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.”
When weighing evidence you'd like to have several high-quality RCTs or even better, meta-analyses of RCTs (think of them as compiling information from several randomized trial and weighing the data cumulatively to make a more informed decision with less potential for statistical error). However, you can eventually come to reasonably well-informed decisions in the absence of RCTs if you have a lot of observational data...and it takes a lot.
The Lancet study was one example, the VA study another, as well as the studies in JAMA and NEJM. Weighing all of that together is what allowed Fauci to state this with confidence.
Most places that I am aware of have already removed hydroxychloroquine from their treatment protocols. I imagine it will accelerate greatly after this announcement, the French decision, and the WHO's decision to pause the hydroxychloroquine arm in the SOLIDARITY trial.
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May 27 (UPI) -- Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday hydroxychloroquine, a drug President Donald Trump said he has taken to ward off the coronavirus, is not an effective treatment based on the latest scientific data.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made his most definitive statement yet against the drug once touted by Trump as a possible treatment.
"The scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy," Fauci, the White House's top infectious disease expert, said.
His statement comes on the heels of France banning the drug altogether Wednesday and the internationally respected science journal The Lancet publishing a 96,000-patient study that concluded hydroxychloroquine had no effect on COVID-19.
RELATED WHO suspends trials of hydroxychloroquine, citing safety
France's decision was published in the country's official legal journal, ending the drug's use as a weapon in the pandemic just weeks after French epidemiologist Dr. Didier Raoult recommended it as a key tool against the coronavirus disease.
Tuesday, the French High Council of Public Health and National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products said hydroxychloroquine has shown higher rates of death and cardiac arrhythmia in COVID-19 patients.
French health minister Olivier Veran ordered the assessments last weekend after the study in The Lancet. The study also reported increased death rates and irregular heartbeat among COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine.
Hydroxychloroquine and related drug chloroquine have been used as anti-malarial drugs for decades and are sometimes used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Trump and others have said hydroxychloroquine could be a potential treatment for COVID-19 or to prevent infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Heart Association, however, have warned that using it without medical supervision can lead to a greater risk of cardiac arrest. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Monticore:
Translates to “Furious piece of shit “actually .
See, the irony in this case is that BleedingRed was calling you a mult for page after page while aping his buddy SHTSPRAYER, who was an infamous DC troll for years before someone finally decided to shove his ass out of the airlock. Merde is a SHTSPRAYER mult. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins:
See, the irony in this case is that BleedingRed was calling you a mult for page after page while aping his buddy SHTSPRAYER, who was an infamous DC troll for years before someone finally decided to shove his ass out of the airlock. Merde is a SHTSPRAYER mult.
Just to be clear, there's nothing stopping people from starting new threads. If this one is too much of a shit show to be useful, start new threads on specific topics, and see how it goes. [Reply]