Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #34

[perfectingpink]

I have heard it is transmissible through self serve gas pumps. Time to glove up, everybody!

While the virus has the potential to be detected on surfaces, I am not aware of an actual instance of transmission via a surface?

 

[afitzy]

WHO considers ‘airborne precautions’ for medical staff after study shows coronavirus can survive in air
PUBLISHED MON, MAR 16 202012:24 PM EDTUPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
Berkeley Lovelace Jr.@BERKELEYJR
Noah Higgins-Dunn@HIGGINSDUNN
William Feuer@WILLFOIA


KEY POINTS

• WHO is considering “airborne precautions” for medical staff after a new study showed the coronavirus can survive in the air in some settings.
• The coronavirus can go airborne, staying suspended in the air depending on factors such as heat and humidity, WHO officials said.

WHO considers 'airborne precautions' for medical staff after study shows coronavirus can survive in air

Quotes from article:

Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Congress last month that the agency was aggressively evaluating how long COVID-19 can survive, particularly on surfaces.

“On copper and steel, it’s pretty typical, it’s pretty much about two hours,” Redfield said at a House hearing. “But I will say on other surfaces — cardboard or plastic — it’s longer, and so we are looking at this.”

Redfield added infections contracted from surfaces rather than through the air could have contributed to the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Separately, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that there’s been a rapid escalation of COVID-19 cases over the past week, adding, “we have not seen an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing, which is the backbone of the response.”

“We have a simple message for all countries: test, test, test. Test every suspected case, if they test positive, isolate them and find out who they have been in contact with two days before they developed symptoms and test those people, too,” Tedros said. [BBM]

------------------------------

Question: Why does it seem that many underprepared states such as Connecticut are waving the 'white flag' on testing and simply assuming everyone has COVID19? Testing is only for the sick and people with symptoms? How do we fight an enemy we cannot see with COVID19 if there is no testing? Why is Dr. Carrter from the State Board of Health with his IMO passive and absolutely reactionary approach to COVID19 still employed by the State of CT as he had the duty and responsibility to prepare the State to keep its citizens safe and he and Gov. Lamont absolutely failed IMO on every level? Listening to Dr. Carrter talk about COVID19 makes the situation with widespread death inevitable for those in vulnerable heath circumstances. Dr Carrter doesn't even seem to advocate reactionary behaviour and takes things one step further to absolute passivity from the State of CT IMO.

How can planning happen for hospitals in the next crucial weeks if COVID19 cases can't be tracked now? Did any planning happen in places like CT and how can such reactionary policies do anything else than make sure that the death stats from Italy play out in places like Fairfield County which are so close to epicentre New York? There isn't even the political will to close parks and force people indoors to flatten the curve.....

Does Hartford not care because they are 100 miles further North farther away from New York and somehow think they are immune to COVID19 due to geography? We saw how this view played out in Italy BTW!

What happens when residents of next door Westchester County crowd out CT residents from Greenwich Hospital and then Stamford Hospital and then Norwalk Hospital? Do the States of CT and NY have any plan for this? Where will the overflow CT patients go for treatment in Fairfield County? Will it simply become a race to the hospital to get the available bed and NY folks will 'win' because they got sick sooner as they are possible 1 or 2 weeks ahead of Fairfield County on the curve? Who is looking out for the residents of CT?

There is no evidence of "WAR" and "FIGHTING" from these so called Government leaders in Hartford who cannot seem to be able to even get more testing kits from the CDC or even enforce basic social distancing guidelines in public parks or make sure that restaurants aren't violating the closure orders (which many are BTW Gov. Lamont!). Why are local LE not tasked with making sure State regulations for COVID19 are enforced Now when you call to report a restaurant that is open with full bar that the police officer on the other end of the phone simply laughs! Welcome to Bridgeport and Trumbull CT where this is happening as of today when restaurants are supposed to be 'take out only'. New Canaan, CT is still permitting parties and local LE is spending its time breaking up underage drinking parties and enforcing social distancing requirements in local parks where this past weekend many people were having group picnics! Wonder how these choices will play out in the COVID19 death stats in 2 weeks? Do people care or does Govt plan to do anything?

Who else but Connecticut would come up with a list of 100 companies eligible to stay open under 'exceptions' to the closure guidelines and topping the list are 'pawn shops' which are well known in many locales as illegal betting operations and places for people to 'hang out'.

Why not follow WHO guidelines and suggested advice for dealing with COVID19? These are the same states that aren't enforcing restaurant closures (yes this too is happening in CT) and even when local Police are called NOTHING HAPPENS! Even as recently as today Gov. Lamont said with a straight face that after a weekend of packed State Parks that some limits would be placed on total cars allowed in coming weeks. This is AT THE SAME TIME that CA will be closing parking lots at State Parks. Did Gov. Lamont not watch any of the footage from China and Italy?

Sadly IMO the setting for a complete humanitarian tragedy is playing out in Southern CT as we all sit by and watch. Hate to say it but it feels a bit like the residents are sitting in a boxcar destined for a very awful place and where we know how the story will end for many unfortunate residents.

MOO

 

[gngr~snap]

While the virus has the potential to be detected on surfaces, I am not aware of an actual instance of transmission via a surface?

I don't know how they would be able to prove that, but "dont touch your face and eyes" is indicative of surface to mucus membrane transfer.
Moo

 

[MyBelle]

Do people fully recover from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome?

It's no different than Covid-19. It's a complication and the survival rate is dependent on other underlying conditions. My dad developed ARDS after a car accident and surgery for a broken hip. He died four months later while on a ventilator. He was a DNR and his heart stopped.

UpToDate

 

[afitzy]

NY/NJ/CT:


New York coronavirus cases surge 38% overnight to 20,875

Quotes from article:

New York and New Jersey are seeing coronavirus attack rates at least five times higher than other parts of the country, a U.S. official in charge of the White House’s pandemic response efforts said Monday.

“The New York metro area of New Jersey, New York City, and parts of Long Island have an attack rate close to one in 1,000,” Dr. Deborah Birx, a physician and the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said at a press briefing Monday evening. The attack rate is the percentage of a population that gets the disease.

She said roughly 28% of the specimens submitted in that region have tested positive for COVID-19, while less than 8% have tested positive for the disease in the rest of the country.

“To all of my friends and colleagues in New York, this is the group that actually needs to social distance and self-isolate,” she said. “Clearly, the virus had been there for a number of weeks.”[BBM]

 

[squareandrabbet]

Elon Musk connected Trump with the malaria drug theory as well. Elon Musk is very generous with is manufacturing, purchasing and cures.

"We could know within two weeks whether Professor Didier Raoult, the French virologist who heads the Mediterranean infectious and tropical disease institute in Marseille, will go down in history as the man who saved the world from Covid-19, or will be dismissed as an arrogant, misguided scientist who raised false hopes.

Raoult administered a cocktail of hydroxycloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and azithromycin, an antibiotic used against bacterial pneumonia, to 24 Covid-19 patients.
...

US president Donald Trump apparently learned of Raoult’s experiment through a Twitter post by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.”​

Coronavirus: France hoping unorthodox virologist can save world

NY State is starting a trial of this also, as per the governor's PC this AM.

Nice fresh article is below:

Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine: What to know about the potential coronavirus drugs - CNN

Interesting pre-sleep protocol I haven't seen before, from tuberculosis expert, which he says will cut down on self-contamination:

Doctor: How to reduce your vulnerability to coronavirus -- when sleeping (opinion) - CNN

 

[Midwestmom2019]

It's no different than Covid-19. It's a complication and the survival rate is dependent on other underlying conditions. My dad developed ARDS after a car accident and surgery for a broken hip. He died four months later while on a ventilator. He was a DNR and his heart stopped.

UpToDate

I’m so sorry to learn of your father’s death under such circumstances. Tragic.

 

[MyBelle]

Elon Musk connected Trump with the malaria drug theory as well. Elon Musk is very generous with is manufacturing, purchasing and cures.

"We could know within two weeks whether Professor Didier Raoult, the French virologist who heads the Mediterranean infectious and tropical disease institute in Marseille, will go down in history as the man who saved the world from Covid-19, or will be dismissed as an arrogant, misguided scientist who raised false hopes.

Raoult administered a cocktail of hydroxycloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, used to treat malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and azithromycin, an antibiotic used against bacterial pneumonia, to 24 Covid-19 patients.
...

US president Donald Trump apparently learned of Raoult’s experiment through a Twitter post by the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.”​

Coronavirus: France hoping unorthodox virologist can save world

BBM. Link, please. I think it is more likely the CDC and physicians "connected Trump with the malaria drug theory."

JMO

Chloroquine, an old malaria drug, may help treat novel coronavirus, doctors say
Given chloroquine’s effectiveness in treating SARS, scientists have investigated if it will be an effective treatment against the new coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. So far, the initial trials are encouraging.

"There is evidence that chloroquine is effective when they looked at SARS in vitro with primate cells," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonologist and internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "The theory of the experiment with primate cells was that chloroquine could be for preventing viral infection or as a treatment for viral infection after it had occurred. In vitro in these primate cells, there was evidence that viral particles were significantly reduced when chloroquine was used."

 

[perfectingpink]

I hope everyone is coping ok.

It is hard to believe @margarita25 that I can’t just get in the car and see my Mum for the foreseeable future. It has made me realise how much I took for granted. I hope people realise how serious the situation is now and that so many lives are at risk.

#StayHomeSaveLives

I hope people get it too and while I a m pleased to see the majority of people behave in accordance with recomendations, I am quite unhappy with a few of my daughter's friends (one is a registered nurse!) who think we and the docs are overreacting. One friend is supposed to get married soon and while she did trim the guests own to 50, she refuses to comply with 10 or cancel. Thank goodness my daughter isn't going! Smart girl!

 

[MyBelle]

I’m so sorry to learn of your father’s death under such circumstances. Tragic.

Thank you. I was much younger and so naive back then. I assumed ICU's could cure anything. I knew nothing about sepsis or ARDS and the high rates they kill hospitalized patients. One in 3 patients who die in hospitals, die of sepsis. That's 270,000 Americans every year and has included my grandmother and my 43-yo otherwise healthy son-in-law.

Data and Reports

 

[Lilibet]

I have family on the Oregon coast. Last weekend was packed like the 4th of July. Too many people with time off and kids out of school. These people came in, probably spreading Covid. Which will tax the few small hospitals there. And add insult to injury, they cleaned out the grocery stores to take items home. The Counties had to step in and close all beach parking, hotels, restaurants, and small shops. They had to tell people to go home.

Ok. Really going to bed now.

Goodnight all.

I think the behavior of my fellow Oregonians who selfishly swarmed the Oregon coast over the weekend is what motivated the governor to reluctantly issue a stay-at-home order as of today/Monday. She had requested/begged people not to go to the coast on Friday.

 

[perfectingpink]

I don't know how they would be able to prove that, but "dont touch your face and eyes" is indicative of surface to mucus membrane transfer.
Moo

I do agree it seems to lead to that conclusion and I will do more research on this to have a source because I believe transmission has been only person to person. Each dx is thoroughly vetted and the washing while confusing, is most likely because the droplets expelled land on you and you risk infecting yourself by moving those droplets where they can be inhaled.

I hope I am explaining how I have understood this correctly. I know there is a recent article about this topic and I will link it when I find it. My laptop stopped working so I am on a learning curve with.this silly device.

 

[Lilibet]

I hope everyone is coping ok.

It is hard to believe @margarita25 that I can’t just get in the car and see my Mum for the foreseeable future. It has made me realise how much I took for granted. I hope people realise how serious the situation is now and that so many lives are at risk.

#StayHomeSaveLives

How did her surgery go @gregjrichards? I’ve had to skip so many posts I probably missed your update. I hope your Mum makes a good recovery and I’m so sorry you won’t be able to visit her.

 

[perfectingpink]

I am sure this has been linked. The language isn't concise and leaves room for speculation due to the unknown. So, my opinion is while it is possible to contract from ansurface, it isn't probable. Now, will I continue to wash and carry a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol everywhere? Absolutely!!! I spray my cards, my car doors, my front door etc. I don't want to be the first absolute surface transmission!

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Transmission

 

[MimosaMornings]

COVID-19 prevention leads Daimler to close Portland truck plant | nwLaborPress

 

[PommyMommy]

BBM. The patients who improve without any drugs likely were not hospitalized and on ventilators. At Nebraska Medicine, they are providing drugs to critically ill patients. I don't believe there is an ICU on the planet who would put someone on a ventilator and then assume they would "get better" without any medication at all. With Covid-19, there ARE approved drugs.

The purpose of this document is to provide information on two of the approved drugs (chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine) and one of the investigational agents (remdesivir) currently in use in the United States.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Also from your link:

There are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

At present clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care, including supplementary oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support when indicated.

An array of drugs approved for other indications as well as several investigational drugs are being studied...

 

[Wyle_E_Coyote]

I do agree it seems to lead to that conclusion and I will do more research on this to have a source because I believe transmission has been only person to person. Each dx is thoroughly vetted and the washing while confusing, is most likely because the droplets expelled land on you and you risk infecting yourself by moving those droplets where they can be inhaled.

I hope I am explaining how I have understood this correctly. I know there is a recent article about this topic and I will link it when I find it. My laptop stopped working so I am on a learning curve with.this silly device.

Didn't they determine that a lot of the transfer on the Diamond Princess was through the food trays? I can't find the article, but I'm sure I read that. Anyone else remember this?

 

[MyBelle]

Also from your link:

There are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

At present clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care, including supplementary oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support when indicated.

An array of drugs approved for other indications as well as several investigational drugs are being studied...

The doctors caring for these patients have a vast more amount of actual expertise than google provides. These games of "gotcha" on twitter, social media and now here seem to be more about politics than the current health crisis.

If the FDA has already approved the drugs, they may be used for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Physicians make judgment calls all the time. I'm not about to second-guess the physicians who are treating Covid-19 patients.
JMO


Understanding Unapproved Use of Approved Drugs "Off Label"
Why might an approved drug be used for an unapproved use?
From the FDA perspective, once the FDA approves a drug, healthcare providers generally may prescribe the drug for an unapproved use when they judge that it is medically appropriate for their patient.

You may be asking yourself why your healthcare provider would want to prescribe a drug to treat a disease or medical condition that the drug is not approved for. One reason is that there might not be an approved drug to treat your disease or medical condition. Another is that you may have tried all approved treatments without seeing any benefits. In situations like these, you and your healthcare provider may talk about using an approved drug for an unapproved use to treat your disease or medical condition.

 

[PommyMommy]

Coronavirus cases pass 381,000 globally: Live updates - CNN
Why soap, sanitizer and warm water work against Covid-19 and other viruses
Tired of washing your hands for 20 seconds each time? Fingers starting to prune or feel like sandpaper?

Please don't stop.

Take heart that while you're scrubbing, you're also killing off a host of other nasty bacteria and potentially lethal viruses that have plagued humans for centuries -- including influenza and a number of different coronaviruses.

[...]

A dozen countries in the Middle East and Asia are asking the IMF for economic help
[...]

“This challenge will be especially daunting for the region’s fragile and conflict-torn states -- such as Iraq, Sudan, and Yemen -- where the difficulty of preparing weak health systems for the outbreak could be compounded by reduced imports due to disruptions in global trade, giving rise to shortages of medical supplies and other goods and resulting in substantial price increases,” he said.

Azour did not specify all of the countries that had requested support, but said the IMF's executive board will consider a request from the Kyrgyz Republic for emergency financing "later this week."

[...]

While mainland China eases lockdown, restrictions tighten in Hong Kong and Macao
Residents of China's Hubei province -- ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic -- received good news today when government officials announced the lockdown they have been living under for the past few months will be lifted on Wednesday.

For those in Wuhan, where the virus was first discovered, those restrictions are set to remain in place until April 8.

The announcement follows news that part of a popular section of China's Great Wall will be reopened to the public.

[...]

People are stocking Little Free Libraries with food and goods during coronavirus pandemic
As grocery store shelves sit bare during the coronavirus pandemic, good Samaritans across the US are taking it upon themselves to turn "Little Free Libraries" into "Little Free Pantries."

Little Free Libraries are public bookcases that allow for book-sharing within neighborhoods and communities. Anyone can take or leave a book.

[...]

Justin Trudeau is running Canada and bath-time simultaneously
The news was not good. Not only did Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire test positive for the coronavirus after a trip to the UK, but that meant the Canadian Prime Minister would have to quarantine immediately, along with his three children.

Although huddled together in historic Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Gregoire would need to be isolated from her own family. And there would be no nanny, no grandparent, no cook, no one to help.

Trudeau has effectively taken on single parenthood, while leading Canada’s effort to battle a once-in-a century pandemic.

[...]

 

[perfectingpink]

Didn't they determine that a lot of the transfer on the Diamond Princess was through the food trays? I can't find the article, but I'm sure I read that. Anyone else remember this?

Here is an article. I wonder why he was investigating as he seems to specialize in sleep behavior?

Coronavirus: two Diamond Princess passengers die as Japan defends quarantine