Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #48

[MsArk]

"Payment Status Not Available"
<<insert extreme frowny face here>>

Same here. I owed $4 for my 2018 taxes and $9 for my 2019. Maybe that has something to do with it. Who knows?

 

[MimosaMornings]

Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. Can you get your mother a telehealth appointment if you need to? Every specialist I've ever been to, it seems, has been bombarding me with emails about the option for remote appointments via smartphone, Skype, etc.

Unfortunately home health care is necessary for treating wound/stitches/blood work/labs.

Have several specialists (pulmonary/kidney/cardiac/neuro)

Experiencing difficulties using telemedicine on older iPads. No computer or laptop at parent’s home. And some areas have satellite internet.
Which is like the old days of dial up.

 

[squareandrabbet]

Can you believe they just called me? Lol.

She has an appointment May 7. There's no way she can do telehealth. She can't hear and will randomly answer questions thinking no one will be the wiser.

Yes, I, er, see that would be a problem. (I find myself thinking of all the times I worried I was answering the blinking-light peripheral vision test wrong; etc.)

Do it. Last time I had to go in to renew a prescription, the dr. called me several days later to say that patients behind me had tested positive for the virus. Quarantine myself for 14 days. ?????
There was only one man in the waiting room when I left at 8:10 am. After he described them as a couple, I realized I had seen them. They pulled in right next to me as I backed out. I just missed the potential deadly infection by a few minutes. Seconds, really.
Absolutely. Video appts. Do it.

Oh dear... I've only been out to places where telehealth wasn't possible (had a lively discussion with podiatrist about how hilarious he finds it answering the question from insurance companies. "What kind of telehealth help is a podiatrist giving?") Ditto for my allergist, who can't exactly poke me from afar... my GP's office, whom I haven't seen, listed a catalogue of precautions for us, including that patients couldn't have "minders" and would have to call the clinic for help; but is now requesting us to use telehealth as first-line treatment.

 

[Picklebot]

Coronavirus pandemic and grocery shopping: No need to wipe down food packaging, FDA says

“We want to reassure consumers that there is currently no evidence of human or animal food or food packaging being associated with transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.”

“This particular coronavirus causes respiratory illness and is spread from person-to-person, unlike foodborne gastrointestinal or GI viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis A that often make people ill through contaminated food,” it added, noting there are currently no nationwide shortages of food, though some stores may be out of certain products. (Speaking of, what drives people to panic buy?)

The FDA also provided tips on how to protect yourself, other shoppers and store employees when buying essential items.
More at link

Thank you for this. I'm going to pick up an online order next week and I'm more nervous about it than I am about going into the store.

 

[NuttMegg]

Same here. I owed $4 for my 2018 taxes and $9 for my 2019. Maybe that has something to do with it. Who knows?

I think they only pay attention to the routing info you have submitted if you are claiming a refund, IMO. I also think that Mnuchin and the others designing this system have little idea about all the different ways we file our taxes. If they really knew, I'd have already received my $$ via the same means I get my SS deposit, like Mnuchin said right up there on the stage.

 

[Gardenista]

ABC 20/20
JUST IN The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies—a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. https://abcn.ws/3bhpLFD

 

[CSIDreamer]

Yes, I, er, see that would be a problem. (I find myself thinking of all the times I worried I was answering the blinking-light peripheral vision test wrong; etc.)



Oh dear... I've only been out to places where telehealth wasn't possible (had a lively discussion with podiatrist about how hilarious he finds it answering the question from insurance companies. "What kind of telehealth help is a podiatrist giving?") Ditto for my allergist, who can't exactly poke me from afar... my GP's office, whom I haven't seen, listed a catalogue of precautions for us, including that patients couldn't have "minders" and would have to call the clinic for help; but is now requesting us to use telehealth as first-line treatment.

Which is another telehealth problem. I would have to sit there and repeat everything. That can get sketchy. I'm fine with sending her in for her in person appointment. Jmo

 

[BUF]

ABC 20/20
JUST IN The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies—a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. https://abcn.ws/3bhpLFD

Antibody research indicates coronavirus may be far more widespread than known

Based on the initial data, researchers estimate that the range of people who may have had the virus to be between 48,000 and 81,000 in the county of 2 million -- as opposed to the approximately 1,000 in the county's official tally at the time the samples were taken.

“Our findings suggest that there is somewhere between 50- and 80-fold more infections in our county than what’s known by the number of cases than are reported by our department of public health," Dr. Eran Bendavid, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University who led the study, said in an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer.

 

[tresir2012]

Coronavirus pandemic and grocery shopping: No need to wipe down food packaging, FDA says

“We want to reassure consumers that there is currently no evidence of human or animal food or food packaging being associated with transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.”

“This particular coronavirus causes respiratory illness and is spread from person-to-person, unlike foodborne gastrointestinal or GI viruses, such as norovirus and hepatitis A that often make people ill through contaminated food,” it added, noting there are currently no nationwide shortages of food, though some stores may be out of certain products. (Speaking of, what drives people to panic buy?)

The FDA also provided tips on how to protect yourself, other shoppers and store employees when buying essential items.
More at link

Wasn't there a case where it was thought a woman got infected from her delivered groceries though?

 

[10ofRods]

I'm guess they treated Boris with a little bit of everything, just to see what works.

They probably did - that's what they did here where I live with the cruise ship patients that ended up in our local hospital. However, that's precisely how you do not figure out...what works. In the case of one surviving cruise ship passenger, who was on a ventilator and apparently on death's door, they gave him 5 different drugs and repositioned him. One or more of those things worked, apparently. One of the things he got, besides the malaria drug, was plasma.

But in other studies, one of the treatments (malaria drug) seems to do no better than chance and in another hospital near where I live, a man was given only the malaria drug and Z-pac, and a very late transfusion of plasma - he died. So he got 3 of the 5 things the other guy got - and they didn't work. Unfortunately. hydrochloroquinone with Z-pac has known side effects for the heart, already the weakest part of most elderly people's systems

What if it was just putting the guy in the prone position that worked? Was it the fact that he was given plasma earlier in the course of his illness?

The studies about combining Z-pac with hcq are striking enough to me that while I'm not allergic to Z-pac, not sure I'd want to start with it and the malaria drug, if I were going in hospital.

 

[NuttMegg]

Want to Stop the Next Pandemic? Start Protecting Wildlife Habitats

"(Bloomberg) — There are four critical facets of pandemic prevention, according to Lee Hannah, senior scientist at Conservation International. Three of them make immediate sense against the backdrop of our current emergency: stockpile masks and respirators; have testing infrastructure ready; and ban the global wildlife trade, including the open animal markets where COVID-19 may have first infected people.

His fourth recommendation is more grandiose: “Take care of nature.”

The assault on ecosystems that allowed COVID-19 to jump from animals to humans went far beyond merchants hunting and selling rare wildlife. Biodiversity—that is, the health of the entire ecosystem—can restrain pathogens before they ever leave the wild. “We need to tell people right now that there is a series of things we need to do once we’re out of this mess to make sure it never happens again,” Hannah says."
------------------------------
"It’s a numbers game, in part. Not all species in a community are equally susceptible to a given disease, nor are they all equally efficient transmitters. In diverse ecosystems well separated from human habitations, viruses ebb and flow without ever having a chance to make it to the big time.

But as people move in, those protections begin to break down. Disrupted ecosystems tend to lose their biggest predators first, and what they leave behind are smaller critters that live fast, reproduce in large numbers, and have immune systems more capable of carrying disease without succumbing to it. When there are only a few species left, they’re good at carrying disease, and they thrive near people, there may be nothing between a deadly pathogen and all of humanity."

 

[Tillicum]

Wasn't there a case where it was thought a woman got infected from her delivered groceries though?

IIRC the woman who delivered the groceries was infected. We don't know if they had any contact or if they stayed 6 feet apart.

 

[MimosaMornings]

Wasn't there a case where it was thought a woman got infected from her delivered groceries though?

Charlotte woman hasn't left her house in three weeks but tested positive for COVID-19

It would have been nice if the writer had asked more questions such as
•Did you have an in depth conversation?
•Did you open the door and the person was less than six feet away?
•Was it just a ring the doorbell drop and leave with no contact?
•Did you reuse or throw out the plastic bags?


The article has been updated with more information, scroll down towards the end.
Might not have been the groceries or the person delivering them. Some people’s idea of “quarantine” is different than others.
JMO

 

[SA55]

Not certain if this has been posted yet. Interesting laser light show of mask vs non-mask

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2007800

 

[Herat]

ABC 20/20
JUST IN The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies—a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. https://abcn.ws/3bhpLFD

This study doesn't specify if these are SARS-Cov-2 antibodies or just Coronavirus antibodies. There are 5 known types of coronaviruses that are known to infect humans and so far, most serology tests have not been able to discriminate between them.

This is also the fingerstick method which is not as reliable for statistical validation for evaluation of antibodies, and just overall is not anywhere near the kind of study needed for definitive epidemiology.

There are several far better antibody tests in the pipeline to FDA that are much more specific and should be the ones used for epidemiology.

 

[NuttMegg]

Not certain if this has been posted yet. Interesting laser light show of mask vs non-mask

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2007800

Thanks for posting articles like that.
"We found that the number of flashes increased with the loudness of speech; this finding was consistent with previous observations by other investigators.3 In one study, droplets emitted during speech were smaller than those emitted during coughing or sneezing. Some studies have shown that the number of droplets produced by speaking is similar to the number produced by coughing.4"

 

[Gardenista]

Chris Cuomo's Wife Cristina Opens Up About the 'Frustrating Part' of Contracting Coronavirus

 

[squareandrabbet]

ABC 20/20
JUST IN The first large-scale community test of 3,300 people in Santa Clara County found that 2.5 to 4.2% of those tested were positive for antibodies—a number suggesting a far higher past infection rate than the official count. https://abcn.ws/3bhpLFD

Antibody research indicates coronavirus may be far more widespread than known

Based on the initial data, researchers estimate that the range of people who may have had the virus to be between 48,000 and 81,000 in the county of 2 million -- as opposed to the approximately 1,000 in the county's official tally at the time the samples were taken.

“Our findings suggest that there is somewhere between 50- and 80-fold more infections in our county than what’s known by the number of cases than are reported by our department of public health," Dr. Eran Bendavid, associate professor of medicine at Stanford University who led the study, said in an interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer.

So... which is it, reporters?

A past infection rate, as the @Gardenista article and its characterization says, would be the amount of people in Santa Clara County who have had the virus, and recovered.

The @BUF article, conversely, the doctor quoted said "is somewhere between".

"is", does not = "has been".

So, are these live COVID-19 cases of people running around, some of whom might in fact be secret shedders, that we're talking about; or are they "also-ran" recovery cases, 20/20?

Is it the case that anytime anybody is talking about positive "antibody testing" results in reference to COVID-19, they in fact mean "people who have already had the virus, and thus are showing at least partial immunity in their blood"?

This seems kind of important, nay essential; to know before we can get anywhere.

 

[24Roses]

Iowa news today: April 17: 191 new COVID-19 cases in Iowa, 4 additional deaths (WATCH Gov. Reynolds' press conference) 191 new positive cases and 4 more have passed. We now have 2,332 known positive cases and 64 passed.
BREAKING: Gov Reynolds orders schools remain closed for rest of academic year Iowa schools are closed the remainder of this academic year. Also waived August start date, so districts will decide the next start date. IMO-I can't see them starting earlier than late August. Many don't have air conditioning and have early dismissals in late Aug. because of it already.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Coronavirus in Scotland - Nicola Sturgeon says there are 'first signs of hope' - BBC News

Summary

1. Nicola Sturgeon announces 58 more coronavirus deaths in Scottish hospitals
2. The first minister says community transmission of Covid-19 seems to be slowing
3. The number of patients in intensive care drops slightly to 189
4. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf "actively looking at" releasing some prisoners early
5. The Scottish Police Federation claims new PPE for officers will not provide any "meaningful protection".