Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #52

[Henry2326]

WASHINGTON — The federal government placed orders for well over 100,000 new body bags to hold victims of COVID-19 in April, according to internal administration documents obtained by NBC News, as well as public records. The biggest set was earmarked for purchase the day after President Donald Trump projected that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus might not exceed 50,000 or 60,000 people.

That batch is a still-pending $5.1 million purchase order placed by the Department of Homeland Security on April 21 with E.M. Oil Transport Inc. of Montebello, California, which advertises construction vehicles, building materials and electronics on its website. The "human remains pouches" have not been paid for or shipped to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yet, according to the company's marketing manager, Mike Pryor.

"I hope to God that they don't need my order and that they cancel it," Pryor said in a text message exchange with NBC News.

Around the same time it wrote the contract for the body bags, FEMA opened up bidding to provide about 200 rented refrigerated trailers for locations around the country. The request for proposals specifies a preference for 53-foot trailers, which, at 3,600 cubic feet, are the largest in their class.

The body bag order, confirmed by internal administration communications obtained by NBC News, is in addition to shipments of several thousand more body bags from vendors for the General Services Administration and the Defense Logistics Agency.

The VA, meanwhile, paid the supply distributor ISO Group $293,780 for an unknown number of body bags to be fully delivered Thursday. The contract states that the purchase is "in response to COVID-19." ISO notes on its website that the federal government has awarded eight contracts for that specific body bag in the past 90 days for a total of $12.1 million.

While Trump minimizes the toll, government orders 100,000 new body bags

 

[RANCH]

No they don't do surveillance but they may do an occasional drive by to make sure your not having a porch or driveway party. The 2 positive cases were nailed out and about when an observer called in to a tip line.

How would an observer know that a person is positive with the virus? Isn't having an outside party against the law whether you're positive or not?

I still don't get it.

 

[The Night Watchman]

'Walking dead': Inmates describe how coronavirus swept through an Ohio prison

80% positive for CV-19 including staff at Ohio's Marion State Prison. Marion prison officials reported that 95 percent of COVID-19 positive inmates are asymptomatic.

Conditions within Ohio's coronavirus-infected prisons described as 'war zone'

'Walking dead': Inmates describe how coronavirus swept through an Ohio prison

One action being taken is having the inmates sleep head to toe to help with social distancing. How is that working out?

See for yourself:

See shocking photo from inside a Marion
prison dormitory:

"Ohio residents with incarcerated loved ones are bracing themselves to hear the latest updates inside Marion, if any.

"Sometimes, I call my mom. I don’t want to worry her too much because she gets to crying," said Richard Williams, 27.
"To be honest, I’m scared. I’m nervous of being in here."
Williams’ mother, Sabrina White, is anxious for him to come home — although his sentence isn’t up until March 2024.

“My son deserved to serve a sentence. … He screwed up," White said. "This is supposed to be a correctional rehabilitation facility, not death row. Right now, it is death row.”

The Marion Correctional Institution (MCI) is a minimum- and medium-security prison for men located in Marion, Ohio. This is a case study. A confined known population. The facility first opened in 1954 and has a working population of 2623 state inmates. 80% tested positive. And 95% asymptomatic. 4 prisoners have died out of 2,100 positive cases.

COVID -19 death rate of 0.2%

Not a random sampling as the population is young. More inmates who are now positive may still die, bumping the rate up. Inmates that previously had COVID-19 and are not active will test negative, dropping the actual death rate down.

0.2%

 

[Curious Me]

I was walking past a nursing home today, beautiful, sunny day. They had large round tables set up outside. The tables were set up for the residents to be outside, and their families could come see them. Everyone was wearing masks, gloves, and at social distance. And they looked happy.

I don't understand stand why other nursing homes won't let the folks at least outside. They are not prisoners in lock down.

MOO, sure, outside with masks on a nice day, as long as they are monitored to follow the rules they never heard of before. Face Masks... what? Wash off your purse or shoes or food packages... what?

Earlier I posted about the careless people in my building. It's not a nursing home, but plenty of the residents are 55+ and in the high risk group. They must not watch the news. No masks.

I'm shocked at how many are in total denial of the dangers of the unseen deadly virus. Then, we have unmasked grandkids and food/package deliveries in hallways and on elevators. Tomorrow a city wide rule goes into effect MUST WEAR MASKS, but no one in this building is going to monitor it for our safety. We have some older people in our building. JMO, many 80-90 year olds feel that they have lived through it all. They're strong, lived a long time, and they are fearless. It's best to have someone remind them to be careful. This virus is a change to the lives we all knew.

So, MOO, the nursing home has to legally be responsible to protect and ensure the safety of the residents. Anyone would want that for their elderly relative. Plus the nursing home wants to avoid law suits.

 

[firebird]

MOO, sure, outside with masks on a nice day, as long as they are monitored to follow the rules they never heard of before. Face Masks... what? Wash off your purse or shoes or food packages... what?

Earlier I posted about the careless people in my building. It's not a nursing home, but plenty of the residents are 55+ and in the high risk group. They must not watch the news. No masks.

I'm shocked at how many are in total denial of the dangers of the unseen deadly virus. Then, we have unmasked grandkids and food/package deliveries in hallways and on elevators. Tomorrow a city wide rule goes into effect MUST WEAR MASKS, but no one in this building is going to monitor it for our safety. We have some older people in our building. JMO, many 80-90 year olds feel that they have lived through it all. They're strong, lived a long time, and they are fearless. It's best to have someone remind them to be careful. This virus is a change to the lives we all knew.

So, MOO, the nursing home has to legally be responsible to protect and ensure the safety of the residents. Anyone would want that for their elderly relative. Plus the nursing home wants to avoid law suits.

Have any people in your building died?

 

[The Night Watchman]

I wouldn't participate in that in a million years

I would immediately participate. We need to know who the virus infects and kills. We get that from age data. And the CV data is strongly age dependent. Once we know how the virus behaves in our population, we can adapt accordingly. To save lives.

 

[cody22]

Gov. Whitmer to legislature: Michigan is still in a state of emergency

New Michigan Virus News....moo

 

[LadyL]

Maybe it's time to listen to the message bats are clearly sending. Leave us the hell alone.

YES!
the same message that's been sent by other pandemics IMO

history.
repeats.
itself.

 

[firebird]

I would immediately participate. We need to know who the virus infects and kills. We get that from age data. And the CV data is strongly age dependent. Once we know how the virus behaves in our population, we can adapt accordingly. To save lives.

Putting aside any "tracking" issues, imo, we already know who the virus infects (most people) and who it mostly kills (the elderly and the over 65's with a serious co-morbidity).

 

[LadyL]

Wow. Well - yeah. The only time we went to get take out, the restaurant had a tiny area open, but people then crowded into it. Why was that? Why didn't they have a larger area for the customer and waitperson to stand (they were not 6 feet apart, more like 3). Restaurant was empty...I wondered if they worried about robbery or controlling entrance into a larger space.

I thought restaurants had to rope off or make inaccessible the dining areas in order to stay open for take-out

 

[weepingangel]

Seems like too much personal information is being released.

Why are peoples birth dates important?

For proper identification?
Because people can have the same name. Like when they ask you Over and over “name and date of birth”’when you’re having a medical procedure/or when in the hospital

 

[LadyL]

I have a friend right now, her father is dying of cancer in a nursing home, and they won't let her in to see him. She can't even get him released. I am not sure what is going on, but there is a problem when you can't visit your dying father. They won't let her in, even with a negative COVID19 test, mask...it is terrible.

we can't visit my dying father in the hospital and the gov't put a delay on any patients transferring to care homes which he was on the list for
it's been weeks and just today my Mom got in to see him because he is considered palliative now but only her; which means I will never see my Dad again
so I have to try and accept that now

 

[weepingangel]

I’m so sorry

we can't visit my dying father in the hospital and the gov't put a delay on any patients transferring to care homes which he was on the list for
it's been weeks and just today my Mom got in to see him because he is considered palliative now but only her; which means I will never see my Dad again
so I have to try and accept that now

 

[cody22]

we can't visit my dying father in the hospital and the gov't put a delay on any patients transferring to care homes which he was on the list for
it's been weeks and just today my Mom got in to see him because he is considered palliative now but only her; which means I will never see my Dad again
so I have to try and accept that now

I am sad for you and yours over this.....We care.....moo

 

[Curious Me]

Have any people in your building died?

No Covid deaths, no Covid cases yet, but people die within the building regularly. I feel so insulated and safe inside my place. I don't go out and see this carelessness often. It's upsetting to realize we're not all on the same page.

 

[Tadpole12]

we can't visit my dying father in the hospital and the gov't put a delay on any patients transferring to care homes which he was on the list for
it's been weeks and just today my Mom got in to see him because he is considered palliative now but only her; which means I will never see my Dad again
so I have to try and accept that now

So sorry LL.
So many will have to comes to terms with this separation and it's heartbreaking.

 

[mickey2942]

we can't visit my dying father in the hospital and the gov't put a delay on any patients transferring to care homes which he was on the list for
it's been weeks and just today my Mom got in to see him because he is considered palliative now but only her; which means I will never see my Dad again
so I have to try and accept that now

I am so sorry. And this same heart breaking story is happening all over.

 

[margarita25]

Here’s Guangdong again:

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2

“Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) illegally imported into Guangdong province contain coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-221. Although the RaTG13 bat virus remains the closest to SARS-CoV-2 across the genome1, some pangolin coronaviruses exhibit strong similarity to SARS-CoV-2 in the RBD, including all six key RBD residues21 (Fig. 1). This clearly shows that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein optimized for binding to human-like ACE2 is the result of natural selection.”

 

[musicaljoke]

...
Keep in mind that much of Brazil isn't reporting at all - we're only seeing stats for the big cities. So, having 400-500 extra people die per day is a lot for the morticians and hospital staff.

I figure the rates in Brazil will be lower than in some places due to climate, but also that there's severe under testing and under-reporting in Brazil. In fact, I'd bet doughnuts (again) that nearly all of the people tested were white collar, upper middle class or higher. I know one doctor said it was devastating native populations in the interior - but those areas are now closed off almost entirely from any form of communication with the coastal cities - they're on their own, with whatever medical assistance they already had (usually from a couple of public doctors and a lot of missionaries).

Yes. It's quite unimaginable. Having so many extra deaths per day quickly fills the the existing services to handle the deceased. Then tomorrow there are 400 more, the next day 400 more, and 400 more, relentlessly piling up with no facilities left to handle the bodies. Brazil isn't the only country to find themselves with this nightmare.

 

[PommyMommy]

"A lot of things need to happen to get a vaccine on the market": CNN medical correspondent

[...]

Seven companies in human clinical trials: "There are actually dozens of companies that have told the World Health Organization they are working on vaccines. Only seven of them that we know of are actually in human clinical trials," Cohen said. "And that started awhile ago."

Timeline: "There are so many 'ifs' here. The clinical trials have to go very quickly, the FDA has to move quickly. There are a lot of things that need to happen to get a vaccine on the market in the US by the end of this calendar year," she said.

[...]

Fauci says he's concerned that some US states and cities are "leapfrogging" guidelines

[...]

Federal guidelines for social distancing are set to expire tonight, and some states and cities are planning on partially reopening.

"There's no doubt in my mind that when you pull back mitigation, you're going to start seeing cases crop up here and there. And if you're not able to handle them, you're going to see another peak, a spike. And then you almost have to turn the clock back to go back to mitigation," said Fauci, who runs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and sits on the White House's coronavirus task force.

[...]

A vaccine could be ready by January "if everything falls into place," Fauci says

[...]

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN's town hall that "if everything falls into place right" there could be a coronavirus vaccine by January -- but there are "a number of situations that could go wrong."

An assumption of safety: "It may all of a sudden have a safety signal," he said. "If it doesn't work, it doesn't protect people. I've been involved in vaccine work for decades. Not every vaccine we went after worked. That's an assumption that it's going to be safe, that it's going to be effective and we're going to be able to do it quickly. I think each of those are not only feasible, but maybe likely. That's what I mean when I say by January we'll do it. But I can't guarantee it."

[...]

Fauci: Coronavirus second wave will likely lack "explosive" quality of first outbreak

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci struck a hopeful note tonight, telling CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta that a second wave of the virus would likely lack the speed and ferocity that characterized the initial outbreak that hit some major metropolises in the United States.

[...]

Speaking this evening, Fauci also predicted a second phase of the virus could hit locations where social distancing is especially challenging such as nursing homes, factories and prisons.

Why one model is predicting an increase in US coronavirus deaths

Dr. Chris Murray, who leads the team that did the modeling at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, told CNN's global town hall that the number has gone up "because we've seen these protracted peaks in some place," citing New York City as an example.

[...]

Should you change your clothes after coming home from outside?

[...]

Dr. Leana Wen, the former health commissioner for the City of Baltimore, said the chances that someone transmitted the virus onto someone else's clothes is "very low," with the exception of healthcare workers or other people who may risk exposure at work.

"Then it makes sense to come home, change your clothes, leave your shoes outside," she said.

Boeing says it will not need US federal aid after raising $25 billion

[...]

As CNN reported last month, lawmakers set aside $17 billion of the $2 trillion stimulus law for the aerospace company. But it was unclear whether the firm would apply for and take the funds, considering the Treasury Department had asked some other recipients for warrants.

The company on Wednesday reported $1.7 billion in losses in the most recent quarter and plans to cut around 16,000 jobs.

At-home coronavirus testing is needed, Bill Gates says

[...]

"You should be able to get a test at home if you're symptomatic, then very quickly all of your contacts, which would include your household, they should be tested. That's a perfect example where you need an answer very quickly so people know who should isolate instead of being at work. This becomes very important as we're doing these 'opening up' policies," Gates said.

[...]

Bill Gates: Asia's testing and contact tracing ability is far better than that of the US

[...]

"Our system fails to have the prioritization that would give us an accurate picture of what is going on," he added.

The case of South Korea: The East Asian country has garnered significant praise for its handling of the pandemic, because of its early emphasis on mass testing, contact tracing and social distancing.

To date, South Korea has recorded fewer than 11,000 Covid-19 cases and fewer than 250 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

[...]

More than 63,000 people have died from coronavirus in the US

At least 1,069,534 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the United States, including 63,001 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Thursday, JHU reported at least 29,625 new cases and 2,035 deaths in the US.

[...]

April 30 coronavirus news - CNN