Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #54

[SouthAussie]

Today our Prime Minister has detailed the national plan for re-opening. This can start any time now ... based on each individual state's timetable.

All three stages of the plan are hoped to be implemented by July - depending on how much we can keep the virus controlled throughout.

It is good to finally see a concrete plan (Steps Two and Three are fluid and subject to update) of some kind.


This is a little of the detail .....

(Step one) Restaurants, cafes and shops have been given the green light to reopen and local and regional travel is on the cards under the first step of National Cabinet's plan to ease coronavirus restrictions.
People will be allowed to have up to five visitors in their home and be in groups of 10 outdoors.

Step two will see groups of 20 allowed in places like gyms, beauty therapists, cinemas and galleries.

Step three, the final step, will see people return to workplaces and gatherings of up to 100 people allowed and pubs to reopen.
Coronavirus restrictions on restaurants, cafes to be eased in first step outlined by National Cabinet - ABC News

 

[10ofRods]

didn’t California have 83 new deaths yesterday?

Let's see. 95 yesterday (May 6). 83 the day before. 34 the day before that (these are all rectified from the original data - and today looks like 18 right now - but will be rectified in the next few days).

So it's not impossible that the death rate is 18-25 right now, optimistically (I'm an optimist).

34 is pretty good - so when today's numbers are in - maybe they'll be 18-19?

That's where they stand right now, but today isn't over and the numbers aren't all in - but the trend (whether morning or late evening stats) is definitely very much downward.

It's been zero for two days in my county and the next one over (and on the edge of any county facing Los Angeles - the rates are not zero). Los Angeles may in fact be rising - I sure hope not, but reading about LAX and planes and how crowded they are, well, we shall see.

 

[cody22]

3 McDonald's workers hurt in customer attack over coronavirus limits, police say

Oklahoma Virus News....moo

 

[weepingangel]

Massachusetts

43% of Worcester County residents have stayed home entirely

Limited in how much they can — or want to — head out to work, get groceries or just leave the house during the coronavirus pandemic, 43% of Worcester County residents are staying home entirely, according to an analysis of electronic devices.
That rate, measured Sunday, is among the higher levels nationally and about even with Massachusetts as a whole at 44.6%, according to the analysis by San Francisco data analytics firm SafeGraph. Only New York, New Jersey and Maryland had higher rates at between 45% and 47%.

Worcester County sees its largest increase in coronavirus deaths with 34 on Wednesday

Worcester County has seen the largest reported increase in coronavirus deaths with 34 fatalities on Wednesday and 395 new cases, according to Massachusetts Department of Public Health data.
Wednesday's record 34 deaths bring Worcester County’s total to 365. Statewide, the daily death count also set a new high, with 208 new deaths and a total of 4,420. Both of those numbers reversed a downward trend in the past few days.

Green Hill golf course to remain closed after spike in coronavirus cases in Worcester

WORCESTER — Golf courses across the state are finally reopening, but not Green Hill Municipal Golf Course.
Green Hill had planned to open on Friday after Gov. Charlie Baker allowed golf courses to open on Thursday, more than six weeks after he ordered them to close because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, City Manager Edward M. Augustus said he decided to keep Green Hill closed because of a spike in coronavirus cases in the city.
The city reported 109 more people tested positive for the virus on Thursday.

 

[cody22]

Federal agency delays medical mask shipments in California's $1 billion contract with Chinese company

California Virus News.....moo

 

[Kensie]

I like your city and state coronavirus news Cody.

Thanks for posting.

 

[10ofRods]

Unfortunate. It sounds like it's a side effect of the virus, something that happens with children that were unknown to be sick.

My colleagues and I think something slightly different. There are genes involved in Kawasaki's and RNA is known to turn those genes on and off. There's a form of RNA that actually monitors our nuclear DNA and in many people (not all) attempts to turn off genes it determines (somehow) to be "bad." The mechanism by which this happens is not clearly understood, but of course it's at a biochemical level.

SO, just as with schizophrenia, people who have the genes for the paranoid type and manage to get to age 30...rarely develop the disease (although they certainly can pass it on). There dozens of known environmental triggers that make schizophrenia turn on. Same with bipolar, which may be even more strictly governed by genes.

My theory is that in these kids, the genes involving Kawasaki's failed to turn on, perhaps due to health RNA monitoring from one or both parents, perhaps something involving mother's RNA in utero.

CoVid, being pure RNA, is now in the mix, turning things back on. Regular human RNA can do this too (Alzheimer's in some cases) but this virus is super good at nixxing decisions made by our Monitor RNA, perhaps even before we are born.

So, there are tons of people with the genes for X who don't have X because of a series of biochemical cascades in their healthy bodies - and then subsequent avoidance of environmental triggers.

Sorry for all the words, but I enjoy all the hypotheses you have, Otto, and they really help me think things through.

(Citation: Jurmain, Turnbaugh et al., Introduction to Physical Anthropology - more citations if desired, the bipolar part isn't in that citation).

TL;DR: Children who avoided Kawasaki's due to healthy RNA now have viral enemy RNA in the mix.

We are likely to see this with other childhood syndromes - but also with adult issues (like meningitis).

 

[24Roses]

Late Iowa news: More than 1,000 Waterloo Tyson workers contracted COVID-19 (WATCH NOW)
State epidemiologist recruited to White House Coronavirus Task Force
While Iowa malls are allowed to reopen Friday, some stores may remain closed

 

[MimosaMornings]

I’m curious how many of you know someone who tested positive and that person(s) ended up in the hospital. I don’t know anyone. I’m in a hot spot outside of a major hot spot.

A good friend tested positive early March. He was very sick but never hospitalized. Has recovered, working from home, bouts of fatigue.
My cousin in Henderson NV tested positive and was hospitalized for a week. Is recovering at home.
An health aide/therapist assigned but never came - wife tested positive. Unknown if hospitalized.

 

[otto]

Congratulations on getting through the throat swab. And good technique on the part of your employer/health care person.

I'm agreeing to work slightly less, too. But I get to work from home. I wish everyone could adapt in this manner, and my heart goes out to people whose employers are not so enlightened.

There's the Canadian 2 swabs 20 minute test in Canada. Why this gets my attention is that it was touted as a Canada-genius success only for use in Canada. Turns out they were experimenting in Canada to identify failure rates. Did anyone get infected as a result of false negatives?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/spartan-bioscience-test-covid-19-1.5505241

"Swab designed for use with test was unable to collect significant enough biological samples
...

A Canadian-made COVID-19 testing device that Health Canada restricted to research use only after it experienced problems will be fixed and in service by the summer, says the company's CEO.

The portable test, developed by Ottawa-based Spartan Bioscience, was described as a game-changer by health officials because it reportedly could deliver on-location results in under 60 minutes. The company said upgrades to the test would further cut the delivery time for results down to 30 minutes.

Spartan Bioscience said it had shipped out 5,500 of the tests — most of them to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg — for further testing when Health Canada ordered their use restricted.
​

May 04, 2020
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/spartan-bioscience-testing-device-back-out-summer-1.5555226

​

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I’m curious how many of you know someone who tested positive and that person(s) ended up in the hospital. I don’t know anyone. I’m in a hot spot outside of a major hot spot.

A friend’s fiancé was hospitalized and died. My best friend’s niece has not been hospitalized yet but has been seriously ill, and she’s young. My sister’s co-worker was hospitalized and died, freaking the entire factory out.

 

[otto]

Does that mean that the only test that works for now is the one that goes up your nose and around your eyeball?

 

[Kensie]

Does that mean that the only test that works for now is the one that goes up your nose and around your eyeball?

I have heard from a source that had that test and he said it was painful.

 

[otto]

I wonder how this is going to affect our education system. Are more people going to home school??? I would hire a tutor for home schooling because I don't have the patience for it. Also what about colleges??? Online colleges have been around a long time. Will fewer students being going off to college?? What about college sports??? This is all so mind boggling and not in a good way.

I doubt it. Everyone who has had children knows that the worst teachers are the parents. Children will burble into tears with a parent but stand up straight and listen when a teacher delivers the same message.

What I've heard is transitioning to staggered school to reduce number of students per classroom to 50%. Half the class attends school in the morning, half attends in the afternoon. It's a good compromise, but students have to be careful outside of class too. Will they?

 

[KALI]

California businesses got very bad news today from our governor Gavin Newsome.
For our business, we're looking at months plus, before being allowed to open again, even then, with between 25 to 50% occupancy, which will Not pay the bills.
We give this Governor one more week to figure out how to let us survive, using strict sanitation methods, or, we'll open anyway.
Nor, will we be the only ones.

 

[10ofRods]

I agree with Beiging and so does the research.

Emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2 - ScienceDirect

This research confirms no lab. One of the authors believes that a carnivore is a possibility.

This research of the genomes submitted from around the world, leads to a jump to humans as far back as October 6th. The data continues to lead to China, but....they don't have Italian genomes yet. The paper describes a possibility that an epidemic began in China at the same time as Europe.

Go to the science thread to read more.

Wow - great find! For those not following the RNA-mutation story of CoVid, this is considered proof in science (which means proof of an hypothesis, which is how CoVid arose). It's a meta-analysis of the existing data on the SARS-CV-2 virus (the thing that causes CoVid-19).

So...October (checks out statistically with the known human viral pattern); carnivore...(maybe - very probable).

We await more Italian data but I truly think they'll find Wuhan is the source - but Wuhan was constantly scanning its environment for viruses and frankly, had a bunch on their radar - once the atypical pneumonia was noted, they thought they were onto something.

Ultimately, it could be a toss-up (where that final point mutation in the RNA occurred that gave this virus its potency). But, given the interplay between human and viral genomes, while it may take a while, it won't be too long before it's pinpointed even further.

In the end, it doesn't matter. We are all one world and viruses are going to happen. There are so many of us that we provide a countably infinite number of hosts for mutations in viruses to occur, once they get to us.

There's a lot more to be said on this subject, I'll try to post more on the science thread.

 

[Kensie]

Otto, Like I said, I would have to hire a tutor because I could never teach. I really hope the education system does not suffer. There are some outstanding teachers out there.

 

[The Night Watchman]

My colleagues and I think something slightly different. There are genes involved in Kawasaki's and RNA is known to turn those genes on and off. There's a form of RNA that actually monitors our nuclear DNA and in many people (not all) attempts to turn off genes it determines (somehow) to be "bad." The mechanism by which this happens is not clearly understood, but of course it's at a biochemical level.

SO, just as with schizophrenia, people who have the genes for the paranoid type and manage to get to age 30...rarely develop the disease (although they certainly can pass it on). There dozens of known environmental triggers that make schizophrenia turn on. Same with bipolar, which may be even more strictly governed by genes.

My theory is that in these kids, the genes involving Kawasaki's failed to turn on, perhaps due to health RNA monitoring from one or both parents, perhaps something involving mother's RNA in utero.

CoVid, being pure RNA, is now in the mix, turning things back on. Regular human RNA can do this too (Alzheimer's in some cases) but this virus is super good at nixxing decisions made by our Monitor RNA, perhaps even before we are born.

So, there are tons of people with the genes for X who don't have X because of a series of biochemical cascades in their healthy bodies - and then subsequent avoidance of environmental triggers.

Sorry for all the words, but I enjoy all the hypotheses you have, Otto, and they really help me think things through.

(Citation: Jurmain, Turnbaugh et al., Introduction to Physical Anthropology - more citations if desired, the bipolar part isn't in that citation).

TL;DR: Children who avoided Kawasaki's due to healthy RNA now have viral enemy RNA in the mix.

We are likely to see this with other childhood syndromes - but also with adult issues (like meningitis).

That's an impressive explanation which makes sense. Let's hope this is not common, which it appears not to be.

 

[otto]

Otto, Like I said, I would have to hire a tutor because I could never teach. I really hope the education system does not suffer. There are some outstanding teachers out there.

I was a teacher for 5 years at a French Immersion IB high school. I can teach, but I can't teach my children. They fall into tears staring at the division symbol.

I'm pretty sure the education system here, aiming for 50% classroom size, will opt for morning and afternoon division for student attendance. Trust the system. Classes will resume for children. If children cannot survive this plague, we are seriously screwed and need to plant a garden.

 

[10ofRods]

Least we all here can do is support you. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids.

Take 325mg of aspirin (blood thinner), bump your Vitamin D up to 10,000IU per day, add Zinc (go ahead and double the recommended dose for a while), add regular amount of Vitamin C. Do NOT take potassium (it shouldn't even be available to you).

Contact your doctor and make a plan, you need to have a plan. Sit in the sun, relax, try to find funny things to do and read. This is in addition to those fluids. Does your doctor know about the early use of certain corticosteroids? What antiviral is available to you? Your goal is to manage this at home.

And if you do have it, it sounds like it's fairly mild and that would be a huge blessing (in disguise, of course).

This is not medical advice, this is over the fence advice from a friend. I am not a medical doctor, you need one on your side right now.