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

[Sander 001]

"the FDA said that all trucks and storage units should be "thoroughly cleaned and disinfected," perhaps several times, with EPA-registered disinfectants that have proven effective against COVID-19 and foodborne pathogens."

https://www.newsweek.com/fda-says-t...&utm_source=Twitter&__twitter_impression=true

 

[GBO Possum]

Here's how the Active Cases per Million have changed over the last 7 days for selected countries as a percentage of the 06MAY20 data

Positive numbers mean the Active Cases are rising.

New Zealand continues to amaze. I'm not sure if Russian and Hong Kong numbers are credible. Ideas?

 

[McLaren]

I believe it's being called Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS). Unfortunately, I don't think much is known about it right now. Our Cheif of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Dr. Andrew Pavia, has said it's probably related to the body's immune system going into overdrive after being exposed to COVID-19. Thankfully, it seems like it's pretty rare and it could very well be related to another underlying condition. We've only had 250 peds patients under the age of 14 test positive for COVID-19 in Utah and I think only 3 or 4 have actually been hospitalized. They're currently investigating one potential case out of those that could've been PIMS, but they're still unsure.

As far as treatment goes we will be treating it using the same protocol as Kawasaki Disease, which is basically trying to reduce inflammation and use blood plasma infusions. Thankfully, it's not thought to be contagious, which helps with the care.

Does it have any effect on some of the original views that children are the least susceptible to Covid? I remember reading early theories that children catching it may be beneficial for their future as they could become immune to it (like chickenpox) whilst having the benefit of being asymptomatic to it.

 

[Earth]

I remember going to school and watching 95/100 kids eat their lunch without washing their hands.

It's ingrained habits like this in some countries which make slowing this virus so difficult.

Some guy at my job brought chips and salsa to work, took his mask off, and with his unwashed hands snacked on the chips and salsa while dealing with customers and touching all the money/keyboard/counters etc.

He came to work 3 days later sick.

I feel if a country cant get this under control and on a downward trend then that country has hygiene issues among it's population. So yes, I feel the USA is being exposed as a rather careless country where most people dont wash their hands, theres a huge 'come to work even if sick' mantra (2 people have come to my job openly sick and were allowed to continuing working during this pandemic) and other issues.


btw the USA just recorded 4 days in a row of new cases lower then any single day since March. It's coming down in the US, but its painfully slow.

 

[Dotini]

Here's how the Active Cases per Million have changed over the last 7 days for selected countries as a percentage of the 06MAY20 data

Positive numbers mean the Active Cases are rising.

New Zealand continues to amaze. I'm not sure if Russian and Hong Kong numbers are credible. Ideas?

View attachment 920452

Ideas? Sure. Are they good ideas? Doubtful. But here goes:

What your static graph shows are dynamic waves of virus sloshing around in an ocean of humanity, greedily picking off the the most vulnerable, least prepared and least disciplined. The bars on the chart will rise and fall like the tides until the virus has done its job, infected everyone available, then gone back to rest only to emerge again when the time is right. Its nature's way of running a tidy ship.

Humanity is like a man running around in a jungle with his knickers down around his ankles. He's going to get bit on the arse before he knows it.

 

[Touring Mars]

A new study suggests that the infection rate in the UK could be >200 times higher than confirmed cases, which would mean that 25% of the population has been infected already...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijcp.13528?af=R

This could be quite good news, not least if infection results in some level of immunity too.

 

[PeterJB]

I live with mum, she works in the admin office for a residential home and currently goes into the office once a week and works at home for the other four days. She has no contact with any of the residents but has nonetheless been advised to get tested every two weeks. Neither one of us has been unwell since the lockdown started, but if she tests positive that's a sure sign I would too, in which case we've both been asymptomatic.

 

[Liquid]

Police in the UK are using CCTV footage to identify a man who spat and coughed at a ticket collector in a London train station - the ticket collector became ill a few days later and subsequently died from COVID-19.

If this could be proven, is that murder? Intentionally spreading a fatal biological hazard?

 

[Touring Mars]

If this could be proven, is that murder? Intentionally spreading a fatal biological hazard?

It would certainly be classed as an assault, but it would/could be difficult to impossible to prove that the victim actually died as a direct result of that assault.

The nature of the victim's job meant that she was at (much) higher risk than a lot of other people anyway, and hence I reckon it is unlikely someone could be charged with murder/manslaughter, even if they can be identified.

 

[Outspacer]

A new study suggests that the infection rate in the UK could be >200 times higher than confirmed cases, which would mean that 25% of the population has been infected already...

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijcp.13528?af=R

This could be quite good news, not least if infection results in some level of immunity too.

I don't see how they can calculate this when R is directly affected by the lockdown - I don't mean the overall R but the variance between R for people working at home (virtually zero) vs people working with others (well above 1 still, I presume).

And it's a very different result to the one from Spain...

Spain has tested 60000 people and found a 5% rate of antibodies, suggesting at least 2 million people have recovered from the virus.

Given that Spain currently has less than 250,000 confirmed cases, this proves that the true infection rate is around 10 times higher than confirmed cases, as might be expected.

Quite worrying that it's only 10x, was hoping for say 5x to 10x for untested with symptoms and another 5x to 10x asymptomatic, compared to hospitalised, based on those prison test findings. Of course it depends a fair bit on how many non-hospitalised cases have been confirmed, and that number is rising.

 

[Touring Mars]

Yeh, the UK study suggesting 25% infections is probably a big overestimate. Other recent studies from both Spain and France suggest that while some regions are up to 10% infection, the average is nearer only 5%... and with little to no evidence of immunity.

 

[andrea]

 

[Joey D]

Does it have any effect on some of the original views that children are the least susceptible to Covid? I remember reading early theories that children catching it may be beneficial for their future as they could become immune to it (like chickenpox) whilst having the benefit of being asymptomatic to it.

I'm not sure we know yet, but I do believe the current thought is that children are less susceptible to COVID and if they do contract it, the likelihood of it being serious is fairly low. The theory that I've seen says as kids age their immune system gets stronger and then at some point in your life, it levels out for a bit, then starts to degrade as you get older. The theory goes that the immune system in kids is, for the most part, at the right balance to stop COVID before it becomes too serious. However, it's a bell curve so while most are somewhere in the middle, there are some kids on the low end (who end up with the virus) and some on the high end (who end up with PIMS).

If this could be proven, is that murder? Intentionally spreading a fatal biological hazard?

In the US, people that do that are typically being charged with domestic terrorism. I'm not sure what the penalty is for that, but it's a federal crime.

 

[Outspacer]

Yeh, the UK study suggesting 25% infections is probably a big overestimate. Other recent studies from both Spain and France suggest that while some regions are up to 10% infection, the average is nearer only 5%... and with little to no evidence of immunity.

Immunity, or herd immunity?

It may be fair to assume that places with a higher infection rate also had a higher R, so if there is any immunity present it will help to bring that down - particularly in those places, but it should have a good effect on the average R as well.

 

[Danoff]

btw the USA just recorded 4 days in a row of new cases lower then any single day since March. It's coming down in the US, but its painfully slow.

According to the data here the US peaked in terms of new cases/day 43 days ago. That's kindof astounding when you think about it. The difference between yesterday (23k new cases) and 43 days ago (31.5k new cases) is actually a significant percentage decrease. If it cut by 1/3 again in another month, that would be great news.

 

[Touring Mars]

Immunity, or herd immunity?

It may be fair to assume that places with a higher infection rate also had a higher R, so if there is any immunity present it will help to bring that down - particularly in those places, but it should have a good effect on the average R as well.

Yeh, the article I read actually said herd immunity, not immunity... though there is still not a huge amount of evidence of immunity either, but hopefully the lack of second infections is growing evidence that immunity does arise from infection.

-

The US should proceed with caution, esp. when reading anything into daily new cases etc. NY and NJ account for over a third of all cases, and hence the figures are skewed somewhat by the fact that NY had a large, early outbreak... the rest of the US outside NY and NJ were still rising as of a couple of days ago, although it obviously varies quite a lot from state to state.

Removing restrictions in states where the new case rate is not dropping seems... very risky.

 

[McLaren]

Yeh, the article I read actually said herd immunity, not immunity... though there is still not a huge amount of evidence of immunity either, but hopefully the lack of second infections is growing evidence that immunity does arise from infection.

-

The US should proceed with caution, esp. when reading anything into daily new cases etc. NY and NJ account for over a third of all cases, and hence the figures are skewed somewhat by the fact that NY had a large, early outbreak... the rest of the US outside NY and NJ were still rising as of a couple of days ago, although it obviously varies quite a lot from state to state.

Removing restrictions in states where the new case rate is not dropping seems... very risky.

A lot of people in Texas see things as plateauing & believe that means it's been avoided. It's been a light switch-approach here. Either hunker down or go full tilt into every business.

 

[UKMikey]

Looks like you can only apply for a test in the UK if you already have coronavirus symptoms. By then it could be too late and even then you might not get a test.

https://www.gov.uk/apply-coronavirus-test

 

[Dotini]

Tests =/= hoax, joke, rumor, mirage, or panacea. Put your faith in tests. Put your belief in tests. Bet your life on tests. They are truth, ultimate reality. /s

Seriously, in Washington State, tests are conspicuous by their absence.

As of today, May 14th, Washington has conducted 261,080 tests. Our population is 7.615 million.
17,512 positive
243,568 negative

total deaths 975
91% over age 60
52% over age 80

For this, we have bought into a full lockdown and a $7 billon shortfall in the state budget.

 

[GBO Possum]

A lot of people in Texas see things as plateauing & believe that means it's been avoided. It's been a light switch-approach here. Either hunker down or go full tilt into every business.

Texas just saw the highest New Cases ever yesterday, which was beaten by today's number

Edit: Today's fatality number is a new daily record too (58)

Link to Excel file at https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/coronavirus/

 

[TenEightyOne]

Misread, please delete.

 

[Earth]

According to the data here the US peaked in terms of new cases/day 43 days ago. That's kindof astounding when you think about it. The difference between yesterday (23k new cases) and 43 days ago (31.5k new cases) is actually a significant percentage decrease. If it cut by 1/3 again in another month, that would be great news.

With testing increasing all the time these numbers are better then they look, which is great.

 

[Joey D]

Some good news on the immunity front:

T cells found in COVID-19 patients ‘bode well’ for long-term immunity

 

[Danoff]

Some good news on the immunity front:

T cells found in COVID-19 patients ‘bode well’ for long-term immunity

So many questions spring to mind from that. One is whether a vaccine exists for any similar coronaviruses that might offer some assistance in fighting off this one. Other questions include things like... is there a benign coronavirus that we can infect everyone with that will confer some immunity to C19?

 

[Jezza819]

Last night was the first time I've seen the milk & egg section looking a little slim at my usual grocery store. I wonder if we're now seeing the results of the farmers having to dispose of that extra product due to the restaurants being closed? Now with restaurants opening back up here in Alabama and elsewhere, those shortages are bound to get worse due to lack of available dairy product.

 

[Dennisch]

3 cats and a dog have been confirmed with the virus, here in the Dutchylands. The cats tested positive for the antibodies and apparently recovered, the dog was put down because it developed severe breathing problems.

 

[PzR Slim]

R rate is up to between 0.7 and 1 in the UK following some correct interpretation of data. This doesn't take into account what happened last weekend or since the lockdown has been eased. So who knows what the true figure is at the moment. Also, it would appear that the R rate in different areas of the country varies by quite a bit. London could be as low as 0.4 whereas the North East, where I live, could be above 1. The government have indicated that they are trying to enable reporting of the R rate in different areas.

As a deputy head my wife has spent all week trying to work out how they are going to deal with certain year groups returning at the beginning of June. Lots of worry from the staff and parents alike as there are so many conflicting reports as to what is and isn't safe.

 

[Biggles]

Another "hold my beer" coronavirus survivor case from Jersey. At 108 she's the oldest reported US coronavirus survivor.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/new-jersey-woman-108-beats-coronavirus

 

[PeterJB]

So me and mum drove to Bristol Airport this morning to get tested, not a very pleasant experience. Only two other cars there getting tested. We had to stay in the car and were given the kits with not very helpful instructions. Had to blow our nose, put gloves on, and then rub the swab on our tonsils for 10-15 seconds without touching you teeth or tongue; easier said than done. I managed about two seconds of it while mum soldiered on to five. Then had to twist it around in your nostril for 10-15 seconds, this was much easier, albeit very irritating. We then put the swab in the vial and sealed it in the bio-hazard bag, only to be told we had to seal it in the plastic bag we given it in first, then seal that in the bio-hazard, despite the instructions saying nothing about the plastic bag. We were also told we could now remove our gloves while we tear the bio-hazard bags open to get at the vials, replace the bar codes and put them in the new bags and return them, which all kinda defeated the purpose of wearing the gloves in the first place. Should get results in a couple of days.

 

[PzR Slim]

So me and mum drove to Bristol Airport this morning to get tested, not a very pleasant experience. Only two other cars there getting tested. We had to stay in the car and were given the kits with not very helpful instructions. Had to blow our nose, put gloves on, and then rub the swab on our tonsils for 10-15 seconds without touching you teeth or tongue; easier said than done. I managed about two seconds of it while mum soldiered on to five. Then had to twist it around in your nostril for 10-15 seconds, this was much easier, albeit very irritating. We then put the swab in the vial and sealed it in the bio-hazard bag, only to be told we had to seal it in the plastic bag we given it in first, then seal that in the bio-hazard, despite the instructions saying nothing about the plastic bag. We were also told we could now remove our gloves while we tear the bio-hazard bags open to get at the vials, replace the bar codes and put them in the new bags and return them, which all kinda defeated the purpose of wearing the gloves in the first place. Should get results in a couple of days.

Is the test capable of telling if you have had it or just if you've got it?