Coronavirus Updates

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

In our modern world there's soft and hard power. Since America works on "MAGA" quite obviously soft power is a negligible tool for Trump, which he just does not use nor understand at all. Also in the EU many countries are more or less doing their own thing, while the EU itself is a little bit late to the party to help countries like Italy and Spain. America didn't help at all, but instead wants just all stuff for itself and see the rest of the world burning.

So we've got a soft power vacuum here, and guess who's trying to get in here? China. Nobody in Italy nor Spain did expect that suddenly Chinese help at large suddenly would appear, but it did - and the Chinese are not only there because both countries share a knack for pasta or Marco Polo. The Chinese have been sending tons of medical equipment, sharing their knowledge about the virus with local medics and sending several expert medic teams to those countries. Of course this is not done only because due to humanitarian reasons, but to gain influence.

But guess what? It works. When the pandemic is over, many people in those countries will do remember who helped them and who not. It's just another step to a multipolar world due to Trump's ignorance and self-absorption.

Here are some words from Giovanni Toti, he's the governor of Liguria:


Solidarity, from those you don't expect. Yesterday evening at Fiumicino airport, a team of coronavirus experts and a shipment of aid sent by the Chinese Red Cross landed. In addition to the words of proximity, fans, masks and many other medical devices that our country desperately needs, also arrived from China. Thanks to you, who were the first to deal with the emergency and now that you are winning this battle, you have not hesitated to extend your hand to us. When this is over, we will remember who was there... and who was not. On the contrary. In the meantime, thanks to China, Italy will make it too


America, China... and Europe? Brussels, where are you? Though on second thought, maybe it's better if he doesn't show up. Last time he spoke, we lost 17 billion. As a pro-European, with regret...

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Spain has nationalised all its private hospitals due to the Coronavirus crisis.

Spain has nationalized all of its private hospitals as the country goes into coronavirus lockdown

Spain has put all private hospitals under government control indefinitely as the number of coronavirus cases surge in the country.

www.businessinsider.de

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Italy asked officially Cuba and Venezuela for medical aid, more specifically the minister of health of the region of Lombardy, which has the most known cases of corona infections.

Venezuela and Italy have had special relationships for two centuries. Italian is the second most spoken language in the South American country. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro last visited Italy in 2013 and 2016. Italy is one of two countries in the European Union that have not recognized the self-proclaimed "interim president" Juan Guaidó. The Italian government instead called for the political crisis to be resolved through new elections.

Lombardy is the most affected by the current pandemic in Italy. The region has been cordoned off since February 22. Last week, Italian EU ambassador Maurizio Massari complained that not a single member state of the European Union had responded to a call for help from his country. The Chinese government, on the other hand, sent an airplane last Friday with a medical team and 30 tons of medical supplies, including respirators and respirators. Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi Di Magio thanked Facebook for "this form of solidarity from China".

Italien bittet Kuba und Venezuela um medizinische Hilfe wegen Coronavirus -

 

[Luisa Land]

examined exactly how long COVID-19 can survive on different surfaces

In these uncertain times, we are all looking for clear statements to guide us.
Here a virologe comments this study, saying
"you have to be very careful with such scientific data. They are not false. But they are so simple that they probably do not reflect the real infection. And it's very difficult, because something like that is likely to be published visibly, so it will trigger press releases. If the press then says: Alarm, the virus can be kept on surfaces for two days, then perhaps a false impression is created. "

He explains
"This investigation is simply kept extremely simple. And the conclusions that are drawn from it are easily misunderstood. This is more of a technical study. If you take a closer look, you will see that it is true that cell culture can still become infectious after 48 hours. But the time in between is already covered in these experiments - and there you can see that there is a very rapid decline in all these experiments. No matter which surface was covered with virus, after only eight hours, i.e. between eight and 24 hours, there is no longer any measured value. But in this interval, the infectiousness of the virus drops very rapidly, practically on all surfaces in the same or similar manner. And my suspicion is that these eight hours is actually the time in the experiment before this small drop of liquid with virus has completely dried out. That this has nothing to do with the surface itself, but that it is simply the drying out of the virus. And is of course completely different in a real situation. For example, when we cough in our hand - there is virus sticking to our hand. When we reach for a door handle, the volume of liquid, this film of liquid, which then sticks to the door handle, is almost impossible to measure. It dries out much faster than the droplet that is brought to the surface in the laboratory. And the question is of course also: what kind of droplet is it anyway? A cell culture medium is really not the same as coughing up mucus and saliva. difficult, That is why we have to be very careful with such scientific data. They are not wrong.But they are so simple that they probably do not reflect the real infection . And it's very difficult, because something like that is likely to be published visibly, so it will trigger press releases. If the press then says: Alarm, the virus can be kept on surfaces for two days, then perhaps a false impression is created.

Coronavirus-Update - Die Podcast-Folgen als Skript

Weil viele Hörerinnen und Hörer danach gefragt haben, bieten wir unser regelmäßiges Coronavirus-Update jetzt auch in schriftlicher Form an. Hier finden Sie die Skripte zum Herunterladen.

www.ndr.de

 

[Innula Zenovka]

After the judge's ruling I mentioned in my last post that denied the Ohio governor's request for a rescheduling of the primary election, the governor had the state's health director declare a public health emergency, with an announcement that Ohio polls WILL be closed tomorrow despite the judge's ruling. The law apparently gives the health director wide latitude as far as shutting things down in emergencies like this, but even so the authority of such a declaration vs. a court ruling is not something that has been tested before. I suppose it's unlikely that a judicial injunction can or will force the polls open tomorrow, so the legal question will have to be settled later - if it's settled at all; the governor's move has wide bipartisan support in Ohio and is unlikely to be challenged, unless a particular candidate decides to complain.

Despite these measures in Ohio, the governors of Illinois, Florida and Arizona have all declared they will have tomorrow's election as usual, despite the CDC's recommendation against gatherings larger than 50, and the president's recommendation today against gatherings larger than 10. They seem to think wiping the machines with a wetnap every so often will be fine.

What provision is being made to protect the poll workers?

I can't say that I'd be particularly happy at the prospect of spending several hours examining people's ID and whatever else has to happen in US polling stations before you can vote. Nor, of course, would I be overjoyed at the prospect of spending any amount of time in line waiting to vote even at the best of times.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I can't say that I'd be particularly happy at the prospect of spending several hours tomorrow examining people's ID and whatever else has to happen in US polling stations before you can vote. Nor, of course, would I be particularly happy at the prospect of spending any amount of time in line waiting to vote.

Having worked the polls for several years, I know that primaries get low traffic in this town. However, I can also confirm that people touch EVERYTHING. There's the poll register that the worker has to leaf through then hand over to people to sign, then the poll slip is torn out of the book and handed to the voter. Then voter then walks a few feet and hands that slip to another poll worker, who hands it over to yet another poll worker who is stringing it (literally, with a needle, putting all the slips on a string). Then the poll worker walks the voter to a machine and shows them how it works -- it's a touch screen, of course.

Poll worker jobs are in high demand among the retired because of the pay, so the vast majority are in their 60s and 70s, and many of them are obviously not in the best of health. I was in my 50s (using vacation days to volunteer) and easily one of the youngest in the group.

And lastly, our polling stations are at schools, so poll workers are constantly touching the surfaces that school kids were touching.

All in all, it's a recipe for contamination for the most vulnerable.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Meanwhile in the UK some scientists pointed out to BoJo that his approach in handling the crisis so far which is "immunising the herd" could lead up to 250.000 deaths. Most of them probably Tory voters anyway.

So it is expected that the UK's government will change its strategy from mitigation to suppression like in China.

The UK only realised "in the last few days" that attempts to "mitigate" the impact of the coronavirus pandemic would not work, and that it needed to shift to a strategy to "suppress" the outbreak, according to a report by a team of experts who have been advising the government.
The report, published by the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team on Monday night, found that the strategy previously being pursued by the government — dubbed "mitigation" and involving home isolation of suspect cases and their family members but not including restrictions on wider society — would "likely result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and health systems (most notably intensive care units) being overwhelmed many times over".

The mitigation strategy "focuses on slowing but not necessarily stopping epidemic spread — reducing peak healthcare demand while protecting those most at risk of severe disease from infection", the report said, reflecting the UK strategy that was outlined last week by Boris Johnson and the chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance.
But the approach was found to be unworkable. "Our most significant conclusion is that mitigation is unlikely to be feasible without emergency surge capacity limits of the UK and US healthcare systems being exceeded many times over," perhaps by as much as eight times, the report said.
In this scenario, the Imperial College team predicted as many as 250,000 deaths in Britain.
"In the UK, this conclusion has only been reached in the last few days," the report explained, due to new data on likely intensive care unit demand based on the experience of Italy and Britain so far.
As a result, the report — which its authors said had "informed policymaking in the UK and other countries in the last weeks" — said: "We therefore conclude that epidemic suppression is the only viable strategy at the current time."
A suppression strategy, along the lines of the approach adopted by the Chinese authorities, "aims to reverse epidemic growth, reducing case numbers to low levels and maintaining that situation indefinitely".
It requires "a combination of social distancing of the entire population, home isolation of cases and household quarantine of their family members", and "may need to be supplemented by school and university closures".
An "intensive intervention package" will have to be "maintained until a vaccine becomes available (potentially 18 months or more)", the report said, painting an extraordinary picture of what life could be like in the UK for the next year and a half.
On Monday afternoon, the prime minister drastically tightened the measures imposed on the British public — signalling the UK's move to a suppression strategy.

The UK Only Realised "In The Last Few Days" That Its Coronavirus Strategy Would "Likely Result In Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths"

Scientists advising the government say an aggressive new approach adopted to attempt to "suppress" the virus may have to be in place for 18 months.

www.buzzfeed.com

Meanwhile in the USA:

 

[Salome]

There's the poll register that the worker has to leaf through then hand over to people to sign, then the poll slip is torn out of the book and handed to the voter. Then voter then walks a few feet and hands that slip to another poll worker, who hands it over to yet another poll worker who is stringing it (literally, with a needle, putting all the slips on a string). Then the poll worker walks the voter to a machine and shows them how it works -- it's a touch screen, of course.

This is fascinating because it doesn’t match my experience at all as a voter. I’ve only voted in three different states in my life (Florida, Georgia, Indiana) but the process was much more hands off. There was a sign-in sheet/register where I checked my name. Then I took my ballot, went to the voting booth, used whichever device was necessary, dropped it in a collection vessel, collected a sticker, and left. At no point did I have to touch anyone or anything except the sign-in and the booth/ballot. Both of which could be offset by hand sanitizer. Obviously, that would depend on if voters asked for assistance. But all the other things you mention, I’ve never seen. I wonder how regional it is?

It seems to me, the larger concern than surface contamination is that we know the virus hangs in the air for up to three hours (more if it’s colder). You can wash your hands a million times, but the vulnerable poll workers can’t help breathing in, nor can voters, especially in the small confined space of a booth.

I don’t like the idea of states easily postponing elections, but killing people over it isn‘t acceptable, either. It’s maddening because it’s unnecessary and a direct result of our classist, racist system that seeks to suppress and disenfranchise.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

This is fascinating because it doesn’t match my experience at all as a voter. I’ve only voted in three different states in my life (Florida, Georgia, Indiana) but the process was much more hands off. There was a sign-in sheet/register where I checked my name. Then I took my ballot, went to the voting booth, used whichever device was necessary, dropped it in a collection vessel, collected a sticker, and left. At no point did I have to touch anyone or anything except the sign-in and the booth/ballot. Both of which could be offset by hand sanitizer. Obviously, that would depend on if voters asked for assistance. But all the other things you mention, I’ve never seen. I wonder how regional it is?

It seems to me, the larger concern than surface contamination is that we know the virus hangs in the air for up to three hours (more if it’s colder). You can wash your hands a million times, but the vulnerable poll workers can’t help breathing in, nor can voters, especially in the small confined space of a booth.

I don’t like the idea of states easily postponing elections, but killing people over it isn‘t acceptable, either. It’s maddening because it’s unnecessary and a direct result of our classist, racist system that seeks to suppress and disenfranchise.

My state is pretty similar to Beebo's. We are given a pen to sign in finding our name in a book that everyone touches as they find their name, hand them our driver's license (though they sometimes don't ask for it), they hand us a slip of paper which we are to hand to the next person. That person hands us the paper ballot and we take another pen from a basket to fill that out. We then either go sit at a table or stand at a booth, put the paper ballot into the machine (sometimes they take it and put it in the machine), hand the pen back and receive the "I voted" sticker.

 

[Salome]

My state is pretty similar to Beebo's. We are given a pen to sign in finding our name in a book that everyone touches as they find their name, hand them our driver's license (though they sometimes don't ask for it), they hand us a slip of paper which we are to hand to the next person. That person hands us the paper ballot and we take another pen from a basket to fill that out. We then either go sit at a table or stand at a booth, put the paper ballot into the machine (sometimes they take it and put it in the machine), hand the pen back and receive the "I voted" sticker.

Wow. That all sounds very intrusive and annoying.

Also I’ve never been asked for ID at a voting place (although I always brought my voter registration card), but I’ve voted by mail for many years now.

 

[Salome]

Disability activists have discovered something unconsciousable in NY health policy that may discourage some of those most vulnerable from seeking hospital services.

 

[Archer]

A friend's aunt was scheduled for elective surgery at a small hospital yesterday. I was shocked they were still going ahead with it at this point (it is in a state with a higher number of cases). Well, aunt called my friend this morning from the hospital saying they were discharging her today and could my friend come pick her up and take care of her for a week, since the original plan was for her to be in their rehab section for 10 days. Her daughter was supposed to pick her up after those 10 days and now cannot get off early (she is a nurse), and possibly not at all. So my friend, who is imuno-compromised herself, with two young children to also take care of, has to care for this aunt who should never have been operated on to begin with. We just make this so much harder on people!

 

[bubblesort]

The more I read about this, the more I find myself believing things I am not certain of, for one reason or another, because the authorities are horrible at communicating.

Why are they so bad? Look at the symptoms list from the CDC:

Fever
Coughing
Trouble Breathing

I have absolutely no idea what trouble breathing could mean. Does the neck constrict? Do the chest muscles constrict? Am I out of breath like I just ran a marathon, because the blood oxygen levels get low? Does fluid build up in the lungs? Is this like ebola, where lungs hemorrhage and fill with blood? WTF is going on? (unofficial sources seem to say corona basically causes pneumonia)

After that... what's the path that the disease takes? Do I get coughing first, then fever, then breathing problems, or do I just wake up unable to breathe normally one morning, and then get a fever? This is important stuff. The CDC is silent on this. (unofficial sources give timelines like this)

For treatment, what should I take? I have zero medical training. I just got tylenol for fever, nyquil for coughing, and mucinex for trouble breathing. I decided on these treatments on my own, without any medical training, because government officials are, again, silent.

So we have to go to less reliable sources than the CDC and the WHO, because those organizations aren't giving us anything to work with. The problem with less reliable sources is I'm second guessing myself on everything. The best solution to that is probably cunnighham's law.

So at the risk of embarrassing myself, I'm going to throw out a lot of stuff I believe right now, and why I believe it, and you guys can maybe tell me where I"m wrong? People here seem to love to tell each other they're wrong, so it's a good forum for that, right?

Here goes...

1. Corona is airborne. An expert on Joe Rogan said that some German doctors observed some people as the disease developed. They said that the virus multiplied in the throat to such an extent that the virus infects the air around the person. That's why the cruise ships were so thoroughly infected. (I know, it's Joe Rogan, his show isn't the most reliable, but his guest, Michael Osterholm, looks legit)

2. Children carry the disease without displaying symptoms, turning them all into little typhoid Marys. That's from the same Rogan interview as #1.

3. 50-75% of all coronavirus cases are asymptomatic. The source is me using auto-translate on an article in an Italian newspaper called La Republica. I'm not Italian, so I don't know if that's a tabloid or a paper of record. More than 50% of the population turning into typhoid marys is pretty scary.

4. COVAD-19 lives on surfaces for hours, not days. This is from a YouTuber named Doctor Mike. I instinctively distrust doctors who use their title and first name, instead of their title and surname. At the same time, there is a lot of conflicting information out there about how long COVAD-19 can live on various surfaces, and this guy seems credible to me. I live with an 86 year old woman, so every day, I'm putting our mail in plastic zip lock bags and keeping it there for 24 hours before opening it. I do the same thing with cash. I don't know if 24 hours is overkill or not long enough, but I think it's a reasonable amount of time to wait.

5. Anti-inflammatory drugs (AKA NSAIDs) make corona worse. This comes from The Guardian, citing the French government, through twitter. Science journalism is usually garbage, but when the information is filtered that many times, I don't know if it's any better than word of mouth rumors. Still, I don't have anything refuting it.

6. I generally don't believe people who say masks are not helpful. I wear latex gloves and a mask whenever I go out, and they can laugh if they want. I think it probably gives a marginal benefit, even if it just stops me from touching my face. The basic principles of marginal benefits should be taught in schools.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Why are they so bad? Look at the symptoms list from the CDC:

Fever
Coughing
Trouble Breathing

I have absolutely no idea what trouble breathing could mean.

Why don't you just visit the CDC's site and look there? This is detailed enough to give you an idea: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – Symptoms

For treatment, what should I take? I have zero medical training.

There is no treatment being available yet; it's a new virus, so making one will take quite some time.

...and if something is still unsure, consult your doctor. End of story.

 

[bubblesort]

Why don't you just visit the CDC's site and look there? This is detailed enough to give you an idea: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – Symptoms



There is no treatment being available yet; it's a new virus, so making one will take quite some time.

...and if something is still unsure, consult your doctor. End of story.

That list of symptoms is a list of things that shortness of breath causes. It doesn't actually describe the shortness of breath the way unofficial sources have.

Seeing my doctor is not on the table. I don't have a doctor. If I had one, they would probably be too busy to see me in a reasonable amount of time when this pandemic hits.

I have a pantry, with some over the counter medicine, and a nearby Rite Aid that is still fairly well stocked. The CDC has no guidence for my situation. So I'm improvising with what I have, same as the rest of you.

 

[Kara Spengler]

just saying

US government ... how many million?

You know that bill to guarantee sick leave? It turns out it does not apply to any company with more than 500 employees.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Hot tip for social-distancing shopping:

The store here was nearly out of veggie burgers. Except for the asian tasting ones. Headdesk.

 

[Beebo Brink]

People with blood type A may be more vulnerable to coronavirus: study

Preliminary research in Wuhan and Shenzhen indicates patients with the blood group had a higher rate of infection and tended to get more severe symptoms.

www.scmp.com

 

[Kara Spengler]

Disability activists have discovered something unconsciousable in NY health policy that may discourage some of those most vulnerable from seeking hospital services.

Yikes!

Btw, that reminds me, have not seen Ari in years.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

People with blood type A may be more vulnerable to coronavirus: study

Preliminary research in Wuhan and Shenzhen indicates patients with the blood group had a higher rate of infection and tended to get more severe symptoms.

www.scmp.com

Wheeeee - today just gets better....