Coronavirus Updates

[Caliandris]

I watched the WHO conference on Covid 19 as it popped up on my Guardian news feed and I thought maybe it was something newsworthy, but it is just the daily conference from WHO. I let it run and it jumped to some CDC Senate hearing, with some woman I don't know asking dumbfool questions about the effect of political misinformation. Seems in very poor taste to make the coronavirus outbreak a matter for party politics, on either side. I think it undermines the sense that officials are working in the public's best interests if they appear to be putting more energy into criticizing each other than solving the challenges that this situation generates.

 

[Beebo Brink]

And Trump does Trump.

 

[Maggy Hazelnut]

He's such a petulant child@!

 

[Caliandris]

Pineapple works on pizza, it can work on spaghetti.

I *love* pineapple on pizza, my adult children react as though I have suggested I should have earthworms and bird droppings on it. It's not *that* weird, honest.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Supporting statistics provided:
Our lack of paid sick leave will make the coronavirus worse

 

[Arilynn]

From The Atlantic: The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It

We know, irrefutably, one thing about the coronavirus in the United States: The number of cases reported in every chart and table is far too low.

The data are untrustworthy because the processes we used to get them were flawed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s testing procedures missed the bulk of the cases. They focused exclusively on travelers, rather than testing more broadly, because that seemed like the best way to catch cases entering the country.
...
This artificially low number means that for the past few weeks, we’ve seen massive state action abroad and only simmering unease domestically. While Chinese officials were enacting a world-historic containment effort—putting more than 700 million people under some kind of movement restriction, quarantining tens of millions of people, and placing others under new kinds of surveillance—and American public-health officials were staring at the writing on the wall that the disease was extremely likely to spread in the U.S., the public-health response was stuck in neutral. The case count in the U.S. was not increasing at all. Preparing for a sizable outbreak seemed absurd when there were fewer than 20 cases on American soil. Now we know that the disease was already spreading and that it was the U.S. response that was stalled.
...
The reality gap between American numbers and American cases is wide. Regular citizens and decision makers cannot rely on only the numbers to make decisions. Sometimes quantification actually obscures as much as it reveals.

 

[Stora]

Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Over China Plummets in New Satellite Images

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has caused widespread alarm, travel bans, and the quarantine of multiple cities across the world.
But there's also been an unexpected effect on the environment, in the form of a notable drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions levels across China.

Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Over China Plummets in New Satellite Images

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I *love* pineapple on pizza, my adult children react as though I have suggested I should have earthworms and bird droppings on it. It's not *that* weird, honest.

Salt/acid with a sweet is gastronomy 102.

 

[Beebo Brink]

The reality gap between American numbers and American cases is wide.

And here's a report from ground-zero emphasizing just that point:

 

[Beebo Brink]

From The Atlantic: The Official Coronavirus Numbers Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It

Also from The Atlantic: You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus

Ultimately, SARS and MERS each killed fewer than 1,000 people.

COVID-19 is already reported to have killed more than twice that number. With its potent mix of characteristics, this virus is unlike most that capture popular attention: It is deadly, but not too deadly. It makes people sick, but not in predictable, uniquely identifiable ways. Last week, 14 Americans tested positive on a cruise ship in Japan despite feeling fine—the new virus may be most dangerous because, it seems, it may sometimes cause no symptoms at all.

 

[Casey Pelous]

My silly brain just now: "Well, at least I'm not in the age group that's at highest ..........ah, shit!"

I would like to point out the Kirkland woman may be full of hooey --- she's going on rumors, and has no special knowledge. Though I don't doubt that if there's a way to screw up our response to this, the GOP will find a way. (And blame Obama.)

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

The latest official numbers for confirmed cases within the United States is 122 as of an hour or so ago.

So far, 9 coronavirus patients have died, all in Washington state.

Do you see how this math doesn't add up? Covid-19 is supposed to have a mortality rate of just over 2%. Right now in the United States, using those numbers, it's more than 7%. It's even worse than that; all of the deaths are in Washington state, which only has 27 confirmed cases - a mortality rate of 33%!

That can't be right, and it's unlikely that the virus is deadlier in the United States than the worldwide average. What this number actually reveals is the potential scope of underreporting, or under-detection, of coronavirus cases. If we accept that the mortality rate for covid-19 remains at just over 2%, that means there must be at least 450 patients as of this moment in Washington state alone.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Who reports when it's three grand for a test? /random thought

 

[Isabeau]

Even in places where testing is not as much of a problem, unless you are sick, you won’t be tested so how are they supposed to know the number of carriers?

 

[Free]

 

[Kara Spengler]

It's not a terrible thing to say, out of abundance of caution for everyone. Big events that have an international draw are just not practical right now.

It does make for interesting logistics planning. I just watched a vid speculating what various conventions will do.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Must not laugh.... must not laugh.... really really must not laugh.

Student ‘Quarantined’ After Classmates Shook Pence’s Hand

The Pentagon reportedly got in touch with the Sarasota Military Academy about the student.

www.thedailybeast.com

Will laugh for you then. The sooner those interloper neighbours leave town the better.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Who reports when it's three grand for a test? /random thought

Yes, I have not heard of other countries charging but it would be laughable here. When testing far and wide is your first line of defense so you know where the problem is.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Thread:

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Who reports when it's three grand for a test? /random thought

Apparently it's even simpler than that, per above. Who reports when most people who try despite the price are told they're not eligible to report?