Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #48

[otto]

Wow....fascinating numbers.

Could it be viral load?

Here in Southern Cali, I am in some danger of being exposed to CV. But I think it would be a one time , freak exposure at this point.

I don't take a subway from home and back. I don't jump in taxicabs, sitting in a seat where 2 dozen others sat that same day. I don't walk down sidewalks in heavy crowded groups.

I am afraid that many patients in NYC had heavy viral loads when they got sick. And if you are exposed many times, with a few different types of the virus, you are screwed.

There are several mutations of the virus and both are active in the USA. Are there any cases of medical and health staff testing positive?

 

[they'll get you]

If this virus can live in the freezer, what happens when something forgotten gets taken out and thawed 6 months from now?

Australia's numbers might be looking good now but we are about to come into winter. That's a worry.

 

[mickey2942]

Just put a movie on Netflix, "Containment", from 2016. A dreaded virus takes over Atlanta.

Gotta love a movie, that you think is actually today's news.

 

[The Night Watchman]

Why do these viruses come in waves? If it is here, doesn't it just stay here? I don't get how it goes away, and then comes back. What makes it go away? I would guess social distancing. But what makes it comes back, if you continue social distancing? What drives the next waves? Complacency?

These types of pandemic viruses do come in waves, often at six month intervals. So if we can suppress it now, we still have the fall to deal with. But we will be 100% better prepared.

The cycle has also been shown to be season independent. Does anybody know the answer to why it comes in this interval?

ETA- here is a plot of the 1918 pandemic cycle. Looks more like 8 month intervals.

 

[they'll get you]

Dormancy? I think it can last for a long time, lurking on a host, who has no symptoms, for weeks, or months

I'm no doctor but that makes me think of the Chicken Pox virus that will hide within the body and come out later as shingles.

 

[otto]

Australia's Home Affairs Minister says China should answer questions over where the deadly coronavirus originated.
US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is looking into the possibility COVID-19 spread from a Chinese laboratory rather than a market.
Peter Dutton was asked by Today host Karl Stefanovic if he was telling China to "be transparent and tell us what happened", Mr Dutton replied: "It's not too much to ask."
"So I think it is incumbent upon China to answer those questions and provide the information so that people can have clarity about exactly what happened because we don't want it to be repeated and we know this is not the first instance of a virus being spread from the wildlife wet markets and we need to be honest about that."
'It's not too much to ask': Dutton demands answers from China

Either they're too stupid to figure it out, or they don't want to reveal where it originated.

 

[katydid23]

It's higher in Los Angeles County and Riverside County, while many counties with low populations are pulling our numbers down. L.A is more like New York than it is like Cathay's Valley.

Be careful making state-to-state comparisons. Instead, ask yourself why so many more deaths in LA County over Orange County.

Got any ideas? Income?

Maybe income. We lived in Westlake/TO area, on Ventura County side for past 17 years. Right now, friends and family in that area have not been heavily affected with high CV numbers. It is a higher income area with a lot of open space.

We moved to Woodland Hills area recently and the numbers are way higher here..

I attributed it to the more crowded environment. But it might be overall income, which affects general health factors quite often.

 

[10ofRods]

Maybe income. We lived in Westlake/TO area, on Ventura County side for past 17 years. Right now, friends and family in that area have not been heavily affected with high CV numbers. It is a higher income area with a lot of open space.

We moved to Woodland Hills area recently and the numbers are way higher here..

I attributed it to the more crowded environment. But it might be overall income, which affects general health factors quite often.

That's what I'm thinking too. I'm in an area not too far from Westlake and of course, we have lots of space in between "towns" and even the cities (Thousand Oaks, Westlake) have more distancing. And fewer commuters.

Oxnard is harder hit; Santa Barbara is seeing a surprising set of circumstances, Orange County is like Ventura County; Riverside started out really badly and then did some specific things and got CV way more under control than densely packed, 30+-language Los Angeles. It's the poorer areas that are more hard hit - but people from those neighborhoods work all over and many were airport workers who got sick at LAX.

The more open space, the better, in this event.

 

[10ofRods]

Either they're too stupid to figure it out, or they don't want to reveal where it originated.

Or they aren't certain yet and want to create internal policies and investigations before going public. Like we usually do here in the US.

 

[branmuffin]

Here's some interesting info that I pulled from Worldmeters and Wikipedia:

California is our most populous state. They have a per capita death rate from Covid-19 of 24 per 1 million people.

Texas is our second most populous state. They have a per capita death rate from Covid-19 of 14 per 1 million people.

Florida is our third most populous state. They have a per capita death rate from Covid-19 of 31 per 1 million people.

New York is our fourth most populous state. They have a per capita death rate from Covid-19 of 821 per 1 million people.

New Jersey is our eleventh most populous state. They have a per capita death rate from Covid-19 of 396 per 1 million people.

These numbers make me wonder what the heck is going on in New York and New Jersey?

It has to do with population density. New York has 413 people per square mile. Florida has 410. New Jersey has a whopping 1215 people per square mile. Compare that to the states that have the lowest population density. Wyoming has 1 person per square mile and Alaska has 6. So the real question is why does District of Columbia have less cases than many other states when their population density is an eye watering 11815 people per square mile. Links:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/
Coronavirus cases in U.S. by state 2020 | Statista

 

[otto]

If this virus can live in the freezer, what happens when something forgotten gets taken out and thawed 6 months from now?

Wash the frozen food package with water and soap, put the food in your container, get rid of the original package, wash your hands. Cook. Eat.

 

[10ofRods]

I'm no doctor but that makes me think of the Chicken Pox virus that will hide within the body and come out later as shingles.

Yes! Thank you for mentioning it so that my poor DH doesn't have to listen to more virus analogies.

What if it is like that? Oooh boy. Well, okay - then we will cope.

What if it's like Spanish Flu and changes its age demographics?

What if it does both? I want to know. As a sleuther, I want to sleuth this damn virus.

 

[they'll get you]

There are several mutations of the virus and both are active in the USA. Are there any cases of medical and health staff testing positive?

I'm thinking there's several mutations. A aged care worker had no symptoms whatsoever but managed to pass it on throughout the facility and now there's many aged people have come down with the virus. It's a worry as this facility is close to where my 94 yr old mother is being cared for.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

This is just a suggestion for those of you who are sick of this new life and perhaps not in a good place mentally. Make a list of all the things you’ve ever said you wish you had the time to do and then figure out if some of them are doable now.

For instance, tons of people have told me over the years that they wish they had more time to read, and I wonder if they are doing that now. Others have said they wish they had time to learn to knit, crochet, or sew. With YouTube, some of these things are doable. There are even some fabulous free classes available online.

There is grace in this. We just have to open our eyes to it.

 

[otto]

Dormancy? I think it can last for a long time, lurking on a host, who has no symptoms, for weeks, or months

This university student had a cold, thought it was better March 20, resumed classes. Lurking for 12 days in a healthy 19 year old business student:

"Around March 20 he said he was feeling better and most of his symptoms had gone away, besides a cough. Then, 12 days after his first initial symptoms, Greenshields’ health took a serious dive."​

'Scariest experience of my life': Okotoks man becomes youngest ICU patient in Alberta from COVID-19

 

[MsArk]

Just put a movie on Netflix, "Containment", from 2016. A dreaded virus takes over Atlanta.

Gotta love a movie, that you think is actually today's news.

Contagion is on Amazon Prime and is almost an exact same scenario we are living now.

 

[The Night Watchman]

We need a game changer. Maybe this is it. 2 deaths out of 113 severe cases.

Known to be safe and effective is great news. I don't think we have heard anything negative about remdesivir.

Remdesivir coronavirus drug: Early data suggests patients are responding | Boston.com

A Chicago hospital treating severe Covid-19 patients with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine remdesivir in a closely watched clinical trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week, STAT has learned.

Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in lab tests. The entire world has been waiting for results from Gilead’s clinical trials, and positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease.

The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead’s two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people, 113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir.

“The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We’ve only had two patients perish,” said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.

 

[The Night Watchman]

This is just a suggestion for those of you who are sick of this new life and perhaps not in a good place mentally. Make a list of all the things you’ve ever said you wish you had the time to do and then figure out if some of them are doable now.

For instance, tons of people have told me over the years that they wish they had more time to read, and I wonder if they are doing that now. Others have said they wish they had time to learn to knit, crochet, or sew. With YouTube, some of these things are doable. There are even some fabulous free classes available online.

There is grace in this. We just have to open our eyes to it.

Truth.

 

[otto]

These types of pandemic viruses do come in waves, often at six month intervals. So if we can suppress it now, we still have the fall to deal with. But we will be 100% better prepared.

The cycle has also been shown to be season independent. Does anybody know the answer to why it comes in this interval?

ETA- here is a plot of the 1918 pandemic cycle. Looks more like 8 month intervals.

This is the similar graph I found for the UK

link was posted upthread

 

[katydid23]

I have used much of this time, sorting through boxes of stuff we brought with us when we downsized from our 4 bedroom house we lived in for 17 years.

When we had the empty nest we moved to a small cottage, and it has a very nice tool shed out back. We crammed a lot of boxes out there when we moved in and I haven't really gone through them....

So I am doing a few a day, realising I won't need any of it anymore. And I don't want to saddle the kids with it all. Anything really wonderful, I send a pic to them and see if they want it. So far, most things are dispensable.

I have a lot of glassware and dish sets and all that stuff...and it is not necessary anymore.

Also, way too many old family photos, etc. I gave all the good ones to the kids already. But I have a million old pics of relatives they never knew and they have no interest in or space to keep them all. I dont even know who half of them are. lol


Zillions of old CDs, and old gadgets and electronics. I did find my son's ancient gameboy and he was thrilled that it still works.