Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #77

[Sundog]

I think they will need to take great care in their decisions. And those decisions may change as rollout gets closer. From what I understand, the testing is happening on the 18-65 demographic.

If they give the first limited amounts of the vaccine to those who get little effect from it - or may be put at some great risk from it - it may not be the best place to use those vaccines in the first instance.

Over age 65 folks were also being recruited to participate in Ohio State's part of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial a few weeks ago in Columbus, Ohio. Along with essential workers.

How about this? My son, 32, believes he had COVID several weeks ago. He had many of the symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting for a few days; headaches and muscle aches for about three weeks; chest tightness, cough and fatigue bad for three weeks, still ongoing but much lessened over the last two weeks; fever and chills but he doesn't know how high since apparently he needs a thermometer in his Christmas stocking. He has been working from home since March, lives alone and the only places he has been are Publix and Target for groceries. He did not tell me until he felt better. He did not test. I was astonished, but he said that he would not have gotten results until after he felt better, and he is not wrong. And that he felt bad enough that he didn't want to drive the 30 minutes to get to a testing site.

I assume that he didn't got to Publix or Target for groeries during that time. Hope he is doing okay now.

 

[Sundog]

The Senate will vote on a coronavirus stimulus bill as early as this week.

Congress has failed to pass a fifth coronavirus aid package even after a $600 per week extra jobless benefit, a federal moratorium on evictions and the window to apply for Paycheck Protection Program small business loans lapsed. The expiration of those lifelines has left millions made jobless by the coronavirus struggling to cover costs.

Mitch McConnell says Senate will vote on coronavirus stimulus plan as soon as this week

Hope that pressures the House to do the same.

 

[tresir2012]

US presidential rivals spar over Covid-19 vaccine

" President Trump again hinted that a vaccine might be available before the November presidential election and accused his Democratic rivals of "reckless anti-vaccine rhetoric".

Mr Biden expressed scepticism that Mr Trump would listen to the scientists and implement a transparent process.

The US has six million cases of coronavirus, the highest in the world.

The virus has also claimed nearly 190,000 lives and fuelled a major recession, double-digit unemployment and sagging consumer confidence.

Last week it emerged the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had urged states to consider "waiving requirements" in order to be able distribute a vaccine by 1 November - two days before the 3 November election."

More at link.

 

[CSIDreamer]

394 new positive cases
12 new deaths

Indiana, US

 

[JerseyGirl]

Geez, can my fellow Americans get their act together??? 4 more states added to the "ban" list. We took off on a weekend getaway to Massachusetts the last few days, it appears that Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York are practically the only states I can visit during COVID:

4 More States Land on Quarantine List as NYC Debuts New Enforcement Measure

Four states -- Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia -- were added to the quarantine list Tuesday, bringing the total number of affected U.S. states and jurisdictions to 35. In addition to those four, the restricted list includes: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

 

[JerseyGirl]

New York has reported a Covid-19 infection rate below 1% for more than four weeks as it prepares for its schools, including the largest school district in the country in New York City, to return students to the classroom this fall.

Gov. Cuomo announced last week that casinos across the state and malls in New York City will be allowed to reopen with modified capacity beginning Wednesday.

The governor, however, has yet to grant New York City restaurants the ability to reopen their dining rooms for indoor service, unlike other parts of the state.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a press conference on the coronavirus

The governor opened restaurants to indoor dining in NJ over the weekend to 25% capacity. We won't be dining indoors anytime soon, still only prefer outdoor dining.

 

[10ofRods]

The protests in the US are not socially distanced.

I believe the article is referring to the behavior of those in cities where protests occurred, not the protestors themselves. If fewer locals go to protests in the first place, then the event has less of a chance of being a super-spreader. If businesses are closed near an outdoor event (as was common in the BLM protests for several reasons), it has less of a chance of being a local super-spreader.

Presumably, some of the protestors would have taken CoVid back to their households if someone at the protest was positive and right next to them - but again, if the movement was not static (a conversation in a bar that goes on for more than 5 minutes), it is much less likely to transmit.

Indoor, unmasked, face-to-face behavior is quite risky. Most outdoor behaviors are far less risky. I don't think any of the Sturgis participants got CoVid while they were riding their bikes, it was in the bars at night that the transmission likely occurred (and bars all day, downtown). Also, many people go to Sturgis to meet people and hook up, which would be another factor.

 

[JaneEyre]

I'd like to try this. Can you provide more details about the alcohol,source, amount, etc.?

The wipes are mildly moist anyway, of course, so I don't like to "treat" them with alcohol in the full packet because it's too difficult to know that they have all been saturated with alcohol. Currently, I have a pack of 56 Huggies natural care. That's a pretty thick stack that I will probably split into 4 or 5 separate stacks in ziplocks.

I like to use the 90% alcohol that has a cap with the little hole that sends a stream out when you squeeze it. I put a small stack in the zip lock and then squirt the alcohol on top in several "S" formations. Then i flip it and do the other side, squeeze the pack a bit to push alcohol through the entire stack, and then I'm done. I don’t measure. I just make sure that it's enough to saturate without leaving any pools of alcohol that are not absorbed by the wipe.

 

[tresir2012]

New York has reported a Covid-19 infection rate below 1% for more than four weeks as it prepares for its schools, including the largest school district in the country in New York City, to return students to the classroom this fall.

Gov. Cuomo announced last week that casinos across the state and malls in New York City will be allowed to reopen with modified capacity beginning Wednesday.

The governor, however, has yet to grant New York City restaurants the ability to reopen their dining rooms for indoor service, unlike other parts of the state.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo holds a press conference on the coronavirus

The governor opened restaurants to indoor dining in NJ over the weekend to 25% capacity. We won't be dining indoors anytime soon, still only prefer outdoor dining.

How is the 1% infection rate calculated? Is that 1% tests are positive or is it 1% of the NY population ?

 

[JerseyGirl]

How is the 1% infection rate calculated? Is that 1% tests are positive or is it 1% of the NY population ?

With more than 58,000 COVID-19 tests conducted Sunday in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state’s infection rate was at 0.88%.

This, he says, marks one full month - 31 days - with the state’s infection rate below 1%.

Cuomo: NY marks one month with COVID-19 infection rate under 1%

 

[Satchie]

In 2018, a total of 2,839,205 resident deaths were registered in the United States.
So by September of that year, approximately 2, 100, 000 people had died, in total.

2019 totals are not listed yet, but I am going to guess that the numbers are pretty similar to 2018.

That gives us a general predictive total for the TOTAL number of deaths , in the US, for the first 8 months of 2020:
Approximately 2,100,000 people have died so far, in this country, in 2020.


When I look at that^^^ number, the added 189K does not shock me as much, as when it is described as Hiroshima plus Nagasaki.
, of
We will have nearly 3 million DEATHS in 2020, Covid or no Covid.

People are dying from overdoses, cancer, car accidents, gun deaths, obesity, heart attacks, and murders. They are ALL mind numbing and unspeakable.

I want to try and keep things in context. Of the estimated 2,300,000 deaths so far this year, 189,000 of them are covid related.

FastStats

I agree, people die all the time. We're all at risk of dying today. And yet, we have a very strong desire not to die, and, for people who are compassionate, not to cause the death of anyone else.

So I think the use of statistics to somehow rationalize whether something is 'truly terrible' or 'not a big deal' really misses the point.

To me, the thought experiment is: do we care whether one person is killed by the actions of another, or does it only count when it's someone like the serial killer Samuel Little. Or do we not even care about that, because it was just a bunch of vulnerable black women who didn't matter to me, anyway. Does it matter if I only disable someone through careless driving, or if I kill one person, or will I only care when I kill a whole family?

To me, unless each of us is willing to say, 'I volunteer to die today, it's no big deal, I would have died at some point anyway. So bring on the serial killer, send me to the gas chamber, drop a bomb on me, it's all okay. Plus, I'm perfectly okay with causing someone else's death, they're going to die at some point, so I don't care if I run them over with my car, I have places to go, things to do!'.

<modsnip>

(Gotta say, I'm racked with guilt because I ran over a squirrel, so that's where I'm coming from).

 

[cass523]

Companies testing coronavirus vaccines pledge safety, high standards

Sep. 8, 2020

The top executives of nine drugmakers likely to produce the first vaccines against the new coronavirus signed an unprecedented pledge meant to boost public confidence in any approved vaccines.

The companies said Tuesday that they will stick to the highest ethical and scientific standards in testing and manufacturing and will make the well-being of those getting vaccinated their top priority.

The announcement comes amid worries that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be under political pressure to approve a vaccine before tests to prove it is safe and effective are finished.

Meanwhile, public health officials worry that if many Americans don’t get the vaccine, it will be harder to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The pledge was signed by the chief executive officers of American drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, and European companies AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. BioNTech has partnered with Pfizer on one of the vaccines now in the final round of human testing.

Companies testing coronavirus vaccines pledge safety, high standards

 

[LadyL]

Ontario reports 190 new coronavirus cases Labour Day Monday, 185 cases Tuesday

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: As of 10:00-11:00 a.m. today, we had 345 new confirmed cases for a total of 70,659 confirmed cases of which 50,371 have reovered (+502). 6 more had passed away for a total of 1,173. Sept. 8: 345 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa, six deaths, 502 recoveries
Iowa COVID-19 Information
Monticello schools move online Tuesday & Wednesday after four COVID-19 cases
Judge denies DMPS request for injunction on online learning plan
Univ. Iowa Health Care clinic to study long term issues caused by COVID-19
Dubuque county-wide mask mandate fails to pass
University of Iowa students say dorms feel unsafe
Decorah family told to leave store after son with autism couldn't wear a mask

 

[LadyL]

omg

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally linked to more than 260,000 coronavirus cases, economists estimate

 

[tresir2012]

I agree, people die all the time. We're all at risk of dying today. And yet, we have a very strong desire not to die, and, for people who are compassionate, not to cause the death of anyone else.

So I think the use of statistics to somehow rationalize whether something is 'truly terrible' or 'not a big deal' really misses the point.

To me, the thought experiment is: do we care whether one person is killed by the actions of another, or does it only count when it's someone like the serial killer Samuel Little. Or do we not even care about that, because it was just a bunch of vulnerable black women who didn't matter to me, anyway. Does it matter if I only disable someone through careless driving, or if I kill one person, or will I only care when I kill a whole family?

To me, unless each of us is willing to say, 'I volunteer to die today, it's no big deal, I would have died at some point anyway. So bring on the serial killer, send me to the gas chamber, drop a bomb on me, it's all okay. Plus, I'm perfectly okay with causing someone else's death, they're going to die at some point, so I don't care if I run them over with my car, I have places to go, things to do!'.

<modsnip>

(Gotta say, I'm racked with guilt because I ran over a squirrel, so that's where I'm coming from).

<modsnip: rude and personalizing> It was a response to a post comparing the Covid deaths to Hiroshima and Nagasaki deliberate bombings by the Allies in WW2. So it was in that context.

Also, when you think how many people we are killing with climate change driving our gas guzzlers it also puts it in perspective. Many that normally die from flu and pneumonia have not done so this year, due to the coronavirus measures so it all must be taken into account. Including the deaths in LTC facilities, that could have been avoided.

MOO

 

[Knitty]

I assume that he didn't got to Publix or Target for groeries during that time. Hope he is doing okay now.

I think I might have posted much earlier that he was instrumental in persuading his company to allow employees to work at home when they really didn't want to. So of course he did not shop while sick - he is the most conscientious of any in our family - and we are all quite conscientious about our health. In fact, he is still not shopping in person - he's having his groceries delivered. It's been eight weeks since the start of his symptoms and he is still experiencing some chest tightness and exhaustion.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Salon owner won't allow customers to wear masks because "Covid doesn't exist"

“A photo of the sign, published by the Liverpool Echo, reads:

• Covid Free Salon
• No Masks
• We Take Cash
• Covid Talk Is Banned
• You Can't Catch What Doesn't Exist”

 

[Knitty]

I agree, people die all the time. We're all at risk of dying today. And yet, we have a very strong desire not to die, and, for people who are compassionate, not to cause the death of anyone else.

So I think the use of statistics to somehow rationalize whether something is 'truly terrible' or 'not a big deal' really misses the point.

To me, the thought experiment is: do we care whether one person is killed by the actions of another, or does it only count when it's someone like the serial killer Samuel Little. Or do we not even care about that, because it was just a bunch of vulnerable black women who didn't matter to me, anyway. Does it matter if I only disable someone through careless driving, or if I kill one person, or will I only care when I kill a whole family?

To me, unless each of us is willing to say, 'I volunteer to die today, it's no big deal, I would have died at some point anyway. So bring on the serial killer, send me to the gas chamber, drop a bomb on me, it's all okay. Plus, I'm perfectly okay with causing someone else's death, they're going to die at some point, so I don't care if I run them over with my car, I have places to go, things to do!'.

<modsnip>

(Gotta say, I'm racked with guilt because I ran over a squirrel, so that's where I'm coming from).

That is simply the most beautiful thing I have read since March. Thank you, Satchie.

 

[MimosaMornings]

I think I might have posted much earlier that he was instrumental in persuading his company to allow employees to work at home when they really didn't want to. So of course he did not shop while sick - he is the most conscientious of any in our family - and we are all quite conscientious about our health. In fact, he is still not shopping in person - he's having his groceries delivered. It's been eight weeks since the start of his symptoms and he is still experiencing some chest tightness and exhaustion.

I hope he is feeling better soon. I know that worries you (isn’t that what moms do - no matter what their age).