COVID-19 Pandemic (Coronavirus)

DrBanneker

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You still think that?

Italy has 1/2 the cases China had when this thread started 1 month ago. South Korea has four times as many.

It's spreading.

How is it misinformation when governments are taking drastic measures to nip this in the bud?

Italy

I said weeks ago this is more serious than they are telling us based on the actions of the Chinese government.


When they sequence the genomes of the Italy outbreak they will be able to likely trace back where it came from and roughly how many jumps by strain genetic relationships. It's going to be bad now non-Chinese countries are spreading this. Are there going to be rolling travel bans?
 

ColdSlither

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At this point, everyone is gonna get this shyt.

Thanks Chineses government for the global oopsie.:francis:

I don't even think that it was on oopsie. They knew this was going down and they just chose to try and cover it up, because they know that the world has put all their eggs in one basket in China.
 

Chronic

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Dr. Liang: 25 experts. Spoke with officials, scientists, residents, medical workers. Our main goals: to understand 1) characteristics of epidemic 2) clinical symptoms incl. mild/middle/critical 3) prevention/control measures and effectiveness 4) suggestions for future research
5 major findings: 1) understanding of virus. Experts studied 104 strains from different places and found they were 99.9% similar in origin. So experts believe there is no significant mutation. Ave age 51. 80% of patients 30-65. In confirmed cases, 78% from Hubei as of Feb 22...
Host- not clear. But possibly an intermediate host. Research ongoing. Transmission. Respiratory droplets. In relatively closed rooms. Might be transmitted through aerosol. Family cluster quite common. Sichuan, Guangdong typical. 78.85% cases came from family clusters...
For close contacts, all locations tracked and observed them. So far 1-5% of close contacts are later confirmed. Because it is a new #coronavirus, no people are especially immune to it, so are universally/equally able to get infected. (!)..
In early stage, in Wuhan, all related to wet market. Later, as virus spread further, after Jan 30, the newly added cases related to the market declined. Daily new cases are going down...
Outside Wuhan/Hubei, early cases are mostly related to Wuhan/Hubei, in some places family clusters, community clusters are seen. Epidemics in these areas are different from Wuhan. In special locations, epidemics broke out, i.e. among hospital medical staff over 3000. But whether
...origin from community or hospital is still TBD. Infected 3000 are mostly from Wuhan. It’s possible in peak time, our staff had insufficient understanding of the virus, and lack of materials, procedures, and lack of rest/long working hours. All are possible causes.
On severity: most patients are mild cases. 80% are mild. 13.8% severe. 6.1% critical. Death rate 3-4% nationally. Outside Wuhan: 0.7%. From symptoms to confirmed, lowered from 12 days in early Jan to 3 days now. For Wuhan, 5 to 15 days. Evidence diagnosis ability has improved...
Average recovery time: 2 weeks for mild cases from onset to recovered. 3-6 weeks for severe...
WHO’s Aylward: praises China and ambitious, aggressive approach. First old fashioned measures like hand-washing, wearing masks, keep distance then response moved to scientific, risk-oriented action. Turbo charged w/ modern tech. More efficient than could have imagined years ago.
How they made this response switch. From the tremendous will of Chinese people, workers, government officials. No question that China’s approach has definitely helped prevent the fast spreading epidemic...
Realizes there are challenges the counting method of the numbers. But looking at different sources, the decline in numbers is real. Much evidence to support that.
In Wuhan, hospital beds are more available. They can move more people in. This is a strong indicator. One researcher also said biggest challenge for developing an anti-viral trial is to find cases because of the drop in patients.
Showing graphs on outbreaks. Says hundreds of thousands of Chinese have benefited from China’s tremendous effort. China’s very aggressive measures have changed the curve of the epidemic.
Those are the good things but we also saw problems. We always learn lessons with every outbreak on response time, communication, protection for medical staff, action.
China wants to resume work, reopen schools. China wants to get back to normal. This should happen. But says this virus will probably be around “for months”. So the key will be to phase lifting of different measures. Should also bolster what they have now because cases could..
..rise again as China gets back to normal. Most important recommendation: the world needs the experience of China to cope with epidemic and the only country to turn around such a big outbreak.
In terms of travel and trade, any country taking measures outside WHO’s recommendation should reevaluate since risk from China is dropping. What China has to add is rising.
WHO on the global situation: the virus is new but its capable of causing great impact on public health, the economy, and society. It is not SARS, not the flu. If we don’t treat it as a virus with its own characteristics, we won’t be able to fight it.
Second finding for global impact, the fundamentals of Hubei, Guangdong, can be applied elsewhere. This is a dangerous virus and we have to work with experience we have. And this country has demonstrated its measures can work.
Third finding, global community is not ready with mindset or material to act in this same way. The Chinese adapt.
WHO: China was the first line of defense to prevent the spread of this virus. They feared they had the responsibility to protect the world from this. They locked down cities of 15mln people to prevent the spread...
As they dropped the force of infection, that has dropped spread without a doubt. Other countries should consider similar action to be a second line of defense to prevent spread to low income countries with lower ability to fight it.
WHO: On drug, there is one that may be effective- remdesivir. @megtirrell
WHO: We have put in recommendations for the public. This cannot work without the collective will of the population working towards it. That is what distinguishes this country— using old fashion public health measures and moving to modern response to fend off epidemic.
WHO on Italy: they are moving with aggressive measures. China has demonstrated this can work.
BBC Q to WHO: You touched about the problems. To what extent did cover-up and censorship worsen the ability to face the epidemic?
WHO: Our purpose was to find what works. Awareness is a common problem in many outbreaks. I don’t know about the factor you mentioned. We didn’t look at that factor. There were other factors we looked at as well...
The most important is speed. What worries me is have other countries learned lessons from China’s experience.
WHO: There is one other point. President Xi himself said mistakes were made. We need to address. There is a recognition that the human cost is unacceptable. We all have to look at our systems because none of them as fast enough.
Dr. Liang responding to BBC: For Wuhan, looking back, what could have been the best measure taken? The feeling is if we use traditional understanding of the flu and SARS, it wouldn’t work- using our knowledge about other diseases...
Dr. Liang continues to BBC: This virus is sneaky. We needed to fight while we learned, while we improved. This is what we lacked in the early stages.
CCTV to WHO: What is the top recommendation for China’s next step efforts?
WHO: The most important is not to be complacent. There are other places in the world where people are vulnerable. It will require rapid work. And sometimes when dealing with a virus, we become complacent. Hospital beds, vaccines. China is concerned and knows it faces this risk.
Singapore media: What is the situation in Wuhan? When can we expect a turning point when life will return to normal?
WHO: The turning point has occurred here (pointing to graph). Will they get to zero? Tricky. You’re looking at weeks to get it down.
WHO: the real thing to look at is the risk. The risk in Wuhan has gone way down. And that has completely changed. (Earlier said if we see newly confirmed cases dropping in the double digits in the next weeks, we will know this is getting better.)
Dr. Liang to Singapore media: the situation in Wuhan is still severe. We are in a critical moment whether we can win this war. Severe and critical cases/confirmed cases, if they continue to drop, that would be good news..
Dr. Liang continues to Singapore media: But we are still seeing 400+ new confirmed cases and 400-500 new suspected cases. We have a basic judgment: the outbreak in the early stage has been contained.
 

Red Shield

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Yeah the shyt goin down in Iran and Italy right now...


I still feel like this will be a nothingburger in the end.... but this could end up being a black swan type event:francis:
 

ColdSlither

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So if you get it, is it automatic death? Yes or No?

No. If you're relatively healthy you should be fine. Even though in Italy, a 38 year old man is in critical condition. Now, he could really be in critical condition, or it could be that Italy has different standards for critical condition. If you're in your 60's, then you should worry. But even some seniors have recovered. Bottom line, just take care of yourself.
 

Creflo ½ Dollar

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No. If you're relatively healthy you should be fine. Even though in Italy, a 38 year old man is in critical condition. Now, he could really be in critical condition, or it could be that Italy has different standards for critical condition. If you're in your 60's, then you should worry. But even some seniors have recovered. Bottom line, just take care of yourself.

Yea you ain’t gne die but you gne be in a world of hurt and quarantine...
 

ColdSlither

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Labs in the US will start looking for the new coronavirus this week
They’re part of a system that already tracks viruses circulating through the country

By Nicole Wetsman Feb 24, 2020, 8:00am PST

Six public health labs in the US plan to start monitoring the general population for the new coronavirus this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the risk of the virus still remains low for the general population. But activating the disease surveillance network will allow the CDC and other public health officials to find any undetected virus circulating through the country.

“It’s important because right now, all the efforts are focused on people who have a direct link to China, or a direct link to lab-confirmed cases. There’s no system in place to detect low-level transmission that might be under the radar,” says Edward Belongia, the director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Population Health at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute.

The six labs — in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and New York City — are already part of the nationwide influenza surveillance network, and they conduct regular monitoring of all types of viruses. At the labs, samples from sick people are tested for various pathogens, creating a big-picture look at how much various diseases are spreading through the community.

Surveillance hasn’t started yet, in part because of problems with the test for the novel coronavirus developed by the CDC. The test that will be used for surveillance was designed to diagnose people who have symptoms of the illness caused by the virus called COVID-19. It was distributed to public health labs around the country last week, but the majority of the labs had trouble running it. The CDC says this often happens during the rollout of a new test, but it has not specified what the reasons for the errors are.

Once the tests are up and running, though, the existing system is well-equipped to start scanning for the new coronavirus, says Peter Shult. Shult is director of the Communicable Disease Division in the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, which is one of three National Influenza Reference Centers in the US. “The whole concept of having something emerging and being able to deal with it with existing infrastructure is what we did with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic,” he says. “We have more capacity now, and more experience dealing with a novel event.”

Efforts to track viruses circulating around the US mainly focus on the flu. Throughout the year, hundreds of public health labs test patients’ respiratory samples to see if they’re sick from the flu, and if so, what kind of influenza virus is causing their illness. After an initial layer of analysis, some samples are also sent on to one of the National Influenza Reference Centers or to the CDC directly so there can be more detailed information collected about them — for example, the genetic sequence of the virus.

Clinical labs at hospitals and other health care centers, which focus on diagnosing patients, also report data to the CDC. “It all gives a very broad picture of influenza activity,” Shult says.

Another surveillance system called the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) overlaps with the influenza-monitoring programs. In many public health labs, any sample tested for influenza is then tested again for a range of viruses, including rotaviruses (which cause diarrhea) and a number of viruses that cause colds. The types and number of viruses screened for, though, vary state by state.

Surveillance for the novel coronavirus will take advantage of all of these existing methods and platforms. According to the CDC, public health labs will be asked to test any sample that screens negative for influenza for the novel coronavirus.

“My take is that this is a way to rapidly stand up laboratories to really cast a broad net,” Shult says.

The labs probably won’t be testing each sample by itself, though. Shult says he expects that they’ll be told to mix multiple samples together to make it more efficient. Labs can do that because these samples aren’t being tested to diagnose individual patients; they’re only looking to see if the virus shows up in the population at all. Testing in batches is common in disease surveillance, and it’s used regularly in HIV surveillance, for example.

At the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, running new coronavirus tests wouldn’t be particularly burdensome, Shult says. At smaller labs, though, with fewer resources, it might be more difficult, he says. “They all have the capabilities to do it, but might not have the capacity.”

Once labs are able to run the tests and the novel coronavirus surveillance ramps up, the CDC will refine its methods. “As we learn more, and if we start detecting the virus, we can make this a more effective and cost effective surveillance system. Or, if we test and finding nothing, it might mean there’s nothing there, or that we’re just not testing in the right areas,” Shult says. “It’s something we’ll have to struggle with for months to come.”
 
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