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 FlintHillsChiefs:
Current growth suggests we'll be hitting 5k new cases and 100 + deaths a day within 10 days. Right now our cases are doubling every 2 days, and we've gone from 4 deaths to 58 in 3 days.
In answer to your post about SARS, the characteristics of Covid-19 and SARS are different and merit a different response. SARS was not contiguous while asymptomatic, and the R0 was almost half of Covid-19
The wife and I did our weekly grocery shopping this evening at Hy-Vee. There was a normal weekend crowd and we were able to get everything we came for except some ground turkey. There were short supplies on some items and although we weren't in the market for any, the store was out of TP and hand sanitizer. All in all, a much easier experience than I expected. [Reply]
Driving around today I also noticed that places like Target and Walmart didn’t look too bad. I guess so many people got their shopping done the last few days but it didn’t look nearly as bad as I thought it would. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
The numbers are growing by the day. So quickly that not all of them are included in the state’s official coronavirus count.
It’s why Holy Name CEO Mike Maron thinks all the attention the coronavirus has been getting in New Jersey — from the school closings, banning of public gatherings, suspensions of pro sports leagues and even the fights over toilet paper and bottled water — is not enough. Not even close.
“There is absolute reason to be extremely cautious, to be very concerned,” he said.
Maron and his staff are working around the clock under the most trying of conditions. The vitally important single-use N95 masks that are needed to care for patients who have been identified — you know, the ones the state is running out of? Holy Name went through 795 of them. Just on Friday. By 7 p.m.
“They say we are getting more,” he said. “And we’ve asked (Gov. Phil Murphy) to get into the stockpile. We need them.”
The same goes for test results.
Maron said he has given up on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“They haven’t even confirmed our first case,” he said.
He knows the state lab is overloaded. And, while Maron praised the efforts of LabCorp — “they’ve really been great to work with” — he has seen firsthand, every day for a week, how quickly the disease can spread.
“The labs are very, very slow,” he said. “I’m still waiting to hear back on two of my cases that are in ICU. We’ve seen enough patients that our team feels it can make a diagnosis. We’re not taking any chances. We’re isolating people.
“Forget about all that ‘presumptive’ stuff.”
Maron is a widely respected health care executive because he has proven a single-entity hospital can compete in quality of care with the bigger systems that surround him. He now knows Holy Name has another distinction.
“Holy Name is at the epicenter of the outbreak in New Jersey,” he said.
Maron said the past week has been unlike any other in his more than four-decade career.
“I can fall back on my cholera experiences in Haiti, which was devastating, considering the lack of basic medical supplies after the earthquake — and then the other things that came here, everything from MERS and SARS, and even when we ramped up for Ebola — this is unprecedented,” he said.
“I can tell you, it’s real.”
***
Maron wants to get the word out. He wants to let everyone in the state know how bad this can be. His team is living it. And his reality, he said, is not matching what he’s seeing in the media.
“I’ve seen a bunch of headlines. Some people are out there saying: ‘They’re overplaying this. It’s not that contagious. It’s a little bit like the flu.’ It’s not.
“What we’ve seen in the patients who ultimately are positive is that things can turn very rapidly. We had a patient that we were thinking about releasing — he seemingly was recovering — and then, two days later, he was put in the ICU. The flu isn’t like that. People need to know this.”
Things are progressing that quickly, he said.
***
And Maron needs to only look at one of his colleagues to see it.
“One of my employees, who is a beloved guy here, got it in the community and came in,” he said. “We had him in our ER in isolation. We were monitoring him, and the decision was: ‘He seems to be doing a little bit better. We think we’re going to discharge him home under self-isolation and monitor him from there.’ But we wanted to wait another hour or two because we were just seeing a little indication that something’s not right.
“In that two hours, he decompensated so fast. He is one of the ones in the ICU on a ventilator. He’s fighting for his life. It goes that quick.
“That’s what people aren’t seeing. The flu doesn’t do that to you. These people are going from being moderately OK to being on a vent. And the next thing that happens is they start to decompensate, and then you get into organ failure.”
Originally Posted by mr. tegu:
Driving around today I also noticed that places like Target and Walmart didn’t look too bad. I guess so many people got their shopping done the last few days but it didn’t look nearly as bad as I thought it would.
I was at Target today
No canned vegetables
No canned beans
No soup
No TP, no bleach, no sanitizer, no paper towels, no wipes
No pasta
No canned meats.
No bottled water
No milk
No butter
No eggs [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dartgod:
The wife and I did our weekly grocery shopping this evening at Hy-Vee. There was a normal weekend crowd and we were able to get everything we came for except some ground turkey. There were short supplies on some items and although we weren't in the market for any, the store was out of TP and hand sanitizer. All in all, a much easier experience than I expected.
I just got home from Hy-Vee and there were a bunch of empty shelves beyond just the toilet paper area. But as I was standing in line a lady walked up behind me with two items in her arms. While I didn’t have much in my cart I offered to let her go ahead of me. As I looked more closely at what she was holding I noticed it was two six packs of TP. I told her as she passed and thanked me that I was curious where she found those packages. She pointed ahead of us beyond the register and said, “Right there.” There day a pallet with TP and sings that said limit of 2. Even though I don’t really need them right now, there is no telling how long this stupidity is going to last so I grabbed my limit.
And I’m not above selling one, or even both, of the packages for a tidy profit to people who are actively engaging in this hysteria. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SupDock:
I was at Target today
No canned vegetables
No canned beans
No soup
No TP, no bleach, no sanitizer, no paper towels, no wipes
No pasta
No canned meats.
No bottled water
No milk
No butter
No eggs
Drive farther away and you'll find what you need. Or order on Amazon. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Yeah this is ridiculous. US Customs response on twitter was apologizing it was taking so long but it is because they are screening people for the virus.
What good is screening people for the virus if you are packing them in like sardines first? They are still passing the virus to others like that who won't test positive for it right away.
My god... Some of you need to think before you post.. Everyone in Customs just got of a plane they were on for 5+ hours with the same people they are around in custom line... They are under instructions to self quarantine if they don't test positive for the virus, if they are positive then they can be treated and quarantined. How would you suggest they go through customs and be tested? Do you now understand why travel is being banned from most foreign countries...:-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief:
My god... Some of you need to think before you post.. Everyone in Customs just got of a plane they were on for 5+ hours with the same people they are around in custom line... They are under instructions to self quarantine if they don't test positive for the virus, if they are positive then they can be treated and quarantined. How would you suggest they go through customs and be tested? Do you now understand why travel is being banned from most foreign countries...:-)
Your point is valid, unfortunately people are in contact with people on multiple different planes.
Hopefully everyone is able to self quarantine, unfortunately a lot of them will be coming home to empty refrigerators [Reply]
That is depressing but it had some good info such as the peak point is predicted to be in 2 weeks. Bad news is us males seem to get it the hardest [Reply]
