Covid19

[Too Tall]

We use Dr. Bronner's so when you're down to seeds and stems ya gotta find the little pea of soap crust that clogs up the bung and use that.

Curiously I know exactly what you are talking about. Good call, I need to drop by the local rich hippie food store.

[Too Tall]

Zen, you made me spit perfectly good coffee at my screen.

BTW shaved Irish Spring soap is so awful that it is what I use to keep the deer from munching my hostas. Seriously and I glove up...it's that nasty smelling.

[Mark Kelly]

Could you or Will or maybe someone else speak to thoughts on decontamination that does not include washing.

The CDC has a page with just that information.

[Chik]

Gawd you are serious and am I the only other one who struggles? Laughing at the two of us.

Bwahaha!

Other than the effect of the hardness or softness of your water, soap lather comes from captured bubbles in the soap. Soap that lathers well is made with a step that increases the porousness of the soap. Dove is made that way. When you get down to the last sliver of soap, there are probably fewer bubbles in the soap and so lathering is subdued. My mother used to leave soap out to dry and the shrinkage in bar size was noticeable. Her contention was that if you dried soap, it lasted longer, which drove my father the chemist to the edge of insanity. He'd say all you were doing was compressing the voids in the soap as it dried and so it lathered less effectively. You were still using soap at the same rate. Anyway....

https://www.instructables.com/id/Reforming-Soap-Scraps/

Which explains why Dove disappears in no time compared to a soap of a similar size -- full of air. It would be forgivable if it weren't so smelly. Some brands boast of their products being triple-milled or whatever. Do you know what that means?

That instructables piece is hysterical. The author deserves a knighthood. :)

And ain't it a little heartbreak when you break the soap sliver in half?

Every time it happens, I die a little.

Just leaving the old soap sliver on top of the new bar of soap while both are wet will result in their being welded together if allowed to dry.

That's what I do. It drives the missus bonkers.

Oh, that Irish Spring... completely forgot about it. Why do so many people use that stuff? Until I went to the US for the first time to spend the summer in Philly, I wondered why some Americans I met in Tokyo smelled so strange. That summer, I walked into CVS or whatever and found the source. It's criminal shit.

[Chik]

Early days, hardly conclusive, but not exactly encouraging wrt antibody levels found in recovered Chinese patients, particularly those under the age of 40:

Coronavirus: low antibody levels raise questions about reinfection risk | South China Morning Post

[Too Tall]

One last soap fashion statement for Chik and I promise I'll return to topic: Cetaphil bar soap. It is the bar of soap you will take to your grave.

[j44ke]

Early days, hardly conclusive, but not exactly encouraging wrt antibody levels found in recovered Chinese patients, particularly those under the age of 40:

Coronavirus: low antibody levels raise questions about reinfection risk | South China Morning Post

The possibility of immunity after recovery is still vague. Somewhere (linked here?) there is an article about 50 patients in China who recovered, tested negative and then later tested positive again and the recurrence (if that’s what it was instead of a bad test/false negative) resulted in one recovered patient dying. It seems like the accuracy of the test for coronavirus is becoming more, not less, important and that accuracy is just not there yet. Could there be incomplete immunity at a stage in recovery where negative tests are possible even though the patient is not truly recovered and is still prone to backsliding into full blown infection?

[Chik]

The possibility of immunity after recovery is still vague. Somewhere (linked here?) there is an article about 50 patients in China who recovered, tested negative and then later tested positive again and the recurrence (if that’s what it was instead of a bad test/false negative) resulted in one recovered patient dying. It seems like the accuracy of the test for coronavirus is becoming more, not less, important and that accuracy is just not there yet. Could there be incomplete immunity at a stage in recovery where negative tests are possible even though the patient is not truly recovered and is still prone to backsliding into full blown infection?

How can one tell if someone's "recovered"? Or, am I going in circles?

[vertical_doug]

How can one tell if someone's "recovered"? Or, am I going in circles?

The answer is they don't know yet.

As for serology test, I am sure these exist, just not reliable enough to be used at scale. UK bought 17.5mm tests from several manufacturers, and they all failed to pass the trials, so all scraped. I think Germany is in same boat. There is a product being marketed, but I know the machine as research only not to be used for diagnostic purposes.... so a stretch.

There is a NJ company owned by Carlyle Group which has a diagnostic test. Instead of a finger prick, it needs a vial of blood.
A lot of smart people looking on this and the financial incentives are super high, so eventually someone will figure it out if not multiple groups.

In the meantime, I think the standard the Koreans use is you need to pass the PCR test twice x days apart.

[ZenNMotion]

One last soap fashion statement for Chik and I promise I'll return to topic: Cetaphil bar soap. It is the bar of soap you will take to your grave.

Don Draper, move over! Here, let me light your Lucky Strike for you.

[j44ke]

How can one tell if someone's "recovered"? Or, am I going in circles?

Exactly.

(Sorry pushed the wrong button and started to edit your message, not quote it. Moderator skills not refined yet.)

[Chik]

Fingers crossed.

Mass. Hospitals Begin 1st US Clinical Trials for Japanese Coronavirus Drug – NBC Boston

[j44ke]

Here’s the article I mentioned above, except that it was 51 patients and in South Korea, not 50 in China as I wrote originally.

Cured virus patients might have tested positive due to virus reactivation: KCDC | Yonhap News Agency

Some of the associated articles I’ve read suggest that the problem may be the test or the testing. For example, test samples taken from the nose and upper respiratory may test negative when test samples taken from the lower sections of the lungs will still test positive. The worry is also that the virus may linger elsewhere in the body, and that asymptomatic recovered individuals may be susceptible to relapse and/or be carriers for longer after symptoms subside.

[j44ke]

Just found out that our pilates instructor has been diagnosed (but no test because that is still not allowed/available) with probable Covid19 after experiencing symptoms starting 3 days after we last saw him in person (March 12) until now. His symptoms have been mostly gastrointestinal but with addition of persistent headache, low fever, joint ache and eye pain. He is mostly recovered but his doctor (who is also our doctor coincidentally) has put him on a BRAT (bananas, rice, apples and toast) diet to help repair the damage the virus may have done to his GI tract as he is still experiencing difficulties in that regard.

So I guess we dodged a bullet. Or I suppose we could have been asymptomatic and given it to him. Who knows. Just hope he is truly on the mend and this won't turn into something more serious.

[ldamelio]

33024.jpg

Leaving one of my hospitals this evening - a brief unexpected shower then this. Might be an omen - I think we've peaked at this campus - resources heavily taxed but under control. Our inner city hospital six miles away is a few days behind and things are escalating rapidly in terms of both volume and severity of illness. The curve will be later and higher there. Hopefully a rainbow there in a couple of days.

[Mark Kelly]

Here’s the article I mentioned above, except that it was 51 patients and in South Korea, not 50 in China as I wrote originally.

Cured virus patients might have tested positive due to virus reactivation: KCDC | Yonhap News Agency

Some of the associated articles I’ve read suggest that the problem may be the test or the testing.

I have seen false negative rates of 15% quoted. If that is truly random then if you tested a pool of infected persons twice 2.25% of them would test negative both times (yet still be positive). If there's some systematic cause (like say nasal morphology preventing a good swab sample being taken) it would be higher than 2.25%.

[Lionel]

33024.jpg

Leaving one of my hospitals this evening - a brief unexpected shower then this. Might be an omen - I think we've peaked at this campus - resources heavily taxed but under control. Our inner city hospital six miles away is a few days behind and things are escalating rapidly in terms of both volume and severity of illness. The curve will be later and higher there. Hopefully a rainbow there in a couple of days.

Awesome !

[Too Tall]

@ldamelio PM me. Free NFS for life. *OK nobody tell him that amounts to 1/2 a bottle it's the thought right?

All kidding aside. If you are frontline healthcare or LE PM me, same deal.

This is not a original thought we all want to recognize and elevate your good work.

I've been hearing all sorts of excellent work us regular citizens are doing to help out. You risk your life, a quiet chain is not too much to ask.

[ldamelio]

Thanks. Tom Kellogg gave me one bottle with my cross bike, Richard with my road bike, and I bought one from you at Philly bike show. I'm set for life with both bikes and NFS!

[Mark Kelly]

@ldamelio

I've been hearing all sorts of excellent work us regular citizens are doing to help out.

Got an email today from a company from whom I buy 3D printer supplies, they are co-ordinating their clients' spare 3D printer capacity, aiming to put it to use making PPE. What a great idea.