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.”
I know this borders on the political but you have to take it all into context. When you allow people to "protest" without crying about Covid and then scream you want to defund the Police force then you can't expect them to suddenly put themselves (the Police) in a potentially bad situation because you suddenly want to re-focus on Covid. This is a case lesson in the fact that every action has an equal and opposite rection...
Originally Posted by :
Sacramento Sheriff’s Office won’t enforce CA Gov. Newsom’s new mask order
It is heartening to see a news report note the increase in testing as part of its discussion about new cases. However, in a rush to contain the freedom genie that has been released in the wake of Black Lives Matters demonstrations, Governor Gavin Newsom is re-mandating that masks be worn in all public places.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings, including when shopping, taking public transit or seeking medical care, after growing concerns that an increase in coronavirus cases has been caused by residents failing to voluntarily take that precaution.
Newsom’s order came a week after Orange County rescinded a requirement for residents to wear masks and as other counties across California were debating whether to join local jurisdictions that had mandated face coverings.
“Simply put, we are seeing too many people with faces uncovered — putting at risk the real progress we have made in fighting the disease,” Newsom said in a statement. “California’s strategy to restart the economy and get people back to work will only be successful if people act safely and follow health recommendations. That means wearing a face covering, washing your hands and practicing physical distancing.”
Under state law, residents who violate the new requirement could be charged with a misdemeanor and potentially face a financial penalty. The Sacramento Sheriff’s Office has already announced it will not enforce this order:
In a statement Friday, the Sheriff’s Office recommended people should be “exercising safe practices” during the pandemic, including wearing masks, but said it would be “inappropriate” would criminally enforce the governor’s order, or target people and businesses for failing to do so.
“Due to the minor nature of the offense, the potential for negative outcomes during enforcement encounters, and anticipating the various ways in which the order may be violated, it would be inappropriate for deputies to criminally enforce the Governor’s mandate,” a statement from Sheriff Scott Jones said.
Originally Posted by petegz28:
We cannot say for a fact exactly to what extent mitigation helped or didn't. There is no possible way to do so because we don't have a parallel reality in which we did 0 mitigation to compare it to. All we can do is make an educated guess.
Sure we do....,Look at AZ. Bunch of dumbasses here with no mitigation. Cases and hospitalization going through the roof. [Reply]
Originally Posted by lewdog:
Sure we do....,Look at AZ. Bunch of dumbasses here with no mitigation. Cases and hospitalization going through the roof.
So then what's the excuse for CA? Again, lew, I am not saying mitigation has not helped. I am merely stating the very obvious (to many) fact that you cannot say as an absolute fact what extent mitigation has had on things.
You would have to have literally a parallel universe in which everything was exactly the same and we didn't do mitigation. It's rather simple but people just want to jump to "mitigation has helped". Sure it has but we don't know if it has helped as much as we think or even more than we think. [Reply]
Originally Posted by petegz28:
I know this borders on the political but you have to take it all into context. When you allow people to "protest" without crying about Covid and then scream you want to defund the Police force then you can't expect them to suddenly put themselves (the Police) in a potentially bad situation because you suddenly want to re-focus on Covid. This is a case lesson in the fact that every action has an equal and opposite rection...
Originally Posted by jjjayb:
Whoa, no way, more testing equals more positives?!?! I never would have guessed that would happen. How's the death rate doing?
Enjoy your fear porn circle jerk.
Deaths follow hospitalizations which follow infections.
Death is the lagging indicator with the biggest gap from infection. The decline in deaths that you are noting there is due to mitigation strategies. The 60,000 people that died in April weren't infected two days earlier; they were infected largely before the lockdowns were initiated.
The reason why people are concerned about increased rates of percent positive tests and hospitalizations is because those will axiomatically translate to an increase in daily deaths.
I don't know how many times some of you have to spike the football on the 45 before you'd learn that it's a bad idea. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
Deaths follow hospitalizations which follow infections.
Death is the lagging indicator with the biggest gap from infection. The decline in deaths that you are noting there is due to mitigation strategies. The 60,000 people that died in April weren't infected two days earlier; they were infected largely before the lockdowns were initiated.
The reason why people are concerned about increased rates of percent positive tests and hospitalizations is because those will axiomatically translate to an increase in daily deaths.
I don't know how many times some of you have to spike the football on the 45 before you'd learn that it's a bad idea.
I’m hopeful a large portion of these new infections are mild and asymptomatic so we won’t have death spikes. Couples with our knowledge of better ways to treat this as well.
Originally Posted by O.city:
I’m hopeful a large portion of these new infections are mild and asymptomatic so we won’t have death spikes. Couples with our knowledge of better ways to treat this as well.
Hopefully at least
I'm starting to think that covid-19 isn't as fatal as first thought, and if deaths don't increase by August or so, I think that theory will be proven correct. I'm not saying there aren't serious cases, but like I said before, there are millions of people around the world that are infected, yet just 1% of infections are in a hospital and that rate will probably continue to go down.
Yes, this thing can still kill you if you're old or have other health issues, but if you're relatively healthy, there's really nothing to worry about from what I'm seeing right now. [Reply]
This study, comparing regions of Germany that mandated mask wearing at different points in time, estimates mask wearing decreased the daily growth in infections by 40%.
Originally Posted by cdcox:
This study, comparing regions of Germany that mandated mask wearing at different points in time, estimates mask wearing decreased the daily growth in infections by 40%.
Originally Posted by sedated:
No evidence is good enough unless there is literally a parallel universe to compare it to :-)
That's not what I said but feel free to keep putting words in my mouth. Even his article used the word "estimated" but again, feel free to ignore that and\or redefine it as well. [Reply]
So a legitimate question I'm looking to have answered.
There's no arguing that the trends in hospitalizations in some areas are troubling.
However we're also seeing increases in daily numbers of positives in a number of states (this has been going on for a while, but we're not seeing huge spikes in hospitalization numbers)
Is this because we are testing much more than we were previously, thus turning up many more positives than we'd have seen before?
Or is the virus just spreading at that much higher rate? [Reply]