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.”
One thing to note about our Case numbers is we have officially as of this morning tested more of our own citizens than anyone else in the world. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BleedingRed:
One thing to note about our Case numbers is we have officially as of this morning tested more of our own citizens than anyone else in the world.
That's good.
Still wish we had immobilize individualized numbers done by counties/states. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BleedingRed:
One thing to note about our Case numbers is we have officially as of this morning tested more of our own citizens than anyone else in the world.
Props to the health care workers on the front lines of fighting this virus. Thet are putting their lifes on the line to help others.
As I said before, if I hadnt changed the PPE out between patients, I'd been fired, Thats how seriously it endangers the other patents and myself. Our health care workers are instead of changing out masks and PPE's with every patient, they are now forced to use the same PPE for all patients increasing the risks to their lifes and patients.
KC nurse hit by COVID-19. The scariest part, she says? She never showed the symptoms
Originally Posted by :
For Rachel Bullock, 26, the most frightening part of testing positive for the coronavirus disease is not that it exhausted her.
“Something I have never experienced, worse than mono,” the Kansas Citian shared on social media. One day, she slept for 16 hours.
Nor was it that the virus caused her to vomit or have diarrhea. She would lose six pounds in a matter of days.
Or oddly, that she couldn’t smell or taste a fresh cup of coffee or tell if a Popsicle was cold. The illness stole both her sense of smell and taste.
“As I continue to improve, I hope it comes back,” she said Tuesday.
No, most frightening to Bullock, a nurse, is that for several days — not long after she returned March 11 from a Vail, Colorado, ski trip and started getting what she thought was a normal stuffy nose, small headache, pain behind her eyes — her symptoms were so mild that she had no idea that she was walking around with COVID-19.
She went to her job at a Kansas City area hospital that next weekend for a couple of days. Although compulsive about social distancing and taking other sanitation precautions, she did treat some patients. She knew she felt a bit tired but thought it was the toll of a 12-hour shift.
Bullock did not exhibit — and to this day has not exhibited — either the hallmark dry cough or fever known to be the two most common symptoms of the infection now sweeping the world.
“I never had a fever,” Bullock told The Star on Tuesday. She spoke by phone from home, where she has stayed in self-isolation since she was told on Friday that she had tested positive for the disease. “Any cough I had was normal. It was like ‘I needed to clear my throat’ kind of thing.”
Bullock recently posted a timeline of her experience on Facebook. Upset at news in Florida and elsewhere about people still refusing to practice social distancing, she wants people to heed the cautions. At 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, stay-at-home orders went into effect throughout the Kansas City area.
A TRIP TO COLORADO
The only reason Bullock considered that she might have the virus is that, after returning from Colorado with her fiance and his family, she saw a March 15 alert by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Otherwise, she never would have thought to try to get tested.
She was already at work on that day, a Sunday. The alert recommended that anyone who had traveled to Colorado’s Eagle, Summit, Pitkin and Gunnison counties within the last week go on 14-day quarantine.
That was her. Vail is in Eagle County. She took her temperature: 99.6. A bit elevated, but she didn’t feel feverish and it didn’t meet the 100.4-degree criteria for possible viral infection or testing.
“This comes out while I’m at work,” Bullock wrote of the alert. “(I) don’t feel feverish at all, just tired and ready to go home.
“I’m walking to my car and I call my Mom. I’m really upset because I felt so bad that I had been working and this mandatory quarantine notice came out. It’s hard as a nurse . . . you want to help. . . . My mom asked if I have any symptoms. The truth was I did have symptoms, but none of the COVID flagged symptoms. I was exhausted, my joints were hurting, and on the rather long walk to my car, while on the phone, I did feel a bit short of breath.”
She didn’t know whether those symptoms were the virus, or just her anxiety. Still, no cough. No fever.
The next day, March 16, she called a COVID-19 employee hot line and alerted them that she had been in Eagle County. She’d already hunkered down at home, ready to self-quarantine for at least 14 days.
“Good thing, too,” Bullock recounted, “because I am bed bound.” She slept from 6 p.m. that night until nearly 10 the following morning.
Tuesday, March 17 arrived.
“I feel terrible and a different kind of terrible than I have ever felt,” she wrote. Still no fever or cough.
A nurse listened to her concerns, about her trip to Eagle County, and agreed to set an appointment for her to be tested the next day, Wednesday, March 18, at 11 a.m. That day she vomited once, had diarrhea twice. And she was two days in to having lost her sense of smell and taste.
“The first time I noticed it, when I was at home Monday morning, my roommate had made coffee,” she told The Star. “That is so weird, I can’t smell it. I poured myself a cup and I couldn’t taste it.
“I also couldn’t tell the difference between hot and cold. I could see it steaming, but there was like no sensation there. When I tried to have a Popsicle the next day, I couldn’t even tell it was cold.”
On Thursday, a week after her first cold-like symptoms appeared, she was feeling a bit better but still exhausted and lay down for five hours. No appetite or — still — a fever or cough.
Friday, March 20: “More energy than I’ve had all week,” she wrote. At 6:20 p.m., she received a call about her test: positive for COVID-19.
“Why do I share this information,” Bullock wrote. “I never had a fever, I never had a cough, my shortness of breath was so hard to detect it felt like I was inventing it at times. My hallmark symptoms were fatigue, EXTREME fatigue, some congestion, some body aches, and a headache.”
She continued, “On those little ‘Covid v. Flu v. Cold v. Allergies’ I basically flunked every single category.” She never experienced the prime symptoms, but she tested positive.
“I’m so sorry there isn’t mass testing available,” she wrote. “It sucks.”
Bullock worried that there are likely countless people like her out there, largely asymptomatic when it comes to COVID-19’s prime identifiers, but who nonetheless have the potential to unwittingly transmit the virus.
“Do what you can to help people not get the virus by pulling back and kind of keeping to yourself,” she said by phone. “People really have to pay attention. If it (your health) is different from your normal day, then that would be a red flag.”
IS SHE IMMUNE NOW?
Thirteen days after her return from Colorado, when she noticed the first twinges of fatigue, Bullock feels all but healed.
“I’m feeling actually really great today,” she said on Tuesday. “I would say Sunday was probably my first symptom-free day, and yesterday I really started to feel more like myself. Today, I don’t really notice anything, so feeling good.”
Bullock lives with her fiance, Henry Depew, and two other roommates. None have gotten symptoms. All are quarantining at home with Bullock. Bullock’s wedding is scheduled for August.
“We’ll see how that unfolds. If it needs to get changed, then we’ll change it,” she said.
Guidelines out of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hold that those who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have remained in home isolation can leave under the following conditions.
▪ No fever for at least 72 hours (three full days ) without the use of medications to reduce fever. And ...
▪ Other symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath have improved. And ...
▪ At least seven days have passed since symptoms first appeared.
Bullock, of course, never had a cough or fever. She’s counting Monday as her first symptom-free day. Technically, she can end her self-isolation beginning this Sunday. She could return to work, but instead plans on remaining home until the end of next week.
It is still unclear whether those who contract the novel coronavirus are immune to reinfection and, if so, how strong that immunity might be. Bullock hopes that she is immune so that she can better help others.
“I do get to go back to work,” she said. “I’m still going to give a buffer on that. It would be great to be able to go back to work and help in any scenario that I can.”
