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.”
And to think that all of this likely started because of a stupid live animal market in China.
Putting together a bunch of exotic animals in unsanitary conditions with millions of humans in crowded quarters, with the mixing/mutations of microbes and bacteria found in animal blood, flesh, saliva, etc.... what could go wrong. [Reply]
Man, this is bogus, man. The CoronaVirus (racist name by the way because everyone knows Corona is a MEXICAN beer, this is clearly an attack on the hispanic community) was designed by Big Pharma. A Billion dollars for the Corona Vaccine?
Who stands to profit off that? Big Pharma. Big pharma created the virus and released it so they could profit off the vaccine, man. [Reply]
Man, this is bogus, man. The CoronaVirus (racist name by the way because everyone knows Corona is a MEXICAN beer, this is clearly an attack on the hispanic community) was designed by Big Pharma. A Billion dollars for the Corona Vaccine?
Who stands to profit off that? Big Pharma. Big pharma created the virus and released it so they could profit off the vaccine, man.
Man, this is bogus, man. The CoronaVirus (racist name by the way because everyone knows Corona is a MEXICAN beer, this is clearly an attack on the hispanic community) was designed by Big Pharma. A Billion dollars for the Corona Vaccine?
Who stands to profit off that? Big Pharma. Big pharma created the virus and released it so they could profit off the vaccine, man.
I know a dude who would say almost those exact words, while wearing a 15 year old Widespread Panic T-shirt, high as f***. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
I recently read a book called Factfulness that tries to point out all of the weird (wrong) perceptions we have about how awful the world is. One of the concepts the author puts out there is that we should always be skeptical of "lonely numbers" - numbers that sound really bad, but we don't have any context for.
This is definitely a time for that. While 2,814 deaths from Coronavirus sounds bad, the flu kills between 291,000 and 646,000 each year, so we're nowhere near that level for now. It's just a question of how long it'll keep growing as fast as it is now.
The book also points out another common issue - people always assume that things will keep growing linearly. At some point, the spreading will taper off either due to human intervention or just because most of the vulnerable people have already been infected. It's just a matter of how long it takes us to get to that point.
Yup. it right now looks like a more contagious, more harmful version of the flu. That shouldn't undermine the emergency and clearly it's much much more of a public concern than the flu. But it's not ebola.
But yeah, a lot of the numbers are influenced by systems woefully unprepared for this. The disease will eventually be better detected, treated, and prevented. The areas that should be most concerned are areas with lousy public health infrastructure. It could mutate into something much worse but I'll worry about that only if we get there. [Reply]
It's just like this game Pandemic 2. The goal of this game is to create a virus that spreads around the world creating a pandemic and kills the population of the world. I can get every country but Madagascar they seem most safe unless that's where it originates.
People are going to freak out that I posted this. But it's 100% accurate. Unless testing and treatment are free (IE - no surprise out of network bills for 10s or 100s of $1000s), we're going to have a big problem.
Originally Posted by :
Last month, Osmel Martinez Azcue, a Miami resident, returned from a work trip in China with flu-like symptoms. He visited the hospital to make sure he didn't have the coronavirus, the Miami Herald reported.
Azcue had the flu, not the coronavirus. But he has limited insurance coverage and received a claim for $3,270 two weeks after his test. He'll be responsible for about $1,400 of that bill, according to the Herald.
How many people are going to self-report under these conditions? The former head of Eli-Lily just told congress that tests and vaccines are going to remain very expensive. The drug industry is seeing massive $$$ over this.
Good luck rolling the dice and finding out what your insurance covers and what it doesn't. A friend of mine just got a surprise bill for $10k a year after his kid was in the NICU. The hospital was in network but a doc working the floor wasn't (billed as an independent contractor of course). Lot's of people who think they have great insurance will find out they don't. [Reply]
