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

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After weeks of meticulous Covid-19 research the following guidelines have now been firmly established:

1. You MUST NOT leave the house for any reason, but if you have a reason, you can leave the house.

2. Masks are useless at protecting you against the virus, but you may have to wear one because it can save lives, but they may not work. They may be mandatory, or not.

3. Shops should be closed, except those shops that are open.

4. You must not go to work, but you can get another job and go to work.

5. You should not go to the Drs or to the hospital unless you have to go there ... unless you are too ill to go there.

6. This virus can kill people, but don’t be scared of it. It can only kill those people who are vulnerable or those people who are not vulnerable people. It’s possible to contain and control it, sometimes, except for the times it leads to a global disaster.

7. Gloves won't help, but they can still help so wear them sometimes, or not.

8. STAY HOME, but it's important to go out.

9. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarkets, but there are many things missing. You won’t need extra toilet paper, but you should buy some just in case you need some extra.

10. The virus has no effect on children except those children it effects.

11. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there.

12. Stay 2 metres away from tigers (see point 11).

13. You will have many symptoms if your get the virus, but you can also get symptoms without getting the virus, get the virus without having any symptoms or be contagious without having symptoms, or be non contagious with symptoms.

14. To help protect yourself you should eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand as it's better not to go out shopping.

15. It's important to get fresh air but don't go to parks but go for a walk. Don’t sit down, except if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant or if you’re not old or pregnant but need to sit down. If you do sit down don’t eat your picnic.

16. Don’t visit old people, but you have to take care of the old people and bring them food and medication.

17. If you are sick, you can go out when you are better, but anyone else in your household can’t go out when you are better (unless they need to go out).

18. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house. These deliveries are safe. But groceries you bring back to your house have to be decontaminated outside for 24 hours including Pizza.

19. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but they can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.

20. You are safe if you maintain a safe social distance when out, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at a safe social distance.

21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours ... or four hours... six hours... I mean days, not hours... But it needs a damp environment. Or a cold environment that is warm and dry... in the air, as long as the air is not plastic.

22. Schools are closed so you need to home educate your children, unless you can send them to school because you’re not at home. If you are at home you can home educate your children using various portals and virtual class rooms, unless you have poor internet, or more than one child and only one computer, or you are working from home. Baking cakes can be considered maths, science or art. If you are home educating you can include household chores to be education. If you are home educating you can start drinking at 10am.

23. If you are not home educating children you can also start drinking at 10am.

24. The number of corona related deaths will be announced daily, but we don't know how many people are infected as they are only testing those who are almost dead to find out if that's what they will die of… the people who die of corona who aren’t counted won’t be counted.

25. You should stay in lock down until the virus stops infecting people, but it will only stop infecting people if we all get infected, so it’s important we get infected.
 
Like many people, my Mum is discovering some new hobbies and interests, including colouring.

A couple of years back, I gave her a colouring book that some colleagues at work had produced as part of their public outreach and engagement programme... a nice way to take your mind off the current crisis...

 
...Unsurprisingly, the head office of the spare parts franchise my dad works for has ordered him to reopen his store by next week Monday. Without any safety precautions whatsoever - no masks, no gloves, no perspex screens on the tills, etc.

ATM, I'm scrambling to buy those things for him and the staff for the store. Gloves were not that difficult to source, but masks and perspex screens are proving to be a challenge - majority of the places either don't have any stock of the former or will deliver only after May 4th, while the latter, no one around to fit them.
 
This seems pretty important, but not entirely shocking if it turns out to be true.





Some of the comments suggest this Dr be taken with a pinch of salt, as he is known for some rather wacky claims (separate from his work on HIV).

If anyone can find info which would either confirm or deny these claims, that would be much appreciated.

I missed this at the time, but discovering the DNA of an RNA virus inside a different RNA virus would indeed be shocking :lol:
Car review or you don't drive right now? If so, how do y'all get around?
We've got... like, five cars - though two are projects which aren't moving right now and one other has just elected itself into a further project. I just haven't driven them yet this year. GTPlanet is a work-from-home job, and everything I might need to go to is about 5-7 minutes' walk away.


Fun fact: my driveway averages out at 1.94 litres, 5.2 cylinders, and 20% of a supercharger - but no filthy turbos.
 
Does anyone understand what's been happening in Belgium? It currently has the highest number of deaths per capita of any country (excluding the pretend countries of Andorra & San Marino) at 455/million. This is more than twice that of neighbouring Netherlands.
It probably boils down to the fact that there is no standardisation when it comes to any statistics or testing etc., so direct comparisons between any two countries is difficult. Not only are conditions between countries different, it could well be that the actual reality on the ground is almost identical, but that the way cases are being reported is different too. That said, there could well be significant real differences - and even relatively subtle differences in the way countries react to the outbreak could have disproportionate effects... even a modest improvement in social distancing can have a huge effect on transmission chains. But I reckon in the case of Belgium it is probably down to the way their numbers are being classified and reported... I'd imagine that the reality on the ground in Belgium and Holland is very similar.

My mother just got tested after 2 straight days of nausea, chills and fever. She came down with something on Tuesday, the same day that I took her to a fruit market, which I found was really poorly organized. We were both wearing masks, but people were not adhering to the 6 foot rule and the staff of the market were not limiting customers.
I hope your Mum is OK... did you get the result of the test yet? It's very unlikely to have come down with something as a result of picking up a virus on the same day, so whatever your Mum is suffering from is likely to have come from somewhere else.

Today I went to the recycling center, I was already drowning in plastic trash from not bringing it to that place for 6 weeks now.

First I thought my military gas mask was overkill and actually wanted to go with my FFP2 denim mask, but I reconsidered. When I arrived at the recycling site I was glad I had the full mask with me, it was CROWDED with people unloading their trash. Minimum safety distance was non existent, and half the people did not wear any kind of mask at all. When I put on my mask with the P3 filter people gave me a look, but the poor people working at that site gave me an understanding nod.

In any case, I was super happy to have a 0% chance of contracting the virus by using the large activated charcoal filter and full face protection which is leaps and bounds and walls and universes better than the tissue papers people wear. Yes, I looked like some dude from the Metro 2033 games, or some WWI soldier during a gas raid, but I don't care, results count.
What kind of mask do you have and where did you get it? I wish I had ordered a proper mask online when I first thought of it ages ago.

-

BBC News just showed footage of a queue of ambulances outside Moscow... people are waiting inside ambulances for up to 8 hours before they can be unloaded into hospital.
 
What kind of mask do you have and where did you get it? I wish I had ordered a proper mask online when I first thought of it ages ago.

I'm using a German/Austrian Auer M65Z protection mask, its exactly the same model I used back in my military service time, and they take the standard military NATO RD40 filters (that's essential, don't ever get a mask that uses proprietary filters. )

I got mine from a military surplus shop, I was lucky to get my hands on one that was never issued. They are available in Ebay etc. but boy, they're 3x times as expensive now. Paid 55 bucks for mine back in the day. New filters cost around 30-40 bucks / pcs.

Thing is, they offer complete protection, unlike even the best P3 paper masks. The air goes through a membrane particle filter just like most common paper masks, but then the air has to go through 3 inches of activated charcoal, and then through another particle filter. Also the seal of that mask is perfect and the eyes are protected - you can get the virus through your eyes.

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There is no evidence that COVID-19 survivors have immunity or are protected from reinfection, according to WHO.
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/coro...19-survivors-have-immunity-who-warns-11975011

There is also no evidence that any of the developed vaccines work. It takes months to develop that kind of evidence. It's too early to report this.


From the article:

Rather, officials said that, while possible explanations are still being investigated, they suspect it may simply be a sign that the original virus had not disappeared from the body entirely: the hyper-sensitive tests may have essentially detected fragments of the destroyed virus’s RNA.


“That’s one possible and very strong explanation,” Kwon said.
 
There is also no evidence that any of the developed vaccines work. It takes months to develop that kind of evidence. It's too early to report this.



From the article:
Would be interesting to find out how many, if any, were hospitalized and if they were tested before being released from care. There is an awful lot riding on immunity.
 
Would be interesting to find out how many, if any, were hospitalized and if they were tested before being released from care. There is an awful lot riding on immunity.
True that.

If it turns out there is no immunity and no vaccine, then we are faced with inevitable reduction of the human race and human economy on the planet.
"Nature" may have developed the perfect weapon to restore the world to a different order.
 
True that.

If it turns out there is no immunity and no vaccine, then we are faced with inevitable reduction of the human race and human economy on the planet.
"Nature" may have developed the perfect weapon to restore the world to a different order.
I find it hard to believe that the whole human race will not be capable of gaining immunity, if so we would have heard a lot more of it. There may be certain factors that mean certain people are more prone to being infected a second time. Will be interesting to follow the developments.
 
But it's scary, and that's important to some.

Quite.

If we were willing to take live virus and infect volunteers that we think might have immunity, it would really help answer these questions. We should be doing that.
 
Quite.

If we were willing to take live virus and infect volunteers that we think might have immunity, it would really help answer these questions. We should be doing that.
Where is Doctor Mengele when we really need him most?
 
Quite.

If we were willing to take live virus and infect volunteers that we think might have immunity, it would really help answer these questions. We should be doing that.
Sign me up! I haven't had an opportunity to properly quarantine and I haven't gotten sick yet.
What do I have to lose?
 
After weeks of meticulous Covid-19 research the following guidelines have now been firmly established:

1. You MUST NOT leave the house for any reason, but if you have a reason, you can leave the house.

2. Masks are useless at protecting you against the virus, but you may have to wear one because it can save lives, but they may not work. They may be mandatory, or not.

3. Shops should be closed, except those shops that are open.

4. You must not go to work, but you can get another job and go to work.

5. You should not go to the Drs or to the hospital unless you have to go there ... unless you are too ill to go there.

6. This virus can kill people, but don’t be scared of it. It can only kill those people who are vulnerable or those people who are not vulnerable people. It’s possible to contain and control it, sometimes, except for the times it leads to a global disaster.

7. Gloves won't help, but they can still help so wear them sometimes, or not.

8. STAY HOME, but it's important to go out.

9. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarkets, but there are many things missing. You won’t need extra toilet paper, but you should buy some just in case you need some extra.

10. The virus has no effect on children except those children it effects.

11. Animals are not affected, but there is still a cat that tested positive in Belgium in February when no one had been tested, plus a few tigers here and there.

12. Stay 2 metres away from tigers (see point 11).

13. You will have many symptoms if your get the virus, but you can also get symptoms without getting the virus, get the virus without having any symptoms or be contagious without having symptoms, or be non contagious with symptoms.

14. To help protect yourself you should eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have on hand as it's better not to go out shopping.

15. It's important to get fresh air but don't go to parks but go for a walk. Don’t sit down, except if you are old, but not for too long or if you are pregnant or if you’re not old or pregnant but need to sit down. If you do sit down don’t eat your picnic.

16. Don’t visit old people, but you have to take care of the old people and bring them food and medication.

17. If you are sick, you can go out when you are better, but anyone else in your household can’t go out when you are better (unless they need to go out).

18. You can get restaurant food delivered to the house. These deliveries are safe. But groceries you bring back to your house have to be decontaminated outside for 24 hours including Pizza.

19. You can't see your older mother or grandmother, but they can take a taxi and meet an older taxi driver.

20. You are safe if you maintain a safe social distance when out, but you can’t go out with friends or strangers at a safe social distance.

21. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours ... or four hours... six hours... I mean days, not hours... But it needs a damp environment. Or a cold environment that is warm and dry... in the air, as long as the air is not plastic.

22. Schools are closed so you need to home educate your children, unless you can send them to school because you’re not at home. If you are at home you can home educate your children using various portals and virtual class rooms, unless you have poor internet, or more than one child and only one computer, or you are working from home. Baking cakes can be considered maths, science or art. If you are home educating you can include household chores to be education. If you are home educating you can start drinking at 10am.

23. If you are not home educating children you can also start drinking at 10am.

24. The number of corona related deaths will be announced daily, but we don't know how many people are infected as they are only testing those who are almost dead to find out if that's what they will die of… the people who die of corona who aren’t counted won’t be counted.

25. You should stay in lock down until the virus stops infecting people, but it will only stop infecting people if we all get infected, so it’s important we get infected.

I need to get some meds, my sides are hurting....
 
Social Distancing
Questionnaire

=======================
How long has it been since you've:
- Had someone who doesn't live in your home inside your home. - 4 weeks
- Spoken in-person to someone who doesn't live inside your home. - Yesterday at work
- Spoken in-person to someone who doesn't live inside your home within 6 feet with no PPE - Yesterday at work
- Entered a public facing commercial building (such as a grocery store or bank) - 1 week
- Entered any building other than your home - Yesterday at work
- Shaken someone's hand - 4 weeks.
- Driven a car - Yesterday, commuting to work
- Gotten takeout - 2 days (pizza, no contact delivery).
- How many people live in your house - 2
 
It probably boils down to the fact that there is no standardisation when it comes to any statistics or testing etc., so direct comparisons between any two countries is difficult. Not only are conditions between countries different, it could well be that the actual reality on the ground is almost identical, but that the way cases are being reported is different too. That said, there could well be significant real differences - and even relatively subtle differences in the way countries react to the outbreak could have disproportionate effects... even a modest improvement in social distancing can have a huge effect on transmission chains. But I reckon in the case of Belgium it is probably down to the way their numbers are being classified and reported... I'd imagine that the reality on the ground in Belgium and Holland is very similar.


My assumption is that "there is no standardisation when it comes to any statistics or testing" is a big part of the explanation. As a consequence, it's really hard to know what is really going on internationally. Did China really have so few cases/deaths? Does Brazil really have so few cases/deaths? Does Russia really have so few cases/deaths? etc.
 
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Wow. I just read that even mild cases suffer from lung tissue damage so severe that they will likely need treatment for the rest of their lives. The article said that doctors checked x-rays of recovered people and at first they thought they mixed them up with pics from still infected people. The virus does deep lung tissue damage unlike any other pneumonia where the lung recovers nearly to 100%.

Even though they feel really good now, several divers' lung damage was so extensive that they are no longer allowed to do ANY diving at all, the risk of a diving accident and health issues would be way too great. And those were cases with only mild fever and no hospitalization.

Man, if that's true its MUCH worse than I thought. :crazy:
 
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