COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

[Dennisch]

If everyone wore a mask (and glasses and washed their hands or wore gloves), there would be no reason to stay home.

Let's do that now... stay-at-home lifted for persons wearing masks, glasses, and gloves in public.

People need a bit of training for that. Otherwise you're still endangering people.

 

[Danoff]

People need a bit of training for that. Otherwise you're still endangering people.

You need training to wear a mask, gloves and glasses?

 

[Dennisch]

You need training to wear a mask, gloves and glasses?

No, to take them off properly.

 

[NLxAROSA]

If you feel any sort of symptom, stay the **** away from everyone else

Allow me to introduce myself: a person with pollen allergy. Which pollen you ask? All of them. Which, in the current climate conditions, means no going out of the door for me until November since I have multiple symptoms. I'm sure YOU are fine with that.

 

[Dennisch]

Allow me to introduce myself: a person with pollen allergy. Which pollen you ask? All of them. Which, in the current climate conditions, means no going out of the door for me until November since I have multiple symptoms. I'm sure YOU are fine with that.

No, you keep distance from people, but you already know that.

Edit.

I have a pollen infected lady in the house, since the skies turned blue, her nose (just like yours) turned green.

 

[Danoff]

No, to take them off properly.

You're afraid people are going to lick the outside of their glasses when they take them off? Even if some virus spread by contacting the outside of glasses or a mask when taking it off, and then the person shoved their hand up their... mouth... afterward and got sick, the amount of contagion if everyone outside were wearing that would be nil. Because people who had the virus would be wearing it too.

So... hypothetical here...

Everyone in public has to wear a mask, glasses, and gloves. All restrictions are lifted. How much virus spread do we have and is it more than what we have in place now, where people who are considered "essential" walk around with no protective equipment.

(I'm aware that we have a supply issue to deal with too)

 

[Touring Mars]

You need training to wear a mask, gloves and glasses?

Given that I've worked with people in a BSL-2 virology lab who couldn't even use PPE correctly, I am inclined to agree with @Dennisch that PPE itself is not the solution, but the correct use of it is just as important. Indeed, good hygiene practice makes some PPE unnecessary for the general public (like gloves).

Right now, there is a shortage of supply of PPE and it should be focused on the healthcare and service sectors, but in general more PPE for everyone would be a great help, even though for some people it would be a waste of time (and, right now at least, a waste of valuable resources).

 

[NLxAROSA]

No, you keep distance from people, but you already know that.

I do, but it still means people are depositing virus (or in my case: ejecting snot from my nose) just about everywhere they go. A mask and gloves would help with that. But yeah, people also need to know how to take off and dispose of properly.

 

[Danoff]

Given that I've worked with people in a BSL-2 virology lab who couldn't even use PPE correctly, I am inclined to agree with @Dennisch that PPE itself is not the solution, but the correct use of it is just as important. Indeed, good hygiene practice makes some PPE unnecessary for the general public (like gloves).

Right now, there is a shortage of supply of PPE and it should be focused on the healthcare and service sectors, but in general more PPE for everyone would be a great help, even though for some people it would be a waste of time (and, right now at least, a waste of valuable resources).

Since we can't be sure that people are going to practice good hygiene (or we can be sure they won't), if we could address the supply issue, then everyone wearing that equipment would, I would contend, be as effective as what we're doing now or moreso. Even with no training on removal.

It would be visible enough to be enforced (unlike hygiene).

 

[Dennisch]

You're afraid people are going to lick the outside of their glasses when they take them off? Even if some virus spread by contacting the outside of glasses or a mask when taking it off, and then the person shoved their hand up their... mouth... afterward and got sick, the amount of contagion if everyone outside were wearing that would be nil. Because people who had the virus would be wearing it too.

Every once in a while your brilliant posting is interrupted by a bit of a dud. Like this one. We aren't in the Utopia where everyone has a mask.
The situation at the moment barely provides enough materials for the emergency services and the only way to make your Utopia happen is if the governments step in and order private companies to ramp up production at a set price.

 

[Danoff]

Every once in a while your brilliant posting is interrupted by a bit of a dud. Like this one. We aren't in the Utopia where everyone has a mask.

The situation at the moment barely provides enough materials for the emergency services and the only way to make your Utopia happen is if the governments step in and order private companies to ramp up production at a set price.

I did mention that I was aware of supply issues. That's something we can deal with ultimately.

Also, people without a mask can stay home... like now. And it would be easier to spot them if they don't.

 

[Dennisch]

I did mention that I was aware of supply issues. That's something we can deal with ultimately.

Also, people without a mask can stay home... like now. And it would be easier to spot them if they don't.

We can't even get people to stay at home unless we treaten them with fines. There are still plenty of people who don't understand what 1.5 meters or in other cases 6 feet means.

This pandemic has shown us that there are too many dumb and/or just plain ignorant people walking the streets.

 

[Danoff]

We can't even get people to stay at home unless we treaten them with fines. There are still plenty of people who don't understand what 1.5 meters or in other cases 6 feet means.

This pandemic has shown us that there are too many dumb and/or just plain ignorant people walking the streets.

...which is why masks would be so useful.

My grocery store can ban people who aren't wearing masks. They can't ban people who don't wash their hands.

 

[NLxAROSA]

There are still plenty of people who don't understand what 1.5 meters or in other cases 6 feet means.

That's a reason to make masks mandatory, no?

And I don't think you need surgical masks or N95/FFP3 either. HK masks are fabric with paper inserts and claim (depending on configuration) N45-N90. Which is a lot better than N-zero.

 

[Dennisch]

...which is why masks would be so useful.

My grocery store can ban people who aren't wearing masks. They can't ban people who don't wash their hands.

You're talking about something that currently isn't possible. How do we get the masks in the quantities needed to keep society going?

We can't get them from China, because they apparently only deliver Chinese quality crap.

 

[Joey D]

You need training to wear a mask, gloves and glasses?

To wear it properly so it works? Yup, you do need training. You also need to make sure it all fits properly, which is way more involved than I ever thought. I had to sit through a 4-hour class on using it, then go through a fit test process to make sure everything protected me the way it needed to. Granted, this was to enter patient rooms who are a far more infectious disease than COVID-19. Trying to wear a bunny suit while fixing a TV is a royal PITA.

But, we could easily provide training to people over the internet through the health department websites. I'm sure they already have a video too that you could watch and learn. Sure it wouldn't get to everyone, but I'm guessing people who took it seriously enough would find a way to go through the training and watch it. It wouldn't address the fitment, but at least people would understand how to properly wear and remove the PPE.

As for the supply issue? I'm sure there are plenty of smaller manufacturers looking for a chance to break into the market. One of the reasons we're in a shortage right now is purchasing agreements. The large distributors can't keep up with the demand and thanks to a contract, a health system can't look elsewhere for products. Purchasing agreements are one of the worst things in healthcare and partly why things cost so much. For example, my work laptop is $700 through Best Buy, but we pay $2,000 per laptop through our distributor. That's asinine and we can't go anywhere else.

Fix that and health systems would have a much easier time getting products and there would probably be more availablity for the general public to buy them.

 

[Dotini]

We aren't in the Utopia where everyone has a mask.

Does every man in the world have a tee-shirt and every woman have a bra? Probably not, but with rather ordinary effort it is likely within everyone's purview to possess and use such advanced articles of clothing.

The ideal would be for masks to be reusable. Washed, microwaved, or sprayed with a bleach/water solution and left to dry might be paths to reusability.

If humanity has attained the supreme accomplishment of providing everyone with underwear, surely with enough time, money and concentrated effort, masks could be the next step in humanity's evolutionary path to the stars. Ad Astra Per Aspera

 

[Danoff]

You're talking about something that currently isn't possible. How do we get the masks in the quantities needed to keep society going?

But it is possible in a fairly short time period (maybe not short enough for NY healthcare workers). Also, lots of people already have them. I found 4 in my basement that I didn't even know I had (all N95 or better).

To wear it properly so it works? Yup, you do need training.

I think it would be far more effective than what we're doing even without training.

You also need to make sure it all fits properly, which is way more involved than I ever thought. I had to sit through a 4-hour class on using it, then go through a fit test process to make sure everything protected me the way it needed to. Granted, this was to enter patient rooms who are a far more infectious disease than COVID-19. Trying to wear a bunny suit while fixing a TV is a royal PITA.

All we have to do is beat current practices to improve things.

The ideal would be for masks to be reusable.

Virus dies when left stuck in a mask anyway. On glasses it might live longer, might even infect a few people that way. But it beats what we're currently doing.

 

[Dennisch]

But it is possible in a fairly short time period. Also, lots of people already have them. I found 4 in my basement that I didn't even know I had (all N95 or better).

It is possible yes, but it isn't happening. Why?

 

[twitcher]

We do know their ages:

9.4% of the deceased were over 90
40.8% were 80 - 89
35.8% were 70 - 79
10.2% were 60 - 69

Only 7.2% were under the age of 60 & over 50% were over the age of 80. It's reasonable to assume that many of the deceased had age-related issues that made them vulnerable to the virus. I'm starting to believe that the intergenerational closeness of Italian family relationships, combined with the suddenness of the initial spread is what accounts for the very high mortality rate in northern Italy. Very sad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy

I have to get ready for work so don’t have too much time to look up stars at the moment, but last night I read that in the US, there are roughly 1000 deaths per day related to heart disease alone (forget cancer, liver failure, diabetes, etc). Now, from my understanding, even if these people were going to ‘die anyways’ so to speak, awful as that sounds, if those people have to be tested for Covid-19, even posthumously, and test positive, they get added to COVID-19 stats. It doesn’t mean that covid killed them, just that they had it when they passed away.


Here’s something I came across this morning. In the US, weekly death rates are down 7000-10000 people compared to previous years. I honestly don’t know what to make of this stat, I’m sure someone with an agenda could use it to push a point. Regardless, it’s still an interesting stat.



Edit: the person who originally posted the graph has withdrawn the tweet, as there is disagreement over some of the CDC numbers.

Taiwan claims that the WHO doesn't share any of the information and data that they have provided to them since the start of the outbreak, withholding valuable information for other countries.


Are the UN and WHO so afraid for political consequences that they have to act like a Xinnie puppet?

Is there anyone here who, in laymen’s terms, can attempt to explain the financial relationship between the US and China, in regards to China “owning” US debt. Also some more info about China’s influence over international organizations like the UN and WHO?

 

[ryzno]

Finally back to work. Got my little paper showing I'm "essential". We are working on building a commercial bakery. No more water heaters for now.

 

[Biggles]

With regard to masks, we've been told from the beginning that masks aren't effective in preventing you catching Covid-19, but it seems to me that they are likely to help lower the spread rate of the virus to others - even if the masks aren't the best quality & aren't used that well. The downside is that they might encourage people to engage in riskier behaviours.

I imagine that in the future, after this experience, good quality masks will become a standard item of household medical supplies.

 

[twitcher]

With regard to masks, we've been told from the beginning that masks aren't effective in preventing you catching Covid-19, but it seems to me that they are likely to help lower the spread rate of the virus to others - even if the masks aren't the best quality & aren't used that well. The downside is that they might encourage people to engage in riskier behaviours.

I imagine that in the future, after this experience, good quality masks will become a standard item of household medical supplies.

Already seen several people online exploring business opportunities in making “cool” and stylish masks.

 

[Dennisch]

Germany is working on an app that will track with who you've come in contact with so that in case of infection they can track those who have been close to you.

Nothing like a delicious privacy breach in times of hardship.

 

[Joey D]

Germany is working on an app that will track with who you've come in contact with so that in case of infection they can track those who have been close to you.

Nothing like a delicious privacy breach in times of hardship.

 

[andrea]

 

[Biggles]

We do know their ages:

9.4% of the deceased were over 90
40.8% were 80 - 89
35.8% were 70 - 79
10.2% were 60 - 69

Only 7.2% were under the age of 60 & over 50% were over the age of 80. It's reasonable to assume that many of the deceased had age-related issues that made them vulnerable to the virus. I'm starting to believe that the intergenerational closeness of Italian family relationships, combined with the suddenness of the initial spread is what accounts for the very high mortality rate in northern Italy. Very sad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy

Just looked up the figures for Spain. Over 63% of deceased were over the age of 80 & less than 2% under the age of 60. So even more extreme figures than for Italy (assuming they are accurate).

 

[Rage Racer]

Huawei: *donates millions of face masks for the EU countries in need*
EU Foreign Chief: China is using this to aggressively push their narratives and propaganda!
Huawei: Oh, sorry, we won't do it anymore. We don't want to get involved in your political bull**** so we're stopping our donation programme now.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/digital/news/no-more-coronavirus-masks-from-us-huawei-says/

 

[baldgye]

The Atlantic with a scathing review of Trump and his approach to the COVID-19 outbreak

 

[girabyt3]

The writer of Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll" died due to the Virus