Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #64

[SouthAussie]

@tresir2012 Again to be clear only my experience from one hospital in Michigan. At the height of the pandemic, we had designated units and personnel. They did not combine. Now that we are down to so few covid patients, we do co-mingle. This is dependent on having enough PPE to safely do this. Also we are a major hospital, lots of experience with infectious disease and we have negative pressure rooms. But all of this is a delicate house of cards. It is not built for a surge and if we experienced a surge we would be scrambling again.

In my city, we have isolated covid clinics at all hospitals (for testing) but they hospitalised all covid patients at only one hospital. They did this to keep the other hospitals covid-free. And, of course, relevant resources were channeled to that one hospital so that they could be prepared, and cope.

(We have 6 major hospitals, and a number of small 'local' ones)

 

[CharlestonGal]

US deaths yesterday: 366

US deaths so far today: 711
Edit: 726

United States Coronavirus: 2,723,262 Cases and 130,074 Deaths - Worldometer

 

[gngr~snap]

I REALLY think adults are wanting children in school SO bad, they are fooling themselves!
(Can't see the forest for the trees...)

Florida ICU -Children test positive for COVID-19
Growing number of children in Hillsborough, Pinellas counties test positive for COVID-19



Within one week, the 27-year-old says nearly two dozen family members all tested positive for COVID-19, including Richard’s two young children.
South LA Family Shares Pain, Warning After 20 Family Members Test Positive for COVID-19 and Patriarch Dies

Those infected include two young children; Barbosa’s elderly parents; and his sister, who is battling breast cancer.
COVID-19: 18 members of Texas family test positive from surprise party

 

[mickey2942]

Personally, every article, even peer reviewed, can be contradicted by another peer reviewed article.

It makes me think that no one really knows what the heck is going on with this virus. Because there are anomalies, and outliers all over the grid.

Sad news, Costco is no longer making sheet cakes. No parties.

 

[tresir2012]

Are the two articles referring to the same situation? At first read, it looks like the US bought up the supply of Remdesivir from Gilead, which sounds like they bought the trade name product, Veklury, but that Gilead is also producing a generic brand which is going to 127 low and middle income countries.

I'm not sure that the US purchase precludes purchases or manufactures by other countries. Gilead has a manufacturing plant in Canada and Mexico, and possibly in other countries. Back in May, Beximco Pharmaceuticals launched the first generic version of Remdesivir.

So I think that the announcement that the US has bought up the entire supply is probably political bluster.

Beximco Pharmaceuticals launches first generic remdesivir for Covid-19

It could be that US has bought all the Gilead Remdesivir brand but the two Indian companies are manufacturing a WHO agreed royalty free agreement that Gilead has approved, using two separate product names for marketing to 127 countries.(the link I posted). Remember that WHO and US are no longer working together so this could be the reason why WHO have secured this agreement with Gilead for the other 127 countries IMO.

 

[jjenny]

Russia is using some different anti-viral to treat covid.
"Russia has approved an anti-influenza drug, Aviifavir, to treat Covid-19 and will start delivering it to hospitals this month, according to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund."
Russians claim to have an effective treatment for the coronavirus, which hospitals will start using this month

 

[CharlestonGal]

The article states that Italian doctors have been saying this as well as the Israeli doctor. Muddy Tyres posted a link regarding the US also upthread, saying more infections but they are seeing less severity.

Our US deaths doubled today, so there's that. And our hospitalizations are going through the roof. So there's that on top.

What these guys say may apply to Italy or Israel, but it does not appear to be holding true here.

 

[gngr~snap]

Wearing a mask vs. Not wearing a mask:
Doctor demonstrates how face mask blocks respiratory droplets from spreading

/

 

[jjenny]

Personally, every article, even peer reviewed, can be contradicted by another peer reviewed article.

It makes me think that no one really knows what the heck is going on with this virus. Because there are anomalies, and outliers all over the grid.

Sad news, Costco is no longer making sheet cakes. No parties.

They still make round cakes which feed less people. But you can buy several round cakes for a big party, LOL. Not that you should be going to big parties right now.

 

[Sundog]

If anyone has Netflix, which I’m steadily going through, Turkish & odd Korean movies as well, I highly recommend ‘Homemade.’ They are short films made by various people during quarantine.

O si quieren moverlo, Por favor, hazlo

OT, but brought back a memory of traveling in Turkey in the 1970s, from Istanbul to Galipoli, and stopping at a village restaurant, the only one in town, for dinner one night, and we asked for the dinner menu as we sat on the outdoor patio, and they told us the dinner menu only has one item" catch of the day." So we asked what was the catch of the day, and they said it depended what they brought back - they had seen us set up our camping gear (we were camping), and they sent someone out in a boat to catch dinner for us. There was an old black and white tv high on a ledge at one side of the patio that was showing "Casablanca" - in Turkish.

 

[jjenny]

Our US deaths doubled today, so there's that. And our hospitalizations are going through the roof. So there's that on top.

What these guys say may apply to Italy or Israel, but it does not appear to be holding true here.

And deaths always lag behind the infections, because it takes a while for covid patients to die. They linger on ventilators for weeks and so on. So whatever is going in Italy, it's not happening in the US. Our virus is not losing potency.

 

[gngr~snap]

Russia is using some different anti-viral to treat covid.
"Russia has approved an anti-influenza drug, Aviifavir, to treat Covid-19 and will start delivering it to hospitals this month, according to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund."
Russians claim to have an effective treatment for the coronavirus, which hospitals will start using this month

Russia and Japan allegedly had very low death rates.
Aviifavir, an anti-influenza drug. It was developed by a joint venture of the Russia Direct Investment Fund and ChemRar group. Aviifavir, a favipiravir based drug, is a generic version of the Japanese flu drug Avigan. This drug limits the viral RNA replication, thereby preventing the further manifestation of the virus.

Russia announces new anti-influenza drug Aviifavir to treat COVID-19

 

[ilovewings]

Doctors around world say COVID-19 may be losing its potency, becoming less deadly

Article discussing virus attributes and potency

Doctors across the world are offering preliminary but encouraging reports that the coronavirus may be losing steam and becoming less deadly: a behavior observed in at least one respiratory pandemic before, and a welcome sign for a world weary of nonstop COVID-19 fears.

Optimism over the coronavirus has been in short supply since January, when public health officials and politicians began publicly and repeatedly speculating that COVID-19 may be a semi-permanent fixture of global life for the foreseeable future, possibly for years.

The phrase "the new normal" has become an omnipresent part of American life, with medical experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci speculating that Americans may never shake each other's hands again, and some officials imagining that "social distancing" may persist into 2022 if not beyond.

But numerous prominent doctors and scientists in the last few weeks and months have begun to question that narrative, pointing to evidence that suggests the coronavirus may, unexpectedly, be dying out on its own.

Virus appears to behave the same regardless of lockdown measures

Continued at link.

is this hypothesis too good to be true, that the virus is weakening?

 

[tresir2012]

Personally, every article, even peer reviewed, can be contradicted by another peer reviewed article.

It makes me think that no one really knows what the heck is going on with this virus. Because there are anomalies, and outliers all over the grid.

Sad news, Costco is no longer making sheet cakes. No parties.

It seems to me that some factions may have a reason to downplay any positive news while broadcasting doom and gloom about rising case numbers. If there is an increased recovery rate now, due to less severity, we should see the evidence in the next few weeks or so.

 

[CSIDreamer]

is this hypothesis too good to be true, that the virus is weakening?

I hope not. Jmo

 

[10ofRods]

Fauci says no guarantee U.S. will have effective COVID-19 vaccine, warns spread 'could get very bad'

Fauci says no guarantee U.S. will have effective COVID-19 vaccine, warns spread 'could get very bad'

By Paul Simao and Carl O'Donnell

4 hrs ago
...
WASHINGTON, June 30 (Reuters) - The United States cannot count on the availability of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, the government's top infectious diseases expert said on Tuesday, and he warned that the daily surge in cases could more than double if Americans fail to take steps to get the virus under control.
California, Texas and many other states have reported record increases in new cases of the sometimes deadly illness caused by the novel coronavirus, leading to a sobering reassessment of U.S. efforts to contain the pandemic.
...
Scores of vaccine candidates using a variety of approaches are being developed and tested at unprecedented speed.

Fauci, however, cautioned that "there is no guarantee ... we'll have a safe and effective vaccine," and he urged Americans to come together to contain the virus.

Fauci warned that the daily increase of new cases in the United States, currently around 40,000, could reach 100,000 if people do not adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks.

It looks like SoCal, AZ, eastern Florida, Houston and most urban centers in Texas, most of PA and GA...are seeing very concerning rises in transmission rates.

So...looking at figures from any of those places (and warnings that ICU beds are in short supply), it's projected that if the rate of CoVid infection stays steady, many places will need extra ICU capacity in two weeks (due to how long the current admissions are staying and just how many more people are projected to need them).

We have come back to Groundhog's Day.

This time, the overall numbers - if they keep going up the way they did last week - will be mind-boggling as now the virus is in so many different places.

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

^Not good to be orange or red. But even people in the white and blue areas should be concerned - it is in progressively more counties as the weeks go by. It travels the same way people do, obviously.

Places like Nevada need to really take stock (as their R-naught # is now above 1.5 and rising):

Rt COVID-19

2 is exponential. 1.5 is expanding quickly and if behavior doesn't change, easily becomes 2.0

 

[jjenny]

is this hypothesis too good to be true, that the virus is weakening?

We already are seeing that it's not true. Our infection rates are increasing, so are our hospitalizations. If hospitalizations are increasing, covid is making these people very sick, otherwise they wouldn't need to be hospitalized.

 

[10ofRods]

Steroid reduced death rate, remdesivir reduced duration. They probably could be given together.

I almost typed "As if." As if any hospital can get both at once! Fortunately the steroid is cheap and widely available.

Reducing duration is pretty important - so why is the US not figuring out how to manufacture it at scale?

 

[mickey2942]

No social distancing planned for Trump's Mt. Rushmore fireworks event, governor says - CNNPolitics

Not political, but is this insanity on steroids? And, Sturgis is still on!
With some COVID restrictions in place, 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally throttles ahead - Casper, WY Oil City News

 

[CoverMeCagney]

It seems to me that some factions may have a reason to downplay any positive news while broadcasting doom and gloom about rising case numbers. If there is an increased recovery rate now, due to less severity, we should see the evidence in the next few weeks or so.

But likewise, some factions have very good reason to downplay negative news while broadcasting hearts and flowers about whatever statistic they can manipulate to suit.

Who to believe, who to believe.