Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #54

[10ofRods]

Today's update on per capita rates for CoVid around the world:

Total confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million: how rapidly are they increasing?

The US was at 198 deaths per million persons 3 days ago. Yesterday it was 202. Today I believe we are 214. This is the number to track as we reopen even while many places have yet to plateau.

This is no where near what Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Italy, France and others have experienced. The charts also show when CoVid cases first began to be tracked in each nation, which also makes some small difference to the numbers.

Germany has gone up slightly since they made moves to reopen, but with only about 80 deaths per million in population, and Belgium sitting at almost 700, Germany is doing very well.

For those of us watching Sweden, the per million death rate is ~283.

It makes it easier for some of us to move the decimal point to the left one notch, because many of us live in smaller communities than 1 million people. I live in a town of around 100,000. If my town had the overall death rate of the United States, that would be 21 deaths. We've had 3, all patients in care homes.

If my city were in Sweden, we could expect 28 deaths (this is over the entire ~50 day period of CoVid).

 

[epiphany]

Even though these people are staying home they may be getting regular visits from friends and relatives who are out in the public.

Staying home is not necessarily the same thing as total isolation. I suspect they are catching Covid from a personal contact.

A family friend (just turned 60 yo) living in a relatively low-infected area of Manhattan became ill suddenly. Extremely fatigued - sleeping all day and then again through the night for about 3 days. He developed a high fever of 103 for only one of the 3 days. Those were his only symptoms.

He went into one of the local CityMD places to get both a covid swab test, as well as the AB test a week later. I guess he was anxious (Who wouldn't be in NYC these days?), and so they wanted to do an EKG which they then told him was abnormal. They wouldn't do either test, and instructed him to go to the ER.

We were all pretty shocked as he has had no visitors, nor visited anyone since the shutdown here. No public transportation, nor car services. He was religious about wearing a mask in the common apartment building areas, and when he went out which was only for food shopping. However, he did not always wear gloves when food shopping.

The hospital ER told him that his EKG was perfectly normal and gave him both tests. They told him they expect him to have had covid, and said he was lucky he did not have symptoms of troubled breathing.

It's unnerving and still scary to be living in NYC.

 

[anneg]

If that doesn't work, some people I know finally had success last week by copying & pasting their residential address exactly as listed on the USPS Zip Code site.

Thanks to you and @Rocco for these tips. I'll try them if I have trouble determining payment status.

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

I'm glad she didn't give in, after all they were wearing masks. People can make their own decisions on whether or not they want to use salon services.

Salon A La Mode Owner, Shelley Luther Arrested: 'Feeding My Kids Isn't Selfish, I'm Not Closing The Salon'

“If you would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that your own actions were selfish, putting your own interest ahead of those in the community in which you live,” Moye said, offering her a chance to avoid jail time. He said he would consider only giving her a fine, if she apologized, acknowledged she was wrong, and agreed to keep her business closed until Friday, when the governor has announced all salons may open.

“I have much respect for this court and laws. I have never been in this position before and it’s not someplace that I want to be,” Luther responded. “But I have to disagree with you sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids — is not selfish. I have hair stylists that are going hungry because they’d rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with you decision but I am not going to shut the salon.”

 

[Henry2326]

This research paper confirms an early introduction into China of Oct 6, but do not yet have Italy genomes yet to understand initial introduction into Europe, other than multiple introductions occurred....definitely they give no credibility to a lab created virus and confirm late initiation of the epidemic at end of December in China with possible epidemic occurring in Europe at the same time.

Research Paper:
Emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2 - ScienceDirect

Tweet from Francois Balloux:
It was a privilege and honour to lead with @LucyvanDorp a great team of scientists in the analysis of the first 7500 #COVID19 genomes. We searched for invariant targets for vaccines/drugs, and evidence for adaptation of #SARSCoV2 to its human host.
Emergence of genomic diversity and recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2 - ScienceDirect
(1/3) Prof Francois Balloux on Twitter
We confirm that #SARSCoV2 jumped into humans ~Oct/Nov 2019 in China. The emerging genetic diversity of the virus we found in many countries recapitulates its global diversity, indicating that several countries were seeded multiple times, sometimes early on in the pandemic.
(2/3) Prof Francois Balloux on Twitter
We identified subset of ~200 mutations that independently arose multiple times and that are candidates for adaptation of #SARSCoV2 to its novel human host. These need to be monitored as they may hold clues into transmission, virulence, as well as drug and vaccine escape.
(3/3) Prof Francois Balloux on Twitter
We don't know for sure whether they jumped into humans from bats. Related viruses circulate in all sorts of population of mammals and birds. I actually kind of suspect a reservoir in carnivores. The virus came into Europe very early in the pandemic, multiple times.
We have a good understanding of SARS-CoV-2's mutation rate. So far little genetic diversity has built up in the global viral population, but some of the emerging mutations are intriguing.
Prof Francois Balloux on Twitter

 

[tmar]

Italian scientists claim to have developed world’s first coronavirus vaccine

Samuel Osborne
3 hrs ago
...
Italian researchers claim to have developed a vaccine that can neutralise the coronavirus in human cells.

Tests carried out at Rome’s infectious-disease Spallanzani Hospital generated antibodies in mice that work in human cells.


“This is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy,” said Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis, the company working on the treatment.
...

“According to Spallanzani Hospital, as far as we know we are the first in the world so far to have demonstrated a neutralisation of the coronavirus by a vaccine,” he told the Italian news agency Ansa.

“We expect this to happen in humans too.”
...
The institution also announced a new partnership with British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

Human trials of the vaccine developed at the university’s Jenner Institute began last month, with hundreds volunteering to be part of the study.

 

[SugarQueen]

OT but I’d like to take a moment to thank Tricia and the mods for giving us multiple spaces to share info and support one another.

 

[Reasonable & Just]

Don't know if this was posted already (skimmed and searched) but found it interesting about economic basis for widespread testing.

Paul Romer’s Case for Nationwide Coronavirus Testing

 

[tmar]

UK denies sacrificing care homes; Johnson says situation improving

By Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper
6 hrs ago
...
A Reuters investigation found policies designed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed pushed a greater burden onto care homes which struggled to get access to tests and protective equipment.
...
Johnson and his government have been criticised by opposition parties and some scientists for their response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, with many raising questions over the testing strategy, provision of protective equipment and timing of a lockdown which has all but shut the economy.
...

 

[I'm Just Here]

supermarket workers were getting it left and right a few weeks back and hundreds of meat packing employees tested positive recently. I haven’t heard of any cases where the virus was spread through eating prepared food, and food is a necessity.

I feel sorry for the worker having to be sick and needed help, not right to fire him either someone should be in trouble for trying to make him find a person to cover his shift

 

[Chelly]

So, would you eat on a garden outside patio at a restaurant?

Nope

 

[I'm Just Here]

My above post was in reply to the Taco Bell worker, not sure why it posted with the other one.

 

[Really?]

So, would you eat on a garden outside patio at a restaurant?

I think a ramped up take-out style is more in order at this time of uncertainty. I do sympathize with you Kali as I was in the restaurant biz for 30 yrs. I was a server/bartender and cannot imagine what I would do in this time. My peeps who own are now selling t-shirts and take out orders and drinks now to support workers and themselves.

 

[Tillicum]

How will restaurants ever recover from this? I used to eat out everyday for lunch and sometimes dinner. My favorite restaurants are the Mom and Pop restaurants with the home cooking, who have been around for decades. Restaurants here were allowed to re-open last Friday with restrictions i.e. 50% capacity, servers must wear masks etc. None of the Mom and Pop restaurants re-opened. A chain restaurant re-opened yesterday and took in $1000 in sales in 8 hours. I'm sure you know how devastating that is.
Will the current restaurants ever re-cover or are we looking at all new restaurants opening in a couple of years?

I'm worried about most businesses being able to recover. Because of social distancing they have to limit the amount of employees and customers in their area. Yet they still have to pay for the space and utilities. Obviously they can't produce the same amount of product or service and make the same profit as before COVID-19. And that's not even taking into account the cost of PPE. I understand why it's necessary but IMO many businesses will have to close for good.

 

[cody22]

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/arti...cutors-subpoena-maryland-ppe-contract-records

Maryland Virus News....moo

 

[cody22]

NASCAR says it can fine team members who don't comply with coronavirus protocols during races

NASCAR Virus News....moo

 

[Henry2326]

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. will continue to rise in May as states relax restrictions on businesses, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Tuesday.

"You've got to expect cases are going to go up and hospitalizations are going to go up. We don't know how much, but they're not going to go down," the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner said on "Squawk Box."

Gottlieb said hospitalization rates are going down in New York, the epicenter of the outbreak, but not nationally. "The troubling sign is that we still see them going up," he said. "So you certainly can't conclude that the epidemic's reached its peak and is turning a corner. At best, it's plateaued."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb warns coronavirus cases will keep rising in May as restrictions are lifted

 

[ilovewings]

There still isn't any proof that the virus can be transmitted through food. The only way it could happen is if the virus was on the bag, container, wrapping, etc., and got transmitted through contact with that.

I have done enough reading to believe that food itself does not
represent a threat for the virus. However, as you point out the bag the food comes in, wrapper, etc could represent a threat ; we get lots of takeout so what I do is put the bags with the food on the countertop: wash my hands. remove the bags the food comes in, put them in the garbage and wash my hands again. Then I open the containers and remove the food with tongs and put the food on a plate and throw the containers away. I wash my hands again and wash the countertops as well ( all with soap and water). Then we sit down to dinner: by the time I am done with all of that the food is cold!!!

 

[24Roses]

More Iowa news. Well, I'm honestly surprised about this. It will only be a week this Fri. that certain businesses in 77 counties were opened up. I really thought that she would wait until May 15th to open up anything else and for sure not in the 22 counties. I guess she got advice today on her trip to Washington DC. We will see how this goes. Reynolds reopens select businesses statewide starting Friday

 

[pocketaccent]

Woman Cuts Hole In Mask Because It ‘Makes It Easier To Breathe’