Coronavirus Updates

[Kara Spengler]

NZ health minister breaks lockdown at beach



'Idiot' NZ health minister breaks lockdown at beach

It does bring up an interesting question. How long can people isolate, especially once the weather gets better? I imagine it will not be a big problem if you have a good sized house and or can get outside without encountering people, just boring. What about people in cities in apartments that are not huge though?

 

[Kara Spengler]

Good news: since zoos have no visitors at the moment, the pandas are suddenly procreating!

Well, at Least the Pandas Are Having a Nice Time

Two zoo pandas just mated for the first time in ten years. Congrats to the pandas!

www.thecut.com

So we finally have found a way to get those critters not to die out? Good to know.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Hydroxychloroquine: how an unproven drug became Trump’s coronavirus 'miracle cure'

With help from Fox News and Elon Musk, a misleading French study prompted a wave of misinformation that made its way to the president

www.theguardian.com

Among the many issues with the trial is that the way it was set up excluded from the results patients in the test group who either went into intensive care, had to abandon the trial because of nausea, or died while taking the drug:

Hmm, how do they know the drug did not contribute to the death? As someone who already has seizures that drug scares me ... if ppl see it as 'the cure' they will be less inclined to look into other options.

 

[Stora]

It does bring up an interesting question. How long can people isolate, especially once the weather gets better? I imagine it will not be a big problem if you have a good sized house and or can get outside without encountering people, just boring. What about people in cities in apartments that are not huge though?

Earlier in the month when the government was asked why are we not isolating one of the UK government advisers said that people will get bored and start to break the isolation if they are asked to isolate too soon and for too long.

 

[Stora]

YouTube tightens rules after David Icke 5G interview

YouTube has banned all conspiracy theory videos falsely linking coronavirus symptoms to 5G networks.

The Google-owned service will now delete videos violating the policy. It had previously limited itself to reducing the frequency it recommended them in its Up Next section.

The move follows a live-streamed interview with conspiracy theorist David Icke on Monday, in which he had linked the technology to the pandemic.

YouTube said the video would be wiped.

During the interview, Mr Icke falsely claimed there "is a link between 5G and this health crisis".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52198946

 

[Beebo Brink]

New Zealand goes straight to it: immediate lockdown.
New Zealand isn't just flattening the curve. It's squashing it.

Meanwhile, in Sweden....
Coronavirus? Pandemic? For many in Sweden, life goes on as usual.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Donald Trump wants to set the career of Breet Crozier on track again.

Donald Trump ‘to get involved’ in Thomas Modly-Capt. Brett Crozier dispute

President Trump said Monday he is “going to get involved” in settling a heated dispute between Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly and former USS Theodore Roosevelt Capt. Brett Crozier.

www.washingtontimes.com

 

[bubblesort]

After a lot of experimenting, this is how I wear a mask with safety glasses, to prevent the mask from fogging up my glasses. Here's the method:

1. Bend the nose wire so it follows the contours of your nose and cheeks. Press it into your face a bit to make a tight seal.
2. Fold up a kleenex and fold it over the top edge of the mask to create a gasket.
3. Give the elastic a twist before hooking it over your ears. This creates extra pressure against your face.

It's not perfect. Sometimes it does fog up a bit, but when it does I change to mouth breathing for a few breaths and it stops. I generally avoid mouth breathing while wearing a mask, because mouth breathing makes me thirsty. It's ok for a few breaths, to clear the fog.

Bonus tip: Suck hard candy while wearing a mask to avoid getting thirsty.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

 

[Casey Pelous]

I don't think these American thoughts and prayers are quite as widespread as he thinks.

 

[Clara D.]

I don't think these American thoughts and prayers are quite as widespread as he thinks.

Or at least not the kind he expects. Or to the deity...

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Not really. My thoughts and prayers are with those who did not ask for this by name, but are being thrown under the bus by people like him. Oh, and his fiancee

 

[Free]

I don't think these American thoughts and prayers are quite as widespread as he thinks.

Some of us are (still) atheists.

 

[Fionalein]

It just occured to me that home made masks will actually spread the virus. Sounds like a funny and stupid conspiracy idea at first, right? Well let me tell you why I think it will:

Masks imply protection, people will consider themselves and others protected. Guess what? They are not! So instead of sneezing or coughing into the ellbow, they will happily do so into the silly homemade filter placebo. Nothing wrong with that in their eyes, they are covered, right? Well bugger, no, they are not much shielding their surroundings from their exhaled particles, a bit maybe, but less so than if they had sneezed into their ellbows.

 

[Pamela]

I don't think these American thoughts and prayers are quite as widespread as he thinks.

Really. He never passes up an opportunity to be offensive to some group. And I guarantee he has never prayed in his life!

I do pray for the president, that he will be prevented from committing more mass negligent homicide, by whatever means, and failing that, that he will be brought to justice. Sometimes I fantasize it will be something like the way Mussolini was.

 

[Casey Pelous]

It just occured to me that home made masks will actually spread the virus. Sounds like a funny and stupid conspiracy idea at first, right? Well let me tell you why I think it will:

Masks imply protection, people will consider themselves and others protected. Guess what? They are not! So instead of sneezing or coughing into the ellbow, they will happily do so into the silly homemade filter placebo. Nothing wrong with that in their eyes, they are covered, right? Well bugger, no, they are not much shielding their surroundings from their exhaled particles, a bit maybe, but less so than if they had sneezed into their ellbows.

I swear, you're right. I noticed this morning on my weekly grocery run, when almost everyone had a mask, people were much bolder about violating my 6-foot/2-meter space than last week when almost no one was masked.

 

[Isabeau]

Here, our provincial premier and medical advisors have been reluctant about recommending the use of masks because they give a false notion of being protected. Wear them if you like, if it comforts you,(walking around outside your home), but please remember that it is the washing of hands and the not touching your face that is important, they tell us. Just the fact that many touch their masks, taking them off and on all the time, renders them almost useless.

I follow their recommendations.

 

[Free]

I'm thinking of getting something like this:

EDIT: Forum ate the previous image...

 

[Sovereignty]

Hydroxychloroquine: how an unproven drug became Trump’s coronavirus 'miracle cure'

With help from Fox News and Elon Musk, a misleading French study prompted a wave of misinformation that made its way to the president

www.theguardian.com

Among the many issues with the trial is that the way it was set up excluded from the results patients in the test group who either went into intensive care, had to abandon the trial because of nausea, or died while taking the drug:

We need to be clear on one point: what drives Trump is not what drives good doctors. Unlike Trump, I expect doctors involved in treating CV19 patients to make their own decisions based on the evidence, not on what an obvious idiot like Trump says. Because of the crisis, research results are being released prior to publication before going through peer review. That does create hazards especially when bloviates like Trump get involved--or amateur doctors like journalists.

Medical interest in hydroxychloroquine predates the French studies--not mentioned in the Guardian piece. China was using it on their COVID patients to some extent in January. South Korea was using it after that. The first MedCram video mentioning chloroquine was back on Feb. 5 well before the release of the first French study in prepublication form. The guy making the MedCram videos, Dr. Roger Seuhultm is a pulmonologist, intensivist who at the time knew he would be treating COVID patients. In his videos (there are multiple videos where he discusses the drug) he identifies two mechanisms by which the drug might help. It might interfere with virus replication itself or it might act as an ionophore allowing zinc ions to enter cells where the zinc could interfere with viral replication. He expressly stated in the first video that trials were needed to see if the stuff actually works pointing out that anecdotal evidence could just be coincidence.

Emphasis: Seuhult was talking about the drug in a youtube video on Feb. 5, and Seuhult is only one doctor among many who were aware of the drug's potential application.

Meanwhile, there are the great unwashed masses of doctors who have no expertise related to treating COVID patients who woke up one day, heard news of Trump's bloviations, checked it out with a quick literature search (I guess) and started hoarding it. My father taught biochemistry to a lot of future doctors back when, and in general did not have that [high] of an high opinion of them. He said you do not have to [be] intelligent, just have a good memory. Driving down the road with him, he would sometimes point to some doctor's office with a name on it and say, "Don't go to him if you can possibly help it." Apparently, a lot of them are selfish, too, not just incompetent.

To put the Guardian piece in perspecive, interest in hydroxychloroquine was pretty high prior to the French studies. (The Guardian does not mention the second one.) Along came Trump spewing shit everywhere. People get all excited about Trump (soap opera) and ignore the underlying interest in the drug among the doctors who would prescribe it (irrespective of what Trump says). Everyday people start saying wildly misleading things about the drug, such as being handed out like candy.

Meanwhile, the FDA is taking hydroxychloroquine seriously and is testing it presumably in double-blind studies , and Dr. Roger Seuhult got his first COVID ICU patients only last week.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Here, our provincial premier and medical advisors have been reluctant about recommending the use of masks because they give a false notion of being protected. Wear them if you like, if it comforts you,(walking around outside your home), but please remember that it is the washing of hands and the not touching your face that is important, they tell us. Just the fact that many touch their masks, taking them off and on all the time, renders them almost useless.

If you are talking with Chinese who are observing how Corona influences the life in the West most of them will express their non understanding about wearing no masks, because they are pretty much convinced that they helped a lot.

Is has already been best practice in countries like this when having a cold for example to wear a mask in public to minimise the risk of infecting others. That's also the main reason why many are recommending wearing masks in public - to minimise the risk of infecting others. The preferred tool to minimise the risk of getting infected is to keep a long enough distance to others.