On Topic Discussion 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2)

[KaraBulut]

16-Jun-2020:

Global COVID-19 Mortality/Morbidity
- Global Cases reported: 8,079,076 (up from 7,945,479 / 1.7%) - *‬*133,597 new cases yesterday
- Global Deaths: 438,171 (up from 434,081) - **4,090 people died yesterday

US COVID-19 Mortality/Morbidity
- Cases reported in the US - 2,119,912 cases (up from 2,095,043 / 1.2% yesterday), ‬**25,843 new cases, 19.3% of world's new cases were in the US
- Yesterday's cases in NJ/NY - 842 (3.3%), outside NJ/NY - 25,001 (96.7%)
- Deaths reported in the US - 116,341 deaths, +594 deaths yesterday , 14.5% of the world's deaths yesterday were in the US
- Yesterday's Deaths in NJ/NY - 80 (13.1%), outside NJ/NY - 529 (86.9%)
- Testing: - 23,984,592 tests (up from 23,535,104 yesterday, +449,488 tests), 7.3% of the US population has been tested, 8.8% positive rate

Coronavirus cases/deaths in active countries (preference to countries with JUB members):

• US: 2,119,912 (up from 2,095,043 / +24,869 / 1.2%) - 116,341 deaths (+594)
• Brazil: 888,271 (up from 867,624 / +20,647 / 2.4%) - 43,959 deaths (+627)
• Russia: 544,725 (up from 536,484 / +8,241 / 1.5%) - 7,274 deaths (+193)
• India: 343,091 (up from 332,424 / +10,667 / 3.2%) - 9,900 deaths (+380)
• UK : 299,594 (up from 297,342 / +2,252 / 0.8%) - 42,054 deaths (+271)
• Iran : 192,439 (up from 189,876 / +2,563 / 1.3%) - 9,065 deaths (+115)
• Mexico: 150,264 (up from 146,837 / +3,427 / 2.3%) - 17,580 deaths (+439)
• Sweden: 53,323 (up from 52,383 / +940 / 1.8%) - 4,939 deaths (+48)

Coronavirus cases/deaths in recovering countries:

• Spain : 244,328 (up from 243,928 / +400 / 0.2%) - 27,136 deaths (+0)
• Italy : 237,500 (up from 236,989 / +511 / 0.2%) - 34,405 deaths (+60)
• France : 194,305 (up from 194,153 / +152 / 0.1%) - 29,439 deaths (+29)
• Germany : 188,220 (up from 187,682 / +538 / 0.3%) - 8,816 deaths (+13)
• Turkey: 179,831 (up from 178,239 / +1,592 / 0.9%) - 4,825 deaths (+18)
• Canada : 99,490 (up from 100,404 / +(914) / -0.9%) - 8,255 deaths (+37)
• China: 84,378 (up from 84,338 / +40 / 0.0%) - 4,638 deaths (+0)
• Belgium: 60,155 (up from 60,100 / +55 / 0.1%) - 9,663 deaths (+2)
• Netherlands : 49,295 (up from 49,155 / +140 / 0.3%) - 6,089 deaths (+5)
• Switzerland : 31,146 (up from 31,131 / +15 / 0.0%) - 1,939 deaths (+1)
• Ireland: 25,321 (up from 25,303 / +18 / 0.1%) - 1,706 deaths (+0)
• Japan: 17,481 (up from 17,439 / +42 / 0.2%) - 934 deaths (+5)
• South Korea : 12,155 (up from 12,121 / +34 / 0.3%) - 278 deaths (+1)
• Australia : 7,347 (up from 7,335 / +12 / 0.2%) - 102 deaths (+0)
• New Zealand: 1,506 (up from 1,504 / +2 / 0.1%) - 22 deaths (+0)

 

[rareboy]

Canada will slip over the 100,000 total cases today or tomorrow....with about 2,600 cases per million...higher than Germany, but still much lower than the US...which is probably why the border will remain closed until at least July 20th.

 

[talbot57]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281

At least it is a start at finding a treatment

 

[belamyi]

 

[KaraBulut]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281

At least it is a start at finding a treatment

The Press is not doing a very good job at presenting information about these findings. They did the same thing with hydroxychloroquine and millions was spent only to find that the treatment was not effective.

Dexamethasone is not a treatment for COVID-19. It's a corticosteroid drug (like Prednisone) that lowers inflammation. We already knew that patients who have respiratory conditions like asthma would improve if given a corticosteroid, so many hospitals were already giving COVID-19 patients corticosteroids to reduce their lung inflammation.

The findings reported (which haven't been reviewed by experts) say that for COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized with pneumonia, giving the patient a corticosteroid significantly increases the chance they will survive.

About 1 in 8 people who contract coronavirus end up in the hospital. If a patient gets sick enough to end up in the hospital, their odds are about 1:3 that they will die. Of the patients who don't die, administration of dexamethasone increases their chance of survival.

I wish the media would stop reporting on these studies because they don't offer any value to the public. Unfortunately, too many people are hearing about these studies and they start taking the drug thinking it will prevent them from getting COVID-19. This drug is only of value to people who are very sick and end up in the hospital with pneumonia. Boris Johnson was one of those people who developed pneumonia and ended up in the ICU- he is an example of a patient who would benefit from dexamethasone.

I wish that the media and government were talking about prevention instead of "cures". What would help is if everyone would wear a mask when they're around other people. What would help is that if everyone would not go into crowded places unless it was absolutely necessary. What would help is if governors would grow a pair and make masks mandatory in public spaces.

This picture from the White House today- count the masks:

 

[purina]

https://www.futurity.org/cotton-silk-homemade-mask-2356712/

“There is a huge interest and need for
homemade cloth masks, but we found little
data on how good various fabrics are as
filters for masks,” says senior author
Supratik Guha, professor with the Pritzker
School of Molecular Engineering at the
University of Chicago and a scientist at the
Argonne National Laboratory.
...
According to their results, one layer of a
tightly woven cotton sheet, combined with
two layers of polyester-based chiffon—a
sheer fabric often used in evening gowns—
filtered out the most aerosol particles (80%
to 99%, depending on particle size).
Substituting the chiffon with natural silk or
a polyester-cotton flannel, or simply using a
cotton quilt with cotton-polyester batting,
produced similar results.
...
The researchers point
out that tightly woven fabrics, such as
cotton, can act as a mechanical barrier to
particles, whereas fabrics that hold a static
charge, like certain types of chiffon and
natural silk, can serve as an electrostatic
barrier. The electrostatic effect serves to
suck in and hold the tiniest particles, which
might otherwise slip through holes in the
cotton. This is key to how N95 masks are
constructed.
However, Guha adds, even a small gap
reduced the filtering efficiency of all masks
by half or more, emphasizing the
importance of a properly fitted mask.
Fabrics that did not do well included
standard polyester and spandex with mote
open weave. In general, Guha says, fabric
with tighter weaves—with fewer gaps
between the strands of yarn—worked better.

I think a bandana and chiffon kerchief folded over a jumbo pipe cleaner to conform to the bridge of the nose with corners passed under the ears and tied at the back of the head and the dangling corners tucked in the neck of a t-shirt provides a pretty good fit especially for those with beards.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Women-Squa...hash=item2637c7f143:m:m5qpsv5cnIW-JXvVZ1NLKUQ

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Square-Pai...hash=item5da763ab05:m:mHvJTepA7_-4OT8L5uneRDA

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Thanks for that link. I read about silk or chiffon layers some time ago, then not another word about it.

This time I've shared your link on Facebook for safe keeping.

 

[justaguy]

After being Covid Free for a couple of weeks, New Zealand has seen the reintroduction of the virus through 2 sisters visiting from the UK for the funeral of a parent.

 

[KaraBulut]

After being Covid Free for a couple of weeks, New Zealand has seen the reintroduction of the virus through 2 sisters visiting from the UK for the funeral of a parent.

Those two cases showed up in the numbers I posted earlier today.

I thought New Zealand had an automatic quarantine for people arriving from international travel?

 

[KaraBulut]

A few stories from the news today about lessons learned:


A Florida woman and her friends went out clubbing on 6-June. She and 15 of her friends have tested positive for coronavirus.
Lesson: don't hang out in crowded spaces.

Woman, 15 friends test positive for coronavirus after night out at Lynch’s: 40-year-old health care worker says she regrets not taking precautions [News4Jax]

Erika Crisp has been short of breath for several days and has tested positive for COVID-19.

So have more than a dozen of her friends.

The one thing they all had in common: a night out at Lynch's Irish Pub on June 6 in Jacksonville Beach.

Crisp, a 40-year-old health care worker from Jacksonville, said she’s been sick for eight days, and 15 of her friends have also tested positive for COVID-19.

Arnold Schwarznegger went to his gym to workout. Arnold is 72 years old and has had open heart surgery in the past. He saw that people weren't wearing masks and they weren't physical distancing. He left.
Lesson: If people around you are doing stupid things, leave.

Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves legendary gym over mask policy [MSN]

While Arnold, 72, was wearing a mask due to the coronavirus pandemic, he noticed that several gym members in the middle of their workouts were not wearing masks. Front desk staff informed Arnold that people were required to wear masks when they entered and when they were in certain common areas, but the law doesn't require them to wear masks when they're actually working out.

Upon hearing the explanation, TMZ said Arnold went no further than the front desk and didn't lift a single weight inside the Venice gym, where he is essentially royalty. The website added that Arnold's exit wasn't meant to be a political stance — he was simply concerned for his and other's safety.

Congressperson Tom Rice [R-SC] refused to wear a mask on the House floor. Now, he and his family have COVID-19.
Lesson: Masks aren't supposed to be political and it's not just about you.

Republican congressman Tom Rice reveals he and his family have coronavirus - two weeks after he refused to wear a mask on the House floor [Daily Mail]

U.S. Representative Tom Rice has revealed that he, his wife and his son had all contracted Covid-19, two weeks after he refused to wear a mask on the House floor.

The Republican congressman, who made the revelation in a post on Facebook on Monday, is the second member of South Carolina's congressional delegation to contract the virus.

Rice said all three had had symptoms, but were recovering.

 

[cityboy-stl]

 

[rareboy]

We ordered ours in black.

In case we want to dress them up with a strand of pearls.

 

[KaraBulut]

17-Jun-2020:

Global COVID-19 Mortality/Morbidity
- Global Cases reported: 8,214,571 (up from 8,079,076 / 1.7%) - *‬*135,495 new cases yesterday
- Global Deaths: 445,012 (up from 438,171) - **6,841 people died yesterday

US COVID-19 Mortality/Morbidity
- Cases reported in the US - 2,141,306 cases (up from 2,119,912 / 1.0% yesterday), ‬**21,394 new cases, 15.8% of world's new cases were in the US
- Yesterday's cases in NJ/NY - 954 (5.4%), outside NJ/NY - 16,865 (94.6%)
- Deaths reported in the US - 117,129 deaths, +788 deaths yesterday , 11.5% of the world's deaths yesterday were in the US
- Yesterday's Deaths in NJ/NY - 80 (13.1%), outside NJ/NY - 529 (86.9%)
- Testing: - 24,449,307 tests (up from 23,984,592 yesterday, +464,715 tests), 7.4% of the US population has been tested, 8.8% positive rate

Coronavirus cases/deaths in active countries (preference to countries with JUB members):

• US: 2,141,306 (up from 2,119,912 / +21,394 / 1.0%) - 117,129 deaths (+788)
• Brazil: 923,189 (up from 888,271 / +34,918 / 3.9%) - 45,241 deaths (+1,282)
• Russia: 552,549 (up from 544,725 / +7,824 / 1.4%) - 7,468 deaths (+194)
• India: 354,065 (up from 343,091 / +10,974 / 3.2%) - 11,903 deaths (+2,003)
• UK : 300,715 (up from 299,594 / +1,121 / 0.4%) - 42,238 deaths (+184)
• Iran : 195,051 (up from 192,439 / +2,612 / 1.4%) - 9,185 deaths (+120)
• Turkey: 181,298 (up from 179,831 / +1,467 / 0.8%) - 4,842 deaths (+17)
• Mexico: 154,863 (up from 150,264 / +4,599 / 3.1%) - 18,310 deaths (+730)
• Sweden: 54,562 (up from 53,323 / +1,239 / 2.3%) - 5,041 deaths (+102)

Coronavirus cases/deaths in recovering countries:

• Spain : 244,683 (up from 244,328 / +355 / 0.1%) - 27,136 deaths (+0)
• Italy : 237,500 (up from 237,500 / +0 / 0.0%) - 34,405 deaths (+0)
• France : 195,051 (up from 194,305 / +746 / 0.4%) - 29,550 deaths (+111)
• Germany : 188,474 (up from 188,220 / +254 / 0.1%) - 8,844 deaths (+28)
• Canada : 101,102 (up from 99,490 / +1,612 / 1.6%) - 8,277 deaths (+22)
• China: 84,432 (up from 84,378 / +54 / 0.1%) - 4,638 deaths (+0)
• Belgium: 60,244 (up from 60,155 / +89 / 0.1%) - 9,675 deaths (+12)
• Netherlands : 49,412 (up from 49,295 / +117 / 0.2%) - 6,093 deaths (+4)
• Switzerland : 31,183 (up from 31,146 / +37 / 0.1%) - 1,956 deaths (+17)
• Ireland: 25,334 (up from 25,321 / +13 / 0.1%) - 1,709 deaths (+3)
• Japan: 17,530 (up from 17,481 / +49 / 0.3%) - 935 deaths (+1)
• South Korea : 12,198 (up from 12,155 / +43 / 0.4%) - 279 deaths (+1)
• Australia : 7,370 (up from 7,347 / +23 / 0.3%) - 102 deaths (+0)
• New Zealand: 1,506 (up from 1,506 / +0 / 0.0%) - 22 deaths (+0)

 

[rareboy]

Worth remembering. I have heard of those in therapy to re-learn how to talk, how to walk and how to eat because of the damage done by being on a ventilator.

“COVID 19 is the worst disease process I’ve ever worked with in my 8 years as an ICU nurse,” she wrote. “When they say ‘recovered’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after d/c with a massive heart attack or stroke bc COVID makes your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life."

Listen to the medical staff who have seen what COVID can do.

https://god.dailydot.com/covid19-re...UONE_ggQ-DoiS5KosMcloKf2G2FD37EORTlOAptGW51Wc

 

[Kahaih]

Worth remembering. I have heard of those in therapy to re-learn how to talk, how to walk and how to eat because of the damage done by being on a ventilator.

“COVID 19 is the worst disease process I’ve ever worked with in my 8 years as an ICU nurse,” she wrote. “When they say ‘recovered’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after d/c with a massive heart attack or stroke bc COVID makes your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life."

Listen to the medical staff who have seen what COVID can do.

https://god.dailydot.com/covid19-re...UONE_ggQ-DoiS5KosMcloKf2G2FD37EORTlOAptGW51Wc

It annoys the hell out of me the way reporters and politicians throw the word 'recovered' around so joyously, particularly when they use 'fully', as though all is fine and dandy, now.

They're either idiots or damn manipulative liars.

 

[rareboy]

There may be some of both. I am still running into people who don't understand that being intubated and on a ventilator is much different than just having an oxygen mask over your face.

As far as politicians go? Again...a lot of them are just ignorant of the reality....and some of them are only interested in getting everything opened again.

 

[KaraBulut]

Worth remembering. I have heard of those in therapy to re-learn how to talk, how to walk and how to eat because of the damage done by being on a ventilator.

“COVID 19 is the worst disease process I’ve ever worked with in my 8 years as an ICU nurse,” she wrote. “When they say ‘recovered’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant. Or that you may come back after d/c with a massive heart attack or stroke bc COVID makes your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life."

Listen to the medical staff who have seen what COVID can do.

I've spoken to several colleagues who have had a bout with COVID-19 that they acquired at work. All were in good health and were in the 30 to 60 age range, so they were the most likely to survive.

Their symptoms ranged from being really tired and having a flu-like syndrome that dragged on for days to one colleague (a primary care physician) who spent 3 days on a ventilator. He has no idea where he was exposed, but the assumption is that he contracted it from a patient in his office.

There's a few things that we're learning now that we've had 3 months of experience with the virus:

• About 1 in 8 people who get COVID-19 will end up in the hospital. That's a nightmare for the thousands of people who work in hospitals and doctors' offices. When this is done, we're going to have a population of healthcare workers with PTSD.
• They are getting very aggressive with putting people on oxygen therapy but they are trying to avoid putting people on ventilators. About 50% of the people who are sick enough to be intubated and put on a ventilator will die.
• Patients with acute pneumonia or ARDS are common in large ICUs. But typically, in an ICU of 15 beds, there might be one patient with ARDS. Now, it's an entire ICU that has nothing but COVID-19 patients. The same is true with regular nursing units- most major hospitals now have entire nursing units dedicated solely to COVID-19 patients.
• One consistent theme that I'm hearing is that pre-existing conditions play a big part in outcome, so being overweight, having diabetes, having asthma, being a smoker, etc are things that predispose someone from having a lot of complications.

None of this needs to happen. We have a 400 year knowledge of how to avoid getting respiratory illnesses, particularly masking and physical distancing. Right now, the issue seems to be that most people don't know someone who has gotten coronavirus, so it's just not real. If you live in California, the southwestern US or the southeastern US, that is about to change.

 

[cabinfever]

An hour or so ago -

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/06/18/newsom-announces-california-wide-face-mask-mandate/

It is a smart move.

I heard Orange County (Republican stronghold) is surpassing their neighbors now.

 

[Essex Boy]

^
Why are lip-readers exempted? Not wearing a face covering won't help you to read the lips of someone who is wearing one.

The failure of the masks is that it only offers about a 50% protection from other people and that 50% decreases the longer you're in contact with the other person. However, if you are both wearing masks, the risk is reduced exponentially. Or to put it another way, all it takes is one bad unmasked apple with coronavirus to infect the whole mask-wearing bunch.

I'm surprised that home-made rag masks, or even "proper" bought ones, give as much as 50% protection. Even in the face-fittIng type peripheral leakage must be an issue. In our area, where social distancing is not too difficult to maintain, I see about a quarter of shoppers wearing a cloth mask. The trouble is that a lot of people seem to think it works like a sort of lucky charm so they wear it down round their chin or on their head like a tiara.

 

[KaraBulut]

^
Why are lip-readers exempted? Not wearing a face covering won't help you to read the lips of someone who is wearing one.

I haven't seen that particular exemption. What I have seen are broad "health and safety" exemptions.

I'm surprised that home-made rag masks, or even "proper" bought ones, give as much as 50% protection. Even in the face-fittIng type peripheral leakage must be an issue. In our area, where social distancing is not too difficult to maintain, I see about a quarter of shoppers wearing a cloth mask. The trouble is that a lot of people seem to think it works like a sort of lucky charm so they wear it down round their chin or on their head like a tiara.

There's a couple of changes in our understanding of coronavirus that led to a change on facemasks:

• The original understanding was that facemasks wouldn't protect the person wearing the mask from inhaling virus. That is true since the virus is small enough to penetrate the filters in most masks. What changed is our understanding that it's not a matter of virus floating free in the air. Most coronavirus is being transmitted via water droplets. Cloth masks are able to filter droplets to a certain extent. If you stop the droplets from being inhaled, you'll reduce the chance that the virus will be transmitted.
• The masks stop exhaled droplets, sneezed droplets and coughed droplets from a person who has an infection. The more layers in a cloth mask and the higher filtration level in a paper mask, the less likely an exhaled droplet will be circulating in the air around the person wearing the mask. So, if an infected person is wearing a mask, the people around them are less likely to encounter droplets from the infected person. If both the infected person and uninfected person are wearing masks, then the level of protection is increased exponentially.

There's some interesting case studies coming out about masks. In one case, a salon had hairdressers who tested positive for coronavirus. Both hairdressers wore masks when servicing their clients. None of their 140 clients and 6 coworkers tested positive. The belief is that the masks and the social distancing prevented the virus from being transmitted from the infected hairdressers.

Hairstylists with COVID-19 didn't infect any of their 140 clients. Face masks may be why [Live Science]

Two hair stylists in Missouri interacted with a total of 140 clients and six coworkers before learning they both had COVID-19 — thankfully, the stylists didn't pass the virus on to any of these contacts, according to a statement from the local health department.

The stylists work at a Great Clips salon in Springfield, where various safety measures were put in place to mitigate potential COVID-19 spread, according to the statement from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. Appointment times had been staggered to limit potential contamination between customers, and the salon chairs were placed farther apart than usual. Stylists also remained 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from clients when not cutting their hair, and the salon required that both stylists and customers wear masks during appointments, according to Great Clips customer and journalist Steve Pokin, who wrote about his experience visiting the salon in mid-May.

One thing to keep in mind about masks:

• Masks are needed most when you cannot maintain social distancing (e.g. when in grocery stores or in a workplace).
• Masks are most effective when contact is short-term since the length of time of the exposure also increases the risk. If you're indoors in a large gathering (like a Trump Rally) for a long period of time, the masks may not provide enough protection to prevent infection. For this reason, avoid prolonged encounters indoors (e.g. gyms) and always avoid exposure to crowds (e.g. sporting events).
• Masks are most effective when everyone is wearing one. If there's an infected person walking around without a mask, they're putting everyone around them at increased risk.