We are in uncharted territory. There is much we don't know. In my case, I have so many conflicting recommendations that I'll just stick to preventive measures and will believe in treatments/vaccines/tests AFTER they have been approved.

This is a great video on the primary drugs being studied right now. That one da*m drug is being so publicized, but so many are under investigation... These facts of what is being studied is just a wealth of information.