Coronavirus

[lascavarian]

lessons learned is keep good distance to other peo

Cooking the food to 70 C (158 F) is enough to kill the virus according to @SageBrush. I don't believe the virus penetrates the food. 70 C is actually lower than is required to kill bacteria.

Thanks for the comment.

My question is really about the packaging of frozen foods like a frozen pizza sold in a wrapper. The pizza is cooked so all good there but what about the wrapper?

If the wrapper was surface contaminated before being put in my freezer for 24 hours then it is likely to be still contaminated when I take it out. Freezing may not inactivate surface virus as would be the case for just letting a bag of contaminated chips sit untouched for several days at room temperature. I can safely open the chips ungloved. Can I safely handle a frozen pizza wrapper without gloves?

I can't let a frozen pizza sit out for a day before handling it or it will spoil. See the difference with frozen food...

This is a minor point but worth knowing. I don't see any well controlled studies on freezing for this virus. It may be out there but I have not seen it.

As for bacteria, this source says bacterial contamination is not eliminated by freezing. See myth #3.

6 Common Myths About Freezing Foods

 

[FoverM]

I did collect some data from Europe from Wroldometer to give a better understanding how the countries developed versus their peak new cases day.

Some countries do adjust data later and e.g. Germany confirmed that some weekend data is missing too but since man countries had a day at least yesterday with a lower new cases number than peak its interested to look at. Also have a look at the days since peak day which give a good overview how long the country is below that highest number.

The picture from yesterday looks pretty consistent with just 3 outlier but the next days will bring us more clarity I believe.

Source: Coronavirus Update (Live): 351,705 Cases and 15,361 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Outbreak - WorldometerView attachment 524653

I hate to say it ... but those numbers are misleading. You can't simply compare today vs the peak because the daily new case numbers contain a lot of noise. You need to look at the overall curve. For example, you have Germany at -44% three days after the peak. Sounds wonderful until you look at the daily new cases graph and you see that the 4528 "peak" was clearly an outlier (the surrounding points were all in the 2500-3000 range). At best, you could say that Germany is forming a rounded peak right now ... but I would wait for a week of declining numbers before declaring victory.

 

[Cherry Wine]

lessons learned is keep good distance to other peo


Thanks for the comment.

My question is really about the packaging of frozen foods like a frozen pizza sold in a wrapper. The pizza is cooked so all good there but what about the wrapper?

If the wrapper was surface contaminated before being put in my freezer for 24 hours then it is likely to be still contaminated when I take it out. Freezing may not inactivate surface virus as would be the case for just letting a bag of contaminated chips sit untouched for several days at room temperature. I can safely open the chips ungloved. Can I safely handle a frozen pizza wrapper without gloves?

I can't let a frozen pizza sit out for a day before handling it or it will spoil. See the difference with frozen food...

This is a minor point but worth knowing. I don't see any well controlled studies on freezing for this virus. It may be out there but I have not seen it.

As for bacteria, this source says bacterial contamination is not eliminated by freezing. See myth #3.

6 Common Myths About Freezing Foods

Wipe down the exterior with some disinfectant - maybe give it a few minutes in the sun to boot.

 

[jhm]

Well... if you want to be taking early numbers out of context, here are some more ones. From the same site:
View attachment 524522


There are 414 deaths for 178 recoveries. So... it has a 70% death rate, right?

Doing this is just as meaningful or meaningless as dividing deaths by active cases during the exponential growth phase.

After a while both of these numbers will converge to the same. Until then they’re meaningless.

It looks like it takes longer to recover than to die.

 

[ggr]

Looking on the bright side for a moment, COVID-19 has taught millions of people the value of logarithmic scales on graphs...

 

[Dr. J]

Looking on the bright side for a moment, COVID-19 has taught millions of people the value of logarithmic scales on graphs...

And how to wash hands!

 

[Daniel in SD]

I did collect some data from Europe from Wroldometer to give a better understanding how the countries developed versus their peak new cases day.

Some countries do adjust data later and e.g. Germany confirmed that some weekend data is missing too but since man countries had a day at least yesterday with a lower new cases number than peak its interested to look at. Also have a look at the days since peak day which give a good overview how long the country is below that highest number.

The picture from yesterday looks pretty consistent with just 3 outlier but the next days will bring us more clarity I believe.

Source: Coronavirus Update (Live): 351,705 Cases and 15,361 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Outbreak - WorldometerView attachment 524653

Your analysis is off. Italy hit peak new cases on March 9th...

 

[jerry33]

lessons learned is keep good distance to other peo


Thanks for the comment.

My question is really about the packaging of frozen foods like a frozen pizza sold in a wrapper. The pizza is cooked so all good there but what about the wrapper?

If the wrapper was surface contaminated before being put in my freezer for 24 hours then it is likely to be still contaminated when I take it out. Freezing may not inactivate surface virus as would be the case for just letting a bag of contaminated chips sit untouched for several days at room temperature. I can safely open the chips ungloved. Can I safely handle a frozen pizza wrapper without gloves?

I can't let a frozen pizza sit out for a day before handling it or it will spoil. See the difference with frozen food...

This is a minor point but worth knowing. I don't see any well controlled studies on freezing for this virus. It may be out there but I have not seen it.

As for bacteria, this source says bacterial contamination is not eliminated by freezing. See myth #3.

6 Common Myths About Freezing Foods

The wrapper would be as contaminated as it was when frozen (my understanding). Spraying some alcohol based surface sanitizer on the wrapper would decontaminate it, takes about a minute. I was really thinking about food that you prepare yourself, such as this pear, caramelized onion, and goat cheese pizza.

 

[deonb]

The wrapper would be as contaminated as it was when frozen (my understanding). Spraying some alcohol based surface sanitizer on the wrapper would decontaminate it, takes about a minute. I was really thinking about food that you prepare yourself, such as this pear, caramelized onion, and goat cheese pizza.

Well, if you contaminate a pizza with pear and goat cheese, no amount of sanitizer is going to help it.

 

[avoigt]

Your analysis is off. Italy hit peak new cases on March 9th...
View attachment 524669

Sure that happens with one country but we have 13 countries in Europe with down numbers and just 3 up.

If 13 countries out of 16 behave almost similar including a few outliers, its telling you something as this can't be a coincidence.

If you in statistic look at one data point like you did you never get a clear answer,

 

[bkp_duke]

Looking on the bright side for a moment, COVID-19 has taught millions of people the value of logarithmic scales on graphs...

But has it? Even in this thread we have people arguing that it's "no worse than the flu". And I would consider the intelligence here to be significantly above average.

 

[LiveLong&Profit]

News from Denmark: Shutdown prolonged two weeks.

Just in, so I have not grasped full details. It appears no stricter measures, but 2 weeks more.
Prolonged shutdown ends after Easter (14th of April)

Mood:
PM actually praised population for abiding by the shutdown rules and regulations.
Stricter measures not needed but important to stay focused.
The implicit promise is that if we *behave* then 4 weeks is enough and will make a big difference.

• 24 deaths
• 254 in intensive care
• Ventilator count is now 1060 - up by ~100.

PPE is very hard to get hold of currently! People are asked a) use them sparingly b) not hoard.
Scandal brewing re. testing: Private companies, both local and several from South Korea offered testing equipment 2 weeks ago. However, this was not timely acted upon. Not good.

 

[HG Wells]

But has it? Even in this thread we have people arguing that it's "no worse than the flu". And I would consider the intelligence here to be significantly above average.

Well, If comparing it to the 1918 Spanish flu then they might be right. /S

 

[SageBrush]

World Data through 3/22



I don't see any good news

 

[SageBrush]

USA Data through 3/22



CA, WA and MA are the only states with 'curve flattening' performance

 

[sparcs]

Looks like even apparel makers are converting factories for face masks:

Charlotte Observer: NC textile mill ‘heeds call of nation,’ gears up to make 10 million face masks per week

IBD: These Industrial Giants Plan To Crank Out Ventilators, Face Masks

Parkdale Mills Inc., one of the country’s largest yarn spinners, is working with companies like Hanesbrand, Fruit of the Loom, and six others to build a manufacturing supply chain for the masks, the National Council of Textile Organizations said in a press release.

3M joins fellow conglomerate General Electric (GE), which revealed last week that it has increased output of ventilators as the coronavirus pandemic evolves.

Clothing company Hanesbrands (HBI) confirmed it's converting factories to make the N95 face masks for health workers, under a contract with the U.S. government.

Hanesbrands expects to eventually produce 1.5 million face masks weekly and its designs also will be used by a wider consortium of apparel makers pivoting to face masks.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Sure that happens with one country but we have 13 countries in Europe with down numbers and just 3 up.

If 13 countries out of 16 behave almost similar including a few outliers, its telling you something as this can't be a coincidence.

If you in statistic look at one data point like you did you never get a clear answer,

I guess we'll see. A lot of the one day drops look improbably large. I don't see how you can have a 30% drop in new cases in a single day unless you're running fewer tests or changing who gets tested.

 

[SageBrush]

I was really thinking about food that you prepare yourself, such as this pear, caramelized onion, and goat cheese pizza.

Man that looks tasty

Stay at Home has its privileges.

 

[bkp_duke]

I guess we'll see. A lot of the one day drops look improbably large. I don't see how you can have a 30% drop in new cases in a single day unless you're running fewer tests or changing who gets tested.

Labs periodically get backed up, so the drop and subsequent surge is probably a by-product of that, and not a true indicator of the actual infections.

Given testing limitations, all I can take from the data are trends, averaged over about a 3-day period.

 

[deonb]

Labs periodically get backed up, so the drop and subsequent surge is probably a by-product of that, and not a true indicator of the actual infections.

Given testing limitations, all I can take from the data are trends, averaged over about a 3-day period.

And tests per day aren't consistent, depending on how labs are set up. Here is the WA state test rate - you can see, even though it goes up, there is a large difference between days 1, 2 and 3 going in a cycle. I assume this happens elsewhere as well.