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

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Wonder how things are going to play out here in Texas. Gov. Abbott is already talking about reopening businesses whilst the US is still looking at April 30 potential release.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/greg-abbott-texas-business-coronavirus-guidelines

On March 27 (date of video) Texas had 1600 (ish) cases (deaths?) and today they have 12,561 cases and 254 deaths. They have tested 120,533 people.
On March 27 Connecticut had 1291 cases with 27 deaths, as of yesterday we have 11,510 cases with 494 deaths. We have tested 39,831 people.
On March 27 America had (video) 94,238 cases and 1438 deaths. Currently we have 530,006 cases and 20,608 deaths. We have tested 2,688,766 people.

Just saying and not a comment about the testing but Texas has more cases, less deaths, and 3.5 times more people tested than Ct., compelling. Not that they have more cases, that is likely due to more testing but they have less deaths. That likely could be about age and health.

IMO test, test ,test, and test some more, despite the countless issues with testing.

I would think all leaders are making plans to reopen the economy, plan A - Z (I hope).

Just say a graphic on CNN that murders are down 44% in Chicago, though that goes along with it's current trend over the last couple years.
And pollution is way down as well as car accidents. Insurance companies are giving refunds as well.

AT&T has given us free data for a while now. Not that I need it as I'm home and Comcast has done the same with wi-fi even if your not a customer.
We've been notified our stimulus check will be in the bank account Wednesday.
Still waiting to hear from unemployment. When I filed the info was that you'd be contacted that your claim was processed within 5 business days. 2 days later the news is reporting that there were so many claims that that lag time could be more like 5 weeks.
EDIT
RIP Sir Stirling Moss

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Just saw an ad for EE - they are giving all NHS staff unlimited free data until October.

I really think more companies need to do something like this, and not just for NHS staff but all key workers... but it is a great start and nice to see that some companies are really stepping up to help out where they can.

350 mil a week would be nice.
 
I’ve not see this brought up in the thread yet; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52255863
Coronavirus: Ethnic minorities 'are a third' of patients
Ethnic minorities are a sixth of the general population, increasing to over 40% in urban areas like London (this stat is actually buried in the fourth sub heading) and Birmingham which have higher population density and... *dun dun duuuuun* higher case totals.
 
Another belter.

Why don't antibacterials work against viruses?


Definitely a "very stable genius" :rolleyes:

* I've got to add though, and it's not in defence of his nonsense, that there's at least one antibiotic that may have some efficacy against viruses, and more pertinently against this coronavirus, and that is Azithromycin.

Horton also, very notably, published the Wakefield paper.
Among other missteps
 
So you should have stated the facts as they were presented in your link, or skipped the link and told us what you were insinuating and that it was not according to the article but just using the data. Hence the backlash form me. It should of read: According to New York data 93% of deaths are over 50 years of age. If you could effectively quarantine them (before they died) you could have saved their lives. If those areas in the country (or world) behind the spread can do that with SD it'd be a win-win no doubt. The USA is not mandating to quarantine them but they have been warned to SD (including isolation) if they aren't essential workers (like my wife) or as some are doing, using the StayhomeStaysafe mentality.

You actually still don't seem to be taking my point, which is that statistically we can determine some demographics that will make up the bulk of the need in the healthcare system, and should focus on isolating those people instead of what we're doing.


At least he realizes thousands may (he says will) die, don't you?

They have. Of course I realize that.

We'll have to see if they're deaths/capita increases compared to the USA for your comparison.

I'm referring to actual data to-date.

We'll add the $10 million/person then, but now it's at $8.87 billion.

This is absurd. You can't assign a value to a human life like that. It's financial nonsense. I get that people try in wrongful death cases, but you can't apply that here.

Even though you state that Sweden is not in an economic depression

I didn't. I asked a question.

You seem to miss the point that dead people cost money too.

You seem to miss the point that unemployment, wrecked investment, and financial ruin cost lives too.

Good example to your schooling dilemma is in Sweden they're still going to schools (primary, others online), even some areas are making it illegal for kids to stay home if they are not sick.

I wouldn't support making it illegal to keep kids home right now.

Well this should set your mind at ease on that.
Info on opening the economy.
https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...economy-reopen-deaths-balance-analysis-159248

It doesn't.

I think the experts are correct, mostly because I don't do pandemics or financial crises. I don't expect others to question my expertise in my trade so I'll give them the respect they deserve. Not to mention we are talking life or death situations. This s..t is real.

This is basically an appeal to authority. It's a logical fallacy. I could certainly counter with authorities that support what I'm saying, it would be pointless. We'd get into a discussion about which authorities have greater authority, and end up comparing resumes. It's not constructive, and it serves no point. I'm discussing this in part to learn and in part to question. It's not instructive to just shut the discussion off and believe what someone else wants me to.

I'll agree that the chances of spreading it is more if you show symptoms, that's obvious.

Not what I said. Not even remotely what I said... which is what leads you to head down this unhelpful alley...

It's not the school itself or the fact it's a gathering area that I'm talking about, it's sending any population into public to aid in spreading the virus. You do realize that just the number of students in the USA is 81.5 million in primary and secondary schools. Yes, children numbers are very low on testing positive and even lower on deaths. Comparing Connecticut's test data on confirmed cases ( ages 0 -19) out of those 81.5 million children over 10,000 will be infected. Nationwide 5 days ago 0 - 17 age cases were 593. Currently we (Ct) have only 68 cases and New York's 0 - 17 cases total 1928 people and we border New York on our total western border. New York alone has more than tripled the numbers of that age group, in a week. Don't forget 55 million students are under stay home orders (quarantine) including New York.

Yes. Children can get it. I believe I said that. But they don't get it nearly in proportion to the rest of the population based on their numbers. In other words, as I said early, an elementary school is not a great place for this virus to spread, because kids don't catch it in proportion to their population footprint. Now before you start saying anything about asymptomatics or presymptomatics... keep in mind what I just said, which had nothing to do with symptoms. They don't contract the virus at the rate that other demographics do.

According to CDC children do contract the virus, as has been stated here many times.......................
A graph I don't understand, maybe you do..??

FIGURE 1. COVID-19 cases in children* aged <18 years, by date reported to CDC (N = 2,549)† — United States, February 24–April 2, 2020

Figure didn't come through.


Change your mind yet?

To what? To thinking that schools need to be closed? No not yet.

That is not a chart about schools at all, that's the total unemployment numbers, though it's now a lot more.

...because that's what I was responding to...

If that many school associated people were out of work I could better understand your issue with schooling.

What? Do you understand that people can't work when they have to take care of their kids all day? I burn a part of the week in vacation each day. That lack of vacation results in reduced spending in other areas, which results in layoffs. Me spending my vacation not working = layoffs.

it gets worse too. Because some people lose their jobs due to lack of childcare. Many parents end up facing the unenviable position of leaving their children in sub-standard care, or forgoing their jobs and filing for unemployment.

And a lot of people... a LOT of people... get elderly parents to step in and watch the kids. Which increases the risk to the elderly, because kids need a lot of... exposure. They need to go outside, they supplies shipped to your house, they drag you into public in a thousand ways.


Lunch programs for those that need it are still in effect as well.

Which is exposure to spread the virus that suddenly you seem to be cool with...

To go a bit further a lot of our day care centers are for health care workers children as well as other essential workers.

Mine is open right now. Never closed. I've kept my preschool kids home from their open preschool because I'm learning about the virus and minimizing my exposure to the greatest extent is my goal for today. But there is going to come a time, very soon, where I'll have to consider sending them back. I'm taking into account the rate at which kids their age contract the virus in order to inform that decision. Will they bring it home? Will they get sick? How likely is that? These are pressing issues for me in the next few weeks.

This is not about me or my problems with this pandemic. This is about others and protecting them. Haven't you heard the nation yet.

You made it about you in order to encourage me to spread a social distancing message and somehow (as if it were possible) practice more social distancing myself. In order to keep your wife safe. And I'm saying that you can never trust others to protect you or your family. Their biology is not yours, their decisions are not yours. Take personal responsibility for your safety and the safety of your family.

And back to our regularly scheduled programming......racing.

This is the COVID-19 thread.
 
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The question of how many people already have the infection is at the heart of a debate between epidemiologists at the Imperial College and Oxford university.
Interestingly, there is history, but we'll probably never know how relevant it is.

London is the most affected region in the country and is almost 50/50 between whites and minorities so that's probably why.

EDIT: Tree'd
There's also the fact that the prevalence of certain co-morbidities like diabetes and high blood pressure are different between ethnic groups.
 
London is the most affected region in the country and is almost 50/50 between whites and minorities so that's probably why.

EDIT: Tree'd
Well 60/40 according to that article. Still interesting about how disperate communities can affected.
 
More data to my point. Iceland has done some random testing. Here's a breakdown of cases by age group in iceland.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106895/number-of-coronavirus-cases-in-iceland-by-age-groups/

Nice bell curve with cases peaking in the middle. Looks as you'd expect except... hang on a sec... population isn't a bell curve. Population tapers with age.

https://www.indexmundi.com/iceland/demographics_profile.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/594621/total-population-in-iceland-by-age/

20% of iceland's population is under 15. The number of cases in that chart is 1200. 20% of 1200 is 240. The number of cases looks like significantly under-represented in the low age group. If the number of cases were proportionately represented in iceland, it would be basically flat until it reached older groups and then taper off with the higher-aged population.

But it's a bell curve...

This is similar to SK data. So far there have been two countries that I know of that have done any degree of large-scale randomized or broad population testing, and both of them show low infection rates in children.
 
There was a very disturbing article in the WSJ on Friday which mentioned that lockdowns will not be how COVID-19 is defeated nor will herd immunity. The individual, Joseph Ladapo, (link here, however it is subscription based [sorry!]) mentions that the only way this gets defeated is through a vaccine, which means 12-18 months down the road. Unless there is an extreme improvement in scientific breakthrough and the research is going to be done properly, I could easily see May 2021 as a realistic "back to normal".
 
There was a very disturbing article in the WSJ on Friday which mentioned that lockdowns will not be how COVID-19 is defeated nor will herd immunity. The individual, Joseph Ladapo, (link here, however it is subscription based [sorry!]) mentions that the only way this gets defeated is through a vaccine, which means 12-18 months down the road. Unless there is an extreme improvement in scientific breakthrough and the research is going to be done properly, I could easily see May 2021 as a realistic "back to normal".

The quotes on "back to normal" are appropriate. If we're smart, we never go completely back to normal.

I think that for high risk populations, a vaccine is really the only way out.
 
The quotes on "back to normal" are appropriate. If we're smart, we never go completely back to normal.

I think that for high risk populations, a vaccine is really the only way out.
I'm fine if we are no longer shaking hands. However, I still would like to go back to a gym one day (sorry if this is sounding very selfish) and I would like to leave my house eventually without a makeshift mask.
 
There was a very disturbing article in the WSJ on Friday which mentioned that lockdowns will not be how COVID-19 is defeated nor will herd immunity. The individual, Joseph Ladapo, (link here, however it is subscription based [sorry!]) mentions that the only way this gets defeated is through a vaccine, which means 12-18 months down the road. Unless there is an extreme improvement in scientific breakthrough and the research is going to be done properly, I could easily see May 2021 as a realistic "back to normal".
Vaccines are herd immunity.

Herd immunity is how we beat viruses. It's the end goal - a sufficiently large number of people in a population are immune to the virus, preventing them from either being infected or being infectious. That results in the virus having no human reservoir, resulting in those who cannot acquire immunity - the immunocompromised - being protected from infection by nobody else being infected. Herd immunity either comes about naturally through the processes we're seeing right now - people getting it, and recovering, to become immune - or artificially with a vaccination program.

With the exception of childhood illnesses (where you have pox parties so that all the kids get chicken pox, because it's almost exclusively non-fatal in childhood and dramatically more fatal and life-changing in adulthood) natural herd immunity is not a strategy. You can't protect the immunocompromised (and "at risk" - which seems to be male, old, fat, smoker) from infection by having them die of the disease.


When Sir Patrick Vallance referred to herd immunity at the beginning of March - in a much-derided interview with Sky News, by people who know squat - he was talking about how much of the population needs to be immune to the disease in order to provide a herd immunity for future outbreaks (which he put at about 60%, which seems low to me; with Measles it's above 85%), not how much of the population the government wants to be infected in this outbreak. The full interview is interesting - he describes a herd immunity as being an effect of the government's strategy, not as strategy itself.

Conversely when Jeremy Hunt referred to a herd immunity strategy last week, he was a gibbering ****ing lunatic who shouldn't be allowed near a pencil much less a ministerial post.
 
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This is so bizarre.

More context for anyone wondering.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soc...americans-avoid-guangzhou-after-reports-black

US warns African-Americans to avoid Guangzhou after reports black people are being targeted in coronavirus clampdown

African-Americans have been advised to stop travelling to Guangzhou, according to an alert issued on Saturday by the United States consulate in the city, citing a local government-led crackdown targeting people of African origin due to Covid-19 fears.

The warning followed reports that local authorities had imposed tough measures in recent weeks screening people entering and leaving the city’s “Little Africa” district in Yuexiu district after five Nigerians tested positive for the coronavirus.

As part of the campaign to tighten scrutiny of foreigners, those who appear to be of African origin and others suspected of having “African contacts” were subjected to mandatory tests, followed by mandatory quarantine, regardless of their recent travel history, the consulate notice said.

It also said members of the city’s sizeable African community had been denied service in hotels, bars and restaurants.
 
Shouldn't Americans, all Americans, be staying out of China full stop? Are there even any flights available? That seems like a weird warning for the US to put out when actually getting into China is going to be difficult enough.
 
The crappy tissue paper you buy for gift bags looks more durable than that. :scared:



I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there is a bit of a PPE shortage at the moment, it's not like places really have a huge selection of supplies to choose from.

Not sure how you would know what the buyers ordered, but ok.

Furthermore, regardless of what the buyers ordered - high quality or otherwise - the product that is displayed in that video is not acceptable, no matter how “cheap” it may intended to be. The gowns in that video are not a functional product, they are worth zero dollars.
That's it. It's not acceptable. And it wasn't supposed to be acceptable. Don't you understand why?

Someone's got scammed badly. This PPE is counterfeit.

This is like buying a Swiss watch for $10 and then getting surprised that this watch isn't nearly as good and accurate as actual Swiss watches.

France isn't the first or the last one being ripped off over medical equipment like this. I've read a lot of stories like this. Here is one from Finland, for example:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_not_alone_in_medical_supplies_scam/11303307

People responsible for the stockpile choose the cheapest goods to buy trying to save money, or they outright steal it (being given sufficient funds for proper PPE, buying counterfeit and stealing the difference, there's huge money to raise). I also heard about Spain purchasing a large batch of fake COVID testing systems (and missing a lot of infections because of this). Russia isn't an exception, too, there were three people selling counterfeit tests arrested recently.

Unfortunately, even during the global pandemic with thousands of victims all over the world, there are crooked people making dirty money on it, endangering those who are trying to save lives.

Can you not be an apologist for nonsense atleast once?
Nonsense?

I don't like playing an attorney for China either, but it's better for you all to understand why that 'nonsense' happens. I know it's easier to simply blame China (making it sound almost like the CCP and Xi personally put substandard PPE into the packages for Europe), but it won't help you survive the pandemic.
 
:lol:

I'm sure the new record holder is a model citizen.

That kind of thing used to thrill me, but getting passed by any vehicle at 100 mph while I'm doing 80 makes me pucker up way too much. I'll hold someone else financially responsible for the aftermath of my interior by passing me at 160. :ill:

The point of Cannonball was to prove that our major highways were generally safe for speeds at 80-100 mph, at times when most were plunged into the dark times of 55 mph limits. Most portions of four-lane highway and infrastructure can handle that, in ideal conditions. But it's still not designed for 120+ mile-per-hour speeds with other motorists' reactions, so it's just dangerous show-off stuff that belongs on a race track. And in some ways, I hope it never is; routes and highways would become even more sterile and be even more straightened...less interesting to me and more apt to lapses in judgement in a land of low-flying living rooms.

Your nation's driving skills may vary, and how you want to base your judgement on the worst of drivers or the best of conditions might be best suited for a meme.
 
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