Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #43

[tresir2012]

TY for posting all those links @margarita25.

This one is interesting, talking about secret stockpiles and state versus national need.

Trump Administration Changes Description of Supply Stockpile

"As coronavirus cases just begin to surge in the United States, the Strategic National Stockpile - a supply of life-saving equipment that the federal government maintains - is nearly out of protective gear.

And now, as hospitals buckle under the strain, the federal government is changing the definition of the stockpile's precise purpose.

That came after top White House advisor Jared Kushner said Thursday: "The notion of the federal stockpile was, it's supposed to be our stockpile," referring apparently to the federal government. "It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use." "

More at link.

 

[CeeCeeCat]

Good morning everyone from an oh-my-gosh beautiful morning here in London. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and out in the garden earlier I saw a solitary swallow flying overhead.
I’m planning some batch cooking today - a pasta dish to use up the courgettes, aubergine and pepper that were sitting in the fridge - something I’ll be able to eat cold as salad for the next few days. And pea and mint soup. When I was clearing the storage cupboard in readiness for the bulk cat food/kibble/litter orders, I found some recipe books I’d planned to donate to charity. Instead, I’m poring over these and finding all sorts of things I want to make.
On my gratitude list today - our postman and our vet. Postman dropped a couple of packages off this morning and we had a safely-at-a-distance chat. He told me they’re no longer needing signatures for deliveries so, ‘I’ll leave packages in the shed if you’re out’ - at which point we fell about laughing at the prospect of me leaving the house willingly at any point soon.
And our vet, who is on my gratitude list every day. She’s working through her holiday to ensure her clients’ pets are kept safe during the lockdown. I’ve put together a care package for her and her Head Nurse (luxury soap, mini candles and bath & body goodies for vet, fake tan for nurse who told me she’d run out of the good stuff earlier this week) and will pop it on the doorstep for her to collect when she next drops meds off for the cats. So important to keep the spirits up, I think.
Stay safe today, Sleuthers

 

[tresir2012]

Do you realize at these wet markets they torture dogs and cats to death because they believe it is good for the Chinese health wise? They believe the more suffering an animal endures when it finally dies after being boiled alive, dragged behind cars, slowly burnt to death with a blow torch, skinned alive or other inventive ways of slow torture the better it is for them to eat.

Did you know Wuhan actually has a yearly dog and cat meat festival where families come to watch them get tortured to death? Does this change your opinion at all?

Do you have a MSM link for this? Barbaric and horrible, if true indeed.

 

[tresir2012]

Good morning everyone from an oh-my-gosh beautiful morning here in London. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and out in the garden earlier I saw a solitary swallow flying overhead.
I’m planning some batch cooking today - a pasta dish to use up the courgettes, aubergine and pepper that were sitting in the fridge - something I’ll be able to eat cold as salad for the next few days. And pea and mint soup. When I was clearing the storage cupboard in readiness for the bulk cat food/kibble/litter orders, I found some recipe books I’d planned to donate to charity. Instead, I’m poring over these and finding all sorts of things I want to make.
On my gratitude list today - our postman and our vet. Postman dropped a couple of packages off this morning and we had a safely-at-a-distance chat. He told me they’re no longer needing signatures for deliveries so, ‘I’ll leave packages in the shed if you’re out’ - at which point we fell about laughing at the prospect of me leaving the house willingly at any point soon.
And our vet, who is on my gratitude list every day. She’s working through her holiday to ensure her clients’ pets are kept safe during the lockdown. I’ve put together a care package for her and her Head Nurse (luxury soap, mini candles and bath & body goodies for vet, fake tan for nurse who told me she’d run out of the good stuff earlier this week) and will pop it on the doorstep for her to collect when she next drops meds off for the cats. So important to keep the spirits up, I think.
Stay safe today, Sleuthers

One swallow doth not a summer make.

Still good to see though. Mine come around mid April usually.

( An allusion to the return of migrating swallows at the start of the summer season. From a remark by Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE): "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy." )

 

[tresir2012]

I need to vent so please excuse me for a minute.
I am realizing the stress isn't so much as the virus (which it has been to me since the beginning and still is) but the stress for me now is dealing with the people around me who do NOT want to apply the social distancing.
OMG. I am beside myself & stressing out so much tonight because some people in my world are not taking practicing social distancing .
so I have been called a few negative names these past few days
negative Nellie, Debbie downer, paranoid, etc.
Just because these idiots are not complying to what needs to be done and I am taking this very seriously.
sorry to vent but I am beyond Pi$$ed off and over it.
I will do what I have to do to keep myself safe, I guess.
I was trying to keep others safe, but they apparently don't care.
Thanks for listening.
Rant over.

Those people are called Covidiots and they have their own Twitter hashtag apparently. Stay safe everyone.

Coronavirus UK: 'Covidiots' defy lockdown socialising in their cars and holding BBQs | Daily Mail Online

Coronavirus updates for Wales on Saturday - BBC News

 

[tresir2012]

I live in Ontario, too. As of tomorrow morning Ontario Home Depots are not allowing people into the store. It will be curbside service. We don't have any plants yet in the greenhouses, at the moment, still too cold. I would imagine the same format as other stores limiting access. Although, as a gardener, I like to pick out my own plants. Nurseries are probably really nervous since they've spent all winter growing plants and may possibly end up doing what they were doing in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago: dumping everything.

Home Hardware is already restricting entry to the inside. My husband who's a contractor was there today and no one's allowed in the store, you make your purchase request and they bring it to you, give you the debit machine then wipe everything down. I guess you can't go in and wander around looking for bathroom vanities or lighting fixtures but building is ramping up and people need to move into their new homes or have their renovations finished.

Personally, I think opening for planting can be done successfully by restricting entry, have discrete areas where only shrubs are in one place and only annuals, etc to cut down on numerous people wandering around. I love shopping for plants and I suspect most people do as well, because gardening is a perfect way to keep you tethered to your home.

I went into the LCBO the other day to buy some wine. Only one outlet open now in my town. They closed the second one because it's much smaller and more crowded and the staff were getting really nervous with everyone in such close proximity. You had to stand outside on a line 6 feet apart, no kids allowed in the store, maximum two persons together and only 10 customers in the store at once. You can still buy as much as you want, though. One guy cleaned out a whole display of a certain wine, about 30 bottles.

I went to the horse feed store yesterday for first time since lockdown. All closed with a sign saying ring this number. Rang it, ordered and paid with card then drove round the back where I jumped out to open the boot and waited for delivery. Within a minute they came and loaded up and put receipt in boot and closed it for me. Completely contactless.

 

[Snoods]

The problem with that reasoning is that during disasters like the wildfires in Australia and fallout from volcanic eruptions like what happened in Hawaii a couple of years ago, is that no-one would step up to the plate. China provided millions and millions of face masks to Australia during the wildfires and the volcanic eruptions in the Philippines. Me-first attitudes is the same as a 250 pound man not waiting his turn to get off a burning plane, using the backs of the smallest and weakest to step on. Tit for tat politics hurt everyone.

This is simply not true.

There was plenty of plate stepping by the USA and Pres. Trump in a big way for every disaster you listed.

The US is the largest donor of humanitarian aid world wide. This statistic shows the top donors of humanitarian aid worldwide in 2019. In this year, the United States government donated nearly 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in humanitarian aid worldwide. (We’re the long blue line.)



Hawaii Relief

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday approved federal emergency housing aid and other relief for victims of the six-week-old Kilauea Volcano eruption on Hawaii’s Big Island, where hundreds of homes have been destroyed, state officials said.

In addition to housing assistance, Trump approved relief from several other FEMA programs, including crisis counseling, unemployment benefits and legal aid.

Trump previously issued a major disaster declaration weeks ago authorizing money from FEMA public assistance grants for the County of Hawaii, the island’s local governing authority.

——————————-
Australia bushfire relief

After the US delivered 430,000 N95 respirators (masks) to Australia since Jan. 6, the
the humanitarian medical aid group Direct Relief allocated and is prepared to deliver up to a total of 1 million masks if needed.

Direct Relief has reallocated the masks from the stockpile it maintains to help protect Californians during periods of heavy wildfire smoke. Last week, the group ordered an additional 1.5 million breathing masks to be manufactured, both to backstop any additional needs in Australia and to prepare for the 2020 wildfire season in the Western United States.

The USA also sent 100’s of actual living, breathing, firefighters to help Australia during the wildfires. They sent in shifts of 100-400 specialized firefighters at a time, and then fresh men were sent in. This went on for months.

In November, the U.S. fire center sent a liaison to Australia to work with counterparts there on the U.S. resources needed to help battle the growing blazes.

————————
Phillipines relief
The US helped the Phillipines monetarily, provided prompt humanitarian efforts and immediate emergency relief supplies for 7,600 displaced people.

The United States Geological Survey's Voclano Disaster Assistance Program (USGS VDAP) also provided equipment and remote technical assistance to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to monitor the Taal Volacano eruption.

The US distributed supplies to evacuees in another town.

https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_Australia.htm
USAID Provides Humanitarian Assistance for the Eruption of Taal Volcano in the Republic of The Philippines | Press Release | U.S. Agency for International Development
Largest donors of humanitarian aid worldwide 2019 | Statista

 

[JerseyGirl]

Oh, I know. Hopefully things will go well this weekend. Even with social distancing people can get out and do things. A walk in the woods, ride bike, fishing, maybe kayaking or canoeing, anyone on a lake can take their boat out, so there’s no shortage of cool things to do. A lot of golf courses remain open, they will be packed I think.

None of this is social distancing, except maybe getting on a boat as long as it is the same family under the same roof, no friends, no outside family, no one else. My husband called the marina and asked to have our boat ready for the season and put in the water; we slip it in the lagoon in the backyard that feeds into Barnegat Bay, we do not drive to a marina where we would run into anyone else (BTW, driving to a marina to jump on a boat for the day is considered non-essential and you will be warned to stay off the roads).

Our state shut down all beaches and state and county parks because people were congregating. No walks in the woods, no riding bikes on paved trails, and absolutely no golfing! Are golf courses open in other states that have a stay-at-home order? I'm shocked hearing golf courses are open around the nation.

 

[Snoods]

Can someone please start a separate thread for Wild West NAFTA face masks?

 

[musicaljoke]

Anti-parasite drug ivermectin shown to be effective against coronavirus

Australian scientists have published research indicating that ivermectin, an approved anti-parasitic drug that is available worldwide, is highly effective against the Covid-19 virus when applied to an infected cell culture.

The collaborative study led by Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) with the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity showed that ivermectin reduced Covid-19 viral RNA present in the cell culture by 93% after 24 hours and by 99.8% after 48 hours - around a 5,000-fold reduction in coronavirus RNA, indicating that the ivermectin treatment was leading to the loss of "essentially all viral material".

Dr Kylie Wagstaff from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, said ""We found that even a single dose could essentially remove all viral RNA by 48 hours and that even at 24 hours there was a really significant reduction in it."

 

[musicaljoke]

The FDA-approved Drug Ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro - ScienceDirect

Highlights
•
Ivermectin is an inhibitor of the COVID-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2) in vitro.

•
A single treatment able to effect ∼5000-fold reduction in virus at 48h in cell culture.

•
Ivermectin is FDA-approved for parasitic infections, and therefore has a potential for repurposing.

•
Ivermectin is widely available, due to its inclusion on the WHO model list of essential medicines.

 

[Snoods]

Do you have a MSM link for this? Barbaric and horrible, if true indeed.

Tresir, it is indeed true and so horrible I can’t post what all is done to make these animals life a living painful hell. There are probably a million links. They place tin cans around their mouths, tie their legs behind them and leave them to hang for days while beating them to death. That is a nicer way. Just google Wuhan Dog meat festival or China dog and cat meat torture. Be prepared for pictures and articles that will keep you up at night, bawling your eyes out. I just can’t do it right now, I am afraid of seeing any new pictures.

 

[PommyMommy]

Los Angeles recorded 1,000 cases in 48 hours

Medical personnel work at an RV park at Dockweiler State Beach where some coronavirus patients are being quarantined on Friday, April 3, in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County has recorded 1,000 coronavirus cases in just 48 hours, the mayor said on Friday.

"To put that in perspective, it took us 23 days to get to the first thousand cases and we've done that in just the last two [days]," Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference. "So even as we slow the rate of growth, the cases are still growing, and will continue to be hundreds and hundreds, possibly in coming days, more than 1,000 a day."

[...]

It has been 15 days since California has been under stay-at-home orders -- and 19 days since Los Angeles started social distancing.

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN

 

[PommyMommy]

Hawaii activates the National Guard for coronavirus response

Gov. David Ige speaks to reporters at the state Department of Health's laboratory in Pearl City, Hawaii, on Tuesday, March 3.

[...]

“Effective immediately, there will be more than 250 men and women on state active duty," Ige said at a news conference.

Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, Jr. said the National Guard will help staff up the state’s emergency operations center and manage warehouses used to store medical and personal protective equipment.

Some members of the Guard will also assist in airport screening, to make sure those entering the state adhere to Hawaii’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors.

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN

 

[PommyMommy]

Patients in New York seem sicker than before, nurse says

Medical workers take in coronavirus patients at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York City, on April 3.

Kelley Bradshaw, an intensive care unit nurse at a large New York hospital, told CNN the coronavirus patients she's seeing this week seem sicker, with more advanced symptoms.

"Compared to last week, the patients are sicker and that tends to happen with a virus that's this vicious," she said. "It starts with affecting one part of the body and then it starts to affect more and more body systems."

Bradshaw said she was seeing more cases of the virus affecting patients' kidneys and hearts.

It's not clear if the patients seem sicker because the virus is presenting itself in a different way, or if the patients are trying to wait it out at home, so they are already sicker by the time they arrive at the hospital.

[...]

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN

 

[PommyMommy]

More spring breakers diagnosed with coronavirus

People walk on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on March 23.

A total of 49 of the 211 students from the University of Texas at Austin who traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for spring break have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement from the university.

They went on the March 14-19 trip against the advice of White House officials who asked that people avoid gathering in groups of more than 10, and refrain from nonessential air travel.

Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen had a blunt message for the spring breakers.

"Quit being an a**," he told CNN affiliate KXAN. "Get over yourselves. Whether you think this is an issue or not, it is. Whether you think it could affect you or not, it does. The reality of it is, if I'm a college kid who's going to spring break in Mexico, you're affecting a lot of people. Grow up."

[...]

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN

 

[PommyMommy]

New York emergency workers are facing "battlefield conditions"

Ambulances at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, on April 2.

[...]

“We’re now in a major triage mode," he told CNN. "If we don’t get a return of circulation, after 20 minutes we are terminating the CPR and we are not transporting.”

The hour or so that they spend transporting patients to hospital is now "battlefield triage," he said. "We’re in wartime mode."

Greco said that before the coronavirus outbreak, he and other paramedics would see perhaps one or two cardiac arrests a week. One FDNY EMS crew handled seven cardiac arrests yesterday alone.

"As an EMT (emergency medical technician) or a paramedic, doctors too, and nurses, we all swore oaths to do everything we can to save a life and now we’re making decisions that we were never trained for to handle mentally," he said.
Emergency workers are fearing for their lives: Some members are sleeping in their cars or hotel rooms, afraid they could get infected and bring the virus to their homes and families, Greco said.

“We have members who filled out wills because they don’t know where this is going.”

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN

 

[PommyMommy]

In the 1918 flu pandemic, not wearing a mask was illegal in some parts of America. What changed? - CNN

Red Cross volunteers wore face masks during the flu pandemic of 1918.

When the novel coronavirus pandemic hit Asia, people across the region were quick to wear masks, with some places like Taiwan and the Philippines even making them mandatory in certain scenarios.

[...]

While origin theories about the 1918 virus still abound, it was assigned a country specific name: the Spanish Flu. Globalization facilitated its spread as soldiers fighting in World War I took the flu around the globe. Then as now, warehouses were repurposed into quarantine hospitals. And an ocean liner with infected patients became a talking point.

But one notable difference is that it was the United States which led the world in mask wearing.

In October 1918, as San Francisco received the pandemic's second wave, hospitals began reporting a rise in the number of infected patients.

On October 24, 1918, the city's elected legislative body, the board of Supervisors of San Francisco, realizing that drastic action needed to be taken with over 4,000 cases recorded, unanimously passed the Influenza Mask Ordinance.

The wearing of face masks in public became mandatory on US soil for the first time.

[...]

 

[Trino]

Target. yes. yes. yes. Employees = face masks and gloves!!!
Target to limit customers in stores, give employees face masks and gloves

 

[PommyMommy]

For the first time, Japan has recorded more than 300 new coronavirus cases in a day

Japan recorded 314 new cases of the novel coronavirus and six more deaths on Friday, according to the country's Health Ministry.

[...]

Of the new confirmed cases, 89 were from Tokyo alone.

Japan now has 3,632 total cases, with 80 deaths.

Coronavirus live updates: Global deaths pass 59,000 - CNN