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 O.city: You're essentially trying to buy time. Buy time to stock up materials for hospitals and capacity (should have done that in January or Feb, but thats in the past and here we are). Buy time for a therapeutic (prophylactic antibodies will be here late spring early summer).
You can't buy time for a vaccine. They're saying 18 months, the average vaccine takes about 5 years so i wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
So in the end, yeah, you needed either a better plan or be better at relaying what the actual plan was.
Which requires far more political will than the American public is demonstrating. It requires more backbone than people standing up saying "My god, is this America?" when these projections come out.
Because the people that are dying right now? They're not dying because the system collapsed or because it failed them. They're not dying because they weren't getting treatment. The vast majority of the people dying right now received excellent care and it didn't do fuck-all.
Because this disease sucks bawls and our body has no method of dealing with it at the moment.
And even with that, people are at each other's throats. People are calling lagging indicators a sign of the Apocalypse or using them as justification for calling for soldiers on the streets.
When this was just goddamn near unavoidable. Some have not been - the PPE and healthcare providers getting sick is maddening and yeah, something that shouldn't be happening. But these are major outliers within the raw numbers and its the raw numbers that are freaking people out. The raw numbers wouldn't be appreciably different regardless of the amount of PPE available.
And again, this is all fucking terrible. But if people haven't really understood what the paths forward were...I just don't know how you can impart that to them. This seemed clear on its face from the beginning. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
Still not that simple. We're still moving people around to try and combat hot spots, so how do you otherwise get a nurse from North Dakota to NYC? And what about people who have to travel for other treatments. I've got a friend whose mom is going to MD Anderson in Houston for treatment for a brain tumor (GBM). She doesn't do well in the car, so driving from KC to Houston isn't really an option.
I agree that travel should be severely limited, but I just don't think that completely shutting down airports is the answer.
That is a fair point and really no easy answers. It is going to hard to contain though if we keep allowing infected people to move around so easily. [Reply]
Shit's about to get real. The virus is one thing, the economy another. But the psychological effects are starting to hit. Riots, robberies and looting in the near future. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
But if people haven't really understood what the paths forward were...I just don't know how you can impart that to them. This seemed clear on its face from the beginning.
I think it's just an issue with people believing something could be true that's so unprecedented. If you read back in the first couple thousand posts in this thread, we had plenty of people (myself included, to some extent) who basically felt like this was just gonna be a bad flu season or another SARS 1.0. It was just incomprehensible that we'd literally have to shut down society for this.
Hell, my brother in law was adamant a week ago that this was all still way overblown. Unfortunately for him, he's a mechanic for the Denver FD, and they just had 9 guys test positive... [Reply]
Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY:
I've said the whole time I understand what we are doing and why. We need to get the supplies needed to our medical community who have been awesome.
Once they have what they need we need to open the economy up, immediately.
Originally Posted by MahiMike:
Shit's about to get real. The virus is one thing, the economy another. But the psychological effects are starting to hit. Riots, robberies and looting in the near future.
Air Force Academy relaxed restrictions after 2 cadets committed suicide last week.
I mean...that ain't summer camp to begin with. And to have people who had committed to that sort of regimented lifestyle prove unable to cope with it is eye-opening.
The psychological impacts are going to be immense. But I was told there's nothing to consider there and they were probably just looking for an excuse. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DaFace:
I think it's just an issue with people believing something could be true that's so unprecedented. If you read back in the first couple thousand posts in this thread, we had plenty of people (myself included, to some extent) who basically felt like this was just gonna be a bad flu season or another SARS 1.0. It was just incomprehensible that we'd literally have to shut down society for this.
Hell, my brother in law was adamant a week ago that this was all still way overblown. Unfortunately for him, he's a mechanic for the Denver FD, and they just had 9 guys test positive...
Yeah, cognitive dissonance can be rough.
And part of it is probably some feeling of crying wolf in the past. We've been told for a decade or more that X, Y or Z is going to kill tens of thousands of us. And a lot of that has reached fever pitch over the last few years.
It probably did a lot to close people down out of the box. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
Previous predictions were all worst case scenarios based on "if you do nothing....". So, you either overreact and never know if those numbers would have become a reality, or you do nothing and hope all of the smart people who devote their lives to this stuff actually had no idea what they were talking about when it comes to worst case scenarios.
Want to boost the economy or fill all the potholes? We should do something else with the billions invested in cancer research, since people die from heart disease and car accidents.
Granted, there's no risk of all of those categories combined all of a sudden filling up hospital beds to the point of choosing who lives and who dies while completely overwhelming healthcare workers.... which I'm sure would be great for the economy.
I pointed that out in my next post.We need to get the equipment to the health care providers and the beds needed, like taking over a hotel that isn't being used anyway. Then open up the economy again. It's looking like the devastation from this is going to be much larger on the back side. There are two sides to this. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MahiMike:
Shit's about to get real. The virus is one thing, the economy another. But the psychological effects are starting to hit. Riots, robberies and looting in the near future.
People fleeing the cities and heading out into the country side are going to be met with disdain and other things. There will be lots end up feeding the worms. [Reply]
Hell, my brother in law was adamant a week ago that this was all still way overblown. Unfortunately for him, he's a mechanic for the Denver FD, and they just had 9 guys test positive...
And if all 9 of those guys end up with mild/no symptoms you can imagine what your brother in law will be saying then...
It's hard to find a balance here, because there's enough data out there to support whatever it is you want to believe.
In a weird twist of reality, the D.C Corona Virus thread is starting to become the more grounded, calm thread for decent information. This thread feels like half the posters are having a panic attack. Pass me a goddamn bag im having trouble breathing in here. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chief Roundup:
People fleeing the cities and heading out into the country side are going to be met with disdain and other things. There will be lots end up feeding the worms.