Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #82

[sds71]

https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/1313916112141156359

NEW from Regeneron: “... given the volume of IgG antibodies delivered in our therapy, and the timing of these tests, it is likely that the second test is detecting REGN-COV2 antibodies

 

[10ofRods]

The WH sets its own rules so it can effectively do what it likes . However, these positives all of a sudden after 6 months is really suspicious JMO.

Not sure what you’re suspecting, but that’s how CoVid work. Asymptomatic carriers without masks go about spreading it, some of the people to whom they spread it are also asymptomatic, then it hits older, more vulnerable people (like the Coast Guard Admiral - who isn’t that old, but old enough to feel it).

Lots of younger people in the WH are symptomatic but many merely tested positive without symptoms. Asymptomatic people often test negatively on the rapid tests - but a PCR test will pick it up.

So...what you’re seeing in this instance (and there are over 100 other federal employees in various relationships to the WH who have tested positively in the past 14 days - so it was swirling around in D.C., very near the WH, and then it got in - who knows how? We will probably need FOIA and other future measures to even begin to figure it out - a job for the historians, most likely).

 

[dmac55]

Thanks - that is interesting, but it still seems incorrect. The mask mandate was left up to cities and counties (never state-wide) and I am unaware of any enforcement (fines, etc.) I may be wrong, but it seemed to me that most people were already wearing masks.

Crediting the June 29 closures of certain businesses is more troubling. AZ's Rt was below one on June 24, so the spread was already slowing. As for the closures, themselves, they struck me as "feel good" measures. Throughout the pandemic restaurants and bars have been singled out as especially dangerous, yet the June 29 closures would have only made the situation worse: restaurant bars were able to continue operating, so people who couldn't go to their own tavern, started cramming into restaurant bars. Arizona has been open about the lack of resources in the area of enforcement, so it strikes me as extremely unlikely that a restaurant operating at over 50% capacity would be on anyone's RADAR. It's also interesting that the June 29 limiting of restaurants to 50% has been credited, even though they had been so limited since the initial reopening on May 11.

Something happened in AZ that resulted in a spike that dropped as quickly as it climbed - I still wish there was a serious effort to find out how and why.

I live in the surrounding Phoenix area

My experience is that mask wearing increased greatly when stores, gas stations, banks, etc required it for entrance, independently of what individual towns were doing

 

[sds71]

https://nypost.com/2020/10/07/chris-christie-remains-hospitalized-with-covid-19-in-new-jersey/

 

[Trino]

Wow. Our restaurants are packed, especially on weekends. (FL)

Well MN certainly has that Swedish thing going on !! I haven't checked in on Sweden lately...should take a look.

Swedish thing? I don't think so. We have been on lockdowns, schools closed (even now on hybrid or online), state law mask mandates for businesses right now. We are no where like Sweden.

Over 85.0% of Minnesota's residents are of European descent, with the largest reported ancestries being German (38.6%), Norwegian (17.0%), Irish (11.9%), and Swedish (9.8%). I am of German descent.

 

[BUF]

https://twitter.com/alaynatreene/status/1313925058621067264

 

[MrX]

I live in the surrounding Phoenix area

My experience is that mask wearing increased greatly when stores, gas stations, banks, etc required it for entrance, independently of what individual towns were doing

I remember everyone wearing masks, prior to May 11 reopening, but perhaps that completely stopped in the month between then and the local mask mandates. Hard to believe our spike was totally due to that, but I guess anything is possible. I'm going to graph cases, Rt and temperature, because it seems to me that the hotter it got, the better it got. And now things are going in the wrong direction again, although at a much slower pace.

 

[ilovewings]

US surgeon general Jerome Adams cited for visiting closed Hawaii park

The U.S. surgeon general was cited for being in a closed Hawaii park in August while on the islands helping with surge testing amid a spike in coronavirus cases, according to a criminal complaint filed in court.

A Honolulu police officer cited Jerome Adams after seeing him with two men “looking at the view taking pictures” at Kualoa Regional Park on Oahu’s northeastern coast, the citation said.

Adams told the officer he was visiting Hawaii to work with the governor for COVID-19 and didn’t know parks were closed.

At the time, Oahu parks were closed in an attempt to prevent crowds from gathering.

Sorry i can't stand this guy - i still remember when he said masks were ineffective. That was a negligent statement. I know it was early on in pandemic but he set the tone -there are ways of relaying messages and that was a poor way to relay that one.

 

[ilovewings]

Dismal Daily Florida Numbers on the rise: 2582 cases over night.

Statewide, about 23 percent of hospital beds and about 22 percent of adult intensive unit care beds were available Wednesday morning, according to the agency. In Tampa Bay, around 20 percent of hospital beds and roughly 16 percent of adult ICU beds were available.

Positivity: Florida’s positivity rate was 10.84 percent Wednesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Florida surpasses 15,000 coronavirus deaths Wednesday

Good job DeSantis---

 

[Sundog]

Were they banned recently though? For your population, you are getting significant numbers now, right?

Listened to Tester on the ol telly today... I like him. How is he viewed from within the state??

No, they are not banned. Governor DeWine is steadfast with regard to the Constitution, but he works hard, with the Department of Public Health and faith leaders and others to communicate the importance of mask wearing and social distancing. And contact tracing, if the latter are not effective.

 

[tresir2012]

Not sure what you’re suspecting, but that’s how CoVid work. Asymptomatic carriers without masks go about spreading it, some of the people to whom they spread it are also asymptomatic, then it hits older, more vulnerable people (like the Coast Guard Admiral - who isn’t that old, but old enough to feel it).

Lots of younger people in the WH are symptomatic but many merely tested positive without symptoms. Asymptomatic people often test negatively on the rapid tests - but a PCR test will pick it up.

So...what you’re seeing in this instance (and there are over 100 other federal employees in various relationships to the WH who have tested positively in the past 14 days - so it was swirling around in D.C., very near the WH, and then it got in - who knows how? We will probably need FOIA and other future measures to even begin to figure it out - a job for the historians, most likely).

Graph for DC

dc cases covid - بحث Google

Location Cases Deaths
Washington, D.C.
15,697
+105
632

There have not been 100 cases in DC in a day since August so just wondering why this spike now.

DC population is 705k so cases are around 2%, which is low. Deaths are 90 per 100k population. CFR is 4%.

population dc - بحث Google

 

[nhmemorymaker]

I agree. If people want to do those activities, let them. I have never been an advocate of "Nanny Style" governing. Other people, like me, are staying home. All about choice.

I often come back to the "choices" argument as well. I'll take care of myself by just staying home more, and always wear a mask and social distance whenever I can. "let em do what they want"

But then when I come to the bigger picture issues that will keep hitting us down the road..
Covid healthcare costs...
International travel freedom...
Stronger economic recovery
Resumption of professional sports, AND children's sports and activities....
Civility in America
Hugs

I just come back to nooooo....
we have to, somehow, work together to for the better good, and livelihood of all America?
First Amendment starts to sound pretty selfish to me, when perhaps some global sacrifice in the US could go a long way.........

 

[10ofRods]

I remember everyone wearing masks, prior to May 11 reopening, but perhaps that completely stopped in the month between then and the local mask mandates. Hard to believe our spike was totally due to that, but I guess anything is possible. I'm going to graph cases, Rt and temperature, because it seems to me that the hotter it got, the better it got. And now things are going in the wrong direction again, although at a much slower pace.

My friends in the Phoenix and Tucson areas say that mask wearing has been good since May. But they are careful and obviously prefer places where there are mask wearers - which is why the scientific data is better than personal opinion.

I do think the increased UV could help with CoVid prevention - particularly as they're now saying it remains viable longer on human skin (24 hours). Indoors, that would be the number - outdoors, you'd be free of Covid (as would the exterior of your mask) in about 15 minutes (or even less).

That's one reason Fauci fears a resurgence as we head into autumn. Arizona is not doing too badly, but we did cancel our trip to AZ for the third time.

 

[10ofRods]

Graph for DC

dc cases covid - بحث Google

Location Cases Deaths
Washington, D.C.
15,697
+105
632

There have not been 100 cases in DC in a day since August so just wondering why this spike now.

Increased testing and, of course, they're having a rather major outbreak. Trying googling "Capitol Hill Police," "Cannon Building," "Capitol Architects." Somehow, a bunch of people in those organizations/places (all on federal property) got the free testing all at once after a few tested positive and a bunch of them were positive.

Keep in mind that those figures do not include the White House. The White House is not releasing either its testing methods nor its numbers. Those are the City's numbers. The City is asking the WH to cooperate with them, so far, no go.

A lot of DC residents work for federal agencies - DC mandates are strict and as we all know, the federal mandates are not.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Coronavirus outbreak at North Carolina hair salon tied to at least 1 death: officials

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article245948865.html

“The new cluster is from a business where mask-wearing was not practiced consistently by an employee,” officials said.”

 

[MrX]

My friends in the Phoenix and Tucson areas say that mask wearing has been good since May. But they are careful and obviously prefer places where there are mask wearers - which is why the scientific data is better than personal opinion.

I do think the increased UV could help with CoVid prevention - particularly as they're now saying it remains viable longer on human skin (24 hours). Indoors, that would be the number - outdoors, you'd be free of Covid (as would the exterior of your mask) in about 15 minutes (or even less).

That's one reason Fauci fears a resurgence as we head into autumn. Arizona is not doing too badly, but we did cancel our trip to AZ for the third time.

I still think there is something to the heat factor. I tried to overlay some graphs, but really need to put cases, Rt and temp in a spreadsheet. Rt started to dive three weeks before mask mandates, and the whole restaurant/bar thing isn't just me - there are plenty of quotes from bar owners disgusted that they were forced to close while all of their regulars went down the street to places with Type 12 licenses. It makes me crazy when the 50% restaurant capacity can be simultaneously blamed for the spike, when it was introduced on May 11, and credited for the improvement, when it was reiterated (but not changed) on June 29.

 

[LadyL]

Booming demand and supply chain issues in COVID crisis combine to create appliance shortage

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/appliances-shortage-covid-1.5752402?__vfz=medium=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR2DO7kwk8n8f9atgLMx09g7bwaCgUFK0wtVHo4LEHp9lZCcuu2Kj6biJE4

 

[Sundog]

Sorry i can't stand this guy - i still remember when he said masks were ineffective. That was a negligent statement. I know it was early on in pandemic but he set the tone -there are ways of relaying messages and that was a poor way to relay that one.

I have no reason to doubt that he was taking pictures and didn't know the parks were closed, no reason to not believe him. Some will always give people the benefit of the doubt in these kinds of situation, absent information to the contrary. Kind of like Nancy Pelosi not wearing a mask when she got her hair done. Perhaps she did take it off for a few minutes just to wash her hair, who knows. Some gave her the benefit of the doubt, some not so much.

We often develop strong likes or dislikes for people based on so many factors. I don't have strong feelings for most on the WH Task Force, except for Dr. Birx. I admire her tremendously.

 

[thistle]

Haven’t read this. Thought it may be interesting to some.
Symptoms and Outcomes of Sailors in Isolation After a COVID-19 Outbreak on a US Aircraft Carrier

Wow, you are on top of things!-just input this report today at my place of employment-DTIC. I love having access to recent COVID studies.

 

[10ofRods]

I still think there is something to the heat factor. I tried to overlay some graphs, but really need to put cases, Rt and temp in a spreadsheet. Rt started to dive three weeks before mask mandates, and the whole restaurant/bar thing isn't just me - there are plenty of quotes from bar owners disgusted that they were forced to close while all of their regulars went down the street to places with Type 12 licenses. It makes me crazy when the 50% restaurant capacity can be simultaneously blamed for the spike, when it was introduced on May 11, and credited for the improvement, when it was reiterated (but not changed) on June 29.

The heat and UV thing are documented in Italy, China and elsewhere. If you exclude outbreaks in packing houses in Imperial County, CA, their heat would likely have brought rates lower.

One reason is humidity (higher the heat, the more humidity in most places - but AZ really varies in that). It would be interesting to add relative humidity to your data. I don't know of any region-specific studies in the US that have done that.

I think you should look at the google analytics if you can (I have access to much of their data but it is possibly because my workplace allows it). Arizonans did indeed slow their roll in terms of going to indoor restaurants, regardless of what the bar owners you know might have experienced. Another big factor was of course university students going home for the summer (and now they're back - so that will make for an uptick).

It's all these things together (which are hard to disentangle) that helped. A main factor is older people shielding themselves by staying out of both bars and restaurants. Since older people are more likely to frequent restaurants than bars in the first place, it'll be some time before restaurants recover. There have been big surges in restaurant attendance most places (globally) when they first reopen, but then, as older people get sick (almost no one wants this virus, it's too worrying; no one wants cold symptoms right now - worrying) they stay home again. See Sweden.