Covid-19 discussion and humor thread [Was: CDC says don't touch your face to avoid Covid19...Vets to the rescue!

[DC Tom]

2 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

Thanks, I didn’t notice that. I just saw a whole bunch of ads + other stories after that quote I posted and figured it was the end of the story. lol 

I wouldn’t say that. It’s obviously more dangerous for people with preexisting conditions. But People without preexisting conditions have died too.

 

An acquaintance of mine’s 40yr old, otherwise healthy friend is in critical condition in the hospital right now with this virus. 

 

And the U.S. has one of the highest populations in the world of obese and diabetic people, things that put you in the higher risk categories.

 

Everyone in the country has a preexisting medical condition of some kind.  I all but expect to die from this bug.

 

To be honest...I'm looking forward to it.  I am sick of all this *****.

[Gugny]

7 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

Everyone in the country has a preexisting medical condition of some kind.  I all but expect to die from this bug.

 

To be honest...I'm looking forward to it.  I am sick of all this *****.

 

Think of the cats, Tom.  They will miss you!!!

[BillsFanNC]

4 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

During H1N1 we tested a million people within the first month.

 

 

Every single doctors office in the country has the ability to test for flu in the office with results in 10 minutes.  Covid19 tests need to be sent out to a lab where the absolute best case scenario from sample collection to result might be 8-10 hours, but more likely 24-48 hours.

[Just Jack]

45 minutes ago, DC Tom said:

 

Everyone in the country has a preexisting medical condition of some kind.  I all but expect to die from this bug.

 

To be honest...I'm looking forward to it.  I am sick of all this *****.

 

Who are you leaving your Prius to?

 

[Steptide]

3 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Just cast a nice piece of lead, paint the top to match your wife's normal insole, and tuck it into her right shoe.  Problem solved.

 

 

I'm not in favor of unsubstantiated or snarky posts, so how about you provide links or anything you know going forward and pass on the "Google it" snark?

 

What I've read said non-essential businesses will shut down for 2 weeks (bars, restaurants etc), but grocery stores, pharmacies, and medical offices will be open and people are encouraged to make their normal shopping trips.  That's a bit different than "people will not be allowed to leave their homes" and "ups is shutting down" which is the post to which I was responding.

It may have come across that way, but it wasn't snark at all actually. There's so much coronavirus news on social media and Twitter, that I legit thought it'd be easier for someone to just Google it

[CommonCents]

3 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

If you had a classic cold (runny nose, congestion), be aware those are low % symptoms for covid19 (<5%)

 

 

Wow, that's the "Big Chill"

 

 

Can't help ya with rumors, srry.

Low percentage symptoms? What are the high percentage ones? 

[John in Jax]

1 minute ago, CommonCents said:

Low percentage symptoms? What are the high percentage ones? 

Dry cough, (high) fever, and in the worst cases, shortness of breath.

[DC Tom]

1 hour ago, Gugny said:

 

Think of the cats, Tom.  They will miss you!!!

 

They have cancer - they only have a few months left.

[Gugny]

Just now, DC Tom said:

 

They have cancer - they only have a few months left.

 

I'm very sorry to hear that, Tom.

[DC Tom]

5 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

During H1N1 we tested a million people within the first month.

 

 

H1N1 isn't a novel virus, and influenza surveillance efforts give a 6-12 month lead time for manufacture, by the same process they make tests for other flu viruses.

 

The novel Coronavirus is a novel virus (pro tip: you can tell, because the microbiologists and epidemiologists call it "novel.")   That means no warning, no lead time, and no preexisting industrial infrastructure on which to base test manufacture.

 

But I'm sure I'm somehow wrong, and a million tests for anything and everything under the sun should just appear magically, as you seem to expect.

1 hour ago, Just Jack said:

 

Who are you leaving your Prius to?

 

 

Prius died six months ago.  

 

And good riddance.

[DC Tom]

6 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

I'm very sorry to hear that, Tom.

 

18 and 16 years old.  

 

One may last a good while longer - skin cancer, very slow growing.  She's had it for years, but the only way to treat it now is with a leg amputation, and I'm not putting an 18 year old cat through that.  Kidney failure may get her first.

 

The other has a visceral mast cell tumor.  She's in chemo (surprisingly inexpensive), but not doing well on it.  I doubt she'll last the year.  

 

They're both senior.  16's a pretty good run for a cat.  The 18 year old is a Manx, and that's a damned near miraculous run (Manxs are tailless, which is a spinal deformity.  They usually don't make it past 10 years, because of spinal issues.)

[Gugny]

1 hour ago, Steptide said:

It may have come across that way, but it wasn't snark at all actually. There's so much coronavirus news on social media and Twitter, that I legit thought it'd be easier for someone to just Google it

 

Maybe I don't have the updated version of Google.  But I'm not finding anything at all about the state of PA shutting down.  Perhaps you can use your Google, then provide us all with a helpful link.  That would be awesome.  Thanks!!

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, CommonCents said:

Low percentage symptoms? What are the high percentage ones? 

 

Upthread, but worth repeating.  From the WHO-China Joint Mission Report (largest data base on the disease):

Symptoms of COVID-19 are non-specific and the disease presentation can range from no
symptoms (asymptomatic) to severe pneumonia and death. As of 20 February 2020 and
based on 55924 laboratory confirmed cases, typical signs and symptoms include: fever
(87.9%), dry cough (67.7%), fatigue (38.1%), sputum production (33.4%), shortness of breath
(18.6%), sore throat (13.9%), headache (13.6%), myalgia or arthralgia (14.8%), chills (11.4%),
nausea or vomiting (5.0%), nasal congestion (4.8%), diarrhea (3.7%), and hemoptysis (0.9%),
and conjunctival congestion (0.8%)

So fever, dry cough, fatigue most common. 
Nasal congestion or diarrhea less common; doesn't mean you can't have Covid19 with those, but absent fever, chances are just a cold or a GI bug.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, DC Tom said:

H1N1 isn't a novel virus, and influenza surveillance efforts give a 6-12 month lead time for manufacture, by the same process they make tests for other flu viruses.

 

"2009 H1N1 was first detected in the United States in April 2009. This virus was a unique combination of influenza virus genes never previously identified in either animals or people. The virus genes were a combination of genes most closely related to North American swine-lineage H1N1 and Eurasian lineage swine-origin H1N1 influenza viruses."

"While initial efforts were underway to develop a safe and effective vaccine to protect people against 2009 H1N1, work also was being done at CDC to help laboratories supporting health care professionals to more quickly identify the 2009 H1N1 virus in samples from patients. The real-time PCR test developed by CDC was cleared for use by diagnostic laboratories by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on April 28, 2009, less than two weeks after identification of the new pandemic virus." (....)
From May 1 through September 1, 2009, more than 1,000 kits were shipped to 120 domestic and 250 international laboratories in 140 countries. (Each test kit contained reagents to test 1,000 clinical specimens).

-from CDC "The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic: Summary Highlights", tagged "CDC Novel H1N1 Flu" in browser bar. 

So yeah, no 6-12 month lead time.  Very quick response.  Test developed 2 weeks after ID of "new pandemic virus".  1,000,000 sample throughput over next 4 months.

Let's see, 2019-nCoV identified January 7.   First test kits available in China January 13.  Covid19 made "class B notifiable disease" Jan 20, and Wuhan shut down Jan 23.

Even if we didn't start to pay attention until January 20, the federal agencies I grew up to know and love (CDC, FDA, NIH) really shoulda been able to ship substantial kits under EUA by Feb 3rd.  Instead, at the end of February, testing was still limited to about 5 state labs and the CDC itself, and even those labs were struggling with false positives.
 

1 hour ago, DC Tom said:

The novel Coronavirus is a novel virus (pro tip: you can tell, because the microbiologists and epidemiologists call it "novel.")   That means no warning, no lead time, and no preexisting industrial infrastructure on which to base test manufacture.

 

It's. A. Freakin'. RT-PCR. Test.  It's the same technology as the flu test that was initially used for H1N1, and MERS (a coronavirus) and SARS (also a coronavirus).  If we don't have pre-existing industrial infrastructure on which to base test manufacture for these kind of tests, damned good question why we've let it slide (we haven't).
 

1 hour ago, DC Tom said:

But I'm sure I'm somehow wrong, and a million tests for anything and everything under the sun should just appear magically, as you seem to expect.

 

I dunno about "magically under the sun", but you're factually incorrect about the H1N1 test development timeline, the existing manufacturing infrastructure for these types of tests, and the amount of time it should have taken the CDC to roll out a test.  If you really want to read about it you can go here or here.

 

What I expect is the same level of competence and short timeline for rolling out needed tests that the same organizations proudly achieved for earlier novel diseases.

 

[BillsFan4]

4 hours ago, DC Tom said:

 

H1N1 isn't a novel virus, and influenza surveillance efforts give a 6-12 month lead time for manufacture, by the same process they make tests for other flu viruses.

 

The novel Coronavirus is a novel virus (pro tip: you can tell, because the microbiologists and epidemiologists call it "novel.")   That means no warning, no lead time, and no preexisting industrial infrastructure on which to base test manufacture.

 

But I'm sure I'm somehow wrong, and a million tests for anything and everything under the sun should just appear magically, as you seem to expect.

I’m not nearly as knowledgeable on this stuff as others in this thread, but I certainly feel like we should have at least been able to test at the rate other countries were. Every other country has tested at higher rates for the same novel virus than we have.

 

And I believe H1N1 swine flu was a novel virus.

 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/background.htm

Edited March 17, 2020 by BillsFan4

[Wacka]

7 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

I’m not nearly as knowledgeable on this stuff as others in this thread, but I certainly feel like we should have at least been able to test at the rate other countries were. Every other country has tested at higher rates for the same novel virus than we have.

 

And I believe H1N1 swine flu was a novel virus.

 

 

https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/background.htm

OMG! Bob used something besides leafy.com asa a reference!

[Sundancer]

The most encouraging news in the press conference yesterday was that the US would have the capability of doing 1,5, and 10 million tests per week over the next 3 weeks. When we are testing the snot out of people, that's when we will see a massive COVID-19 spike in cases, but also can start knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Because until we are hard core quarantining the infected people (and their contacts), we can't reopen the economy, and if we want to return to a recognizable country, we need to that really quickly. 

 

For those minimizing it, it's probably time to stop. What's happening in Europe is no way to tackle this. The US reacted too slowly but faster than the EU has and it will make a difference. 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Sundancer

[BillsFanNC]

8 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

"2009 H1N1 was first detected in the United States in April 2009. This virus was a unique combination of influenza virus genes never previously identified in either animals or people. The virus genes were a combination of genes most closely related to North American swine-lineage H1N1 and Eurasian lineage swine-origin H1N1 influenza viruses."

"While initial efforts were underway to develop a safe and effective vaccine to protect people against 2009 H1N1, work also was being done at CDC to help laboratories supporting health care professionals to more quickly identify the 2009 H1N1 virus in samples from patients. The real-time PCR test developed by CDC was cleared for use by diagnostic laboratories by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on April 28, 2009, less than two weeks after identification of the new pandemic virus." (....)
From May 1 through September 1, 2009, more than 1,000 kits were shipped to 120 domestic and 250 international laboratories in 140 countries. (Each test kit contained reagents to test 1,000 clinical specimens).

-from CDC "The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic: Summary Highlights", tagged "CDC Novel H1N1 Flu" in browser bar. 

So yeah, no 6-12 month lead time.  Very quick response.  Test developed 2 weeks after ID of "new pandemic virus".  1,000,000 sample throughput over next 4 months.

Let's see, 2019-nCoV identified January 7.   First test kits available in China January 13.  Covid19 made "class B notifiable disease" Jan 20, and Wuhan shut down Jan 23.

Even if we didn't start to pay attention until January 20, the federal agencies I grew up to know and love (CDC, FDA, NIH) really shoulda been able to ship substantial kits under EUA by Feb 3rd.  Instead, at the end of February, testing was still limited to about 5 state labs and the CDC itself, and even those labs were struggling with false positives.
 

 

It's. A. Freakin'. RT-PCR. Test.  It's the same technology as the flu test that was initially used for H1N1, and MERS (a coronavirus) and SARS (also a coronavirus).  If we don't have pre-existing industrial infrastructure on which to base test manufacture for these kind of tests, damned good question why we've let it slide (we haven't).
 

 

I dunno about "magically under the sun", but you're factually incorrect about the H1N1 test development timeline, the existing manufacturing infrastructure for these types of tests, and the amount of time it should have taken the CDC to roll out a test.  If you really want to read about it you can go here or here.

 

What I expect is the same level of competence and short timeline for rolling out needed tests that the same organizations proudly achieved for earlier novel diseases.

 

 

The CDC did do that. They rolled out the test kits in a short window and they were crap due to a contaminatefd negative control. 

 

The key word here is surveillance. The CDC conducts flu surveillance and is equipped to roll out other tests for surveillance,  not to test on a mass scale or to manufacture enough tests to "test every american" as some journalists are ridiculously asking for.

 

A rapid flu immuno diagnostic test helped dramatically in the H1N1 pandemic because while those tests are only able to tell you if you have flu A or B, they still allow for rapid screening of patients. In a pandemic situation with the 2009 flu, if a patient is flu A positive by the rapid test you just treat them as if it's the pandemic strain and you send a subset of the samples to CDC for surveillance confirmation by RT-PCR.

 

[Bill from NYC]

23 hours ago, teef said:

i appreciate spirituality, but only common sense and the understanding of what this thing is going to fix this.  

How about both?

[teef]

4 minutes ago, Bill from NYC said:

How about both?

both work for me.