Coronavirus Updates

[Innula Zenovka]

Coronavirus: Wearing a mask ‘reduces deadly power of virus’

Masks do help to protect the wearer, as well as people they meet, according to research by infectious disease experts.A report from a team at the University of California, San Francisco, says that masks can reduce the amount of virus that gets into someone’s system, meaning they do not get as badly

www.thetimes.co.uk

Coronavirus: Wearing a mask ‘reduces deadly power of virus’ | News | The Times

Accessibility Links Skip to content CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus: Wearing a mask ‘reduces deadly power of virus’ Kat Lay Health, Correspondent | Kaya Burgess, Religious Affairs Correspondent Tuesday July 2...

www.evernote.com

 

[danielravennest]

I check the numbers a lot when I get really into it online, and on average, every time I run the numbers, (Deaths/Cases)*100, it's closer to 4-5%.

There are outliers, and chances are the reported cases is low because not everyone gets tested, but it's still quite a bit higher than 1%.

Also related, a new comment I keep seeing is people pushing "The survival rate is high". Which is the opposite of mortality rate And seems intent on pushing the idea that "it's not that bad, you are 95-99% likely to survive."

Stephen Paddock only killed 0.25% of the crowd in Las Vegas (58 people), so it wasn't that bad

One percent of the US population is 3,300,000 people. Two percent is a holocaust. Putting it in percentages minimizes it. Always counter with the actual number of deaths, and soon we will have some numbers on the permanent disabilities it causes.

 

[Sovereignty]

At Home COVID-19 Testing - A Possible Breakthrough

Seheult discussed ideas of Michael Mina previously presented on This Week in Virology, another high class youtube channel, Test often, fast turnaround, with Michael Mina (July 15) and in a paper yet to be published, Test sensitivity is secondary to frequency and turnaround time for COVID-19 surveillance.

The tests have been around a while. Mina argues that decision makers don't really understand the problem.

ETA: I think Seheult is over optimistic in thinking that the average citizen can be trusted to test children before sending them to school, but the basic message, if correct, offers a much better alternative to what we are doing now.

 

[Noodles]

Stephen Paddock only killed 0.25% of the crowd in Las Vegas (58 people), so it wasn't that bad

One percent of the US population is 3,300,000 people. Two percent is a holocaust. Putting it in percentages minimizes it. Always counter with the actual number of deaths, and soon we will have some numbers on the permanent disabilities it causes.

Yeah I bring the actual numbers up too. Basically the argument boils down to "If we just let it run rampant, it means X million dies from the virus. Not including people who die because of overwhelming of the hospitals and avoiding hospitals."

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Yeah I bring the actual numbers up too. Basically the argument boils down to "If we just let it run rampant, it means X million dies from the virus. Not including people who die because of overwhelming of the hospitals and avoiding hospitals."

Another good metric - 2,994 people died in the Twin Towers attack - so far, in Florida alone, 5,183 people have died from this. Where is the outrage now....?

 

[Free]

Where is the outrage now....?

Well, we keep trying to blame the Chinese this time out, but it's not sticking.

 

[Sid]

Another good metric - 2,994 people died in the Twin Towers attack - so far, in Florida alone, 5,183 people have died from this. Where is the outrage now....?

Those two things aren't really related or comparable, are they?
And outrage doesn't help much.

Taking the right precautions and temporary measurements might help, but are no cure either.
You hardly can order people not to act like idiots. (To be seen in Europe more and more as well).

Praying, that the Oxford vaccine turns out as good as it looks promissing at the moment, might help.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Those two things aren't really related or comparable, are they?
And outrage doesn't help much.

Taking the right precautions and temporary measurements might help, but are no cure either.
You hardly can order people not to act like idiots. (To be seen in Europe more and more as well).

Praying, that the Oxford vaccine turns out as good as it looks promissing at the moment, might help.

The point is, that 'All those people died....' but now its only 1% of the cases are fatal, so..... So until those fatalities are people who know and care about, too many just don't care.

When you use real numbers instead, then people might listen [or still not care.... ugh]

 

[Spirits Rising]

"All those people died ... " - as a result of an attack, not a disease/virus. You can counter-attack and kill the perpetrators of an attack and there is real malice involved. a disease/virus doesn't give a tin shit.

The difference is not the number of people - it is the cause. We see this difference all the time when comparing causes of death or comparing the number of deaths of a given cause by such arbitrary criteria as "Race" or "Gender" and such.

They're not looking at it as "X Humans died" but as "X (group) died of Y" ... and that is being nice concerning their viewpoint.

 

[Kathryn Elisabeth]

When ya counter-attack da ebil terrerist peoples, you get to use bombs and guns and stuff! Pew Pew! Boom! That's the kinda stuff that all bad ass, see!

When ya try to counter-attack some germs, is just wearing masks and hand washing. Is Boring! and for Wussies!

(Daily Snark Limit exceeded .. returning to bed to recharge )

 

[Innula Zenovka]

UK targets up to 12 Covid-19 vaccines from around the world

Head of the government’s vaccines taskforce reveals strategy aimed at ‘exploring the landscape’ and hedging bets

www.theguardian.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/07/21/coronavirus-immunity-us-cdc-study/

Americans still have little immunity to coronavirus, study shows - The Washington Post

Coronavirus outbreak Local Hogan says state not at the point where it must reimpose virus restrictions National Live updates: U.S. may have 10 times more coronavirus cases than reported; ... Health Fo...

www.evernote.com

 

[Isabeau]

 

[Sid]

Same goes for Twitter (although there are a few trustworthy accounts there, like TheRealDonaldDumb....)

 

[danielravennest]

When you use real numbers instead, then people might listen [or still not care.... ugh]

When I'm talking to local people, I try and make the numbers local: How many cases and deaths in Georgia, or in our county. That may have more of an impact than the national numbers.

 

[bubblesort]

Stephen Paddock only killed 0.25% of the crowd in Las Vegas (58 people), so it wasn't that bad

One percent of the US population is 3,300,000 people. Two percent is a holocaust. Putting it in percentages minimizes it. Always counter with the actual number of deaths, and soon we will have some numbers on the permanent disabilities it causes.

The difference between mortality rate and case mortality rate seems to be a point of confusion every time these numbers come up. It even happened during Trump's interview with Chris Wallace the other day, while Wallace is clearly trying to do a fluff piece for Trump, and failing miserably.

Here's the difference between the two metrics:

Mortality Rate = Total Population / Deaths
Case Mortality Rate = Total Known Infected Population / Deaths

So the corona case mortality rate is currently 4.7%, which is the lowest in the G7. That's good. I don't see a problem with Trump bragging about that. I know he's an asshole, but let the poor guy feel good about it, in the rare case when he gets a small victory. Maybe it will inspire him to do better in other things.

Our mortality rate, as of today, is 140,906 deaths, divided by a total population of roughly 330 million people. That gives us a mortality rate of 4.2699e-4, which is 0.04%.

So when people start throwing numbers around, pay attention to whether they are talking about case mortality rates, or mortality rates. It's important.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

POTUS - most patriotic American alive and your favorite president!

 

[Sovereignty]

A Cheap, Simple Way to Control the Coronavirus

We need the best means of detecting and containing the virus, not a perfect test that no one can use. That is where paper-strip testing would have the advantage. Their ability to be used more frequently would trump the nasal swab test’s higher sensitivity. Paper-strip testing would also sharply improve diagnosis as those with a positive paper-strip test would still be given a nasal swab test.

 

[Romana]

A Cheap, Simple Way to Control the Coronavirus

Sorry, but from where I sit that's not controlling the virus. Controlling it would be being able to stop it from causing ARDS, cytokine storms, clots, and all that other lethal and crippling stuff.
Bad headline, NYT.

 

[Sovereignty]

Sorry, but from where I sit that's not controlling the virus. Controlling it would be being able to stop it from causing ARDS, cytokine storms, clots, and all that other lethal and crippling stuff.
Bad headline, NYT.

In this context testing is about controlling the spread of the disease from person to person within society at large. It's in the purview of epidemiology. All the stuff you list is about controlling the disease within a single person, the purview of medicine. Testing is used in medicine, too, but is not so critical. Lots of people get treated for COVID who never tested positive.

ETA: Testing is especially important with COVID epidemilogically speaking since people are most contagious before they show any symptoms--if they ever do.