Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #69

[10ofRods]

FOX 35 INVESTIGATES: Florida Department of Health says some labs have not reported negative COVID-19 results

Seems to be some problems with the positivity test rate in Florida.

It's Florida and it's Fox.

I can think of lots of reasons why there's this problem, but no easy way for Florida to fix it right now.

 

[oviedo]

We shut down in March and we are in phase 3 right now...approaching phase 4. I cant see us getting through the fall/winter without another shut down. I hope I'm wrong.

Florida seems to be wide open except for a few courageous counties/cities IMO.
I really feel like the CDC is being hijacked now and we won't ever get the truth
JMO

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

I want to know what gives the federal government the authority to privatize the collection of our covid data. Is that even legal?

Apparently there’s a lag with the cdc in providing information. I understand it will make it faster for the federal government to get the resources to the states that need it.

 

[Tate123]

Florida seems to be wide open except for a few courageous counties/cities IMO.
I really feel like the CDC is being hijacked now and we won't ever get the truth
JMO

Sadly, everyone has to be their own advocate at this point. I worry for those with no choice...nursing homes/assisted living/ vulnerable.

 

[tresir2012]

I have permission from Tricia to post this:

Air conditioning links


The front page has my links and citations regarding air conditioning/ventilation. There's considerably more than what I linked. The links are a mixture of rather technical literature, academic publications and various more readable news articles. The news articles are all drawing on the published literature (and I don't have the links to every single article, but the bibliography at the bottom and the EU pdf is pretty thorough).

Tagging @tresir2012

TY for the tag and blog link.

 

[CharlestonGal]

Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

Michigan reports 891 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, July 15; highest number in 2 months

 

[10ofRods]

"The Times said". What is the source. I still want a direct quote from HHS.

Did you try youtube? That second-in-command guy was trying to explain it all last evening and it's been replayed a lot - I'm sure it has to be on youtube.

 

[tresir2012]

Apparently there’s a lag with the cdc in providing information. I understand it will make it faster for the federal government to get the resources to the states that need it.

Yes there is. I provided some CDC info and link earlier today and it was as of 4 Jul only.

 

[CharlestonGal]

See all the new coronavirus restrictions in Pa. as Gov. Tom Wolf says a “new surge is in the offing”

Pa. Gov. Tom Wolf has announced new coronavirus mitigation restrictions that mainly target bars and restaurants.

An order released Wednesday that will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on July 16 reduces indoor dining capacity at businesses in the retail foodservice industry from the current 50 percent to just 25 percent. It also forces bars to close unless they are serving sit-down, dine-in meals, and mandates that alcohol can only be served if it is within the same transaction as a meal or if it is for offsite consumption.

Additionally, bar service is prohibited, even outdoors, but the state’s outdoor dining rules have otherwise not changed. Takeout and delivery orders can continue to be placed, as well.

The order also requires businesses to have employees telework if possible and indoor gatherings are now limited to just 25 people while outdoor ones cannot exceed 250.

Music and nightclubs must close, too and gyms, while still allowed to permit workouts indoors, are asked to consider offering more outdoor workout activities.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Apparently there’s a lag with the cdc in providing information. I understand it will make it faster for the federal government to get the resources to the states that need it.

No-bid contract. I wonder how we know these people will do it any faster. Hospitals will not have access to the database in order to check. And if efficiency - rather than chaos and undermining the CDC - were the goal, then why this sudden rush? White House Strips CDC Of Data Collection Role For COVID-19 Hospitalizations

"It's entirely unclear why the Trump Administration has asked states and hospitals to upend their reporting systems in the middle of a pandemic — in 48 hours nonetheless — without a single explanation as to why this new system is better or necessary,"Murray wrote in a statement to NPR. "The Trump Administration is going to have to give a full justification for this, because until they do, it's hard to see how this step won't further sideline public health experts and obscure the severity of this crisis."

Hospitals have left been scrambling, given only a few days to prepare for the new reporting system.

"It was very surprising — shocking even, I would say — for many of us to realize yesterday that we would be now required to report to HHS on [this new] platform," says Cassandra Pierre, acting hospital epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center.

On Monday, an email flagged "Special Bulletin" from the American Hospital Association and obtained by NPR, informed hospitals of the data reporting change, and indicated that distribution of remdesivir, a drug that's been used to treat hospitalized COVID patients, would be tied to the daily data reported into the TeleTracking portal. "The daily reporting is the only mechanism used for the [remdesivir] calculations," the email from AHA reads.

HHS could not immediately confirm if failure to switch to the new HHS system means that a hospital will no longer get this key drug therapy from the federal government."

 

[10ofRods]

Exactly. Caputo said is not really the same as the Times said IMO. Basically HHS want more info reported to them.

You left out the part where HHS says hospitals ought not send data to the CDC any longer - which takes our national epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists away from ready access to the data.

 

[10ofRods]

Masks and Mickey: Disneyland Paris reopens after four-month closure

Disneyland Paris opened its doors for the first time in four months today with compulsory masks, socially-distanced queues and hundreds of hand-washing stations scattered around the park.

The theme park closed on March 12 as the coronavirus pandemic started to spiral out of control in Europe, but began its 'phased re-opening' today with visitor numbers limited by an online reservation system.

Some rides remain closed while playgrounds and make-up workshops are also out of action.

__

Paris has also re-opened the top floor of the Eiffel Tower today as France tries to revive its £50billion tourism industry after the lockdown.

British tourists can now travel to France again without facing a 14-day quarantine, after the French government lifted the measure in response to the UK easing its own travel restrictions.

The Brits won't be able to float the French tourist economy by themselves. Vast numbers of tourists in the past 5 years have been Chinese, but also South Korean, Japanese and, of course, Americans.

The big spenders per tourist have been Americans...

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Yes there is. I provided some CDC info and link earlier today and it was as of 4 Jul only.

You also saw my link in response to your post showing info updated as of July 14th (prior typo said June 14) this morning. Updated daily. You were only looking at the weekly summative report. Not the daily cases.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Yes there is. I provided some CDC info and link earlier today and it was as of 4 Jul only.

Yep. But it’s being spun as something nefarious.

 

[10ofRods]

So that's another 90k deaths over 4 months so 22k per month, is an average of more than 700 per day? I can't see that happening TBH.

Why not? We were at almost 1000 yesterday and the deaths are just beginning to head upwards in linear fashion in more than a dozen states.

Why are you so doubtful that we won't average 1000 or 1200 or 700?

We are already at 640+ today and the day isn't even over!

Anyway, I'm curious what you think will change the behavior of Americans. I'd love to hear something optmistic but also realistic.

 

[CharlestonGal]

A single US county with more cases than the entire country of Canada. (Note: there are 3,141 counties in the US)

Los Angeles County has more cases of coronavirus than entire country of Canada, mayor says

Los Angeles County now has more confirmed cases of the coronavirus than "all of Canada," LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said during a Monday press conference about the virus. He also emphasized that if LA County was an "independent country" it would "have the 20th most cases in the world."

When Garcetti made the statement on Monday, the county's public health department was reporting over 136,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the county. There were more than 2,500 new cases reported on Monday and 13 deaths, according to the county's data at that time.

In Canada, there have been 110,234 confirmed cases of the disease, resulting in 8,843 deaths as of Tuesday, according to numbers from Johns Hopkins University.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Trump administration orders hospitals to bypass CDC and send all COVID-19 patient information to central database in Washington


Both the CDC network and the TeleTracking system set up by Health and Human Services rely on so-called push data, meaning hospital employees must manually enter data, rather than the government tapping into an electronic system to obtain the information.

“The whole thing needs to be scrapped and started anew,” said Dr. Dan Hanfling, an expert in medical and disaster preparedness and a vice president at In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit strategic investment firm focused on national security. “It is laughable that this administration can’t find the wherewithal to bring 21st-century technologies in data management to the fight.”

 

[Trino]

Apparently there’s a lag with the cdc in providing information. I understand it will make it faster for the federal government to get the resources to the states that need it.

OK that's all good, but now it will not be public info.

 

[WichitaFalls]

Yep. But it’s being spun as something nefarious.

What reasoning are you using to determine it isn't nefarious?

 

[tresir2012]

Yep. But it’s being spun as something nefarious.

Well that's just daft. The CDC data is often behind. That's why we use JHU and Worldometers.

Anyway hot off the press. We will have a vaccine in the fall probably, according to Alex Azar.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says he is optomistic COVID-19 vaccine could be available by fall | abc7chicago.com

HHS SECRETARY OPTIMISTIC THAT COVID-19 VACCINE COULD BE AVAILABLE BY FALL, VISITS RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Azar downplayed concerns about politics, COVID-19, blames surge of southern cases on bad behavior

By Craig Wall
Tuesday, July 14, 2020 6:40PM CT

"We could be looking at tens of millions, even 100 million doses of vaccine, this fall, and many hundreds of millions of doses by early next year."
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Secretary of Health and Human Services visited Chicago Tuesday to see how doctors and nurses in the city have handled the COVID-19 crisis.

Secretary Alex Azar said he was optimistic that a vaccine for the virus could be available as soon as this fall.

On Tuesday, researchers with Moderna and the National Institutes Of Health announced that an experimental vaccine successfully produced antibodies in all 45 patients involved in testing.