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 alnorth:
We are not going to stay home and stay publicly apart for more than a year while waiting for a vaccine (even early 2021 is thought to be optimistic). We could have aggressively locked down and quarantined anyone with symptoms in February, like other nations successfully did. Once we failed to do that, by March it was too late.
When the NFL and college football starts up, the people are going to collectively go "ok damn it, enough of this, let us assume the risk", and not want to listen to arguments about how they would therefore be infecting people at home or the store who didn't want to take the risk.
I agree to an extent. The other part of the problem is the 2 sides that get painted inaccurately:
Side 1: This is a death sentence if you get it and you're a selfish fuck if you don't hide in your house in a plastic bubble or go outside in a space suit.
Side 2: Fuck this, if I get it I get it.
Neither is accurate but people tend to lean one way or the other. The media doesn't help either side but particularly they are on side 1 for the most part. They want tragedy, pain and suffering. Their ratings thrive on it.
The reality is this can be a deadly virus and particularly for certain high-risk individuals. But in large part the virus is mild if you get it and most certainly not a automatic death sentence like AIDS once was. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
I was curious how it would look at the Lake of the Ozarks and I am not surprised. We had a shit ton of traffic come through here yesterday and today.
Originally Posted by petegz28:
I agree it was stupid for the person to show up if they were symptomatic. Now, define symptomatic because in this case we don't know what it is, right? Was it symptoms easily confused with allergies during a bad allergy season? Was she running a fever? Coughing?
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
We will never know At this stage in the game, stay the **** home and listen I realize this person probably needs to make money but cmon.
When I go back into the office I am going to be the symptom Nazi. I had a co-worker in the office across from me that her and her husband went on a cruise in late Jan-early February. She came back and coughed non stop for 2 weeks. That shit ain't happening anymore.
Why are we not allowed to know the symptoms the hairdresser was showing? Seems strange. It shouldn’t be a HIPAA issue if the hairdresser isn’t identified and hopefully she never is with the way they’re reporting this story. The only thing I’ve been able to find is that the symptoms were very minor. When digging through the Springfield-Greene county health district Facebook it seems a few people are trying to get answers of the symptoms and are being ignored. There are also some claiming to know her that says she got tested by an urgent care clinic and they told her it was allergies and she didn’t have enough symptoms for a test
I can vouch that the system is broken right now. I had “minor” symptoms earlier in the week with a low grade fever but still not enough for any actual symptoms according to the CDC. I don’t have a primary physician because mine died a few years back and I’ve been too busy and healthy lately to find a new one. So I called my health insurance and they referred me to urgent cares or teleconference doctors appointments to try and line up a test. The lady at the health board said my main “symptom” would be all the travel I do for work. Are they considering this lady traveling to be her “symptom”?
Anyways, the teleconference with the doctor just charged me 25 bucks to ask a bunch of questions without ever teleconferencing in. They then gave me a work release saying it was a sinus infection and that I should be good to go back to work Friday
I then called the health board back and asked if I should return to work on Friday after getting a note from a nurse practitioner that didn’t actually even see me. She said that she wouldn’t recommend it and referred me to another teleconference doctor recommended by the health board this time but the earliest they can see me is Tuesday morning. I told her technically I would need a doctors notes stating that I have symptoms keeping me from work until then , but the doctor is the only one who can write that work release.
I decided to play it safe and assume that the doctor I talk to on Tuesday will just give me a backdated work release (especially since my temp spiked over 100 yesterday) but I’ve been able to work through all of this stuff unaffected so far. I can’t say I would have played it safe under the same circumstances if I haven’t been paid in a couple months. Especially in an industry that’s obviously so busy right now.
Also, during the press conference announcing the news and berating the hairdresser for all of this contact tracing they’ve had to do, they somehow forgot the 6 foot distance and mask rules. For 20 minutes you see Clay Goddard standing RIGHT NEXT to the signer and both are clearly foregoing all of the CDC guidelines. I’m so glad I don’t live near there. That Clay Goddard seems like a complete idiot the more I look into this. “Do as we say, not as we do” [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
There are also some claiming to know her that says she got tested by an urgent care clinic and they told her it was allergies and she didn’t have enough symptoms for a test
If that is true then why wouldn't she go to work? [Reply]
Study: A majority of the population may have 'some degree' of preexisting immunity to COVID-19
Up to 60% of the population may have at least some protection against the virus.
Anew study from scientists in the United States suggests that a significant majority of the population may already have some level of immunity to the coronavirus, a possible explanation for why so many individuals seem to experience few to no symptoms from the disease.
The study, written by researchers in California, New York and North Carolina and soon to be published in the journal Cell, discovered that certain types of cells in blood samples taken from donors in 2015-2018—well before COVID-19 arose—were reactive against the COVID-19 virus. In other words, those blood samples were at least partially immune from the coronavirus even though they had never been exposed to it.
"CD4+ T cell responses were detected in 40-60% of unexposed individuals. This may be reflective of some degree of crossreactive, preexisting immunity to SARS- CoV-2 in some, but not all, individuals," the researchers state in the paper.
The scientists are careful to qualify their conclusions. "Whether this immunity is relevant in influencing clinical outcomes is unknown—and cannot be known without T cell measurements before and after SARS- CoV-2 infection of individuals—but it is tempting to speculate that the crossreactive CD4+ T cells may be of value in protective immunity," they write.
The research could provide an important clue for public health officials hoping to figure out why significant numbers of COVID-19 infections are either asymptomatic or else largely mild. The disease affects elderly and less healthy individuals most severely, with younger and healthy individuals for the most part spared its worst effects.
Though the term "coronavirus" has become ubiquitous in recent weeks as a way to describe the virus causing the current pandemic, coronaviruses are actually a variegated strain of infectious agents that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS.
The researchers in their paper suggest that the immune response seen in the uninfected blood samples could have been generated by the coronaviruses that cause the common cold.
Originally Posted by dirk digler:
I was curious how it would look at the Lake of the Ozarks and I am not surprised. We had a shit ton of traffic come through here yesterday and today.
Originally Posted by stevieray:
We do that every single day, as it is.
That's pithy, but it's an oversimplification. There are all kinds of risks that people take, but risks are not binary. Driving the speed limit for two miles with your seat belt on is an assumed risk, but it is altogether different from driving 110 in the middle of town with a BAC of 0.25.
There was risk to Londoners during the Blitz, but it's not the same risk as running throughout the streets or leaving their lights on during bombing raids.
Sheltering in place for a few months and then limiting your contact with others and practicing good hygiene and social distancing for several months thereafter is not surrendering the entirety of your life, and it's flatly insulting to those who are going to have to risk their lives (healthcare workers) to treat people that get sick because they can't stay away from a pool or a bar for a summer. [Reply]
There are numerous studies that suggest if 80% of people wear a mask in public, then COVID-19 transmission could be halted. Until a vaccine or a cure for COVID-19 is discovered, cloth face masks might be the most important tool we currently have to fight the pandemic.
Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy:
Just the ones in the past few months or in the history of man?
Well, as we can't yet go back in time and distribute tens of millions of doses of doxycycline or streptomycin around 14th century Europe for example, I'm going to assume he's referring to the things that we can actually change now with a few seconds of effort and the horrible discomfort of cotton rubbing against your nose for a little while. [Reply]