Covid19

[Tom]

Most of the local hospitals are no longer testing the public because they simply don't have the supplies to do so. Expect the confirmed case numbers to be dampened just because we don't have the capacity to confirm them.

[Too Tall]

Normally I never post a link without saying what is on my mind. This time I'm posting a link and asking you to read it end to end. For your sake, mine and to reach some mutual understanding of how and what it takes. Here we go:

The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What'''s Coming | WIRED

[ides1056]

If you haven't seen this: Coronavirus Could Overwhelm U.S. Without Urgent Action, Estimates Say - The New York Times

[Will Neide]

Normally I never post a link without saying what is on my mind. This time I'm posting a link and asking you to read it end to end. For your sake, mine and to reach some mutual understanding of how and what it takes. Here we go:

The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What'''s Coming | WIRED

Thanks! Good read.

[thollandpe]

Normally I never post a link without saying what is on my mind. This time I'm posting a link and asking you to read it end to end. For your sake, mine and to reach some mutual understanding of how and what it takes. Here we go:

The Doctor Who Helped Defeat Smallpox Explains What's Coming | WIRED

Dr. Brilliant.

That interview's structure is great. It starts with a frank and unvarnished assessment of where we are and how we got here, but ends on a hopeful note. It discusses science in plain language. He does not use his authority or knowledge to puff himself up. No minimizing the challenge we face, but no gloom and doom. Brilliant, indeed.

[Tom]

Toot Tall - thank you, that was a good article.

[Bobonli]

Aptly named. And Steven Levy is an excellent journalist.

[ron l edmiston]

-- thank you tall-man...

-- i am on the alert.., they have a gun--totter bounty on us senior males in these parts...

ronnie with a smile

[Bobonli]

Most of the local hospitals are no longer testing the public because they simply don't have the supplies to do so. Expect the confirmed case numbers to be dampened just because we don't have the capacity to confirm them.

We're still doing mass testing of the public in NY. The public. Not the healthcare providers. They're being politely told to keep working until they are sick and showing symptoms. Read between the lines, please. We are at a very real risk of running out of people in the hospitals, never mind masks and ventilators, if the current situation persists for any length of time.

The Governor this morning sent letters to practitioners with licenses (I'm presuming they're running off the state registry) asking people who may have left the bedside to suit up for action. That open a whole other can of worms in terms of quality of care, exposure risk etc.

[j44ke]

An example of a good science brain. Look at a system, break it down to essential elements, develop a process.

I woke up this morning feeling like I needed to run somewhere. But then I realized I was already there. Weird feeling.

[Too Tall]

There is a new study at NIH/NIAID doing blood draws on folks who have presumed or tested for COVID19 and recovered. They are tested for sufficient amounts of antibodies present and selected on that basis. The volunteers blood will be processed (electrophoresis) and the antibodies used for study, as a potential immunity booster for frontline workers and as a potential aide for acute patients who are not getting better.

When that study comes to DC I'm getting in line. Heads up Philly and a few other places I'm not aware of yet.

If you read the article by Dr. Brilliant he suggests a system to identify folks who have immunity and tap them to supplant health care workers, to help at nursing homes etc. etc. etc.

Yes please some more of that.

[jclay]

Remember hearing the stories of rumblings in the forest, reported by foxhole grunts shortly before the Battle of The Bulge? Ignoring what epidemiology and mathematics already tells us about how this situation will likely unfold, this is not what you want to read:

A company that makes Internet-connected thermometers has found “widespread atypical illness” throughout Florida that can’t be explained by the late flu season and, public health experts warn, it may be a sign that coronavirus infections may be more widespread in the state than previously reported.

Details here: Access Denied

[Chik]

On a happier note for those in Vermont:

Vermont distilleries using alcohol to make hand sanitizer

[Drew]

The Governor this morning sent letters to practitioners with licenses (I'm presuming they're running off the state registry) asking people who may have left the bedside to suit up for action. That open a whole other can of worms in terms of quality of care, exposure risk etc.

What else is there? Pick and choose who lives and dies?

[htwoopup]

And on a hopeful note...from The NY Times Canada letter this morning on comparing today’s covid to 1918 flu which struck ACROSS economic strata of society....

« How did it change Canada’s public health system?
At that point, most people conceived of public health as something for cleaning up nuisances and getting rid of so-called problems within society.
What 1918 convinced people of in Canada and around the world is that public health threats are not based in class, and are not simply limited to immigrants, which is how an awful lot of diseases were viewed in the 19th and early 20th century.
The change in mentality that comes out of 1918 is the recognition that taking a shared responsibility toward preventing, controlling and managing disease is important. »

[takashi]

What else is there? Pick and choose who lives and dies?

well, if that's not happening already it won't be long

[caleb]

The Governor this morning sent letters to practitioners with licenses (I'm presuming they're running off the state registry) asking people who may have left the bedside to suit up for action. That open a whole other can of worms in terms of quality of care, exposure risk etc.

I will only be mildly surprised if we see veterinarians deputized as human medical doctors by the end of this.

[vertical_doug]

Inside an American coronavirus containment zone - 6 Minutes - CBS News

[rec head]

I will only be mildly surprised if we see veterinarians deputized as human medical doctors by the end of this.

They are being asked to donate their PPE.

[j44ke]

Wife’s colleague’s father who is 80 just returned from England with flu-like symptoms. His doctor told him current regulations say he cannot get tested because either way quarantine would indicated. He would have to present as lung congested with decreased lung function before he could get a test.

So this suggests to me that the regulations are becoming more selective - no longer are flu-like symptoms and foreign travel enough to get you tested. Or is it that 80 year olds are being held back until they are experiencing life-threatening symptoms?