Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Emergency #4

[Medstudies]

David and Sally Abel are not doing well emotionally. They have had enough. They are pleading for Richard Branson to help. They talk about Alan and Wendy in the hospital, and Alan is fed up with the lack of communication with the doctors, and the inconsistant/faulty test results. My heart goes out to them in this very long video.

and who could blame them for being NOkay? Right?

this is the reality of this epidemic. Not the numbers and all the articles, not the panicked buying. Not the scoffing naysayers.

MOO - They’re feeling like they’re just on a perpetual loop, riding the rollercoaster of the “seasonal flu is worse” and the “the sky is falling” over and over and over. Hopes up. And then dashed. - And just want to get the heck off.

Just absolute frustration, uncertainty, and lives at a quarantined standstill.

Those that are truly affected by this are completely in the dark. While I make plans for the weekend and go about my life, theirs are in complete limbo. 500 million people in lockdown. Most over there———>

heartbreaking.

 

[IceIce9]

"Corona Island" has a nice ring to it.

Lets hope it doesnt come to that. One thing that has really bothered me about the way the Princess Cruise passenger cases have gone up is I dont think they have really figured out exactly how the new passengers were catching it if locked in their rooms. It would really pay off to try to determine exactly how the newer infectees were catching it. Like if it was through the air vents or air getting through cracks around the doors or something. Or if it was the staff bringing them the food. The more we can learn about how this thing transmits itself to others the better we can learn how to prevent catching it.

Maybe its too difficult to determine exactly how. Wish the WHO would get a couple people on board that ship to fully investigate the transmission method for the newer ship cases.

Someone has to be prepared the food and delivering it to the cabins. That is where I would look to see how it is being spread.

 

[badgersmythe]

Coronavirus fears at Heathrow: 'EIGHT planes on lockdown' on runway


Coronavirus: eight planes in lockdown on Heathrow runways | Daily Mail Online

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Therapeutic options for the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Patients with 2019-nCoV are being recruited in randomized trials to evaluate the efficacy of favipiravir plus interferon-α (ChiCTR2000029600) and favipiravir plus baloxavir marboxil (an approved influenza inhibitor targeting the cap-dependent endonuclease) (ChiCTR2000029544).

A recent study reported that remdesivir inhibited 2019-nCoV (EC50 = 0.77 μM in Vero E6 cells)5, and a US patient with 2019-nCoV recovered after receiving intravenous remdesivir in January6. Two phase III trials were initiated in early February to evaluate intravenous remdesivir (200 mg on day 1 and 100 mg once daily for 9 days) in patients with 2019-nCoV (NCT04252664 and NCT04257656), with estimated completion dates in April 2020...

Outlook
The rapid identification of effective interventions against 2019-nCoV is a major challenge. Given the available knowledge on their safety profiles, and in some cases efficacy against closely related coronaviruses, repurposing existing antiviral agents is a potentially important near-term strategy to tackle 2019-nCoV. Phase III trials of remdesivir have been initiated, and many other trials are being established in China to test various treatment options such as umifenovir, oseltamivir and ASC09F

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Daily WHO presser to begin now? Waiting for live feed to start.

ETA; Feed has begun

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Presser started, notes with ETA's to follow on this post

• Director General Dr. Tetras is there virtually at the meeting on monitor..(he's in Congo with Ebola outbreak). bad feed and delay egads..ok fixed it
• 1,716 infections and 6 deaths of health care workers. We need to understand how/when they got sick.
• We are in contact with suppliers of PPE's to prioritize to health care workers at front line.
• WHO team to touch down this weekend. China mission will include 12 international and WHO experts and a similar number of country counterparts from China. The China mission will include in-depth workshops, data review with the principle ministries, a key meeting with statisticians, and field visits in three provinces to understand the application and impact of response at provincial and country levels including urban and rural settings. The goal of the joint meeting is to determine next steps in the response and prepare it's activities in China and globally. Particular attention will be paid to the transmission of the virus, the severity of disease, and the impact of ongoing response measures. This will help the world community to prepare health systems and health workers for possible outbreaks.
  
• Thanked Cambodia for docking the Amsterdam, all folks negative and on their way home
• Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. This is time for solidarity not stigma.

Q&A time

• re Lancet article re restrictions of flights which is against WHO wishes, is it violation of international law. A. WHO has been clear, it's impt to remember that the temporary recommendations issued by the WHO are not binding. What is required is that those countries express a rationale on those measures. We try to set general guidance to let countries act, and can exceed if they have public health rationale. They are responsible for their citizens. As such, the IHR is silent on that.
• Can you name 12 folks on team and how long there, and any advice to Japan on the Olympic Games A. Olympics.... we are constantly in touch with major mass gathering teams...we are engaged with all those institutions and we will offer support and technical support. At this stage, no discussion or decision made yet, we stand ready to offer our risk assessment. As to the team....For how long they will stay depends on their scope of work and need. Composition of team we will give more info on experts when necessary.
• re over 1,700 infected medical workers, do you believe that number is credible, and do the recovered workers have immunity? A. We saw this with MERS, SARS and hemorrhagic fever. What we need to be able to do and we are doing is to determine when.. it happened in 3rd and 4th week of January. Less now as more education. Fallen off recently due to training. As to percentage of overall cases.. it is lower percentage than other coronavirus outbreaks. We have always known that the real point of entrance to many countries is an unsuspecting emergency room. We have called again and again for training and prioritization of PPE's for those workers. It can be managed with PPE and training. We need to better understand where the infections happened. In the ER? In treatment facility areas, etc. so we can target and implement corrective measures. Fatigue adds to such as they are too tired. We have learned China has sent in doctors from other provinces to help. Go to WHO open platform for training and we are working with health care/nursing organizations. As to immunity profile, we don't have a lab test so impossible to know as no serology test for globulins. An item for immediate research.
• Another question on Olympics.. A. We have not offered advice to IOC, it's not our role to call off, it is our role to offer risk reduction, response etc. It is the decision of the host organizations to do such. We support them. re transparency in China.. speculation... our WHO country rep has been there for weeks. They are inviting us in, shared sequences with the world and are publishing quite a bit for the world. with regards to the team, I believe we will have experts on the team from US. There has been deep collaboration, and The major organization is the China CDC, scientists collaborate. This is politically tense as to economics, let our scientists work and not politicize now.
• re infected health care workers, will you up the PPE info to have them wear respirators vs. just surgical masks A. More importantly is how you use PPE. Even with highest level of PPE you can get infected if tired or mistakes. We have seen this. More discussion to how they ensure use PPE properly when they are doing specific procedures. These are shields and need not rely only on equipment. They also need to wash hands etc. It's not just equipment, but training and behaviour when the equipment is used.
• Do you think China has made mistakes that we could draw on for future health emergencies A. I think there will be lots of lessons as it has been with Ebola right now. We will do that later, learn and implement changes from such. This is not the time for public recrimination and work on the job. The last thing we need to do is criticize someone's performance previously when they are in the middle of the job.
  
• Q ?? garbeled Hong Kong border points?? A. I'm not aware of that rule. We are always ready for advice, we haven't received a request. He couldn't understand question either due to garbeled. In general, we need to be careful during those processes as we need to balance quarantine against ethical and human rights/scientific.
• re Diamond Princess A. difficult to evaluate here. Japan has made their assessment. We have given advice. We did ask that older and inner cabins and vulnerable persons be addressed...

My 60 minutes is up for ETA... there will be two more questions... otherwise..

THE END for my notes.

 

[Hatfield]

Coronavirus fears at Heathrow: 'EIGHT planes on lockdown' on runway


Coronavirus: eight planes in lockdown on Heathrow runways | Daily Mail Online

What? Holy Cow. 7 other planes with suspected virus passengers.

"United Airlines Flight 901 from San Francisco locked down at 9am this morning after landing at the airport

• Captain reportedly told passengers there was a suspected case on board theirs and seven other planes"

Coronavirus: eight planes in lockdown on Heathrow runways | Daily Mail Online

 

[gregjrichards]

cut/paste from previous post, it was China

BNO Newsroom
@BNODesk
·
9h
Huangzhou District, which is part of Huanggang and close to Wuhan, has issued a 500 yuan ($71) reward for anyone who reports a person suffering from fever

I feel very uneasy about this you could be reporting someone and sending them to their death at a hospital. People must be living in fear fear of the government and fear of being reported by their family, friends or neighbours.

 

[gregjrichards]

What? Holy Cow. 7 other planes with suspected virus passengers.

"United Airlines Flight 901 from San Francisco locked down at 9am this morning after landing at the airport

• Captain reportedly told passengers there was a suspected case on board theirs and seven other planes"

Coronavirus: eight planes in lockdown on Heathrow runways | Daily Mail Online

What a nightmare.

 

[Hatfield]

JMO
Just want to share a helpful hint if anyone finds themselves standing near someone who is coughing uncontrollably. This can help avoid catching a cold or flu or anything like that. Or at least I think its better than nothing.

When I used to spray Roundup to kill weeds in the driveway before I learned it caused cancer (lol), I ran out of masks one time and so what I did was just pull my shirt up over my face so I would not breathe in the fumes. So was thinking about that and so many of us may be out and about and find ourselves standing in line or something and the person nearby maybe coughing and sick with the normal flue or something. So it may help to pull up the top of a shirt to cover nose and mouth and at least give us time to get away from the person. The alternative is to do nothing and just breathe the air around us so I figure it was better than nothing.

What I eventually did when I ran out of masks to spray weed killer was I took a bandana and rigged it like you see the cowboys do in the western movies. It worked rather well considering I had nothing else.

Just wanted to share in case it may help anyone if they find themselves without a mask and want to add a little protection on the fly.

 

[Hatfield]

I feel very uneasy about this you could be reporting someone and sending them to their death at a hospital. People must be living in fear fear of the government and fear of being reported by their family, friends or neighbours.

ikr

Weeks ago I remember reading that one of the biggest dangers of this is not the virus itself but when poor decisions are made with how to deal with it.

This sounds like a terrible idea. People suspecting others and telling authorities and they end up they were wrong about it to begin with.

This is terrible and it reminds me of what we learned about in History class about irrational fear of Communists.

"During the McCarthy era, hundreds of Americans were accused of being "communists" or "communist sympathizers"; they became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private industry panels, committees, and agencies"

McCarthyism - Wikipedia

 

[gregjrichards]

JMO
Just want to share a helpful hint if anyone finds themselves standing near someone who is coughing uncontrollably. This can help avoid catching a cold or flu or anything like that. Or at least I think its better than nothing.

When I used to spray Roundup to kill weeds in the driveway before I learned it caused cancer (lol), I ran out of masks one time and so what I did was just pull my shirt up over my face so I would not breathe in the fumes. So was thinking about that and so many of us may be out and about and find ourselves standing in line or something and the person nearby maybe coughing and sick with the normal flue or something. So it may help to pull up the top of a shirt to cover nose and mouth and at least give us time to get away from the person. The alternative is to do nothing and just breathe the air around us so I figure it was better than nothing.

What I eventually did when I ran out of masks to spray weed killer was I took a bandana and rigged it like you see the cowboys do in the western movies. It worked rather well considering I had nothing else.

Just wanted to share in case it may help anyone if they find themselves without a mask and want to add a little protection on the fly.

It is horrendous the people who have got cancer from that awful stuff. I would imagine many are dying before taking legal action against Monsanto.

 

[dotr]

RE Wondering if vacuuming of the ships ect could be a possible culprit in spreading CV??..
Complete Speculation, imo. rbbm.

Microbial Contents of Vacuum Cleaner Bag Dust and Emitted Bioaerosols and Their Implications for Human Exposure Indoors

''People are constantly exposed to various levels of biological (bioaerosols) and nonbiological particles. The nature and magnitude of these exposures depend strongly on their sources. While nonbiological particles from vehicle emissions, industrial processes, and natural sources are comparatively well characterized, bioaerosols are less well understood, despite their potentially significant role as a cause of infectious and allergenic adverse health effects (1). This is especially true of indoor bioaerosols, which are particularly relevant, as most people spend the vast majority (∼90%) of their time indoors. The use of high-quality vacuum cleaners and bags is often recommended in order to reduce indoor allergen exposure of asthmatic and allergic people (2). However, it has been shown that vacuuming can also promote the release of large concentrations of antigens by mechanical disturbance of settled dust and release from the vacuum cleaner itself (3).

Household dust can contain a wide range of microbial content, including endotoxins and molds (4). Vacuum bags can be an important reservoir of bacteria, molds, endotoxins, and allergens. The emission and aerosolization of dust during vacuuming can potentially spread Salmonella spp. (5, 6) and other bacteria, including Clostridium botulinum (7). Environmental dust could be a source of gastrointestinal infection in the home environment, and the causative microbes collected during vacuum cleaning can remain viable in vacuum dust bags or chambers over extended periods (8).

Archaea are microorganisms commonly found in the environment, including in the animal and human gut, with a strong immunogenic potential (9). Since those organisms can be found in high concentrations in animal care facilities (10, 11), they could be found in vacuum dust from homes with animals or more crowded environments. We have previously shown that emission rates of bacteria and fine and ultrafine particles in the exhaust air of various vacuum cleaners are highly variable (12). In addition to releasing allergens and antigens from the surfaces vacuumed, our previous work also suggested that vacuum bag dust and exhaust air may be a source of bioaerosol exposure through bioaerosol emission during vacuuming''

 

[Henry2326]

TWO Labour MPs are self-isolating over coronavirus fears after going to a London bus conference attended by an infected patient.

Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds NW, tweeted earlier today he being tested as one of 250 people who may have come into contact with the killer bug.

The infected person is said to have visited the UK Bus Summit in Westminster on February 6 where Boris Johnson's Buses Minister, Baroness Vere of Norbiton, was star speaker.

Mr Sobel wrote he has cancelled all engagements for 14 days until he is clear, adding: "*Statement* As has been reported by @harry_horton
I attended the UK bus summit on the 6th Feb, where there was an attendee who has tested positive for coronavirus.

"Whilst I have been informed that I am at very low risk, I have called 111 to be formally assessed."

And another Labour MP who went to the conference, Lillian Greenwood, today said she is cancelling all her public engagements and is at home to be "extra cautious".

UK coronavirus - MPs, minister and transport chiefs among 250 people at London bus conference infected patient went to

 

[Henry2326]

Ning Zhu, a nurse in Wuhan, the central Chinese city at the heart of a deadly coronavirus outbreak, is restless.

Instead of helping on the frontlines, she has been under self-quarantine at home for weeks, after a chest scan on January 26 revealed that she had a suspected case of the novel Coronavirus.
Zhu was told to wait for a nucleic acid test that would provide the final verdict, but it never came.
"Right now, it's really a problem. Our hospital already has more than 100 people who are quarantined at home," she told CNN over the phone. An additional 30 medical workers have been confirmed to have the virus, she said.


"If the tests are fine, we can go back to work. I actually don't have any symptoms, there's just a slight problem with my CT scan, it seems there's a bit of infection," she said.
Zhu estimates that of the 500 medical staff at the hospital, more than 130 may have been stricken by the virus, which has so far infected more than 60,000 globally. She declined to publicize the name of her hospital and asked to use a pseudonym as she was not authorized to speak to the media.

Over 1,700 frontline medics likely infected with coronavirus in China, presenting new crisis for the government - CNN

 

[Tadpole12]

Google 'smoking in China'

"Smoking in China is prevalant, as the People's Republic of China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobaco: there are 350 million Chinese smokers and China produces 42% of the world's cigarettes
... nearly 60% of male Chinese doctors are smokers which is the highest proportion in the world"

 

[gregjrichards]

What it's like to get coronavirus: Student from Wuhan reveals his three-week ordeal including 102F fever, pains 'in every part of my body' and a cough so bad 'I thought I would die'

Student from Wuhan reveals what it was like to get coronavirus | Daily Mail Online

 

[gregjrichards]

EIGHT planes are put on lockdown simultaneously on tarmac at Heathrow after passengers are suspected of having coronavirus

Coronavirus: eight planes in lockdown on Heathrow runways | Daily Mail Online

Added article to include photos and coronavirus graph.

The passengers and crew must be terrified and I imagine all these people will need quarantined.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

Ohhh, perhaps media is reading here lol.

The last question today at WHO was about correlation to smoking, and why is seems to be affecting older people and bias towards men in China.

A. I think that any respiratory pathogen certainly is seen and expected to appear more in elderly and COPD (e.d. most elderly smokers have) as at very high risk of viral infection AND secondary bacterial infections (sequela) it goes without saying that smoking is a very high risk/severity for any lower respiratory infection and we would expect it to be no different here. We are seeing a marked difference in males and females in marked severity and this is an excellent hypothesis and one that is unproven but will be of interest to look at and I think it will be relatively straight forward.. I'm sure that they are collecting this (e.d. the WHO forms I have personally viewed as to data collection DO NOT ask/check off if they are a smoker/non smoker.. just saying as I reviewed again after the videos of Dr. Sheulte .. spelling wrong?.. were posted here) I hope in the near future we will have more information on this.

Tomorrow WHO meeting... same bat place.. same bat time!

 

[Deerrun]

Someone is not telling us something. Very dramatic approaches for something that is supposedly less dangerous than the flu. Imo (and ignorance prob)