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

[LeGOATski]

1 hour ago, Cripple Creek said:

This is some interesting statisticing.

 

https://www.newsweek.com/chile-counts-those-who-died-coronavirus-recovered-because-theyre-no-longer-contagious-health-1497775

lol, wtf...

[BillsFan4]

https://www.sciencealert.com/clinical-trial-for-high-dose-of-chloroquine-stopped-early-due-to-safety-concerns

Quote

Study of High-Dose Chloroquine For COVID-19 Stopped Early Due to Patient Deaths

 

[Cripple Creek]

23 hours ago, K-9 said:

I heard that one of the qualifiers that Quest Diagnostics is using in screening candidates to be tested is insurance status? Can anyone confirm that? 

 

22 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The "Families First Coronavirus Response Act" is supposed to guarantee coverage of covid-19 tests. 

Update: from the Quest Diagnostics site:

"Quest does not collect COVID-19 test specimens at our patient service centers."

 

So you still have to get the test collected and submitted elsewhere, either by a testing center, a hospital, or other healthcare provider - then to whom they submit the test is probably guided by insurance.

 

 

 

 

Quest has set up a drive thru service for first responders/health care providers [edit: and "anyone exhibiting symptoms"].  One caveat is:

Quote

Quest says anyone getting tested needs to make sure they bring their insurance card and valid photo ID for proof of identity.

 

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/erie-county-appears-to-set-up-drive-thru-covid-19-testing-unit/71-b1e24774-cdcf-47cd-926a-b68dcceed811

22 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

The "Families First Coronavirus Response Act" is supposed to guarantee coverage of covid-19 tests.

21 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

At least for the Tompkins County site, it says bring your insurance card but it also says in fine print "no one will be denied a test because they lack insurance"

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Hapless Bills Fan
combine several posts

[Bad Things]

Surprised there hasn't been anything mentioned on here, regarding the Presidents decision to stop supporting the World Health Organization.

 

[bdutton]

20 hours ago, Bad Things said:

Surprised there hasn't been anything mentioned on here, regarding the Presidents decision to stop supporting the World Health Organization.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/world/asia/trump-who-coronavirus-china.html
 

17 hours ago, K-9 said:

It’s interesting that the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Medical Association have both come out against this decision. 

 

17 hours ago, Augie said:

Bill and Melinda Gates are not too happy either.

 

19 hours ago, Bad Things said:

Sorry... can't read it without a subscription.

 

17 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

OK, so for those without access a few key points from the Times article linked upthread:
 

The overall point seems to be that while withholding funding from a global health organization during a pandemic may not be a wise move:
There will be time later to assess successes and failings, “this virus and its shattering consequences,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday in a statement praising the W.H.O. as “absolutely critical” to vanquishing Covid-19.

However, Trump far from the only one who has criticized WHO's handling of the pandemic and some of the criticisms appear warranted:

Critics say the W.H.O. has been too trusting of the Chinese government, which initially tried to conceal the outbreak in Wuhan. Others have faulted the organization and its leader, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for moving too slowly in declaring a global health emergency.

-Even as late as mid-January, as the virus spread beyond China’s borders, Chinese officials described it as “preventable and controllable” and said there was no evidence it could be transmitted between humans on a broad scale. The W.H.O. endorsed the government’s claims, saying in mid-January, for example, that human-to-human transmission had not been proven. [Edit: It was clear by mid-January that most transmission was human-to-human]  “[WHO] could have been more forceful, especially in the initial stages in the crisis when there was a cover-up and there was inaction,” said Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert specializing in China at Seton Hall University.

-Even as the virus spread to more than half a dozen countries and forced China to place parts of Hubei Province under lockdown in late January, the W.H.O. was reluctant to declare it a global health emergency. W.H.O. officials said at the time that a committee that discussed the epidemic was divided on the question of whether to call it an emergency, but concluded that it was too early. One official added that they weighed the impact such a declaration might have on the people of China.

 

-After the United States announced a ban on most foreign citizens who had recently visited China, the W.H.O. again seemed to show deference to Chinese officials, saying that travel restrictions were unnecessary. The group officially called the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11. “It reinforced the reluctance to take early strong measures before the catastrophe had actually landed on other shores,” said François Godement, senior adviser for Asia at Institut Montaigne, a nonprofit group in Paris. “The W.H.O.’s tardiness or reluctance to call out the problem in full helped those who wanted to delay difficult decisions."

-Last year, the W.H.O. offered an endorsement of traditional Chinese medicine, including it in its influential medical compendium. The move was roundly criticized by animal rights activists, who argued that it could contribute to a surge in illegal trafficking of wildlife whose parts are used in Chinese remedies. [Edit: like, you know, Pangolins]

My personal view is that more than one thing can be true.  National and local leaders who delayed action on covid-19 in their own countries are responsible despite what WHO did or did not declare.  (Lack of WHO declaration did not prevent Taiwan, S. Korea, Singapore etc from preparing.) AND it is appropriate to criticize WHO's handling of the pandemic.  AND because we live in a global economy with easy global travel, it is not helpful to de-fund WHO at this juncture;  Bill and Melinda Gates, the AMA, US CoC etc have a point there.  The economy and the world will not return to normal until covid-19 is subdued, worldwide.

 

 

 

 

[K-9]

23 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Bill and Melinda Gates are not too happy either. I don’t want to go where I want to go here.......if you know what I mean. 

Yes, I know what you mean and I’ve learned the hard way. 
 

Regarding Gates, his strategy for researching and developing a vaccine is brilliant, not to mention exceedingly philanthropic. He is opening 7 factories simultaneously so that less time is wasted as would be if you tried developing one at a time. Amazing.

Edited April 15, 2020 by K-9

[Augie]

20 hours ago, K-9 said:

Yes, I know what you mean and I’ve learned the hard way. 
 

Regarding Gates, his strategy for researching and developing a vaccine is brilliant, not to mention exceedingly philanthropic. He is opening 7 factories simultaneously so that less time is wasted as would be if you tried developing one at a time. Amazing.

 

“Better to spend BILLIONS than TRILLIONS”.

 

That guy just might be kinda smart. 

 

 

 

.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Augie

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Bad Things said:

I think it safe to say that the entire world, apart from 1/2 of the American population, think it's a shameful decision.

 

Explanation of the impacts witholding WHO funding will have at this time:

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-funding-explai/explainer-what-the-u-s-funds-freeze-could-mean-for-who-and-its-work-idUSKCN21X2A0?fbclid=IwAR3rat-MZjKpv2YIXbNbjUzP9x-vMSddy-X-taDzWVgPf9EUky_FVDLuZ7s

 

* The funding comes in two forms:

- so-called “assessed contributions” from member states, which go towards keeping up the WHO’s core functions

- and voluntary contributions, which are targeted at specific programmes such as polio eradication and the fight against AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases.

* At this stage, it is not clear whether the United States intends to halt its voluntary contributions, its assessed contributions, or both.

* It is not clear whether the United States has already made all or part of its payments towards the 2020-2021 budget, but its assessed contributions are normally made late in the year.
 

* Almost $1 billion of the 2020-2021 budget is earmarked for WHO operations across Africa, the world’s poorest continent with the highest rates of under-five mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases.

* Polio eradication remains a major WHO programme and the United States is a key contributor to this effort.

* The WHO’s emergency programme is also seeking to stamp out other deadly infectious disease outbreaks including Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

[BillsFan4]

 

 

[CountDorkula]

@Hapless Bills FanNot sure if you have seen this article yet.

 

Possible good news, hopefully?

 

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-gsu-georgia-state-university-medicine-drug/85-19f9308d-ac57-4c52-99f3-329de61c9b8d

 

 

“So when we treat the cells with this drug,” Dr. Kumar said Wednesday, “the virus… completely goes away. And all the inflammation that we see with the untreated cell also goes away. So that’s very significant.”

Kumar and his team just shared their findings online, prior to routine peer review and publication in a medical journal, so researchers world wide can see the preliminary research right away.

What Kumar’s team reports is that a drug called “Auranofin,” which is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat rheumatoid arthritis, can also, in lab tests, kill coronavirus that has infected a human cell.
 

 1 hour ago, K-9 said:

Let’s hope that testing on infected humans is just as effective as the test tube results in the lab. Fingers crossed.

 

12 minutes ago, Nervous Guy said:

Unfortunately, the correlation between in vitro and in vivo is not all that great...but let's remain optimistic.

 

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

Unfortunately, just like these guys said, many many things that work in cell culture do not work in people, for many reasons; many treatments that appear promising in small groups of people don't turn out to work when the study size is expanded ??.  But all promising avenues should be tested, especially when there is already the safety-testing of an approved drug in place.

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Hapless Bills Fan
combine several posts

[BillsFan4]

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article241996231.html

Quote

Which elder-care facilities have COVID-19? Florida won’t say, filling families with dread.

 

Quote

A devoted grandson learns his grandmother died alone last weekend. The family was never told she had fallen ill. A fragile mother is moved from her room so the senior home can expand its “quarantine wing.” Her daughter was told no one has tested positive for the coronavirus. 

 

A family repeatedly asks if anyone has tested positive at the home of their grandfather only to receive cheerful texts that avoid the question and say: “We’re all doing great!”

 

Barred from visiting their relatives in the midst of a pandemic, people with relatives in nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state say they are also being deprived of information that could reassure them that their loved ones are safe.

 

Quote

Kristen Knapp, spokeswoman for the Florida Health Care Association, the trade group representing most nursing homes in Florida, said “we’re recommending and encouraging [the homes] to disclose” information to relatives of residents but that it’s “the decision of the Department of Health” to release the data to the broader public. The health department has refused to share it — or to tell the Herald the legal justification for not doing so.

 

 

[BillsFan4]

 

[Mr Info]

2 hours ago, CountDorkula said:

@Hapless Bills FanNot sure if you have seen this article yet.

 

Possible good news, hopefully?

 

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-gsu-georgia-state-university-medicine-drug/85-19f9308d-ac57-4c52-99f3-329de61c9b8d

 

 

“So when we treat the cells with this drug,” Dr. Kumar said Wednesday, “the virus… completely goes away. And all the inflammation that we see with the untreated cell also goes away. So that’s very significant.”

Kumar and his team just shared their findings online, prior to routine peer review and publication in a medical journal, so researchers world wide can see the preliminary research right away.

What Kumar’s team reports is that a drug called “Auranofin,” which is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat rheumatoid arthritis, can also, in lab tests, kill coronavirus that has infected a human cell.
 

 

 

 

Let’s hope this can be corroborated. No generic manufacturers yet but it appears to be off patent so that would change quickly...thx for posting.

[K-9]

 

 

[Bad Things]

1 hour ago, K-9 said:

 

 

 

You know what would be ironic AND funny?

[K-9]

6 minutes ago, Bad Things said:

 

You know what would be ironic AND funny?

No. Please enlighten us.

[Punching Bag]

2 hours ago, Mr Info said:

Let’s hope this can be corroborated. No generic manufacturers yet but it appears to be off patent so that would change quickly...thx for posting.

 

If this is true price of gold will skyrocket like deaths by COVID.

[Warcodered]

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, Limeaid said:

 

If this is true price of gold will skyrocket like deaths by COVID.

 

You could be right, but it would be a bit silly.  The clinical dose for rheumatoid arthritis is 3mg, and due to gold toxicity, I doubt could ramp up much higher.

It's 29% gold.  That means 1,000 doses of the drug would contain 0.87 g of gold - or less than $0.05 of gold per dose at the current price.

 

Many of the other ingredients in drug candidates cost more than that

[Punching Bag]

34 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

You could be right, but it would be a bit silly.  The clinical dose for rheumatoid arthritis is 3mg, and due to gold toxicity, I doubt could ramp up much higher.

It's 29% gold.  That means 1,000 doses of the drug would contain 0.87 g of gold - or less than $0.05 of gold per dose at the current price.

 

Many of the other ingredients in drug candidates cost more than that

 

Most panic buying is silly.