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 Mecca:
I don't really care if someone wants to take their own life in their hands, the problem is all of the other people they come in contact with that may not have that same opinion.
How is someone going to accidently come into contact with someone? I mean that's kind of a 2 way street, both people have to be out and about. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Lets not forget how many Hospitals are laying off employees btw.
We were worried about not overwhelming our medical facilities and yet a local hospital in San Diego (a county of over 9 million) just laid off 300 people....and that's happening across the country.
I mean...it's not adding up.
Exactly. The goal posts moved quickly when the hospitals were not being slammed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by petegz28:
Exactly. The goal posts moved quickly when the hospitals were not being slammed.
The places that locked down early shouldn't have been overwhelmed and that was the goal and those places will likely be able to go back to normal sooner. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
Our parents and grandparents scarified for years during WWII and rationed food etc. We have only been doing this a couple of months and people are ready to give up. Yes we can't do this forever but we should be doing it until June at least and to be honest we should have been doing the super lockdown instead of half ass measures.
Uh, but they didn't shut down the entire economy in the process. In fact, business in general was booming, so to say, it was just that certain products and commodities were in short supply to the public. But everyone was working that was able and wanted to work. And the country's GDP reached unprecedented levels during WWII.
Even in England, when they were getting bombed daily, they were working. The RAF fended off the German air raids well enough to protect their industries well enough to continue the war effort. It's what saved them really. The fact that they didn't allow their economy to collapse allowed them to survive the war in better shape than most conquered countries. [Reply]
When a patient presents to the hospital with bacteremia there is a pretty clear protocol that is followed: first you get blood cultures from two separate sites to ensure that a contaminant doesn't give you a dirty result. From there, you begin treating aggressively with empiric therapy. After the culture and sensitivity results you continue treating for two weeks past the date of the first negative culture.
You don't stop at day three. If you want the ability to get back to life sooner, you need to stop adopting half-assed solutions that are likely to delay resolution and worsen the underlying cause.
The reason why public health experts want two straight weeks of declining infection rates isn't to inconvenience you--it's to ensure that it is safer to go outside. The reason why we want more testing before opening up isn't to put the shackles on you--it's to better understand the spread of the disease and find hotspots before they fester into conflagrations.
I used to have to talk to heart failure patients before they were discharged from the hospital. We'd explain to them the mechanism of the disease, why they took the drugs, what the benefits were, what the risks were, and what lifestyle modifications they need to make. We didn't do it to limit their freedom--we did it to keep them safe.
If this was a disease that only you could catch by going out and flouting these rules, then I'd be more than happy to let watch you let loose after explaining the risks. But it doesn't just affect you. [Reply]