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 Lzen:
Those are all good points. However, we have to remember a couple of things. First, medicine does not know everything. Doctors get things wrong all of the time. Second, not all doctors agree.
Definitely... for the most part, I'd say scientists and doctors know they don't know everything (there are obviously the arrogant douchebags, just like in any other career).
Hell, I've been in IT for almost 20 years now and just a few weeks ago dug myself into quite the hole and ended up wasting a couple hours of my time and others' time believing I knew the problem, just for it to be the equivalent of "have you tried rebooting"..... confidence backed by years of experience can bite you in the ass sometimes, but having that confidence in the first place doesn't mean you don't know in the back of your head that you could be wrong... and it doesn't mean you're just an arrogant know-it-all scientist/doctor/IT geek.
The hurricane tracking analogy has been used a lot here... and maybe you study hurricanes for years and that bumps up your knowledge from completely guessing to your educated guess giving you a 10% higher chance of being right. And maybe you have the chance to learn a little from each time you track.
How many pandemics does someone get to learn from in a career in infectious diseases? Of course they're going to be wrong... a lot.
Tell Patrick Mahomes right after college that after all of his practice, college games etc; he can only go out and throw one pass per NFL season, but he needs to learn from that one pass/game, or otherwise he sucks and all that practice meant nothing. And a guy on the internet would think he could do better in the same situation. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
Here is what one of the commanders of Taiwan's Infectious Disease Teams said in interview they are doing and really is what we should be doing.
This would be cool but I know many would freak out about this
The Pentagon is working with a prominent technology company to use body-worn sensors to identify Americans infected with the novel coronavirus even before symptoms start to appear. https://t.co/DT1lFTgfr8
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
Here's how the physIQ technology works: Each patient attaches an electronic sensor to their chest or wrist. The sensors measure vital signs in infected patients, and that data is continuously relayed back to physIQ, whose self-described "artificial intelligence systems" then identify changes in the body and likely indicators of infection.
I wonder how it transmits. Maybe it just collects the data and uploads it once the person gets inside Wi-Fi range. I doubt it's cellular. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
This would be cool but I know many would freak out about this
The Pentagon is working with a prominent technology company to use body-worn sensors to identify Americans infected with the novel coronavirus even before symptoms start to appear. https://t.co/DT1lFTgfr8
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Are numerous countries in Europe currently handling this pandemic better than the US? Without a doubt. Are certain countries handling this poorly? Yes. Is Europe a monolith? No.
The total population of Europe is also 2.5 times that of the US, which means even if you treated it as a monolith that more people are dying per capita here than there. They are also farther along in the history of their epidemic, as it reached critical capacity there before here.
Originally Posted by Donger:
Moderna’s investigational vaccine for the novel coronavirus has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration to proceed to second phase of a study, the company said today in a press release.
The next phase of the trial is expected to begin shortly, it said.
The vaccine, mRNA-1273, was the first US vaccine to start clinical trials in the United States. Moderna said it is finalizing protocol for a phase 3 study, which is expected to begin in early summer.
Is phase 3 when Bill Gates shows up at the vaccine factory to personally sprinkle the nanochips into the batches? [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
This would be cool but I know many would freak out about this
The Pentagon is working with a prominent technology company to use body-worn sensors to identify Americans infected with the novel coronavirus even before symptoms start to appear. https://t.co/DT1lFTgfr8
Originally Posted by :
The NFL is now getting the word out regarding the link between optimism and testing, via the league office’s pipeline to the Washington Post.
“The NFL’s vision for a full season that begins on time — or close to it — could be bolstered by nationwide advances in the coming months in the availability of coronavirus tests, people in and around the league say,” Mark Maske of the Post writes. “Some say they can envision the season being played with strict protocols for the testing of players and coaches, with cautious policies guiding health practices for fans in stadiums and with teams and owners accepting competitive disparities resulting from varying state and local restrictions.”
The league previously had been tight-lipped about the anticipated proliferation of reliable and efficient diagnostic and antibody tests. The fact that this leak came within 24 hours of the schedule release should be regarded as a subtle reminder that the NFL does indeed know what it’s doing here, with a plan for all contingencies but an overriding confidence that contingencies won’t be needed.
As explained on Saturday, a 2020 NFL season would be prevented only if “the information gleaned from fighting and studying the coronavirus to date [is] proven dramatically incorrect by future behavior of the virus and the illness it causes in the people who are infected by it.”
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Vietnam, etc.
Comparing these places to the US makes no sense. You are listing countries completely spread out both geographically and culturally from each other, even more than the US. Three of those are islands, and one is virtually an island with NK as a border. If we want to play that game the more isolated states here are also doing better than others.
For example Wyoming, Montana, Hawaii, and Alaska are all doing better than Iceland in deaths per capita. Not surprisingly isolated regions are doing better. That’s the only thing we can draw from the countries you listed.
Let’s try countries more similar both geographically and culturally to each other and the US. Germany, France, Italy, UK, and Spain together have about the same population as the US. Together they have 120k deaths to our 75k.
The only one with lower deaths per capita than the US is Germany with the rest being way more than what we have.
Your comparison would be like someone in Italy saying they should have done whatever Alaska, Montana, Hawaii, and Wyoming did. [Reply]
