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 Bugeater:
I have no idea what exactly is going on here, but the US being on top and China at the bottom makes it smell like bullshit.
China's got like a billion more people than the US. They're surely undercounting cases but realize that if they had the same percentage of cases we have, they'd be at like 9.2 million cases. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
It's an animated version of this graph over time, and it looks like they filtered out some smaller countries... either way, the US is #1 and China relatively has their shit together now.
That kind of puts the events of the past week or so in perspective.
I wonder, personally, if the uptick in cases recently among young people isn't partly because we are testing tons of young people now, whereas we were not when tests were harder to come by. Thus, perhaps we're finding a lot of cases in younger demos that always existed, but we never would have detected before. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bugeater:
Ehhh....there's something more to this. Election year...divided nation...nothing seems to be off limits. I'll leave it at that. Call me a conspiritard...I don't fucking care one goddamn bit. I'm not fucking stupid.
The information is widely available. From any number of reputable sources.
Also keep in mind it's cases per million in population. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Eleazar:
That kind of puts the events of the past week or so in perspective.
I wonder, personally, if the uptick in cases recently among young people isn't partly because we are testing tons of young people now, whereas we were not when tests were harder to come by. Thus, perhaps we're finding a lot of cases in younger demos that always existed, but we never would have detected before.
Maybe to some degree. Occam's razor guys. Why is it so hard to believe that when things reopened and people were allowed to gather in large numbers in bars, numbers among young people went up?
Everything doesn't have to be a conspiracy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Maybe to some degree. Occam's razor guys. Why is it so hard to believe that when things reopened and people were allowed to gather in large numbers in bars, numbers among young people went up?
Everything doesn't have to be a conspiracy.
It definitely did but it so far hasn’t necessarily everywhere.
I don’t think these are necessarily the highest numbers. If we’d tested this much early, I think there’d have been this many earlier as well [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
It definitely did but it so far hasn’t necessarily everywhere.
I don’t think these are necessarily the highest numbers. If we’d tested this much early, I think there’d have been this many earlier as well
That's probably true. Not sure if it would have skewed this young... it's pretty clear at this point that younger people think they're generally immune, while some older people are probably being more cautious. [Reply]
I don't understand how other countries were able to contain it so successfully. We potentially had half a million infected before we knew we had a problem. What are you supposed to do with that?
It seems very likely that this thing was spreading all over the damn world before we knew what it was. How did those places stop it?? [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Maybe to some degree. Occam's razor guys. Why is it so hard to believe that when things reopened and people were allowed to gather in large numbers in bars, numbers among young people went up?
Everything doesn't have to be a conspiracy.
I agree with you completely. Bars and large social gatherings are the culprit here. I just think that’s a factor in the case counts to some degree or another and why we should watch hospital census and ICU census more closely. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TLO:
I don't understand how other countries were able to contain it so successfully. We potentially had half a million infected before we knew we had a problem. What are you supposed to do with that?
It seems very likely that this thing was spreading all over the damn world before we knew what it was. How did those places stop it??
If you really lock down and isolate for four weeks you can bring even a large number of cases down.
Afterwards, if you test, test, test, contact trace, and actually isolate as needed you can keep a handle on it.
Many countries made provisions for isolating individuals. From getting them their own room at a previous hotel to having social workers who would bring them groceries and pharmaceuticals as needed. And they were given financial support.
The US did a big financial support but it didn't reach everyone. We had\have a lot of workers who should be isolating but don't feel they can afford to.
The politicalzation of the response didn't help. [Reply]
Really sucks for everyone involved... easily spread among residents, exposes staff, and loved ones can't enter those buildings when they're under quarantine. :-) [Reply]
