Coronavirus

[Highway2Heel]

Great post!



Can you define "several"? Last I saw, fever was the most common symptom associated with the disease, present in something like 90% of cases. And transmission from asymptomatic cases (including lack of fever) appears to be rare. Did they have any new information to suggest otherwise?



Wow, that's news! I had only heard of the one case. Do you know if this is happening elsewhere in the world?



Any info about when Remdesivir's Phase 3 trial is expected to complete?



What's the current protocol for deciding who to test? Patient starts getting minor flu symptoms... where does it progress to (and what sort of location / travel history / contacts etc) do they have to have before tests get ordered?

Is Quest capacity-limited? Sounds like they're not, right?



Probabilistic management. Glad to see it.



It's posts like these that help restore my faith that the US healthcare system is still able to handle things competently, despite some high-profile screwups and a broken system of medical insurance coverage.

I’ll ask. Can’t promise a timely response. My take on the fever question was it was a reminder that not all cases were accompanied by fever. My wife is checking with colleagues who have a finger on the pulse of what’s happening with Remdesivir elsewhere in the world. We have a well-connected friend at GlaxoSmithKline who is checking on the Phase 3 trial. As for Quest, currently not limited in their capacity to serve but they certainly don’t want to test their upper-bound...

 

[KSilver2000]

In Brabant (southern part of NL, where the Tesla factory is) all events are cancelled immediately if there are more than 1000 attendees. No lockdown of the province yet, but we're not far from it. All employees that can work remotely are requested to work from home.

Same with Santa Clara County, which is the hardest hit in the SF Bay Area. No more events with 1,000+ attendees. No official word yet on where or how the San Jose Sharks will play their three home games during the ban (until end of March for now).

 

[NicoV]

Same in Germany.

The Belgian government also advises (not mandatory) to cancel all indoor gatherings of more than 1000 people: Regering raadt indoorevenementen met minstens 1.000 mensen af

 

[KarenRei]

That's what I think every time I go to the dentist! Blows me away we have cars that almost drive themselves, rockets that land themselves, and still don't have a vaccine for corona or cavities.

We could have had a vaccine. There was work on vaccines for SARS-related coronaviruses (of which COVID-19 is one), but funding has been sparse.

Until recently, of course.

When the 2009 H1N1 pandemic hit, there already were vaccines which had been developed several years earlier, based on earlier H1N1 strains. Approved antivirals, too. The combination helped make that pandemic no worse than a typical seasonal flu. That could have been the case here, had we properly invested.

I don't think the same mistake will be made again, given the pricetag of this event.

 

[tander]

We could have had a vaccine. There was work on vaccines for SARS-related coronaviruses (of which COVID-19 is one), but funding has been sparse.

Until recently, of course.

When the 2009 H1N1 pandemic hit, there already were vaccines which had been developed several years earlier, based on earlier H1N1 strains. Approved antivirals, too. The combination helped make that pandemic no worse than a typical seasonal flu. That could have been the case here, had we properly invested.

I don't think the same mistake will be made again, given the pricetag of this event.

Let's hope so, it's a lot easier to prevent things than fix them.

 

[dl003]

The hospitals I work with in Texas are all calling this a pandemic. Just a matter of time before WHO makes the call. Im not sure if it will have any effect, TBH. Most places will have been in deep high alert mode by then.

 

[deffu]

Please substract China.

I do not want to talk to much about this topic in the short term thread, but I get the impression that people do not know what is currently going on in Italy (I could not imagine this stuff happening in Italy just a couple of days ago!) and spreading across the rest of Europe.

Much to be debated, but I am wondering if the virus can continue to spread at the initial exponential growth speed when public awareness has been raised and government prevention actions now in place.

 

[EVNow]

National Guard ...

 

[phantasms]

National Guard ...

30 minutes South of me. oh yay.

 

[jerry33]

Much to be debated, but I am wondering if the virus can continue to spread at the initial exponential growth speed when public awareness has been raised and government prevention actions now in place.

Depends on people. Here's a video from Italy with some comments about behaviour.

 

[EVNow]

The hospitals I work with in Texas are all calling this a pandemic. Just a matter of time before WHO makes the call. Im not sure if it will have any effect, TBH. Most places will have been in deep high alert mode by then.

Some people in India are concerned about calling this a pandemic (on twitter). Apparently their insurance doesn't cover pandemics ...

 

[linux-works]

Where is TSA when you really need them, eh? Or any other federal agencies for that matter. Words fail me.

hey, here's an idea: GET RID OF TSA. put that money toward peoples' health, ie, this pandemic.

nah, what am I saying. that would actually be HELPFUL. can't have that, can we?

 

[rxlawdude]

Same with Santa Clara County, which is the hardest hit in the SF Bay Area. No more events with 1,000+ attendees. No official word yet on where or how the San Jose Sharks will play their three home games during the ban (until end of March for now).

The good news is Sharks fans won't have to worry about post-season games.
Signed - Ducks fan.

 

[KSilver2000]

Some people in India are concerned about calling this a pandemic (on twitter). Apparently their insurance doesn't cover pandemics ...

Wow, that sucks.

 

[EVNow]

Here is a site with a lot of Covid stats by country/region

COVID-2019

In Italy # of new cases down to 977, but fatalities up to 168.

 

[bkp_duke]

We could have had a vaccine. There was work on vaccines for SARS-related coronaviruses (of which COVID-19 is one), but funding has been sparse.

Until recently, of course.

When the 2009 H1N1 pandemic hit, there already were vaccines which had been developed several years earlier, based on earlier H1N1 strains. Approved antivirals, too. The combination helped make that pandemic no worse than a typical seasonal flu. That could have been the case here, had we properly invested.

I don't think the same mistake will be made again, given the pricetag of this event.

I was practicing during 2009 H1N1. I can say definitively that it certainly was worse than a typical flu season. The childrens hospital I worked in was packed, but fortunately case severity meant that we didn't run out of ICU beds. Everyone was just scared and came in to be tested. Working in the ER was miserable for 6 months that year.

 

[jboy210]

That's what I think every time I go to the dentist! Blows me away we have cars that almost drive themselves, rockets that land themselves, and still don't have a vaccine for corona or cavities.

We will have a vaccine for Corona in the future. That is the problem with a "Novel" virus. This is the first variant of the virus to become harmful to humans. So up until now it has been off the radar of researchers and biophama companies that make vaccines.

 

[Causalien]

Paying some attention to Japan. A country that didn't enact any draconian measures.

It seems like social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands is enough to slow down the spread by a lot. Back to linear growth instead of exponential.

 

[bkp_duke]

Paying some attention to Japan. A country that didn't enact any draconian measures.

It seems like social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands is enough to slow down the spread by a lot. Back to linear growth instead of exponential.

The population of Japan, on average, is one of the oldest in the world. They should be affected dis-proportionally higher, if all else was equal.

 

[snorp]

Regarding face masks, US Surgeon General tweets "They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus"

Some researchers in China are recommending wearing face masks on public transportation. I'm not sure what the official Chinese policy is regarding face masks.

Coronavirus can travel twice as far as official ‘safe distance’, study says

From the article:

The researchers also found that none of those passengers in the two buses who wore face masks were infected.
They said it vindicated the decision to ask people to wear a face mask in public.
“When riding on more closed public transportation such as subways, cars, planes, etc, you should wear a mask all the time, and at the same time, minimise the contact between your hands and public areas, and avoid touching your face before cleaning,” they said.

Who do you believe? Does anyone really know the truth? Logically thinking through it, I would expect that a face mask would offer more protection than not wearing one?