COVID-19 aka 2019 (and 2020) Novel Coronavirus

[cwerdna]

Despite warnings, churchgoers explain why they're still going to services
https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/04/04/ohio-church-service-covid-19-pandemic-tuchman-pkg-ac360-vpx.cnn

These folks are nuts. Most of the folks in the video claim they won't get sick because of Jesus's blood.

Singapore's going into lockdown:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-singapore/singapore-closes-workplaces-schools-as-coronavirus-cases-jump-idUSKBN21L0XK

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will close schools and most workplaces for a month as part of stricter measures to curb a recent jump in coronavirus infections, it said on Friday, an announcement that sent locals racing to supermarkets to stock up on staples.
...
Under the new measures - which authorities have called a “circuit breaker” - markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and key banking services will remain open. Restaurants will be only allowed to do takeaway or delivery, while museums, casinos and gyms will be closed.

The new measures will be in place from April 7 until May 4, while schools will move to full home-based learning from April 8. The measures could be extended beyond a month if the situation did not improve, authorities said.

Lee urged everyone to stay at home as much as possible and to avoid socialising with others beyond their own household.

“Go out only to do essential things,” he said.

Fake coronavirus testing sites appear in Kentucky
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/fake-coronavirus-testing-sites-appear-in-kentucky-81552453936?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_ma

 

[LeftieBiker]

Jesus must be feeling a little...anemic...these days. Of course, huckster "blood" doesn't come from him.

 

[cwerdna]

Inside China's Smartphone 'Health Code' System Ruling Post-Coronavirus Life
https://time.com/5814724/china-health-code-smartphones-coronavirus/

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS APRIL 2, 2020
(WUHAN, China) — Since the coronavirus outbreak, life in China is ruled by a green symbol on a smartphone screen.

Green is the “health code” that says a user is symptom-free and it’s required to board a subway, check into a hotel or just enter Wuhan, the central city of 11 million people where the pandemic began in December.

The system is made possible by the Chinese public’s almost universal adoption of smartphones and the ruling Communist Party’s embrace of “Big Data” to extend its surveillance and control over society.

Walking into a Wuhan subway station Wednesday, Wu Shenghong, a manager for a clothing manufacturer, used her smartphone to scan a barcode on a poster that triggered her health code app. A green code and part of her identity card number appeared on the screen. A guard wearing a mask and goggles waved her through...

 

[webeleafowners]

I’m BC we may have turned a corner. 4 th day in a row with only 4-5 percent growth in cases. Recovered number now exceeds existing cases and averaging and holding 4 new deaths per day. The curve is literally almost flat. Third day in a row where both hospitalizations and ICU cases have fallen. We have a small population of about 5 million and we are spread out except for Vancouver. We are just finishing up 4 weeks of stay at home although construction projects, hardware stores and anything automotive has been allowed to stay open. Restaurants have been closed for a month except for take out. Social distancing is policed in bigger centres. Here’s our numbers.

1174 cases
35 deaths and 70 percent of those in senior homes.
47352 tests.
149 in hospital
68 in intensif care.

Interesting byproduct of the lockdown. All non urgent hospital procedures have been delayed and as a result the hospitals are freakin empty. 4400 empty beds in the provinces hospitals (there are no real private hospitals here). I think they will be starting up pretty soon with non urgent procedures as things are getting kind of embarrassing. Overall though people are pretty happy with our minister of health’s actions.

Anyway. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Other provinces started their curve (and actions) later and are still struggling. Probably a week or two behind.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[WetEV]

Interesting byproduct of the lockdown. All non urgent hospital procedures have been delayed and as a result the hospitals are freakin empty. 4400 empty beds in the provinces hospitals (there are no real private hospitals here). I think they will be starting up pretty soon with non urgent procedures as things are getting kind of embarrassing. Overall though people are pretty happy with our minister of health’s actions.

Not just beds, other equipment and supplies.

World wide shortages of masks, drugs, gowns, and so on.

 

[webeleafowners]

Interesting byproduct of the lockdown. All non urgent hospital procedures have been delayed and as a result the hospitals are freakin empty. 4400 empty beds in the provinces hospitals (there are no real private hospitals here). I think they will be starting up pretty soon with non urgent procedures as things are getting kind of embarrassing. Overall though people are pretty happy with our minister of health’s actions.

Not just beds, other equipment and supplies.

World wide shortages of masks, drugs, gowns, and so on.

I’m not sure there is any kind of surplus of that kind of thing here though, of at least it hasn’t been mentioned. Essentially the vacancies or empty beds are a result of precautionary measures taken in case things got away on them with the virus. That hasn’t happened but probably a little early to call the game yet.

 

[WetEV]

Interesting byproduct of the lockdown. All non urgent hospital procedures have been delayed and as a result the hospitals are freakin empty. 4400 empty beds in the provinces hospitals (there are no real private hospitals here). I think they will be starting up pretty soon with non urgent procedures as things are getting kind of embarrassing. Overall though people are pretty happy with our minister of health’s actions.

Not just beds, other equipment and supplies.

World wide shortages of masks, drugs, gowns, and so on.

I’m not sure there is any kind of surplus of that kind of thing here though, of at least it hasn’t been mentioned. Essentially the vacancies or empty beds are a result of precautionary measures taken in case things got away on them with the virus. That hasn’t happened but probably a little early to call the game yet.

Surplus of beds locally, perhaps. But worldwide shortage of other things.

When vaccination rates are over 80%, call the game.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Anyone know of an organization collecting masks from the public for first responders and hospital staff? I have 10 KN95 (not N95) masks coming next week from China, and want to donate 8 of them. I just got two dust respirators with replaceable filters that I ordered (also from China) last month, and we can wear those in public if necessary.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Now even WaPo has backed off their role as propaganda ministry telling us it came from a wet market and acknowledges this looks like it may have been a laboratory accident. Tom Cotton was ahead of the curve questioning that line of baloney.

3300 fatalities my ass. That was probably just the whistleblowers.

 

[WetEV]

role as propaganda ministry

Pox News? I mean Faux News?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/health-science/how-to-spot-misinformation-amid-the-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/03/13/b74a4421-53db-4324-a6ff-895f64097fcd_video.html

 

[downeykp]

I am not really sure where you are getting your information, (but I have an idea). Just read the WaPo (as I do everyday) didn't see anything like what you just printed. Teflon Don has set us down a ruinous path that will take another democrat president to fix.

Now even WaPo has backed off their role as propaganda ministry telling us it came from a wet market and acknowledges this looks like it may have been a laboratory accident. Tom Cotton was ahead of the curve questioning that line of baloney.

3300 fatalities my ass. That was probably just the whistleblowers.

 

[LeftieBiker]

What the frack is "WaPo"?? Washington Post?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Google: Washington Post how did covid 19 begin

The plot thickens: Intel agencies not just US are investigating the possibility this was no accident.

Riddle me this: The virus has spread all over the globe, how do Beijing and Shanghai just a few hundred miles from Wuhan magically escape any significant effects?

 

[downeykp]

By quarantine. The same way that Taiwan and others have been successful in fighting this. Denying this like Teflon Don did is why we are in such bad shape as a country. It will take people a lot smarter (just about everyone) than the Donald to fix this. Again it will take a democratic administration to fix another republican fu#k up.

 

[WetEV]

By quarantine. The same way that Taiwan and others have been successful in fighting this. Denying this like Teflon Don did is why we are in such bad shape as a country. It will take people a lot smarter (just about everyone) than the Donald to fix this. Again it will take a democratic administration to fix another republican fu#k up.

Slightly more complex answer:

Test enough to find cases faster than they spread.

Contact trace to find likely to be infected. For example, Singapore's cell phone app uses short range Bluetooth to contact cell phones nearby, and keep a record of who has been close so if you are a likely or proven case, those that were close can be contacted, told to isolate and get tested. If the spreading rate R0 with all social distancing implemented is 2.5, you need to find more than (1.5/2.5) of those infected before they infect someone else. R0=1.0 is a tipping point. The world goes to sickness and death above it. Stays with health and life below it.

Isolate those infected. Make sure they have food, medication and pay their housing.

Shutdown meetings, restaurants and other venues where spreading is likely. Schools. Workplaces.

Beijing and the rest of China also has an extended Chinese New Year's shutdown. Filled with frantic tracking, isolation and testing of people who had traveled from Wuhan.

Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea seems to have mostly stayed ahead of it. Singapore has had increasing cases, and is expanded shutdown to regain control. I suspect that China's cases are more than reported: at first because this is a complete unknown. Next, due to the lack of testing in China, and the lack of hospital space leading to significant numbers of deaths at home, and deaths in the hospital without tests. Now, I suspect China is more like South Korea. Under control as long as they keep stamping out sparks. Far better than the raging fire we face.

 

[WetEV]

The USA has uncounted cases as well.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/coronavirus-death-toll-americans-are-almost-certainly-dying-of-covid-19-but-being-left-out-of-the-official-count/2020/04/05/71d67982-747e-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html

 

[LeftieBiker]

The USA has uncounted cases as well.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/coronavirus-death-toll-americans-are-almost-certainly-dying-of-covid-19-but-being-left-out-of-the-official-count/2020/04/05/71d67982-747e-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html

Paywall. Excerpt?

 

[WetEV]

The USA has uncounted cases as well.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/coronavirus-death-toll-americans-are-almost-certainly-dying-of-covid-19-but-being-left-out-of-the-official-count/2020/04/05/71d67982-747e-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html

Paywall. Excerpt?

Coronavirus death toll: Americans are almost certainly dying of covid-19 but being left out of the official count

The fast-spreading novel coronavirus is almost certainly killing Americans who are not included in the nation’s growing death toll, according to public health experts and government officials involved in the tally.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. “We know that it is an underestimation,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said.

A widespread lack of access to testing in the early weeks of the U.S. outbreak means people with respiratory illnesses died without being counted, epidemiologists say. Even now, some people who die at home or in overburdened nursing homes are not being tested, according to funeral directors, medical examiners and nursing home representatives.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Thanks.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Quarantines and social distancing don't lessen the number of cases that will occur, they just spread them out over time.

China either is vastly underreporting the number of cases, still has a lot more cases to burn through, or has a vaccine.

Maybe Biden knows how to fix the problem. When he finishes his pudding somebody should ask him.