Originally Posted by Bwana:
Once again, don't come in this thread with some kind of political agenda, or you will be shown the door. If you want to go that route, there is a thread about this in DC.
Originally Posted by Dartgod:
People, there is a lot of good information in this thread, let's try to keep the petty bickering to a minimum.
We all have varying opinions about the impact of this, the numbers, etc. We will all never agree with each other. But we can all keep it civil.
Thanks!
Click here for the original OP:
Spoiler!
Apparently the CoronaVirus can survive on a inanimate objects, such as door knobs, for 9 days.
California coronavirus case could be first spread within U.S. community, CDC says
By SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, JACLYN COSGROVE
FEB. 26, 2020 8:04 PM
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what could be the first case of novel coronavirus in the United States involving a patient in California who neither recently traveled out of the country nor was in contact with someone who did.
“At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown. It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. “Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. It’s also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.”
The individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in Sacramento County, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The CDC said the “case was detected through the U.S. public health system — picked up by astute clinicians.”
Officials at UC Davis Medical Center expanded on what the federal agency might have meant by that in an email sent Wednesday, as reported by the Davis Enterprise newspaper.
The patient arrived at UC Davis Medical Center from another hospital Feb. 19 and “had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” according to an email sent by UC Davis officials that was obtained by the Davis Enterprise.
The staff at UC Davis requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, but because the patient didn’t fit the CDC’s existing criteria for the virus, a test wasn’t immediately administered, according to the email. The CDC then ordered the test Sunday, and results were announced Wednesday. Hospital administrators reportedly said in the email that despite these issues, there has been minimal exposure at the hospital because of safety protocols they have in place.
A UC Davis Health spokesperson declined Wednesday evening to share the email with The Times.
Since Feb. 2, more than 8,400 returning travelers from China have entered California, according to the state health department. They have been advised to self-quarantine for 14 days and limit interactions with others as much as possible, officials said.
“This is a new virus, and while we are still learning about it, there is a lot we already know,” Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California.”
It is not clear how the person became infected, but public health workers could not identify any contacts with people who had traveled to China or other areas where the virus is widespread. That raises concern that the virus is spreading in the United States, creating a challenge for public health officials, experts say.
“It’s the first signal that we could be having silent transmission in the community,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “It probably means there are many more cases out there, and it probably means this individual has infected others, and now it’s a race to try to find out who that person has infected.”
On Tuesday, the CDC offered its most serious warning to date that the United States should expect and prepare for the coronavirus to become a more widespread health issue.
“Ultimately, we expect we will see coronavirus spread in this country,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “It’s not so much a question of if, but a question of when.”
According to the CDC’s latest count Wednesday morning, 59 U.S. residents have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus — 42 of whom are repatriated citizens from a Diamond Princess cruise. That number has grown by two since Messonnier’s last count Tuesday, although the CDC was not immediately available to offer details on the additional cases.
More than 82,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported globally, and more than 2,700 people have died, with the majority in mainland China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
But public health leaders have repeatedly reminded residents that the health risk from the novel coronavirus to the general public remains low.
“While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday. “From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80% do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization. There have been no confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States to date.”
CDC officials have also warned that although the virus is likely to spread in U.S. communities, the flu still poses a greater risk.
Gostin said the news of potential silent transmission does not eliminate the possibility of containing the virus in the U.S. and preventing an outbreak.
“There are few enough cases that we should at least try,” he said. “Most of us are not optimistic that that will be successful, but we’re still in the position to try.”
Originally Posted by Monticore:
Some even get pulled years later after being approved.
Yes, and not many people know why.
There are actually four phases to clinical trials. You get approved after Phase III, but the fourth phase (the silent phase) is called post-marketing surveillance. Because of the nature of clinical trials, you cannot enroll enough patients to detect truly rare outcomes of certain drug therapies. Thus, after a drug has been on market, serious and novel adverse effects are reported to the FDA to catch more of these in its net as the sample size of patients increases. Eventually, you build enough data to have a better understanding of the drug's effects on all aspects of the population rather than the much more limited scope offered by even multicenter Phase III trials.
A great example: terfenadine was a non-sedating antihistamine that was metabolized in the body to fexofenadine (Allegra). The metabolite is not toxic, but terfenadine blocks a potassium channel which leads to arrhythmia. If used in combination with other CYP3A4 enzyme inhibitors, that effect is increased and can lead to life threatening arrhythmias. As a result, it was pulled of the market years later, but it would have been difficult to catch that in a Phase III. [Reply]
(CNN)On Friday, Dr. Mangala Narasimhan received an urgent call. A man in his 40s with Covid-19 was in a dire situation, and her colleague wanted her to come the intensive care unit at Long Island Jewish Hospital to see if he needed to be put on life support.
Before I come over there, Narasimhan told the other doctor, try turning the patient over onto his stomach and see if that helps.
Narasimhan didn't need to go the ICU. The flip worked.
Doctors are finding that placing the sickest coronavirus patients on their stomachs -- called prone positioning - helps increase the amount of oxygen that's getting to their lungs.
"We're saving lives with this, one hundred percent," said Narasimhan, the regional director for critical care at Northwell Health, which owns 23 hospitals in New York. "It's such a simple thing to do, and we've seen remarkable improvement. We can see it for every single patient."
Originally Posted by O.city:
Well that's great news.
Originally Posted by Monticore:
I mean they have been using this method most likely from the start, it is not new science they discovered this week so would mostly likely not change our trajectory since it was already common practice.
Originally Posted by petegz28:
I am sure they have....
I posted a couple of lengthy posts just a couple of pages back on how we were doing this 20+ years ago. This is a well known option.
If these Dotors are just now using this technique they are ****ing idiots need to lose their license. This would be a level of incompetence akin to a patient is short of breath, but don't give them some oxygen. This is a 100% agreed to step by the medical community. a no-doubt decision. [Reply]
An end to the bullshit based on nothing more than politics?
Yes.
You are going to have perform quite the spin to go from trying certain medications to treat this in the hopes it works to it being purely politically motivated. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
I posted a couple of lengthy posts just a couple of pages back on how we were doing this 20+ years ago.
If these Dotors are just now using this technique they are fucking idiots need to lose their license. This would be a level of incompetence akin to a patient is short of breath, but don't give them some oxygen. This should be a 100% no-doubt decision.
yeah you just repeated what one of your quoted posts said... [Reply]
Originally Posted by mr. tegu:
You are going to have perform quite the spin to go from trying certain medications to treat this in the hopes it works to it being purely politically motivated.
I don't even understand the meaning of the sentence.
Most people were waiting for a response from Clinical Trials as to the efficacy of Plaquenil and a Zpac, while others were pushing it because of political agenda. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
I don't even understand the meaning of the sentence.
Most people were waiting for a response from Clinical Trials as to the efficacy of Plaquenil and a Zpac, while others were pushing it because of political agenda.
Some people surely have political agendas with it as some people unfortunately factor those in to almost everything they do or think. But these particular studies and hopes are not solely based in politics as you seemed to suggest. [Reply]
Michigan Medicine just changed its guidelines on prescribing these drugs. There’s a lot of excitement about whether these already existing options for malaria could be useful in COVID-19, but so far that excitement hasn’t materialized in patient care data.
“Our infectious disease division and our antimicrobial pharmacists have reviewed all the available data and we found no convincing evidence that these drugs were effective in treating people with COVID-19,” Kaul says.
That’s consistent with what’s been observed firsthand in Michigan Medicine’s hospitals.
“We haven’t seen any clear evidence of benefit so we aren’t going to use hydroxychloroquine routinely anymore,” Chopra says. “We were initially recommending it to both inpatients and outpatients, but we’re no longer doing that routinely. That’s based upon the fact that we’ve been prescribing hydroxychloroquine for a few weeks, did not see therapeutic benefit, but did see adverse effects.” [Reply]
Public service announcement:
If you have asthma or COPD and use an albuterol inhaler for acute Shortness of breath or maintenance, I'd recommend you get stocked up on your inhalers ASAP. Get a couple of months supply if you dont already have that much in your possession. [Reply]
Wow. Manhattan, KS just canceled summer. I wonder if other KS cities will follow...
Manhattan is also making other changes to reduce costs:
- Cancel the 2020 swimming pool season
- Cancel the 2020 youth and adult sports leagues
- Cancel parks and recreation sponsored camps, activities and events
- The Arts in the Parks concert season cancelled
- Continued closure of City facilities and attractions to the public
- Delaying some planning and infrastructure projects
- Eliminating travel and reducing training budgets
- Selective hiring freeze of new employees
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud:
I don't even understand the meaning of the sentence.
Most people were waiting for a response from Clinical Trials as to the efficacy of Plaquenil and a Zpac, while others were pushing it because of political agenda.
You mean a political agenda of saving lives? [Reply]