Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #43

[margarita25]

I know I’m getting way ahead of myself, but the potential of resurgence and the additional waves even after we all peak really concerns me. It’s hard to have hope when you see the other places having “back flow”. I realize that these are due to importation.

See the graphs at this link. I think they’re scary. Will there ever be a way to completely eradicate this virus? Or will it just keep bouncing around like a ping pong ball?

China Enters The Next Phase of Its COVID-19 Outbreak: Suppression
Apr 3

 

[tmar]

Australian airlines initiate repatriation flights


Sky News Australia
1 hour ago
...
Qantas and Virgin Australia have joined forces with the Federal Government to establish a network of international flights helping Australians return home.

Flights to four destinations: London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland, will run for the next four weeks.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack says these locations were chosen based on their accessibility for overseas Australian’s, and to provide freight capacity for Australian exporters and importers.

 

[Trudie]

I don't understand. Are you saying that no one is following up on possible contacts of people who test positive?

Well, my state halted contact tracing for the most part. It now is up to the patient to self notify his contacts (if he lives long enough to do so). A positive person get a cell ph from the health dept., they will do daily phone check ins.
What I was actually posting to is the case of the first WMT employee to test positive. Neither WMT nor our Governor would divulge that yes, the patient worked the deli/bakery at a small, rural WMT. I think everyone that shopped there (including myself) had a right to know, in the event we had symptoms. Jmo. I could look on Michigan’s site and read of various Subway restaurants with positive cases, including addresses & suspected dates of transmission.
If your local deli worker served you & two days later you learn she was life flighted to a large hospital, would you like to know? I know you would. I think local screen scrolls should scroll all day long advising all of us if a cashier or other public servant tested positive. Not their name, but their place of employment.
Moo

 

[gregjrichards]

Designers say testing shows that layering two blue shop towels inside cotton face masks could help increase effectiveness of homemade PPEs

Their testing indicated that ToolBox and Zep shop towels had higher levels of filtration than other blue shop towels

Designers say layers blue shop towels inside cotton masks could help effectiveness of homemade PPEs | Daily Mail Online

**There will be a White House press conference on the coronavirus at 3:30pm ET on CNN**

 

[mickey2942]

I know I’m getting way ahead of myself, but resurgence and second and more waves really concerns me. It’s hard to have hope when you see the other places having “back flow”. I realize that these are due to importation.

See the graphs at this link. I think they’re scary. Will there ever be a way to completely eradicate this virus? Or will it just keep bouncing around like a ping pong ball?

China Enters The Next Phase of Its COVID-19 Outbreak: Suppression
Apr 3

—-

I am concerned that we will have the "Covid19" survivors, being almost bulletproof. People like Rand Paul, who had the virus, and never even knew it. Even though, he was infecting others. He has immunity now.

And everyone else, who is still waiting, in their homes, for the hammer to fall. The only hope is a vaccine.

 

[10ofRods]

It’s absolute insanity and makes me very angry. I wish the world would put enormous pressure on Chinese government to do everything possible to ensure this never happens again.

I hope this pressure against China takes place, but I am not optimistic. Maybe. China must give up eating and using wild animals as medicine, and whatever else they're killing them for. It has to be a national law. China is good about enforcing laws, but there needs to be international oversight (as there is for other issues in China).

That would be first on my list of demands for China. Meantime, I have been urging people to boycott China for years (over this and human rights violations, including no freedom of information and restricted access to information outside China).

It's hard sometimes to find alternate products, not made in China. Northern Italy stepped up its manufacture of various things like refrigerators and stoves and so we bought Italian when we replaced appliances. It turns out the workers in those factories are mostly Chinese immigrants, who had nearly all gone home for Chinese New Year. One of the travelers coming back to Italy brought CV19 and that's how northern Italy got it. I feel for those Chinese people who left China (seeking better lives) and I understand wanting to go home to see families, but many nations will be rethinking relationships with China (especially in Europe).

In the end, though, people want those products from China. The negotiating stance that the US would have to take with China to get them to change their ways would mean no products from China for an indefinite period of time. Think what would happen to WalMart. And Target. The price of goods would go way up and many things would be relatively unavailable. This is fine with me. People do not need all those kitchen appliances - but as we can see, it's also hospital beds, tubing, surgical masks, other PPE, and so on.

And we still have so many medicines made in Asia - China is not the only place with disease issues, although this cross-species jump is a disaster and any scientist could have told China to stop their practice.

Unfortunately, Chinese scientists have to fear being locked up or worse if they speak out.

As for confirmation about how CoVid19 came from bats and pangolins sold in wet markets (they don't just sell oranges), it's pre-published in about 10 major journals and is readily available if you follow scientific news.

 

[Trudie]

@musicaljoke omt I think any state with low numbers must be suspicious of everyone. As I linked above, many are getting diagnosed by phone. Exactly what does the positive person do then? Shop? Go they the drive in? Attend church? Probably. This isn’t isolated to KY, either.
The purpose of the hotline was for data collection, to be used behind scenes imo. That’s why we get the “theres a lot more of this out here”, “just cuz your county’s not on the list don’t believe you don’t have numerous cases.....”.
Again, the first case was not the first case, the second case was not the second......
No one even really knows the first case in China, only the first patient sick enough to seek medical attention, imo. How many before hopped a plane?

 

[gregjrichards]

I am concerned that we will have the "Covid19" survivors, being almost bulletproof. People like Rand Paul, who had the virus, and never even knew it. Even though, he was infecting others. He has immunity now.

And everyone else, who is still waiting, in their homes, for the hammer to fall. The only hope is a vaccine.

Those who have had the virus might not have immunity for long:

“According to Li QinGyuan, director of pneumonia prevention and treatment at China Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, those who have been infected with Covid-19 develop a protective antibody - but it isn’t clear how long the protection lasts.

"However, in certain individuals, the antibody cannot last that long," Li told USAToday. "For many patients who have been cured, there is a likelihood of relapse."

Can you get coronavirus twice or does it cause immunity?

 

[Trudie]

I am concerned that we will have the "Covid19" survivors, being almost bulletproof. People like Rand Paul, who had the virus, and never even knew it. Even though, he was infecting others. He has immunity now.

And everyone else, who is still waiting, in their homes, for the hammer to fall. The only hope is a vaccine.

Iirc Dr. Fauci thinks immunity will be short lived, like immunity to a common cold. Might be in the Town Hall link upthread. Moo
@gregjrichards just noticed your post!
(Auto correct always misspells Dr. Fauci’s name.)

 

[jjenny]

View attachment 241787 View attachment 241788

Designers say testing shows that layering two blue shop towels inside cotton face masks could help increase effectiveness of homemade PPEs

Their testing indicated that ToolBox and Zep shop towels had higher levels of filtration than other blue shop towels

Designers say layers blue shop towels inside cotton masks could help effectiveness of homemade PPEs | Daily Mail Online

**There will be a White House press conference on the coronavirus at 3:30pm ET on CNN**

Where would I find such a wonder as a shop towel? I can't even find regular paper towels.

 

[musicaljoke]

@musicaljoke omt I think any state with low numbers must be suspicious of everyone. As I linked above, many are getting diagnosed by phone. Exactly what does the positive person do then? Shop? Go they the drive in? Attend church? Probably. This isn’t isolated to KY, either.
The purpose of the hotline was for data collection, to be used behind scenes imo. That’s why we get the “theres a lot more of this out here”, “just cuz your county’s not on the list don’t believe you don’t have numerous cases.....”.
Again, the first case was not the first case, the second case was not the second......
No one even really knows the first case in China, only the first patient sick enough to seek medical attention, imo. How many before hopped a plane?

It's expected that those who test positive will self isolate until they no longer test positive. But, if they don't, then there isn't much value in pretending that the community is physically isolating. It would be no different than carrying on, business as usual.

 

[Trudie]

Where would I find such a wonder as a shop towel? I can't even find regular paper towels.

Lowe’s has shop towels. Or did at one time. Not that you can gain access to Lowe’s.

btw, I just emailed my mayor that he should drive to Lowe’s, see for himself.

 

[tresir2012]

Cases will continue to be identified in Northern Kentucky through testing, but more often people with symptoms associated with COVID-19 (fever, coughing and difficulty breathing) are being evaluated by their health care provider through telehealth visits. Even without testing, a health care provider can tell a patient if they think they have COVID-19. If you have not been tested, but have been diagnosed with COVID-19 by your health care provider, the instructions for care are the same. If you have mild symptoms, you must stay home, take fever-reducing medications and avoid others. If symptoms become more serious, you should seek emergency care. Additionally, it is important that you inform those you have been in close contact with, letting them know they have been exposed to COVID-19 and should monitor for symptoms.
MEDIA ADVISORY: 72 Cases of COVID-19 Identified in Northern Kentucky | Northern Kentucky Health Department

I’m really concerned how many people not tested but diagnosed positive walk amongst us & failed to notify their contacts. No wonder so many areas see such low positive cases. Most diagnosed cases (imo) are not tested, only tested results are reported. Moo

Unfortinately that is how it is spread, when there are no symptoms. Self isolation and social distancing are the means to reduce the spread during those periods. It won't eradicate the spread but slow it enough for health providers to have a chance of coping with the numbers. It's tough love to cut ourselves off physically like this.

 

[10ofRods]

It's well known that you can't use dog flea treatment on cats. The box and inserts are covered with warnings. The fact that some people don't realise how serious it is to mistakenly use dog flea treatment on a cat should not create any barriers to testing the efficacy of Ivermectin on Coronavirus. Ivermectin is a well established antiparasitic. It's been used for 40 years. What's not known, is whether or not it will kill the virus in humans. But, we may find out soon.

That seems really unlikely to me. Just yesterday, a couple of promising publications about the actual mechanism of CV19 point in specific directions for both treatment and prevention. It's hard for me to visualize how that particular antiparisitic would work on this very specific and novel virus that has almost nothing in common with a parasite.

I am not going to post the most recent pre-prints from the last couple of days, because they are still being edited and more data gathered, but it appears that CoVid's actual mechanism of killing is not the kind of lung issue that most have been assuming. I don't know if any of you remember how, at first, they thought it attacked the kidneys or the liver, then they said it was an oxygen/lung thing.

The new research points to an action by CoVid19 that directly attacks red blood cells and some blood protein (perhaps more than one) that allows oxygen to adhere to red blood cells. They've noticed that both blood type and anemia are strongly associated with a bad outcome for this disease. There are now several blood type studies - no one thinks that the blood type itself is exactly the issue, but other genetic factors also vary along with blood type.

Blood type is a measure of something called "gene drift" and the drifts involve more than just the blood type - it involves every protein/active ingredient in our blood. So, there's some variation in the human ability to resist the action of CV19 on red blood cells (it's theorized) and most of us are lucky.

Since anemia is also more prevalent in the elderly, this seems like it might be a strong investigative gambit.

 

[Trudie]

It's expected that those who test positive will self isolate until they no longer test positive. But, if they don't, then there isn't much value in pretending that the community is physically isolating. It would be no different than carrying on, business as usual.

Anyone that tested positive is followed up by HD. But anyone that is declared positive via phone is advised to do the self-home care & notify contacts. My guess is few do.
remember when Gov’ DeWine said he probably had 100k cases? I bet he was accurate. Prob 95,000 from dial in diagnosis & 5k from actual tests. Moo

 

[Sillybilly]

A word ...

This situation is so new to all of us, including Websleuths, and we are having to be more flexible about The Rules than normal. Covid is certainly not normal, and there are going to be some political matters and posts due to the overlap between the virus itself and what the various political entities are doing as it relates to the situation.

It's a grey area and WS staff are basically having to make decisions on the fly as it relates to what constitutes an allowable post and what might be just strictly a political statement. Please bear with us and just stay away from the blatantly political comments or arguing over politics and remain civil so as not to take advantage of our normally good nature

Thanks to all for responsible and respectful posting.

Stay strong, safe and healthy. This is certainly a new challenge for everyone and it can't be said often enough that we are all in this together.

 

[Darling136]

At least, when it's not a virus or a beer, a corona is something pretty.

I still wouldn't do it, but saddling some poor boy with "Covid"????

That's beyond the pale, as there's literally no other meaning than "virus".

Btw. Corona is also a real name, for example in Italy ( ok, this is now a bit strange when thinking of all the sick people there, ooops) - a friend of mine is one.

 

[Trudie]

My point is how many people that received no test but were told over the phone they are more than likely positive follow orders? After working with a certain population, I’d say few. I’ll say it again, I’d prefer to walk the streets of NYC than my own. I bet all hell breaks out here after this weekend. My landscaper is mowing, I spoke with him thru the glass storm door, he also commented on the bumper to bumper traffic. Hard to imagine where people are going.....

Unfortinately that is how it is spread, when there are no symptoms. Self isolation and social distancing are the means to reduce the spread during those periods. It won't eradicate the spread but slow it enough for health providers to have a chance of coping with the numbers. It's tough love to cut ourselves off physically like this.

 

[tresir2012]

I hope this pressure against China takes place, but I am not optimistic. Maybe. China must give up eating and using wild animals as medicine, and whatever else they're killing them for. It has to be a national law. China is good about enforcing laws, but there needs to be international oversight (as there is for other issues in China).

That would be first on my list of demands for China. Meantime, I have been urging people to boycott China for years (over this and human rights violations, including no freedom of information and restricted access to information outside China).

It's hard sometimes to find alternate products, not made in China. Northern Italy stepped up its manufacture of various things like refrigerators and stoves and so we bought Italian when we replaced appliances. It turns out the workers in those factories are mostly Chinese immigrants, who had nearly all gone home for Chinese New Year. One of the travelers coming back to Italy brought CV19 and that's how northern Italy got it. I feel for those Chinese people who left China (seeking better lives) and I understand wanting to go home to see families, but many nations will be rethinking relationships with China (especially in Europe).

In the end, though, people want those products from China. The negotiating stance that the US would have to take with China to get them to change their ways would mean no products from China for an indefinite period of time. Think what would happen to WalMart. And Target. The price of goods would go way up and many things would be relatively unavailable. This is fine with me. People do not need all those kitchen appliances - but as we can see, it's also hospital beds, tubing, surgical masks, other PPE, and so on.

And we still have so many medicines made in Asia - China is not the only place with disease issues, although this cross-species jump is a disaster and any scientist could have told China to stop their practice.

Unfortunately, Chinese scientists have to fear being locked up or worse if they speak out.

As for confirmation about how CoVid19 came from bats and pangolins sold in wet markets (they don't just sell oranges), it's pre-published in about 10 major journals and is readily available if you follow scientific news.

Could you link one of these articles from a scientific journal? TIA.

 

[10ofRods]

I know I’m getting way ahead of myself, but the potential of resurgence and the additional waves even after we all peak really concerns me. It’s hard to have hope when you see the other places having “back flow”. I realize that these are due to importation.

See the graphs at this link. I think they’re scary. Will there ever be a way to completely eradicate this virus? Or will it just keep bouncing around like a ping pong ball?

China Enters The Next Phase of Its COVID-19 Outbreak: Suppression
Apr 3

The only way to completely eradicate a virus like CoVid19 is to eliminate all human carriers. That's not going to happen.

This virus is here to stay, just like the flu, small pox, etc. Small pox is unfortunately not entirely eradicated (they recently found it in soil that is defrosting as the planet warms up - so small pox vaccination may be a thing that some of you see within your lifetime).

We can only hope to get it to be at very low rates while we develop a vaccine. Since now we have fairly large numbers of anti-vaxxers, CoVid19 will likely always have a home. It's super important that the vaccine be effective in older populations if we wish to keep current life expectancy where it is. Next year, we'll see some changes in global LE (obviously, it will go down).

I do think that within a year or two there will be major breakthroughs in viable treatments that work for people who very ill with CV. The fact that no one can tell (without a test) whether they have one of many flus, common colds - or CoVid19 - will remain a problem.

I keep thinking about this. For the rest of my life, this virus is out there. Even if we all make it through this crisis of herd immunity, if it's like other CoVid viruses, many of us will lose our initial immunity, if we ever get it, after 2-3 years. A vaccine is a necessity. I'm glad to hear from scientists that they are optimistic, but until we actually get such a vaccine, it's a gloomy picture for older people.

All the travel plans my DH and I had for our golden years are on hold, indefinitely, perhaps forever.