Covid-19 discussion and humor thread [Was: CDC says don't touch your face to avoid Covid19...Vets to the rescue!

[Augie]

9 minutes ago, Joe in Winslow said:

Your opinions....Higher number:

 

People killed by COVID or people bankrupted by the actions taken to prevent the COVID spread?

 

 

The financial ramifications are going to be ENORMOUS. Future daughter- in-law had the big meeting at her major hotel today. Out of approximately 600 people she was one of only 40 who still has a job tomorrow. Instead of relieved she’s extremely upset. (That says something very nice about her.) Lives come first, but this is some very serious stuff in so many ways! 

 

I can’t wait until we can look back on this like 9/11 or 2008. Make it just a horrible memory, and learn from it! 

[BillsFan4]

41 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001106855/article/nfl-offers-fans-free-access-to-nfl-game-pass?campaign=Twitter_atn

Thanks for sharing!

[Foxx]

3 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

No

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488227-trump-orders-hud-to-suspend-evictions-and-foreclosures

right. thank you for the correction and fact check. 

 

Fannie and Freddie as well.

[Hardhatharry]

49 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001106855/article/nfl-offers-fans-free-access-to-nfl-game-pass?campaign=Twitter_atn

[plenzmd1]

2 minutes ago, Hardhatharry said:

If someone can figure the new interface out on Firestik i would be awfully appreciative. Been watching games on the laptop, but cant for the life of me pull up games on the Firestick, which on the old UI was easy peesy

[K-9]

1 hour ago, Sundancer said:

I would like to see statistical compilations in more detail by age that do not include China's numbers in a week. I see glimpses of these now but not tabled. 

 

Anyone who thinks they can draw conclusions from China's numbers, especially their decreasing cases and apply them elsewhere, may not have their thinking hat on straight. 

- We are not China and lockdowns there are not the same as in the west

- China has a very loose relationship with the truth. 15000 to 15 patients does not ring true with what the rest of the world is experiencing.  

 

I’ve been more interested in Italy’s numbers. Our delayed response to this closely mirrors theirs, imo. 

[RaoulDuke79]

All I know is that a few days ago our governor said  only essential business should be open, and it would appear that every business seems themselves essential. 

[CommonCents]

On 3/18/2020 at 6:02 PM, RaoulDuke79 said:

All I know is that a few days ago our governor said  only essential business should be open, and it would appear that every business seems themselves essential. 

Right and it’s crap. We get deliveries from UPS and Fedex drivers who combined are going to an estimated 600 other houses and buisnesses then coming to ours each day. Isn’t that the definition of community transmission? 

 

Maybe im nuts but all these half measures are the wrong approach. If it’s as serious as they are saying then shut ***** down for a month. If it’s not, open the gym so I can workout and then go drink at the bar. 

 

Once they roll out drive though testing and the numbers become more clear panic will strike and governors will then act. 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by CommonCents

[GoBills808]

Our governor told tourists to stay away from Hawaii today

 

in a state that is 100% dependent on tourism that's a ***** huge move

 

going to hurt and immediately

[CommonCents]

1 minute ago, GoBills808 said:

Our governor told tourists to stay away from Hawaii today

 

in a state that is 100% dependent on tourism that's a ***** huge move

 

going to hurt and immediately

It takes balls to make a tough call. Good on him/her. 

[Warcodered]

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

7 hours ago, BillsFanNC said:

Early on I had read that the problem was with false positives in patient samples which would indicate a problem with primer design that might result in a test that lacked adequate specificity as you suggest.  Later on I had read this article:

 

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615323/why-the-cdc-botched-its-coronavirus-testing/

 

As someone who has done a fair amount of PCR that suggested to me that the kits suffered from a negative control that had been contaminated with target sequence amplicons, something that can happen quite easily if routine PCR guidelines aren't followed.  Without seeing the data we can only guess what the true failure was, but it was indeed a major failure by the CDC no matter how you slice it.

 

Totally agree with the last.  Pro publica is usually pretty durn good at the facts, but so is Tech Review.  It sounds as though there might be more than one problem: it definitely sounds as though they initially tried to design a more complex test that would test for SARS and MERS at the same time and it flubbed.  Of course, they can have contaminated negative controls as well, and it could be the State labs got earlier kits with good controls, then they shipped a contaminated batch.  Like you say, bottom line is major failure.

 

Quote

I agree with the bolded, but my response in terms of IVD validation was based on my experience in dealing with both the CDC and FDA in the past.   Having dealt with them specifically in developing a surveillance test for antiviral resistance, albeit when we weren't in the middle of a global pandemic, still gave me no reason to expect that they would react in a manner or with the appropriate speed that this situation required.

 

I dunno @BillsFanNC.  I was involved a bit with one of the MenB vaccines which got fast tracked at the FDA's request and Holy Hand Grenade, Batman! you wouldn't know it was the same agency.  They can turn it up and turn it on when they're properly motivated.  CDC, got nothin' on the testing side.

 

Quote

With flu the the overall umbrella of surveillance is two pronged, diagnostic results (Flu A/B) are gathered from clinical labs in all states and territories to monitor how much flu is out there and where it is.  These diagnostic data can be collected from rapid tests (both antigen and molecular based) and from traditional PCR.  The rapid molecular and antigen based tests are something we did not have for covid19, although the Roche isothermal PCR test that was granted approval under the EUA should help in this regard.  A smaller subset of samples are tested at public health laboratories for subtype (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, B) and lineage, which as you stated is primarily for identifying circulating strains to assess vaccine efficacy.  And yes, they certainly do ramp up surveillance efforts when a novel strain appears such as in 2009.

 

I think we are largely in agreement here that the CDC/FDA failed on both technical and bureaucratic levels in a big way.  They clearly failed in rolling out enough tests that would have helped in giving an earlier picture on the spread of covid19.  You can be certain that there will be congressional inquiries into this when all is said and done.

 

Yes.  But speaking of the Roche test (and Thermo Fisher), a real ray of hope we might turn the corner on testing!!!!!!

I'll leave it to you to insert the eye roll where appropriate 
https://www.wired.com/story/fda-approves-the-first-commercial-coronavirus-tests-in-the-us/

 

Quote: "Both tests received approval on Friday, less than 24 hours after the companies submitted their applications to the FDA. “This action today shows our agency’s dedication to working around the clock to review and authorize diagnostics during this public health emergency,” FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said in a statement.

Officials from Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, say the company has 400,000 tests ready to be shipped and plans to manufacture 400,000 more per week. Medical-device maker Thermo Fisher representatives say they have 1.5 million of their own test available, and a goal of producing 5 million per week by April. Both companies have promised their tests can turn around results in a matter of hours."
 

Of course, we still need benches, equipment, and hands to run them.

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, CommonCents said:

Right and it’s crap. I work for a defense contractor they fancy themselves saving the world. We get deliveries from UPS and Fedex drivers who combined are going to an estimated 600 other houses and buisnesses then coming to ours each day. Isn’t that the definition of community transmission? 

 

Maybe im nuts but all these half measures are the wrong approach. If it’s as serious as they are saying then shut ***** down for a month. If it’s not, open the gym so I can workout and then go drink at the bar. 

 

Once they roll out drive though testing and the numbers become more clear panic will strike and governors will then act.

 

I agree, there's a haphazard state-by-state and community-by-community approach now that is the worst of both worlds: too many businesses still open and too much going on to be effective at slowing this thing, but so many businesses already closed and they and their employees bleeding to death from it.  We really need a centralized, coordinated response.

 

I'm afraid we'll see the cases continue to climb exponentially until the hospitals are overwhelmed in the hardest hit areas and screaming about triage, OR we'll see an outbreak in a part of the country that's essentially 3rd-world in its healthcare infrastructure (like W. Va) and a world-worst death rate.

 

Then we'll see a total shutdown and see an epidemiologist put in charge.  But that's just my opinion.

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 hours ago, Cripple Creek said:

Gastros are, apparently feeling under appreciated. 

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/gastrointestinal-symptoms-should-be-monitored-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-doctors-say

 

I don't know quite what to make of this.  The statement by this physician that diarrhea preceded the difficulty breathing seems out-of-whack with the rate of reported symptoms in the WHO-CHina  55,000 cases, where overall nausea and vomiting was a symptom in 5% of the cases, and diarrhea in only 3.7%. 

 

 "He says about 50% of the 200 Covid 19 cases studied out of Wuhan had presented diarrhea even before respiratory symptoms showed up." 

 

So it sounds as though perhaps he studied a sub-set of cases involving shortness of breath (18.6%) and found that half of them presented with diarrhea?  So it might presage the most serious cases?  I don't know.  Even there, something's out of whack.

 

I guess the take home point is if you have fever and GI symptoms, covid-19 should not be ruled out as some cases do present that way.

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

9 hours ago, Cripple Creek said:

Ventilator shortage update:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/03/18/theres-a-shortage-of-ventilators-for-coronavirus-patients-so-this-international-group-invented-an-open-source-alternative-thats-being-tested-next-week

 

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184308/coronavirus-italy-medical-company-threatens-sue-3d-print-valves-treatments

 

Those are cool stories.  I have to admit, that as a patient it would not give me confidence to be hooked up to a ventilator that was just 3D printed and had never been use-tested for how long it would hold up and what its failure modes were, but it's pretty damn cool. (it's apparently not true that the medical company threatened to sue; it wouldn't release the design files, but it didn't threaten to sue)

[Hapless Bills Fan]

12 hours ago, Sundancer said:

Economically, it might be. The data from outside of China (where we have limited confidence) will tell how serious this is across wider populations. To get that data, we need...Hapless? 

 

Nothing would be better than if people could say in June that they told you so and this was never going to be a big deal but areas ahead of us in time are showing it's a big deal. 

 

I'm not sure what you're asking me about? If you want to see what's going on all over the world, go here.  The countries where the case fatality rate is low, are the countries that have had a rapid and aggressive response - tested widely and contact traced and quarantined like Singapore, Japan,  Taiwan, S Korea - even though it's got a lot of cases, they're well within their health care system's capacity.  The countries that are in a world of hurt are countries that fiddled while it  burned - Italy, Spain, about to be Switzerland apparently.

 

I personally don't have the same scope of limited confidence in the data from China.  This time they internationally shared the genome of the new pathogen immediately - they deserve a lot of credit for that.  They let an international panel go all over and review their measures and gave them pretty open access, and wrote a pretty comprehensive report.  So it's not just something going on behind a "Great Wall" with no international oversight on it.  Yes, they saw a dramatic drop in cases, but they threw a *****-ton of resources to achieve that.  Wuhan alone: 1,800 contact-tracing teams of 5 persons per team.  Just immense, immense effort at testing huge numbers of people and extensive and immediate contact tracing of anyone positive. 

 

Right now they're apparently placing entering foreign travelers in mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

 

China is doing some things that we won't do - for example, they're using a 15-minute field-readable test that is said to be 80% accurate because it depends upon early, non-specific IgM antibody response to infection- they know it's not perfect, but they'll use any tool that can help. 

 

I'd rather have us pattern a response on Taiwan, or Singapore (both democracies, and both still pretty much operating daily life) but I think it's a mistake to dismiss China's experience as though it doesn't count.  It's a disease.  It doesn't care what country it's in.  And all experience counts.

[BillsFan4]

This is heart breaking.

 

 

Quote

Grace Fusco — mother of 11, grandmother of 27 — would sit in the same pew at church each Sunday, surrounded by nearly a dozen members of her sprawling Italian-American family. Sunday dinners drew an even larger crowd to her home in central New Jersey.

 

Now, her close-knit clan is united anew by unspeakable grief: Mrs. Fusco, 73, died on Wednesday night after contracting the coronavirus — hours after her son died from the virus and five days after her daughter’s death, a relative said.

Four other children who contracted coronavirus remain hospitalized, three of them in critical condition, the relative, Roseann Paradiso Fodera, said.

 

Mrs. Fusco’s eldest child, Rita Fusco-Jackson, 55, of Freehold, N.J., died Friday; after her death, the family learned she had contracted the virus. Her eldest son, Carmine Fusco, of Bath, Pa., died on Wednesday, said Ms. Paradiso Fodera, the family’s lawyer who is Mrs. Fusco’s cousin and is serving as a spokeswoman.

 

Mrs. Fusco, of Freehold, died after spending Wednesday “gravely ill” and breathing with help from a ventilator, unaware that her two oldest children had died, Ms. Paradiso Fodera said.

 

 

 

Quote

“They’re young and they don’t have any underlying conditions,” Ms. Paradiso Fodero said.

 

 

Quote

He said officials are in the process of evaluating the patients’ medical histories to look for clues about why the disease might have progressed so rapidly, and been so potent.

“I don’t know if it’s a strain thing,” Dr. Matera said. “I would consider these particular people to be unusual.”

 

Ms. Fusco-Jackson died a day before her test for coronavirus came back positive on Saturday evening.

 

Her relatives are urging officials at CentraState or the C.D.C. to conduct an autopsy to learn more about how the virus killed Ms. Fusco-Jackson. She had been in good health, they said.

 

Scary how it seems to hit some people so hard. The eldest son who died has to be younger than 55 if Rita was the eldest child. And it sounds like both were in good health.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, BillsFan4 said:

This is heart breaking.

 

 

Scary how it seems to hit some people so hard. The eldest son who died has to be younger than 55 if Rita was the eldest child. And it sounds like both were in good health.

 

Agreed, heartbreaking and scary.

 

Covid-19 apparently binds to Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) expressed in lung epethelia.  I wonder if some people have higher levels of lung epithelial ACE-2 expression or a variant with higher affinity??  Total speculation and probably too simple.

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/live-blog/coronavirus-updates-global-cases-approach-200-000-lockdown-becomes-new-n1162561/ncrd1163471#liveBlogHeader

 

NYC cases doubled.  Hope it's more testing....wish they'd say

[Hapless Bills Fan]

My Boi viral epidemiologist Trevor Bedford does his stuff.  Washington State is almost all community-spread at this point with 4 recent introductions.

Limited sequence data from NYS and MN appear to be recent imports from Iran, Europe, and Netherlands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time will tell if his suspicion is correct...hope they are getting their hands on more virus to sequence (or that other genomic epidemiology labs are doing this) as understanding the principle factors behind spread will factually guide how we attack a containment phase.  

 

Well, that, and a 99% reliable 15 minute test that reads like a pg test....Dream Big

[BillsFan4]

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

I think i actually have photos of a lot of these same places. I’ll have to take a look when I get a chance. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by BillsFan4

[Hapless Bills Fan]

This is really good so Imma just put this here.  This is a doctor from our premier biocontainment hospital at U of Nebraska.
 

This is an email from Nebraska Medicine critical care anesthesiologist Dan Johnson, MD, to his friends and family about the seriousness of COVID-19. It is shared with permission from Dr. Johnson.

---

Dear Family,

The COVID-19 pandemic will be a challenge to the USA unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime. For the last several weeks, I have been involved in multiple meetings each day where I get to hear the thoughts of experts in the field of pandemics, specifically about this pandemic, and what we need to do.

If anyone hears from family or friends who think this is “no big deal,” or that the USA’s response has been excessive, please know that they are very wrong. I’m sure you have all read about the many reasons that this is NOT “just like flu.” The numbers of infected, worldwide and in the USA, are extreme underestimates (because many infected have not been tested). The best metric to use, right now, is talking with hospital workers in the hotbeds, and asking them what their situation is.

I have been in communication with a friend who is a critical care physician from the Lombardy region of Italy. The health care workers there are living in a nightmare, having to decide who lives and who dies from lack of oxygen because their health care system is overwhelmed.

In the USA, we have three pathways for COVID-19:

1. The country views this challenge like WWI and WWII, and almost everyone does the right things, and we will be harmed but okay.
2. Many people do the right things, and many don’t, and we will have the same struggles that Italy is enduring.
3. People blow this disease off as no big deal, and our health care system (and life as we know it) will be crippled.

You have all probably seen the concept of “flatten the curve.” If we fail to flatten the curve, and we fail to eliminate the portion of yellow above that line, there will be dire consequences:

1. More people, including some of our friends and family, will die.
2. Health care workers like me, Rachel, and several of you are at higher risk of dying.
3. All health care workers will have to witness the needless deaths of patients who could have survived.

In the SARS-1 outbreak, critical care doctors and nurses in Asia and Canada acquired life-long PTSD from watching patients gasp for air and die because they did not have enough ventilators. SARS-1 was nothing compared to COVID-19. If we do not flatten the curve, Rachel, Bridget, and I will have to witness many of these types of deaths.

In the absence of a vaccine or an anti-viral in the immediate future, our best chance to avoid overwhelming our hospitals is non-pharmaceutical interventions. The two best ways to do that are (1) social distancing, and (2) excellent hygiene.

Please check out these simulations from the Washington Post, and share this article.

The best ways for you to achieve social distancing are pretty simple:

1. You and your kids should stay home. This includes not going to church, not going to the gym, not going anywhere.
2. Do not travel for enjoyment until this is done. Do not travel for work unless your work truly requires it.
3. Avoid groups of people. Not just crowds, groups. Just be around your immediate family. I think kids should just play with siblings at this point – no play dates, etc.
4. When you must leave your home (to get groceries, to go to work), maintain a distance of six feet from people. REALLY stay away from people with a cough or who look sick.
5. When you do get groceries, etc., buy twice as much as you normally do so that you can go to the store half as often. Use hand sanitizer immediately after your transaction, and immediately after you unload the groceries.

I’m not saying people should not go to work. Just don’t leave the house for anything unnecessary, and if you can work from home, do it.

Everyone on this email, besides Mom and Dad, are at low risk for severe disease if/when they contract COVID-19. While this is great, that is not the main point. When young, well people fail to do social distancing and hygiene, they pick up the virus and transmit it to older people who are at higher risk for critical illness or death. So everyone needs to stay home. Even young people.

Tell every person over 60, and every person with significant medical conditions, to avoid being around people. Please do not have your kids visit their grandparents if you can avoid it. FaceTime them.

Our nation is the strongest one in the world. We have been through other extreme challenges and succeeded many times before. We WILL return to normal life. Please take these measures now to flatten the curve, so that we can avoid catastrophe.

Love,

Dan

 

Link
https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/a-message-from-one-of-our-doctors-to-his-family-about-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR3rCHLYtrd3yHJc2P41Y35OrhwDSiPeJtDZzA4S_OqD4Hn2HCt3u_42J1A

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

12 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

Wow.

 

Stephon Diggs retweet on coronavirus:
 

 

[Bad Things]

Our Prime Minister just announced that New Zealand's borders are closed to all non-citizens.

 

Yikes!

[Sundancer]

China new cases to 0 does not mean it is over. But it is good news. Very easy to start contagion again if all movement restrictions are lifted though. This will be our issue in the US in particular. Once we get on top of this, which will take longer, we will need to stay on top of it by staying in our communities, not exposing ourselves to many others, not just launching back to the old normal. It will need to be a slow climb back to protect the bubble from resurging. We need to get to the no new cases point first, then let experts guide the next steps and follow them. 
 

Unlike the responses that worked in China, the US communities are already starting to give up on tracing contacts citing spread via “normal activity,” which shows a lack of commitment to quarantine and tracing efforts (national database and contact mapping would seem so so easy for this...Facebook for Covid) compared to Korea, Singapore, Japan, and China. This is not good news. By not doing this, it may take longer to reach containment. As suspected by many, the west may lack the backbone to get on this in a way that makes the most difference early. 

 

Hapless: upstream my reference to you was just about the dire need for more testing Since you’ve been beating that drum so hard. Nothing more. 
 

On that topic of testing the admin’s primary strategy right now is distancing, not testing, due to continued lack of test availability to meet needs. Tough to read this knowing testing is a key to managing and resuming normalcy. Focusing the tests on elderly and healthcare workers is fine because we continue to literally have no choice but the low symptom folk may then carry and spread obliviously. No tracing, no testing is the opposite of Korea and Japan.  
 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[Punching Bag]

10 hours ago, K-9 said:

I’ve been more interested in Italy’s numbers. Our delayed response to this closely mirrors theirs, imo. 

 

What does not match up is ages.  That part of Italy had a lot of elderly.

 

[Cripple Creek]

6 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

I travel to NYC at least 4-5x per year and have for about the last decade. This is quite stunning to see. I am glad to see it, don’t get me wrong. But it’s still crazy. 

 

I feel like this is all some crazy dream. 

 

I think i actually have photos of a lot of these same places. I’ll have to take a look when I get a chance. 

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/488302-florida-governor-refuses-to-close-beaches-amid-covid-19-outbreak  I'm sure that this will change, but way too late. Stupid.

 

Tuesday:

[plenzmd1]

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

[Sundancer]

50 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

 

This is consistent with what the administration was saying yesterday. They can't test everyone who needs it, so they are focusing on elderly and health care workers with the tests they do have. It's a real problem. We can't return to any normalcy until we are only quarantining those who test positive, and we can't know who those people are without massive testing, which is not currently possible. 

 

I don't really care "why" at the moment. I am happy to play the blame game in November--right now I am just concerned that we remain without tests and without an ability to return to normalcy even once the cases peak in a few weeks in the big coastal cities (and a couple months in places like Buffalo). 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[Not at the table Karlos]

40 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

I would be willing to bet a lot of money that UB students returning to school from China at the end of January had it. I uber and picked up a lot of Asian students that all had some type of cold and there was very little testing happening at the time. There was a person that was highly suspected to have it that refused to go to hospital less than a quarter of a mile from my house and Ub in January.   
 

I had an odd cold in the weeks following the students coming back. Had minor sore throat, runny nose and cough but it was hard to breathe and I could only take short breaths. I also gained about 15 lbs in a few days. My feet were really swollen and I struggled to get my shoes on with the laces almost undone(I didn’t see weight gain in any corona symptoms but the dr was really worried when he heard that) My dr refused to allow me in the office when I told them my symptoms and sent me to the ER.
 

On my way to ER I get a call from my dr saying that I won’t be allowed into hospital and to go home. That was my last contact with my primary dr at the beginning of February. No tests or anything just go home.  Others in the area have had similar symptoms but were told the same thing as me. Stay home. 

 

Edit- I have a decent amount of family in law enforcement and health care and they’ve both been hinting that the numbers of infected are much higher than reported but the symptoms are so minor that people don’t go for treatment. 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Not at the table Karlos

[davefan66]

47 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

man, this is so sad to see and so infuriating

 

https://buffalonews.com/2020/03/18/poloncarz-we-dont-have-the-ability-to-test-any-more/

 

 

 

 

It’s a huge issue.  If we started testing when the first cases hit the US, we could have better controlled this.  Quarantining everyone is actually less useful than quarantining only those who test positive.  Also, the ability to test helps verify actual hotspots to decide where to best utilize what resources we have.

 

And everyone needs to keep in mind, as testing does begin we will see a huge spike in numbers.  No need to freak out about that as it is not indicative of rapid spreading, just indicative of knowing who actually is positive.  Sustained testing will allow us to actually track how the virus is spreading and being successfully slowed/stopped.

 

Edit: what’s truly scary also is that healthcare workers are not being tested. Being told if symptomatic, must report to work.  I understand that there is only a finite healthcare workforce.  But sending workers who are positive to care for others will only serve to incresse the spread. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by davefan66

[Steptide]

Why do my posts in this topic keep getting deleted? 

[Sundancer]

1 minute ago, Steptide said:

Why do my posts in this topic keep getting deleted? 

 

Depends on what you're saying. If you want to be political or spread conspiracies, they are probably getting deleted because there's already a place for that. Hapless is trying to keep things in this thread apolitical with respect to Dem/Rep politics and conspiracy talk. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Sundancer

[plenzmd1]

POsitive tests at NYSE, to be shut down today..trading still open, just all electronic

[BillsFan4]

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country took it very serious, the other did very little for a month and a half (except talk about how it was all under control and a big media hoax) and now we are starting to pay the price. 

[davefan66]

10 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country took it very serious, the other did very little for a month and a half (except talk about how it was all under control and a big media hoax) and now we are starting to pay the price. 

I work in healthcare.  The mask shortage is real with no end in site.  The CDC back down on the type of mask that should be used for positive patients.  It used to be N95 masks that are actual filters.  CDC now states regular surgical masks are OK.

 

Front line staff are being told if they do receive a N95 that it’s OK to reuse.  That is new based on the shortage.

 

Front line staff are scared for themselves, coworkers and family.  Let alone the other patients we take care of that are hospitalized during this.

 

Not protecting those treating these patients will only infect them which will lead to massive staffing shortages.

Edited March 19, 2020 by davefan66

[Sundancer]

6 minutes ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

Click on the tweet to read the entire twitter thread, for those interested. 

 

Hopefully this national defense act will start fixing some of these issues. 

 

Boy do I wish we handled this like South Korea did. Both the U.S. and S. Korea reported their first COVID19 case on the same day. One country...

 

The blame game is not helpful right now. We need to solve this as best we can. We have what we have. Right now that's inadequate testing and hospitals getting bombarded. Our local hospital is re-using masks (unheard of) and asking for mask donations from the public. 

 

Even the most skeptical are coming around to this being a big deal. 

[Steptide]

16 minutes ago, Sundancer said:

 

Depends on what you're saying. If you want to be political or spread conspiracies, they are probably getting deleted because there's already a place for that. Hapless is trying to keep things in this thread apolitical with respect to Dem/Rep politics and conspiracy talk. 

Haven't posted anything conspiracy related. I did post my displeasure of certain businesses staying open amidst the crisis, but I didn't think that's a deletable offense 

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/video/gal-gadot-leads-star-studded-123917561.html

 

 

 

damn it....  Firewalls at work just nixed Youtube 

Gal Gadot, Natalie Portman , Amy Adams, & Zoë Kravitz and more singing  Imagine all the people

[K-9]

20 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

POsitive tests at NYSE, to be shut down today..trading still open, just all electronic

Does this mean we will see a picture of a frantic computer with every story about Wall Street instead of the worried traders in smocks on the floor? And how are the computers gonna point and look up in the distance at something we can’t see?