COVID-19 - Facts and Information Only Topic

[Warren Zevon]

10 hours ago, Warren Zevon said:

[California should be on list]

I think California will be relatively soon. In the presser Cuomo and the governors of CT and NJ said the quarantine state list can change on a daily basis.

 

EDIT: Found the link and relevant quote below

 

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-governor-murphy-and-governor-lamont-announce-joint-incoming-travel-advisory-all

 

This quarantine - effective midnight tonight - applies to any person arriving from a state with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or a state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.  

 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-cases-united-states-record-highs-arizona-florida-texas-155529008.html

 

 

 

 

As the coronavirus pandemic is about to enter its seventh month, COVID-19 continues to surge in parts of the U.S. — even as it eases in some states and other countries — setting record highs and filling up hospitals across numerous states.

 

On Thursday, the governor of Texas, one of the hardest-hit states, said he would pause the process of reopening businesses and institutions.

 

According to tracking from NBC News, Wednesday saw the U.S.’s highest-ever single-day number of new cases, with more than 45,000. The previous peak was on April 26.

 

 

There is positive news in that the death rate is declining, possibly reflecting the fact that many of the new patients are younger. 

[HappyDays]

 

This is some of the firmest evidence I've seen to indicate that wearing a mask is the best preventative measure one can take. From the linked article:

 

Quote

Sixteen states currently recommend, but do not require, that residents wear masks in public. In those states new coronavirus cases have risen by 84% over the last two weeks...

In the 11 states that mandate wearing masks in public new cases have fallen by 25% over the last two weeks.

Other states that are less stringent and require mask-wearing by employees and patrons of certain businesses have seen an overall 12% drop in cases.

Meanwhile, states that require masks only for employees of certain businesses have seen a 70% increase, on average, in new cases.

 

 

Not only does a mandate to wear masks directly correlate to a rise or fall in positive cases, the stringency of the mandate itself also correlates to how much the cases rise or fall.

 

The more evidence that comes out the more convinced I am wearing a mask in public should be mandated nationally until a vaccine is developed.

[plenzmd1]

good article for parents here with young children and or want to weigh in with their school board. Essentially says no evidence of child to parent transmission in child care settings. 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/24/882316641/what-parents-can-learn-from-child-care-centers-that-stayed-open-during-lockdowns

 

 

[HappyDays]

 

This is what happens if you try to reopen too quickly without any mandates.

[Gray Beard]

Connecticut plans to reopen schools in the fall.  Will other states in the Northeast do likewise?
 

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-school-reopening-plan-20200625-ntbpwp2kmjh63dyg5ogqdliivi-story.html

[plenzmd1]

This type of information on actual numbers of companies who are temp testing before work would be very important. Not sure how they should count the "normal" temp who do not get tested, but can certainly see how this impacts on the percent positive increasing in the hot spot states.

 

 

[Edit: Ah, Plenzmid?  The PCR test data comes from diagnostic tests done by FDA-approved labs, not from individual companies scanning temperatures. The temperature scans are NOT being recorded as positive covid-19 tests, anywhere by anybody.  That is a very confusing internal report of some company.  If the client is reporting % temperature scans to the state, that does not mean the state is reporting them as positive RT-PCR tests results.  If you feel they are, kindly provide a source - other than some dude with a Twitter.  Now, the states WERE lumping together diagnostic RT-PCR tests and antibody test results for a while, but AFAIK that all got sorted and they stopped. -Hap]

[GottaRun]

Did Florida really just report 8,942 new cases today?  https://www.floridacovid.com/ Wow.  

 

Edit: as of this morning at 11 am, "only 5,000", but certainly trending up.  They do seem to have some fluctuation, though, so perhaps it's a matter of a data-dump from a laboratory?

 

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

 

 

[plenzmd1]

1 hour ago, plenzmd1 said:

This type of information on actual numbers of companies who are temp testing before work would be very important. Not sure how they should count the "normal" temp who do not get tested, but can certainly see how this impacts on the percent positive increasing in the hot spot states.

 

 

[Edit: Ah, Plenzmid?  The PCR test data comes from diagnostic tests done by FDA-approved labs, not from individual companies scanning temperatures. The temperature scans are NOT being recorded as positive covid-19 tests, anywhere by anybody.  That is a very confusing internal report of some company.  If the client is reporting % temperature scans to the state, that does not mean the state is reporting them as positive RT-PCR tests results.  If you feel they are, kindly provide a source - other than some dude with a Twitter.  Now, the states WERE lumping together diagnostic RT-PCR tests and antibody test results for a while, but AFAIK that all got sorted and they stopped. -Hap]

This account has been very good with the numbers. The premise is not that elevated temps get counted as positive tests, more the fact that elevated temp is a symptom of Covid, and therefore the tests are, of course,  yielding higher positive numbers..affecting positivity rates. Agreed critical to know how many/much this is happening. The positive test rate scares me prolly more than the actual case numbers, as that indicates with 100% certainty that increase in testing is not why cases are skyrocketing in places, more people are getting Covid. But if that rate is increasing due to reasons like this, or better contract tracing etc, those data points are important to know as well

57 minutes ago, driddles said:

Did Florida really just report 8,942 new cases today?  https://www.floridacovid.com/ Wow.  

 

Edit: as of this morning at 11 am, "only 5,000", but certainly trending up.  They do seem to have some fluctuation, though, so perhaps it's a matter of a data-dump from a laboratory?

 

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states/florida

 

 

Yes, i think it is close to 9000..very worrisome. Hospitalizations and death rates have not increase at same rate since 06/01, but damn that doubles cases from just yesterday. That can not be good in any shape or form. 

[Saxum]

An interesting case:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/miracle-explains-bali-coronavirus-cases-200502035557649.html

 

[spartacus]

On 6/27/2020 at 8:52 PM, KzooMike said:

Massive increase in testing in conjunction with a large increase in the % of positive tests is very bad news for many of these states.   

good news-

case count is up- but hospitals can handle it

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/houston-hospital-boss-shatters-medias-covid-fearmongering-only-about-3-or-4-more-people-icu

“What you’ve been hearing is a report that we are at 97% or so capacity...Exactly one year ago, it was at 95%. It is completely normal for us to have ICU capacities that run in the 80s - 90s. That’s how all of us operate hospitals...”

"The capacity that’s being reported is base capacity … we have the ability to go far higher than that in terms of the ICU beds....We are seeing younger patients, we are seeing a shorter length of stay, we are seeing lower immortality, and we are seeing lower ICU utilization."

[Johnny Hammersticks]

On 6/26/2020 at 12:47 PM, Gray Beard said:

Connecticut plans to reopen schools in the fall.  Will other states in the Northeast do likewise?
 

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-school-reopening-plan-20200625-ntbpwp2kmjh63dyg5ogqdliivi-story.html

 

Pretty much every state I know of in the NE has announced that they will “open schools” in the fall.  I am on the health and safety committee for the district in which I am employed (VT), so we have had ongoing discussions with CDC and state reps.  Schools re-opening is very much a moving target right now.

 

Even in Vermont, where everything is largely under control (for now), the expectation is that there will be a “blended learning” model in the fall.  Although clear as mud, it sounds like kids in school part time in much smaller classes (no recess, specials, lunch eaten in the classroom, teachers move from class to class...not students), and then online learning to supplement.

 

Even though a complete “students in the buildings” model is on the table, no one really expects that to happen.  That option, IMO, was put there to placate the public.

 

If cases spike drastically in the region, there will be remote, or online learning again until there is a vaccine.

 

I suspect that most other states, at least in the northeast, are at a similar place.

 

Of course, much of this is just my educated opinion so feel free to delete if needed.@Hapless Bills Fan

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

....what's your prognosis on this one Hap............

 

Gilead announces long-awaited price for Covid-19 drug remdesivir

By Matthew Herper @matthewherper

June 29, 2020

Since remdesivir became the first medicine shown to have an impact on Covid-19, doctors, politicians, and Wall Street investors have engaged in a tense guessing game: What would its maker, Gilead Sciences, charge for the drug?

 

Now there is an answer.

 

For all governments in the developed world, including the U.S. government’s Indian Health Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, Gilead will charge $2,340 for a five-day course. U.S. insurers, in addition to Medicare and Medicaid, will pay 33% more, or $3,120. Countries in the developing world will get the drug at greatly reduced prices through generic manufacturers to which Gilead has licensed production.

 

https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/29/gilead-announces-remdesivir-price-covid-19/

 

 

 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

 

Just the pic sorry  the Link it points to is a month old article. 

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/29/coronavirus-live-updates-us/

 

As coronavirus spikes, Kansas and Oregon order face masks; Arizona closes bars, gyms, theaters

 

Jersey may follow suit 

 

[Bubba Gump]

China better not ***** this one up. Can we just burn all of China and let them start over?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-new-virus-emerging-in-chinese-pig-farms-has-the-essential-hallmarks-for-a-pandemic-2020-07-01

[Nervous Guy]

For those that assume that increased testing results in increased cases, looks like that is not true in CT...looks like we are doing the right things here.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conn-covid-19-testing-increases-hospitalizations-positive-test-rate-decline/ar-BB16ao6K?ocid=hplocalnews

[Gugny]

1 hour ago, Nervous Guy said:

For those that assume that increased testing results in increased cases, looks like that is not true in CT...looks like we are doing the right things here.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conn-covid-19-testing-increases-hospitalizations-positive-test-rate-decline/ar-BB16ao6K?ocid=hplocalnews

 

CT, NJ and NY have set the example for the rest of the nation to follow.  Unfortunately, not many states did the "follow" part and I hope those people stay in their states and leave ours alone.  The list of mandatory quarantine states doubled to 16 yesterday and I expect it to continue to grow pretty quickly.  Good.  I just wish it could be enforced somehow.

 

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-individuals-traveling-new-york-eight-additional-states-will-be

 

The full, updated list of states on the travel advisory is below:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Arizona
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Iowa
• Idaho
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Nevada
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah

[PromoTheRobot]

Autopsies reveal how Covid-19 kills and how it's effects go beyond the lungs.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/01/coronavirus-autopsies-findings/

[Good article, Promo.   Edit to add a few key points.  Findings from autopsies and how they are influencing treatment:
-100s of thousands of blood clots in lungs as well as brain, heart, kidneys, and liver -> blood thinning medications now given routinely

-myocarditis-like (heart failure) symptoms in 20-30% of patients not myocarditis but may have to do with excessive platelet production -> clinical trial now looking at anti-platelet medication

-extensive damage in brains due to oxygen deprivation "whether the patients were in ICU or died suddenly" -> importance of monitoring oxygen levels and getting people on oxygen quickly if they drop, even if they don't perceive themselves as short of breath.  But virus not extensive in brain

Quote: "Solomon, whose work was published as a June 12 letter in the New England Journal of Medicine, said the findings suggest the damage [to the brain] had been happening over a longer period of time, which makes him wonder about the virus’s effect on people who are less ill. “The big lingering question is what happens to people who survive covid,” he said. “Is there a lingering effect on the brain?” -Hap]

[Saxum]

7 hours ago, shoshin said:

 

This is going to get real messy and stupid. It's part of the problem with this state-by-state approach. 

 

[thebandit27]

On 7/2/2020 at 10:08 AM, driddles said:

I'm not an expert, but I did read a book with a chapter on this. 

A sneeze or cough hangs in the air for less than 1 second in the heat, then it drops to a surface, in the cold weather it hangs for 10 seconds or longer (I believe the 1/2 life is 10 seconds, parts of a sneeze can actually hang in the air for longer than 10 seconds in cold weather).  If the person in front of you sneezes or coughs in cold weather you will walk through a blanket of their germs.

So Covid-19 should not spread as fast in warm climates as the blanket of germs isn't happening like it does in cold weather.

But it seems that it is surviving very well on surfaces, even in the heat.  

I think that if Covid-19 survives into the fall the potential is there for it to explode again in the northern climates.  Our actual flu season doesn't start until October, what is this thing going to do when the temperature drops, and people are refusing to wear masks?

The latest research says that surface transfer accounts for an extremely low percentage of cases.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/how-exactly-do-you-catch-covid-19-there-is-a-growing-consensus-11592317650

Quote:

Six months into the coronavirus crisis, there’s a growing consensus about a central question: How do people become infected?

It’s not common to contract Covid-19 from a contaminated surface, scientists say. And fleeting encounters with people outdoors are unlikely to spread the coronavirus.

Instead, the major culprit is close-up, person-to-person interactions for extended periods. Crowded events, poorly ventilated areas and places where people are talking loudly—or singing, in one famous case—maximize the risk.

[Edit: I think it's pretty clear as "sensible precautions" go, wearing a mask and avoiding extended close contact with people >>> scrubbing your groceries and doorknobs.  The problem I have with this conclusion, is the large number of cases for which the source (thus mode) of infection was not identified.  We've been plagued from the start of this epidemic by assumptions that exclude data.  There are clear case histories where the infected person's only known contact with an infected person was sitting in the same seat previously occupied by an infected person - either fomite (surface) transmission is a thing, or aerosols somehow lingered just in that spot for hours, which is not their usual habit.  Reference Here - Cluster C "C1 and C2 (..) attended the 2-h morning service ... left immediately after the service.  Based on closed-circuit camera findings, C5 occupied the same seat as did cases C1 and C2 at the prayer meeting after the morning service ]

 

On 7/3/2020 at 7:11 AM, spartacus said:

washing your hands used to be a thing

 

[Edit: Not to stop. Even if the primary transmission is droplets from close contact if they get on your hands then you touch your mouth, nose, eyes -> infection]