Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #75

[JerseyGirl]

CDC’s ensemble forecast now projects nearly 189,000 US coronavirus deaths by September 5

An ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects nearly 189,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Sept. 5.

The new projections, published Thursday, forecast 188,982 deaths, with a possible range of 181,375 to 201,431 deaths.

“State- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that the number of reported new deaths per week may increase over the next four weeks in Colorado and may decrease in Arizona, the Northern Mariana Islands, Vermont, and Wyoming,” the CDC said on its forecasting website.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Coronavirus testing canceled at Montgomery County (MD) sites until further notice

Montgomery County has canceled all coronavirus testing at its sites until further notice after questions were raised about protocols used with some test kits.

The county posted on its testing website that anyone who was tested at a county-sponsored clinic in the past two weeks should get retested at another community-based clinic.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Young Adults Have Most Coronavirus Infections In CT

Connecticut residents in their 20s continue to have the most coronavirus cases out of any age group.

New data from the state Department of Public health showed 90 people between 20 and 29 years old tested positive for the virus between Aug. 2-8. The age group with the next most cases were people in their 30s with 79 cases.

People in their 20s also had the most number of cases when adjusted by population.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Florida sheriff bans deputies from wearing masks

A Florida sheriff has banned his officers from wearing face masks at work. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods' order also includes visitors to the office. It is thought to be the first such mask ban for US law enforcement.

He said it was vital officers' orders were clearly understood and that anyone coming to the station be identifiable.

His order has some exemptions, including for those officers working in jails where the infection risk is higher, or at the county courthouse, hospitals or schools.

In his email, Mr Woods says he has carefully studied the issue and has found the evidence for wearing a mask to be inconclusive.

__

According to a New York Times analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, there have been around 200,000 so-called "excess deaths" in the US during the pandemic - meaning some 60,000 more deaths have to be added to the existing toll.

 

[weepingangel]

Oh wow. Testing problems. That’s new
<modsnip>

Coronavirus testing canceled at Montgomery County (MD) sites until further notice

Montgomery County has canceled all coronavirus testing at its sites until further notice after questions were raised about protocols used with some test kits.

The county posted on its testing website that anyone who was tested at a county-sponsored clinic in the past two weeks should get retested at another community-based clinic.

 

[JerseyGirl]

'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation

Despite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.

 

[JerseyGirl]

California judges lift coronavirus eviction ban

The Judicial Council of California voted to end the statewide eviction moratorium next month, reopening courts to landlords and pressuring Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers to address a potential housing crisis.

Courts will be allowed to process evictions after midnight, Sept. 1, although a patchwork of more than 100 local laws could prevent delinquent tenants from being displaced. Most Bay Area counties and cities have passed renter protections during the coronavirus pandemic, although many are scheduled to expire in August.

Researchers at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation found nearly 1 million California renters have experienced job losses due to the health crisis. Nearly three-quarters of those apartments include a person of color.

 

[slowpoke]

Duke research shows that classrooms could limit the spread of coronavirus through air purifiers :: WRAL.com

Kasibhata said that portable air purifiers with high efficiency particulate air filters are "very good at taking out particles" and limiting the spread of the coronavirus.

Without the filter, Kasibhatla's calculator shows that there is a 13% to 14% chance of infection for students and teachers. With the filter in the classroom, the calculator says there's around a 1% chance that students and teachers will get infected.

This sounds too simplistic. It can’t be as easy as that, can it?

 

[JerseyGirl]

Hopes for fresh round of U.S. coronavirus relief fade as Congress goes home

The prospects for a deal in the U.S. Congress to help Americans suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic dimmed with the Senate and House of Representatives in recess and no fresh talks scheduled with President Trump's negotiators.

After a week that the leaders of [both] parties spent blaming each other for a breakdown in talks, lawmakers were not due to reconvene until next month, though the leaders of both parties said they could recall their members with 24 hours notice if a deal emerged.

Meanwhile, the number of U.S. coronavirus infections approached 5.3 million on Friday, with deaths topping 167,000.

 

[Simply Southern]

Thank you, my friend Reich Lab....

CDC’s ensemble forecast now projects nearly 189,000 US coronavirus deaths by September 5

An ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects nearly 189,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Sept. 5.

The new projections, published Thursday, forecast 188,982 deaths, with a possible range of 181,375 to 201,431 deaths.

“State- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that the number of reported new deaths per week may increase over the next four weeks in Colorado and may decrease in Arizona, the Northern Mariana Islands, Vermont, and Wyoming,” the CDC said on its forecasting website.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Duke research shows that classrooms could limit the spread of coronavirus through air purifiers :: WRAL.com

This sounds too simplistic. It can’t be as easy as that, can it?

No it isn't that easy, nor is if effective. It may clean out virus' in an empty room, but it cannot handle purifying while a group of people are in there.

We talked about this prior to Trump's church rally in Tulsa:

Phoenix Church Hosting Trump Claims That Air System Kills 99.9% Of Covid-19 Coronavirus

Trump Megachurch Went Too Far With COVID-19 Air-Purification Claims, Company Now Admits

 

[Simply Southern]

I think it's impossible in California due to lack of police and enforcement. There's no way to keep people in their cities, much less their counties - and certainly not inside a few square blocks of a neighborhood.

CoVid would travel much more slowly if we did lock everyone into their neighborhoods (you can't just have some people stay in their neighborhoods and let others roam freely - people aren't going to check maps to see if they've entered the wrong zone). You'd need actual roadblocks and preferably, digital geo-fencing.

The deaths are happening in clusters all over.

San Diego County has an opportunity 615 deaths. But it has had 33,000+ actual known cases of people who are transmitting. Zip code analysis shows they are not in just one or two or three neighborhoods. It has 5000 active cases (known) right now (nearly twice as many as the county where I live). The politics of "who thinks which areas should be locked down" would be so burdensome.

That's why many nations do it by city (Melbourne) or larger area (roughly equivalent to states). Until we shut down the State of California properly, there's no point in making entire neighborhoods quarantine, because that's not how CV spreads. It spreads in families, in indoor closed spaces, workplaces, etc. Not just neighborhoods.

I agree, a full lockdown would certainly make an impact.

We've classify so many businesses as essential workers, a large percentage of "essential" people are working during these "stay home" orders.

Its hard to lock down, grocery stores (high traffic), manufacturing plants, meat plants, the chicken factory, snack foot companies, hospitals, nursing homes, mental hospitals, test sites, and Amazon warehouses. All have had major outbreak and continue to this day to try to control.

Ain't happening IMHO

 

[tresir2012]

I think it's impossible in California due to lack of police and enforcement. There's no way to keep people in their cities, much less their counties - and certainly not inside a few square blocks of a neighborhood.

CoVid would travel much more slowly if we did lock everyone into their neighborhoods (you can't just have some people stay in their neighborhoods and let others roam freely - people aren't going to check maps to see if they've entered the wrong zone). You'd need actual roadblocks and preferably, digital geo-fencing.

The deaths are happening in clusters all over.

San Diego County has an opportunity 615 deaths. But it has had 33,000+ actual known cases of people who are transmitting. Zip code analysis shows they are not in just one or two or three neighborhoods. It has 5000 active cases (known) right now (nearly twice as many as the county where I live). The politics of "who thinks which areas should be locked down" would be so burdensome.

That's why many nations do it by city (Melbourne) or larger area (roughly equivalent to states). Until we shut down the State of California properly, there's no point in making entire neighborhoods quarantine, because that's not how CV spreads. It spreads in families, in indoor closed spaces, workplaces, etc. Not just neighborhoods.

I would think it should be easier to do in the states than in the UK. It does seem to be working in the UK, although I don't really know how. England still has a R number between 1 and .8.

How many confirmed cases are there in your area?

The UK deaths have been reduced due to a counting anomaly and they were reported as 41,347 in the article above.

This article below is saying that cases in England are stable.

Coronavirus cases stable across most of England

The last time I looked for the US the R number was greatly improving.

AZ have the lowest and both FL and CA are now green. TX is still red though.

Rt COVID-19

 

[Simply Southern]

'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation

Despite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.

And most recently the rumors the change shortage is the government wanting to track where and how we spend out money.

Always folks wearing the Tin Hat...

 

[Simply Southern]

No it isn't that easy, nor is if effective. It may clean out virus' in an empty room, but it cannot handle purifying while a group of people are in there.

We talked about this prior to Trump's church rally in Tulsa:

Phoenix Church Hosting Trump Claims That Air System Kills 99.9% Of Covid-19 Coronavirus

Trump Megachurch Went Too Far With COVID-19 Air-Purification Claims, Company Now Admits

WOW! Why blames others, when Clear Sir EXP mislead the church, the article clearly states the company posted would kill 99.9% on their website.


Before the Trump visit, Clean Air EXP invited visitors to its website to read its "COVID-19 REPORT." The web blurb also stated, "Lab tests confirm that CleanAir EXP eliminates 99.9% of coronavirus from the air in less than 10 minutes.*"

 

[10ofRods]

CDC’s ensemble forecast now projects nearly 189,000 US coronavirus deaths by September 5

An ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects nearly 189,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Sept. 5.

The new projections, published Thursday, forecast 188,982 deaths, with a possible range of 181,375 to 201,431 deaths.

“State- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that the number of reported new deaths per week may increase over the next four weeks in Colorado and may decrease in Arizona, the Northern Mariana Islands, Vermont, and Wyoming,” the CDC said on its forecasting website.

Yep. We seem to be on a plateau of more than 1000 deaths per day, nationwide. Per capita, Texas and Florida lead the list over the past 3-4 weeks. New cases have dropped a bit on a daily basis - but we won't see the effects of that until after September 5.

It's truly crazy that some states are actually discouraging masks. I admire New York's determination to truly keep people from some states out of theirs, there's no such movement in California (if you're a Californian - you can write to Newsom and suggest it, he needs political support to get that done).

I should add that while nationwide, new cases are dropping, the situation is still dire in Texas (7200 yesterday - about the same as California's, but California has about 39 million and Texas only 29 million). Neither state is in a good position right now. Florida, with only 21 million, had 6200 yesterday. That would be, roughly, like California having 12,000 new cases (and if we can't get control over the situation, we'll get there - but there have been a few positive signs).

 

[10ofRods]

Duke research shows that classrooms could limit the spread of coronavirus through air purifiers :: WRAL.com



This sounds too simplistic. It can’t be as easy as that, can it?

It cannot reduce to zero, but if schools are determined to open physically, they certainly should everything possible to mitigate risk.

The amount of virions in the air is a crucial (probably the most important) variable. All kinds of things bring that level down to a safer level. First would be masks, of course. Masks vary in effectiveness, but most people seem to have cloth masks - so maybe 60% of virions exhaled are trapped, according to the early studies.

Humidity assists virions in hitting the ground earlier (and floors in hospitals and care homes where CoVid occurs almost always have significant amounts of virions on them). Dry air keeps them aloft longer.

Air flow through a HEPA filter reduces virions. A big filter will reduce virions significantly. A couple of large ones in a classroom would make me feel a lot better.

Newer Chinese hospitals and some hospitals in other places routinely have HEPA filters in them - it's just another example of how far we've fallen behind in health regulations and infrastructure readiness for disasters.

Since there's not a lot of research on HEPA filtration and CoVid, most places are reluctant to embrace the technology ($) but it does work for viruses and HEPA filters certainly trap aerosolized virions and in studies of other viruses, non-aerosolized virions as well.

So testing, masks, humidifiers and HEPA filters should be in the toolshed of every school. IMO.

 

[Trino]

'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation

Despite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.

Wonder who the pollers asked. People living in caves perhaps?

 

[mickey2942]

'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation

Despite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.

Anyone who uses a credit card, debit card, has a cell phone, or even a car, has already been "chipped". Voluntarily.

 

[tresir2012]

'Hundreds dead' because of Covid-19 misinformation

Despite social media companies removing or labelling misleading information about vaccines, recent polling in the United States showed that 28% of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people.

"Many died from drinking methanol or alcohol-based cleaning products.

They wrongly believed the products to be a cure for the virus."

What made them think that?

I don't think any died from injecting or drinking bleach anyway.

On the 99.9% killing of germs claim by the air purifying companies, are they allowed to state that if it is not true? In the UK we have the Trade Descriptions Act now to make unwarranted claims like that illegal.