COVID-19 Pandemic: Transmissions, Deaths, Treatments, Vaccines, Interventions and More...

[Joey Bags]

I have to imagine that the pockets of low-case areas that are already imposing strict quarantine rules in the US will do better than expected.

I'm in Bridgewater/Raritan where there's one case reported (obviously more than that, but likely not a ton more). Been under a self imposed quarantine for almost 2 weeks (no known exposure, just being safe after following Italy). I know MANY others doing the same. I have to imagine this is going to help, no one around here is going about their lives BAU in even the slightest. No known positives or sick people in work, friend circle, and family.

 

[RU848789]

@RU848789

After looking at France report, I am more apprehensive

Dr Benjamin Davido is an infectious disease specialist at Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches, on the outskirts of Paris. He is the lead referral for COVID-19 and clinical lead for their ‘Plan Blanc’, the planned response to exceptional healthcare situations, which became a requirement following the terror attacks in 2014.

He spoke to Medscape’s French Edition.


Q&A
What is the situation in your hospital?

Since the beginning of [last] week, we have had a worrying and very significant increase in the number of cases. Currently, we receive one phone call for a screening request every 2 minutes, and one request to evaluate a patient suspected of having, or already tested positive for, COVID-19 every 10 minutes (and try to find a bed). We have had to assign two doctors full time to handle this.

In addition, today [13th March], outpatient screening of caregivers suspected of having the disease revealed that 40% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. There is now a worrying degree of infection that shows the virus is circulating outside but also inside the hospital. This figure is all the more worrying because, 10 days ago, we were close to 0%. The increase did not happen by chance.

When we had only 40 cases in France, we relied on level 1 Health Referral Centres (établissements de santé de référence; HRCs), such as Bichat or Pitié-Salpêtrière hospitals in Paris, to absorb the flow of patients. Now we have more than 3000 infected individuals, it is obvious that the dozen level 1 HRCs across the country are no longer enough. Consequently, second line centres, like our hospital, are taking their turn, just in time.



We have had to adapt and put in place dedicated COVID-19 units. We have, as of today [13th March] a total of 11 beds, with a planned increase to 20 beds next week. Centres no longer have the time nor the space to receive and respond to the demand for screening. Fifteen days ago, the screening of suspected patients had to be done in the hospital with containment measures. Today, it is no longer possible as these places are taken by confirmed cases. Screening is therefore performed in the emergency department. This is stage 3 crisis management, although this has not yet been officially announced, which underlines the pressure from the flow of patients arriving in hospitals.


Are there annexes for screening?

Some hospitals have installed tents for urgent services, but you still need to have the capacity, to have the space and enough caregivers. And these tents only allow outpatient diagnoses, they don’t allow for patients considered fragile or severe cases requiring hospitalisation in a dedicated isolation facility.


Is France heading for a situation like Italy?


It is certain that the curves of the Italian and French epidemics can be superimposed; they are just separated in time by around 10 days. One difference between the two countries is that Italy has a particular set-up in which healthcare is organised separately by region, which may have led to a delay in the organisation of care.


Italy also organised the situation by geographic area; thinking, for example, that only the north of the country was affected, which was, in hindsight, probably a mistake. But in the same way, in France, in mid-February, we thought only in terms of clusters or people returning from at-risk zones, 10 km outside of which patients were not considered suspect, only for, the next day, those areas to become clusters.


Today, in France, we no longer talk of zones or foci of COVID-19, and we no longer take into account travel. On the contrary, we consider the severity of the illness, and it is the presence of unexplained pneumonia that makes us suspect a COVID-19 diagnosis, especially if it is serious straight away (in resuscitation, for example).


We are now in the middle of a major public health problem. We have stayed at stage 2 in terms of the health alert, in that we screen people with relevant symptoms, even if they are minor. But as we no longer include history of travel, and the relevant symptoms are flu-like, such as having a fever, a runny nose, or coughing, and that, chronologically, it is the peak of the flu epidemic, we have an enormous influx of patients who may have flu or seasonal viral infection (mainly rhinovirus). These are consistent with the new coronavirus and, as such, we cannot, for benign cases, make a clinical distinction between them. It becomes therefore impossible to screen everyone. In any case, we don’t have enough kits. We are at the stage of counting the number of cotton swabs to take samples…


Did France act too late to prevent shortages?


Yes. Personally, for 10 days, I and my colleagues have struggled with the healthcare teams to urgently set up a hospitalisation and screening structure to make the diagnoses, as some seemed doubtful due to the lack of anticipation by our local bodies. I don’t blame them, because bodies at the ministerial level have not given us the funds for taking the samples, as the laboratories themselves do not yet have the testing machines.


On the other hand, what should have been anticipated is the current situation where we find ourselves with questions over the supply of masks. There are general practitioners who cannot see patients in their office due to a lack of surgical masks (FFP2s [masks] only have demonstrated effectiveness in resuscitation and when obtaining the sample), while we are in a period of seasonal flu and colds…and coronavirus. There is also a lack of hydroalcoholic gels. For lack of a better option, it is necessary to rely on hand-washing, which is a backwards step in terms of hygiene practices. That’s why, there should be, from tomorrow, a national plan that fits with the pandemic, as declared by the WHO. Care, as set out in the current plan, is not tenable in the long-term because in the short-term we will no longer have the capacity to accept and regulate the flow of hospitalised patients, or even to screen them.


How did you set up your dedicated COVID-19 unit?


We opened our unit around 15 days ago in response to a call from level 1 HRCs. As with any new epidemic, there was a lot of apprehension at the outset, especially among caregivers and nurses. We anticipated that before opening the service. It’s what we saw with HIV in the 90s and with highly resistant bacteria in the 2010s. It’s a normal reaction. Once we had explained the issues and above all that we are capable of effectively protecting ourselves against transmission of the illness (in hospital) by using FFP2 masks in particular, everyone took part with extraordinary energy.


Is transmission really controlled in your unit?


Yes, in the hospital it is. Contaminated caregivers have been probably, in the main, in the community or hadn’t take sufficient precautions at the start of the epidemic by not wearing a mask when the patient had signs consistent with the illness (especially cough). Personally, I think I have more risk of catching the virus on public transport than in the hospital. We are working on a cohort of patients to determine the risk factors for infection specific to caregivers, to know precisely how much of a role is played by contamination outside the hospital, in meetings, or the non-application of precautions (wearing a mask or using hydroalcoholic gel).


It is certain that, in our infectious diseases service, there is a bias because we are used to protecting ourselves, so the risk is obviously and thankfully residual. What is dangerous is, for example, a patient hospitalised in orthopaedics for a hip fracture who coughs; we aren’t necessarily going to think about COVID-19, and in orthopaedics the policy outside theatre is to not wear a mask.


How anxious are you?


I am personally not afraid of being infected. I am, on the other hand, very preoccupied by the thought that the numbers are increasing exponentially; we are at the beginning of the epidemic, so that’s normal. But the question is: will we have the physical means (masks, hydroalcoholic gel…) and the people (who could work non-stop days, nights, the weekends…?) at a constant level and without additional help? If the epidemic lasts for 3 months, I think it will be very difficult.


Current health policy is to keep the epidemic at alert stage 2, flattening the curve to not saturate the health system, which may make the epidemic last longer. Hospitals in France have been in crisis for years; in January, healthcare professionals protested against the lack of healthcare personnel and to explain that the austerity policy, which would see hospital beds close and push outpatient care, was not viable. Today, we are reopening hospital beds and requisitioning them to hospitalise suspected coronavirus patients.

This morning, the regional health agencies asked us to cancel all scheduled non-urgent hospital admissions.


Doctors in Italy have had to make difficult ethical choices due to the lack of equipment (respirators, beds, etc). Will this happen in France?

We have discussed it among infectious disease specialists, and we think that it’s a question which will sadly arise when we have no more room for resuscitation, which is currently not the case. But COVID-19 patients with severe disease stay in hospital for a long time (around 3 to 6 weeks) so if the epidemic lasts, it may indeed happen. But this decision algorithm is sadly not rare in medicine. We decide not to resuscitate a patient when we know it will not save them. What is new is that this is a kind of illness for which we are not used to taking this type of decision.


In Italy, several doctors report that patients under 40 years old, without comorbidities, could also present with serious forms of COVID-19. Are we seeing the same thing in France?


Currently, a third of hospitalised patients in resuscitation in France don’t have risk factors, including some under 40 years of age. We don’t know why yet. There is probably a genetic factor to the illness. One hypothesis is that it causes an immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, which we see sometimes in infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV.


How do you explain there being fewer severe paediatric cases? Could children, in a second outbreak of the epidemic, be more susceptible?


There are currently two hypotheses. We know that children are exposed to a number of different coronaviruses; they could have therefore developed an immunity against this virus, and don’t develop the severe clinical form. The second hypothesis is that COVID-19 cannot attach itself to the respiratory epithelium in children. This immature epithelium has few if any receptors.


One could reasonably think that in the case of a second outbreak that children could still be protected. We know that the virus mutates relatively little, so the risk is probably small, even if it cannot be confirmed at this stage. We saw in Japan patients re-infected with coronavirus but it seems that there is nevertheless a partial immunity, contrary to what was said initially.


You will take part in a clinical trial in France for the treatment of COVID-19. Can you tell us more?


It is a large-scale clinical trial [with 3200 European patients, including 800 from France] conducted at Bichat hospital by Dr Yazdan Yazdanpanah, which will attempt to answer many questions. It will consist of four arms, testing the following treatments:

• 
  
  
  • Remdesivir [GS-5734, Gilead], an antiviral that has already been tested on MERS-CoV. The first version was tested on SARS in 2003, but we have little data for SARS-CoV-2 because the illness has only been around for several months. The in vitro results were interesting; it could be effective against SARS-CoV-2.
  • Lopinavir/ritonavir [Kaletra, AbbVie]. It’s an old retroviral used against HIV. It’s a protease inhibitor which is said to be effective against sequences similar between SARS-CoV-2 and HIV. It could reduce the viral load. But the recent data showed, in vitro, that HIV, which is meant to be resistant to lopinavir, was paradoxically more sensitive than SARS-CoV2, calling into question its clinical effectiveness.
  • A combination of interferon beta and lopinavir/ritonavir.
  • A control arm of standard of care, with oxygen therapy, etc.

What message would you give to your colleagues?


When we are in stage 3, we should not see it as a nuisance. We will be able to take decisions that will allow general practitioners to be involved and manage outpatients, as these are mainly non-severe cases (80% of cases). And to properly care for these patients, it will be absolutely necessary to follow hygiene rules (masks, hand washing…) and monitor them well; in other words, see them again at 7 and 14 days to ensure that they don’t have complications of the illness.

No conflicts of interest or funding declared.


COVID-19 : quelle est la réalité du terrain ? Témoignage du Dr Benjamnin Davido, médecin infectiologue referent


Adapted from Medscape's French Edition.

• 
  
  
  • uknewsdesk@medscape.net.
    
    Cite this: COVID-19: Advice From a French Doctor on the Frontline - Medscape - Mar 16, 2020.
    

Thanks for sharing this - great info and scary of course, since we're about 2 days behind France in terms of total cases, although our population is 5X theirs which would buy us several more days before we're in their shoes - but on the flip side in our hotspots, like NYC metro, we may only be 3-5 days behind them and they're only a week or so behind Italy. We're going to see, shortly, how effective our moderate social distancing policies are and I suspect we're headed soon towards what SF did with shelter-in-place.

Did you see my post about how important asymptomatic, infected carriers have been in Italy (and on Diamond Princess and presumably everywhere else), where about half of positive tests are in asymptomatic people? That's why I think South Korea has been so successful - by testing the crap out of everyone, they're finding these people at a much higher rate and quarantining them before they can spread the virus much. And we're last in the world in testing rate per capita, sadly.

 

[RobertG]

Thanks for sharing this - great info and scary of course, since we're about 2 days behind France in terms of total cases, although our population is 5X theirs which would buy us several more days before we're in their shoes - but on the flip side in our hotspots, like NYC metro, we may only be 3-5 days behind them and they're only a week or so behind Italy. We're going to see, shortly, how effective our moderate social distancing policies are and I suspect we're headed soon towards what SF did with shelter-in-place.

Did you see my post about how important asymptomatic, infected carriers have been in Italy (and on Diamond Princess and presumably everywhere else), where about half of positive tests are in asymptomatic people? That's why I think South Korea has been so successful - by testing the crap out of everyone, they're finding these people at a much higher rate and quarantining them before they can spread the virus much. And we're last in the world in testing rate per capita, sadly.

The first covid case in the US was reported on January 21st, the first Covid case was reported in France on January 24th, so I'm not sure we are behind them.

I think we also need, as I said in my other thread, take a look at greeting customs and the spread of Covid in Italy vs. SK as well as age of the population.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

Uhhh, it's a diary, so I assume it's someone's FB account. The numbers are correct; the comments are that person's observations, presumably.

I am gonna call BS on that diary... I think it was written well-after the fact. If it was by an Italian it doesn't mention "go out and hug a Chinese person"... which was on February 4th.. by the Mayor of Florence.. after Chinese tourists were found with the virus n Rome and after Italy cut off flights from China.

For this diary to start on Feb 20 saying it is something "far away" just doesn't pass the smell test. I don't know why this thing was faked.. but its faked.

Here's wiki on the Italian outbreak..

The outbreak was confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January, when two Chinese tourists tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Rome.[310] In response, the Italian government suspended all flights to and from China and declared a state of emergency.[311] On 31 January, the Italian Council of Ministers appointed Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection, as Special Commissioner for the COVID-19 Emergency.[312][313] An unassociated cluster of COVID-19 cases was later further detected starting with 16 confirmed cases in Lombardy on 21 February.[314]

On 22 February, the Council of Ministers announced a new decree-law to contain the outbreak, including quarantining more than 50,000 people from 11 different municipalities in northern Italy.[315] Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said "In the outbreak areas, entry and exit will not be provided. Suspension of work activities and sports events has already been ordered in those areas."[316][317]​

 

[RUkrazy89]

Hello All,

Long time lurker, not too often do I post here. But this thread is incredible and wanted to add. I live outside Chicago, my wife's cousin and his family believe they have COVID, husband was at a convention and believes he picked it up there. I think the convention was in Springfield if memory serves. Anyway, they called the doctor... symptoms matched up, incubation period matched up. Doctor said if you don't need to go to the hospital then stay home (self quarantine), they aren't even testing them since they don't want to wastes tests as they symptoms aren't severe enough. This blew my mind.

Second hand (I heard from two different unrelated people) I heard Illinois is going into lock down after the primaries, but I can't confirm that.

 

[RU848789]

We are undisciplined and spoiled country. This quarantine is the only method that could have helped but the problem is the discipline and nonchalance with which I see people behaving. I've dealt with contacts who actually don't want to be tested and are roaming free in the universe. And then we don't even have enough test kits to test them anyway.
My big fear is the lack of n95 masks because I'm convinced that regular surgical masks don't work with patients who might expose physicians to higher viral loads and are a bit sicker. So I am fearful.
When I tested a patient yesterday who was supposed to be in quarantine because she has been in prolonged contact with a coworker is currently in the hospital and youngish and hypoxic and called her to tell her to come and that we were ready for her, I found her to be in CVS shopping.
I think we're now beyond the point where a testing is going to help a whole hell of a lot.
If you are a positive then we know what to do with you but it doesn't mean you're going to listen. If you're a negative then it means you are currently negative and may not be next week and may behave like all is right with the world.
The testing is going to be too much too late. And there's no use pervasively focusing on blaming a political party or the CDC or the FDA regarding the screw-up because sometimes s*** just happens. Especially in a country who so obsessed with bureaucracy and bean counting and coding and feeding the monster rather than common sense, on the ground medical care. we're going to want all those physicians back who were pushed out or retired early because of this abusive dysfunctional system.

Sobering, thanks. Agree on the need for the N95 masks for health care workers, given the much better protection afforded in preventing infection (I've worked a lot with N95 masks for protection from chemicals and they work, but are unwieldy as I'm sure you know). My comments about the surgical masks have mostly been about them being used by everyone else to prevent asymptomatic/infected people from infecting others, since social distancing isn't yet being done enough - and your anecdote about the patient at CVS is unconscionable.

Agree that moving forward, the focus needs to be on beating this, not politics, which is what this thread is trying to do and while I've been very critical of Trump's response so far, I was very happy to see him finally much more on board about the seriousness of the situation and his efforts to help. I'm trying to leave the politics out of this thread and in posts on the CE board.

Keep up the great work. Seriously, can't thank you and all the health care professionals enough for the incredible work you guys do even in the face of significant personal risk.

 

[RU848789]

I have to imagine that the pockets of low-case areas that are already imposing strict quarantine rules in the US will do better than expected.

I'm in Bridgewater/Raritan where there's one case reported (obviously more than that, but likely not a ton more). Been under a self imposed quarantine for almost 2 weeks (no known exposure, just being safe after following Italy). I know MANY others doing the same. I have to imagine this is going to help, no one around here is going about their lives BAU in even the slightest. No known positives or sick people in work, friend circle, and family.

Agreed, for those who are self-quarantining. Unfortunately as per RUfubar's comments and other reports, many are not doing so, but I do think that's changing, so hopefully areas with very few cases can stay that way. We're also on day 14 of our self-quarantine, due to significant wife/son risk factors. I know 1 person with the virus (not well and no contact). There have also been a couple of positives at work, but I don't know who they are (and would've been contacted if I had) and haven't been there in 2 weeks either.

 

[RU848789]

Hello All,

Long time lurker, not too often do I post here. But this thread is incredible and wanted to add. I live outside Chicago, my wife's cousin and his family believe they have COVID, husband was at a convention and believes he picked it up there. I think the convention was in Springfield if memory serves. Anyway, they called the doctor... symptoms matched up, incubation period matched up. Doctor said if you don't need to go to the hospital then stay home (self quarantine), they aren't even testing them since they don't want to wastes tests as they symptoms aren't severe enough. This blew my mind.

Second hand (I heard from two different unrelated people) I heard Illinois is going into lock down after the primaries, but I can't confirm that.

Thanks, much appreciated on behalf of the posters in this thread - some really good info in here. With 100+ cases in IL could see the lockdown coming soon. Are you in Chicago too and in close contact with them? Hope not...

 

[RUfubar]

Sobering, thanks. Agree on the need for the N95 masks for health care workers, given the much better protection afforded in preventing infection (I've worked a lot with N95 masks for protection from chemicals and they work, but are unwieldy as I'm sure you know). My comments about the surgical masks have mostly been about them being used by everyone else to prevent asymptomatic/infected people from infecting others, since social distancing isn't yet being done enough - and your anecdote about the patient at CVS is unconscionable.

Agree that moving forward, the focus needs to be on beating this, not politics, which is what this thread is trying to do and while I've been very critical of Trump's response so far, I was very happy to see him finally much more on board about the seriousness of the situation and his efforts to help. I'm trying to leave the politics out of this thread and in posts on the CE board.

Keep up the great work. Seriously, can't thank you and all the health care professionals enough for the incredible work you guys do even in the face of significant personal risk.

I believe it's one of those what works in vitro and work works in vivo in the United States situations.
Many countries seem to have more discipline and more rational behavior and consistency than the USA where we see a lot of other positional and defiant behavior.
Epidemiology and science in general does not consider the erratic unstructured behavior of the lab rats that have run amok like in the USA.
Still the greatest country in the world but not psychologically and unfortunately physically ready for a pandemic

 

[RobertG]

I believe it's one of those what works in vitro and work works in vivo in the United States situations.
Many countries seem to have more discipline and more rational behavior and consistency than the USA where we see a lot of other positional and defiant behavior.
Epidemiology and science in general does not consider the erratic unstructured behavior of the lab rats that have run amok like in the USA.
Still the greatest country in the world but not psychologically and unfortunately physically ready for a pandemic

My parents live in the south of Italy they recently had their first deaths and cases near them. A doctor from the North traveled down to the town and had a party. At the party they passed a drink around. The doctor worked at the local hospital and infected the staff. The town is now on lock down. This all happened right after the north was locked down.

 

[Barnaby&Neill]

The first covid case in the US was reported on January 21st, the first Covid case was reported in France on January 24th, so I'm not sure we are behind them.

I think we also need, as I said in my other thread, take a look at greeting customs and the spread of Covid in Italy vs. SK as well as age of the population.

Most trackers I’ve seen use the 100th case as the starting point rather than the first case.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

See my post above about the weather - there's no way it can be a factor yet, just based on US data. And while India and Brazil are low, Iran has the 3rd most infections. Far more likely the variability we're seeing is due to how many infected people traveled to these countries and then how many "superspreaders" were infected.

Iran is not a particularly hot place where people live.

 

[RUkrazy89]

Thanks, much appreciated on behalf of the posters in this thread - some really good info in here. With 100+ cases in IL could see the lockdown coming soon. Are you in Chicago too and in close contact with them? Hope not...

Negative, we see them like Semi annually (xmas and maybe 1 or two other times). I work in Chicago, not in the Loop but downtown proper. I am WFH today and likely moving forward... though the office is still open for some reason.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Yeah the only contact we really have is at the gas station and our nursery supplier. We almost never see our customers and try to hide from them if they are home

For some reason I found that hilarious!

Taiwan is 81-miles from China with a large number of flights back-and-forth, with people working etc. The country has 45 cases of COVID-19 and one death. How did they control the spread...check it out, impressive. They've seen disease spread before and were prepared.

https://www-vox-com.cdn.ampproject....oronavirus-china-social-distancing-quarantine

One thing to consider with Taiwan, they have been prepared for this because they consider mainland China a hostile entity that means to take them over. And I'm sure they've been looking at all possible angles of attack from China, including biological warfare.

 

[RocktheRac]

If they are in need of hospital beds I'm sure there is plenty of space at Fort Dix. Also Muhlenburg Hospital was mothballed years ago.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Weather may actually become a factor as for influenza at some point (I think it will by April, but that's too late). It is unequivocally not a factor now, though. Please read my earlier detailed post on the weather from yesterday to understand that. If weather were a factor, how come NYC and Seattle have huge outbreaks, but other similar cities in the northern US, like Chicago, Denver and Detroit do not? And why does South Korea, which generally has a similar climate to Italy (probably a bit colder on average) have this under control, but Italy does not? Just because "South" is in a country's name doesn't mean it's warm - they had the winter Olympics there, you know...

I still think there's a decent chance the weather/humidity can play a factor. It doesn't necessarily mean the virus disappears completely but I think the rates of transmission can go down.

While the cases are growing in the southern hemisphere they still don't seem to be growing at the same rate and numbers as i in cooler climate and certainly at the outset they were mostly "importing" cases rather than community spread. While some bring up Singapore and other places like India having cases and it growing some I'd say it started in that part of the world. Those hot/humid areas have been exposed longer to it in a sense being geographically near China but it hasn't blown up like it has in Europe or here. You see how it swept from there to here but those particular places haven't been overrun as yet at least, partly due to behavior etc..but I think also partly due to weather/humidity.

I think India will be a good gauge in a few weeks/month. They haven't had too many cases up to now and I know one poster living there has said they're under reporting. IMO India with it's population density and being unhygienic in some parts of the country would most definitely have the potential to be another Wuhan and there would be no way to hide that regardless of under reporting. So if we don't see something crazy like that happening in India in a few weeks and frankly maybe even by now considering it's been in their "neighborhood" longer than us then I think weather/humidity likely plays a role in rates of transmission. Doesn't mean gone completely but not as easily spread as the colder months.

 

[bac2therac]

For some reason I found that hilarious!

One thing to consider with Taiwan, they have been prepared for this because they consider mainland China a hostile entity that means to take them over. And I'm sure they've been looking at all possible angles of attack from China, including biological warfare.

seriously, if we are ready to do a lawn and we see people out with the kids or a car in the driveway when its never there, we go drive to a nearby account and hope eventually leave by the time we come back

 

[Ronnie_B]

Taiwan is 81-miles from China with a large number of flights back-and-forth, with people working etc. The country has 45 cases of COVID-19 and one death. How did they control the spread...check it out, impressive. They've seen disease spread before and were prepared.

https://www-vox-com.cdn.ampproject....oronavirus-china-social-distancing-quarantine

This is what I talk about with "silver lining", this is the response we need to follow and learn from, there is nothing this country can't do with it has the resources and skills in the right place.

And learn from our mistakes without the political finger-pointing from both sides because a more deadly virus is most definitely going to hit us down the road.

 

[RU2055]

This is what I talk about with "silver lining", this is the response we need to follow and learn from, there is nothing this country can't do with it has the resources and skills in the right place.

And learn from our mistakes without the political finger-pointing from both sides.

,,,, without the political finger-pointing from both sides.

AMEN!!!

 

[rutgersguy1]

Question, maybe a stupid question lol, for those in the field. I've mentioned before that I prefer to eat hot food when out or heat foods that come from outside in the hopes that whatever may be present would get killed off.

One place where I don't is my daily smoothie. Some of it's frozen but some of it's fresh say like apples. I wash them and rub them with my hands but don't peel them cause a lot of the healthy stuff is in the skin. Between that and say the high rpms of a professional blender like a Vitamix is that enough to denature an envelope of a virus and inactivate it or is the probability very low of say a person sneezing/coughing around the fresh produce and having it actually give you something if the produce has gone through steps before ingested?

 

[Big boy stan]

I still think there's a decent chance the weather/humidity can play a factor. It doesn't necessarily mean the virus disappears completely but I think the rates of transmission can go down.

One weather related factor that will definitely work to our advantage is that influenza will decrease freeing up medical resources. There are about 500,000 to 800,000 hospilizations every year in the US for the flu and that number falls off sharply in April. This is one of the most important reasons to flatten the cure.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm

 

[bac2therac]

Question, maybe a stupid question lol, for those in the field. I've mentioned before that I prefer to eat hot food when out or heat foods that come from outside in the hopes that whatever may be present would get killed off.

One place where I don't is my daily smoothie. Some of it's frozen but some of it's fresh say like apples. I wash them and rub them with my hands but don't peel them cause a lot of the healthy stuff is in the skin. Between that and say the high rpms of a professional blender like a Vitamix is that enough to denature an envelope of a virus and inactivate it or is the probability very low of say a person sneezing/coughing around the fresh produce and having it actually give you something if the produce has gone through steps before ingested?

Question: Do I need to wash fruits and vegetables for a longer time due to the coronavirus? Do I need to “sanitize” them with soap?

Thomas Montville: Wash your fruits and vegetables as usual, or even with a little warm soapy water. We should always wash our fruits and vegetables. That's just good safety practice.

 

[RUhasarrived]

So now WHO is admitting that it's in the air,that even Rip Van Winkle sleeping in the Adirondacks can catch it.

If supermarkets with hundreds of people with various health conditions can remain open,why can't gyms with a few dozen healthy people?

 

[albanyknight]

The overall occupancy for hospital beds across the country is about 65%. In places like the New York Metropolitan area hospital occupancy rates are closer to 90%. This is true for almost all large city and surrounding suburbs.

There have been a number of hospital closures over the years, so it would make sense to re-open those hospitals. Cuomo is absolutely right about the Army Corp of Engineers. Plenty of closed hotels, unused dormitories that can be converted to temporary hospital beds.

 

[RUhasarrived]

Hal Turner is promising to reveal a bombshell of devastating news about the virus on his Wednesday Night internet radio show.

Turner was a former FBI informant,pretending to be a White Nationalist for years.Then,he fell out of favor and was jailed.He claims that he still has friends on the inside.We'll see.

 

[Big boy stan]

Hal Turner is promising to reveal a bombshell of devastating news about the virus on his Wednesday Night internet radio show.

Turner was a former FBI informant,pretending to be a White Nationalist for years.Then,he fell out of favor and was jailed.He claims that he still has friends on the inside.We'll see.

This looks like just the place I have been looking for to get some quality info.

 

[RocktheRac]

Hal Turner is promising to reveal a bombshell of devastating news about the virus on his Wednesday Night internet radio show.

Turner was a former FBI informant,pretending to be a White Nationalist for years.Then,he fell out of favor and was jailed.He claims that he still has friends on the inside.We'll see.

I'll pass. I usually get my nightly news listening to Coast to Coast with George Noory.:Skull: :Dead:

 

[RU848789]

Hal Turner is promising to reveal a bombshell of devastating news about the virus on his Wednesday Night internet radio show.

Turner was a former FBI informant,pretending to be a White Nationalist for years.Then,he fell out of favor and was jailed.He claims that he still has friends on the inside.We'll see.

Please don't post your crackpot crap in this thread - keep it to the CE board and if you do post it here, it will be deleted.

 

[RU848789]

One weather related factor that will definitely work to our advantage is that influenza will decrease freeing up medical resources. There are about 500,000 to 800,000 hospilizations every year in the US for the flu and that number falls off sharply in April. This is one of the most important reasons to flatten the cure.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2017-2018.htm

Great point.

 

[RU848789]

Iran is not a particularly hot place where people live.

Teheran is equivalent to roughly Atlanta, which I don't think anyone is calling a "cold" city.

 

[RU848789]

Taiwan is 81-miles from China with a large number of flights back-and-forth, with people working etc. The country has 45 cases of COVID-19 and one death. How did they control the spread...check it out, impressive. They've seen disease spread before and were prepared.

https://www-vox-com.cdn.ampproject....oronavirus-china-social-distancing-quarantine

Yes, Taiwan has done a fantastic job. It helps that they were ready (given their much huger scare from SARS and mistrust of China in general) and their government had a command center and team that leapt on this from day one - literally, they started screening passengers from China/Wuhan on 12/31 the day the virus was announced to the world from China. With early testing, identification and tracking of each case, it's a lot easier to contain. We started testing/tracking way, way too late - same for most of Europe.

I think South Korea, however, is an even better "model" for what can be done once there is an epidemic and their response of incredibly aggressive testing/quarantining/tracking and social distancing, once they had thousands of cases, shows it can be contained even after that. I get that it's hard to be as prepared as Taiwan was (but possible), but we absolutely could have done what SK did, once we knew the scope of the epidemic in China by mid-January, yet we failed to take SK's path.

 

[RocktheRac]

Heard on 101.5 just now NY City thinking of doing shelter in place.

 

[Joey Bags]

EDIT: China kicking out a number of US based journalists from NYT, WaPo, WSJ, etc. Some western agencies are still allowed at this time.

Something to keep an eye on

 

[Joey Bags]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...bio-warfare-expert-begins-clinical-trial.html

Can you say it's blackmail time? How much you wanna bet that A, this vaccine works and B, will only be shared with the US if Trump agrees to some absurd trade deal.

But in all seriousness I hope for everyone's sake we can put aside politics and partner medically for the greater good for humanity here, REAL globalism that actually helps save lives.

 

[RUJohnny]

My guns-vax-precious metals-clorox stocks had themselves a day.

 

[GoodOl'Rutgers]

I kinda wonder what's going on in Russia with this.

what's reported is minimal.. but can they be trusted?

 

[Joey Bags]

I kinda wonder what's going on in Russia with this.

what's reported is minimal.. but can they be trusted?

Their cases are starting to grow, I think I saw today that Moscow is going into lockdown if it wasn't already. But overall I think they are probably in a much better spot than us.

They took an aggressive approach, immediately closing their entire border with China and cancelling all commercial flights from affected regions back in January.

 

[ArminRU]

Confirmed cases starting to take off a bit. If it stays on this path, we’ll be at 10k by the weekend.

 

[rutgersguy1]

Confirmed cases starting to take off a bit. If it stays on this path, we’ll be at 10k by the weekend.

De Blasio was saying they could have 10K in NYC by next week...they currently have just over 800. Shelter in place could be coming for NYC in the next 48 hours he said. I'd figure similar to SF where you can go out for necessities, medications, etc.. Don't know Cuomo is on the same wavelength though..it didn't sound like it in his morning press conference.

From article:

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday warned that the city is on the verge of an unprecedented “shelter-in-place” order to contain the coronavirus — saying he expects as many as 10,000 cases of the contagion in the Big Apple by next week.

“We’re certainly going to have thousands of cases next week,” he said of the contagion. “It’s not that long until we hit 10,000 cases. That’s a true statement, whether it’s next week or some later period. That’s not that far off.”

https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/de-blasio-says-new-yorkers-should-prepare-for-shelter-in-place-order/

 

[RU848789]

Follow up on some earlier posts by @RUfubar and me and others...

Now for some possibly good news. Breaking results on hydroxychloroquine (malaria treatment) in combo with azithromycin (antibiotic often used in pneumonias) show significant reduction in viral load in patients in a study in France. Don't think this is a peer reviewed yet, but it is a placebo controlled field study and these can be very important in emergencies like this.

https://twitter.com/RiganoESQ/status/1239780304082124800

In addition, remdesivir is showing some promising results as are some other anti-viral compounds and remdesivir completes a major phase III clinical trial on 4/3.

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2500114-treatment

And lastly, the first patient was enrolled today in a vaccine clinical trial, which will last 6 weeks (this is a preliminary trial just to gauge whether it's worth going to larger trials).

https://www.livescience.com/first-person-coronavirus-vaccine-clinical-trial.html