Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #54

[BUF]

Yeah, I guess it goes to reason that corpses contain the virus, but how many of us in first world countries are exposed to corpses? It's the walking, talking, coughing, unmasked in my personal space that terrify me.

What about the reports of all of those bodies piled up outside & on PU trucks at funeral homes?

 

[otto]

Yes! Fun, flattering, fits everyone.

And, you can dance in them.

jmo

That must be what happened during the 1918 pandemic - they designed the best party dresses. Hopefully this pandemic will inspire similarly interesting periods in history.

 

[Inthedetails]

I rely on my county health department and governor the most as it is. While I look at global stats, I am interested in how my county and state are holding up. Jmo

The national task kept an eye on county and state information. Dr. Birx in particular seemed to know that type of information and what it meant as a whole.

No excuse in Wave 2, imo, for not being prepared as a nation. Seems like keeping the national task force would be a priority in preparing.

jmo

 

[slowpoke]

Thought-provoking article about the ethics of a “human challenge trial” in the race to develop a vaccine for Covid-19.

scientists are asking: Is it acceptable to deliberately infect healthy people with a disease that could kill them, and for which there is no cure?

It's called a challenge trial, and increasing scientists say the answer is yes.

The tried and true method would be to vaccinate tens of thousands of people, let them go about their daily, socially distanced lives and see who gets sick, knowing some small number would have anyway. That takes time.

To speed up the process, some researchers are planning to give volunteers experimental vaccines and then infect them with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

To find a coronavirus vaccine, can we ethically infect people with a disease with no cure?

 

[Inthedetails]

That must be what happened during the 1918 pandemic - they designed the best party dresses. Hopefully this pandemic will inspire similarly interesting periods in history.

Yes!

 

[Inthedetails]

"The Times report said White House officials informed members of the task force that they plan to finish the operation in coming weeks and that there won’t necessarily be a group to replace their efforts.

But it appears the administration forgot to include Dr. Anthony Fauci in the discussions, with the group’s respected infectious disease expert telling CBS on Tuesday that he’d heard no such thing."

https://nypost.com/2020/05/05/mike-pence-confirms-coronavirus-task-force-will-wrap-up-this-month/

 

[tresir2012]

Can you compare the UK with Italy?

The UK has now overtaken Italy to have the highest number of officially recorded coronavirus deaths in Europe.

The figures - announced by both governments daily - show a total of 29,427 deaths in the UK and 29,315 in Italy.

But can you make a fair comparison between the two countries?

There are challenges around doing this at the moment and here are some of the factors to take into account.

1. Population sizes
For a start, the UK's population is roughly 66 million, and Italy's is about 60 million.

So the UK would have to register at least 10% more deaths than Italy for it to have a higher death rate per person.

Given that Italy is further past the peak of the outbreak, and is now recording significantly fewer deaths per day than the UK, that may well happen.

Continued at link.

 

[BUF]

"The Times report said White House officials informed members of the task force that they plan to finish the operation in coming weeks and that there won’t necessarily be a group to replace their efforts.

But it appears the administration forgot to include Dr. Anthony Fauci in the discussions, with the group’s respected infectious disease expert telling CBS on Tuesday that he’d heard no such thing."

https://nypost.com/2020/05/05/mike-pence-confirms-coronavirus-task-force-will-wrap-up-this-month/

Yeah, I heard that on the news and thought it was pretty bizarre.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I've been ordering almost all of my clothing on-line. Different brands have different sizing (even if it's the same on the label), so you have to know your brands. Shoes I still like to buy in person, but I don't need to buy any right now.

I can get by for a very long time without new clothes. I suspect most of us have way too many clothes and shoes as it is. But I will also be happy to sew some again like I used to.

 

[Tillicum]

Trump administration in talks over potentially winding down coronavirus task force

A White House official told Fox News the White House has been shifting focus toward re-opening the country, as outlined in Phase 1 of the administration’s “Opening Up America Again” guidelines. The official said it would be an ongoing shift over the next several weeks.

The official told Fox News that doctors will continue to play an “important advisory role” in the process, as the administration has aimed to “make sure medical guidelines are kept up to date” and Americans are able to safely return to work. The official stressed that doctors were not being removed from the equation and called any reports reflecting that “false.”

 

[Tillicum]

I can get by for a very long time without new clothes. I suspect most of us have way too many clothes and shoes as it is. But I will also be happy to sew some again like I used to.

Same here. I've enough clothes and shoes to last for years. If they go out of style I don't really care. I bought them because I liked them not because they were in style.

 

[Henry2326]

Trump administration in talks over potentially winding down coronavirus task force

A White House official told Fox News the White House has been shifting focus toward re-opening the country, as outlined in Phase 1 of the administration’s “Opening Up America Again” guidelines. The official said it would be an ongoing shift over the next several weeks.

The official told Fox News that doctors will continue to play an “important advisory role” in the process, as the administration has aimed to “make sure medical guidelines are kept up to date” and Americans are able to safely return to work. The official stressed that doctors were not being removed from the equation and called any reports reflecting that “false.”

IMO, they have done more harm than good. We need the CDC back....not a bunch of politics.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

I rely on my county health department and governor the most as it is. While I look at global stats, I am interested in how my county and state are holding up. Jmo

I do as well, but some governors have also become leaders that people from other states look to for information and reassurance. I expect that to happen more and more if the federal government’s task force is disbanded, winds down, or stops giving us regular updates.

 

[Henry2326]

COVID TRACKING PROJECT

Our daily update is published. We’ve now tracked 7.5 million tests, up 260k from yesterday.
Note that we can only track tests that a state reports.
For details, see: https://t.co/PZrmH4bl5Y The COVID Tracking Project on Twitter

This is the second day in a row in which the positive rate was below 10%. For most of April, we were at or near 20%.
That said, the absolute number of new cases has not fallen as much.
States reported 22k new cases today. The COVID Tracking Project on Twitter

The reported death toll was very high today: 2,527, one of the three highest days of the outbreak.
Some of that is due to a large data reconciliation in Pennsylvania which resulted in the state reporting 554 deaths today. The COVID Tracking Project on Twitter

 

[MsArk]

And we are at almost 72,000 dead in the US.

Which I’m afraid is just the top of the iceberg.

 

[tresir2012]

Retracted or otherwise ... dead people excrete, so handling infected corpses could lead to infection.

"SARS-CoV-2 (the proper name for the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19) can remain infectious on different surfaces for varying amounts of time.

"So, it would be possible that the virus could persist and remain infectious in or on the body of someone who has died," says Dr. Ilan Schwartz, infectious disease specialist and assistant professor at the University of Alberta.

During the first SARS outbreak in 2003, data suggested the virus could remain infectious in bodily fluids such as blood, urine and feces for 72 to 96 hours, says Jason Kindrachuk, microbiologist and assistant professor at the University of Manitoba."​

https://www.cbc.ca/news/covid-questions-answered-bodies-1.5535139

But so far there does not appear to have been anyone who has died by being infected by a corpse. With Ebola that was a real big problem but not with CV19 AFAIK.

 

[Inthedetails]

The official stressed that doctors were not being removed from the equation and called any reports reflecting that “false.”

snipped

If only communication was coordinated BEFORE it is released. All it takes is telling people of the task force and then tell the press. Simple management 101.

jmopinion

 

[otto]

But so far there does not appear to have been anyone who has died by being infected by a corpse. With Ebola that was a real big problem but not with CV19 AFAIK.

We don't know that. Contact tracing is only a pipe dream at this time, no evidence exists.

With SARS in 2003, infected corpses was a factor.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

What do AirBnB employees do?

sell.

 

[10ofRods]

Germany has done brilliantly, but it's not really that they contained it (their case rate is similar to that of France) but they've kept the death rate really low.

They, along with South Korea, Australia, Singapore and New Zealand are the countries that stand out to me as having coped best, lessons to be learned from them all I think. Oh, and North Korea of course, for having no cases at all

They did keep their death rate really low, but it's partly or even largely because they ran so many tests. Germany ran 5X more tests to get that number. By doing as much contact tracing as they could, and testing entire workplaces where one person's family member had tested positive (and things of that nature), Germany was able to do really effective quarantines.

Germany ran about 2.6 million tests by April 29, France ran just under 600,ooo by that same date. Germany was determined to at least try and find as many asymptomatic carriers as it could. Germany continues to test at the highest rate it is capable of.

Germany has more people than France, of course, but not 4X more. So that additional testing, which resulted in finding lots more cases, also aided in keeping people from getting infected.

That's why so many reopening plans include the need for massive amounts of testing - which is doable. I wish California could get that many tests done. Germany rocks. But again, they do manufacture a lot of the PCR machinery to do the testing.

I think the US manufactures some too, but not to the scale that Germany does.