Coronavirus - Health aspects

[Bongleur]

They didn’t use wipes but a spray bottle of alcohol on the circuit boards.

Those alcohol pads are 70% isopropyl alcohol. The main challenge is that they are quite small, so a bit tricky to clean a public keyboard.

70% takes 10 minutes.
Needs 78% and up for 30 seconds
Purel is only 62%, so people have purchased it uselessly :::

Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and its inactivation with biocidalagents
Günter Kampf, Daniel Todt, Stephanie Pfaender, Eike Steinmann
PII: S0195-6701(20)30046-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022
Reference: YJHIN 5905
To appear in: Journal of Hospital Infection
Received Date: 31 January 2020

This talks about denaturants which are safe for skin contact. Having trouble verifying proucts with them. Otherwise you have to buy liquor taxed at $27 a gallon...

Final Report of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel on the Safety Assessment of Methyl Acetate

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1091581812444142

 

[tmm99]

8 new coronavirus cases in Japan - 2 of them in serious condition (a man in 70s and a man in 50s). They haven't travelled to Wuhan/China or had contact with anybody who had been there. They were tested for coronavirus only yesterday (after being in the hospital for several days), only because their pneumonia conditions wouldn't get better with their regular pneumonia treatment.

We shouldn't care if someone visited China, as the virus can be caught anywhere at this point. As the CT scan can confirm coronavirus, doctors should order the scan much sooner, so people can get proper care right away.

 

[2177V]

If you go on youtube and search the Spanish flu which killed 50 million people, there were three phases. The first phase was mild but the last two were very severe. The Spanish flu virus in the first phase mutated into a more deadly form.

Corona Virus potentially mutating into a more deadly virus is something the government do not want to talk about....for fear of alarming the public.

I also heard many chinese refused to go to the hospitals because they know the Conona Virus is there. They stayed home. Some of them passed away in their own home. Do they count those deaths as natural causes, or Conona Virus? They do not have enough kits for living people let alone dead people. More likely common flu or natural causes on their death certificate since it serves the chinese government's purpose of not to counting them as a Corona Virus victim.

 

[gwraigty]

India is working to ‘plug every possible loophole’ to prevent a coronavirus epidemic, minister says

Really?

Increased screening measures

Those measures include thermal screening for passengers coming from mainland China, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea at airports and seaports, taking down their detailed history and then sharing that information with state-level and district-level surveillance officers to keep tabs on them through an integrated disease surveillance program, the health minister explained.

<snip>

He said some 15,000 people have been “kept under watch as a matter of abundant precaution,” and those showing early symptoms were being kept in isolation at hospitals.

So they're just letting everyone who hadn't shown symptoms, probably most of them, to go around India as they please?

This has me a bit concerned, considering that DH's employer is more heavily relying on outsourcing engineering work to India. They regularly bring in groups of workers from India for short visits. In an unusual twist, a couple of weeks ago, DH spent the evening at a special dinner at a co-worker's home that consisted of the most recent group visiting from India and a few of the other engineers he closely works with. It's not really DH's thing and he had mixed feelings about going, but he felt sort of compelled because 2 of his bosses were going to be there. No spouses invited. He wound up having a decent time and I was glad for him.

DH has no authority over such matters, but I'm going to tell him about this tonight. Maybe he'll mention it to his bosses and maybe someone higher up the chain of command can re-evaluate the wisdom of having people coming in from India for awhile. But probably not.

 

[Nemo2]

The first phase was mild but the last two were very severe. The Spanish flu virus in the first phase mutated into a more deadly form.

Any info as to whether those who survived the first phase, and were later reinfected (or not), maintained any residual immunity to the mutations, or did the latter phases bear no resemblance to the original?

(I'm aware that nowadays they constantly develop flu vaccines based on what they think 'this year's version' may be, so I guess I'm wondering if the Spanish Flu remained identifiable as the Spanish Flu despite mutations? As you can tell I know absolutely zero about this topic.)

 

[omni550]

What it's like to get coronavirus: 21-year-old student from Wuhan reveals his three-week ordeal including 102F fever, pains 'in every part of my body' and a cough so bad 'I thought I would die'....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8004615/Student-Wuhan-reveals-like-coronavirus.html

omni

 

[audreyh1]

70% takes 10 minutes.
Needs 78% and up for 30 seconds
Purel is only 62%, so people have purchased it uselessly :::

Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and its inactivation with biocidalagents
Günter Kampf, Daniel Todt, Stephanie Pfaender, Eike Steinmann
PII: S0195-6701(20)30046-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.01.022
Reference: YJHIN 5905
To appear in: Journal of Hospital Infection
Received Date: 31 January 2020

This talks about denaturants which are safe for skin contact. Having trouble verifying proucts with them. Otherwise you have to buy liquor taxed at $27 a gallon...

Final Report of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel on the Safety Assessment of Methyl Acetate

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1091581812444142

Ultimately I concluded in that post that it’s just best to wear disposable gloves if you are forced to use a public keyboard and mouse.

But if COVID-19 has been detected in the area, then you just have to stay home.

 

[NW-Bound]

What it's like to get coronavirus: 21-year-old student from Wuhan reveals his three-week ordeal including 102F fever, pains 'in every part of my body' and a cough so bad 'I thought I would die'....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8004615/Student-Wuhan-reveals-like-coronavirus.html

omni

I read the original article on Bloomberg, which is behind a paywall.

The article shows that the COVID-19 is a survivable disease, if one is strong and healthy and receives prompt treatments. But it appears to be highly infectious, and if allowed to blossom into the general population, the many cases would overwhelm the medical facilities and staff, and the fatality rate would reach catastrophic levels as seen in Wuhan.

In other words, countries around the world do the right thing to keep the virus from spreading. Once it does, there's no going back.

 

[explanade]

I heard of one case in Japan, a taxi driver who thinks he had a Chinese passenger.

Then he spread it to other people.

How could the passenger infect the driver so easily?

Sneeze onto the back of his head, sending droplets full of virus to the front of the car?

 

[Sunset]

I heard of one case in Japan, a taxi driver who thinks he had a Chinese passenger.

Then he spread it to other people.

How could the passenger infect the driver so easily?

Sneeze onto the back of his head, sending droplets full of virus to the front of the car?

He could have gotten it from someone else, he really does not know.
But if it was from a passenger, the handing over of cash or credit card would be a good way. Maybe he put passengers bags in his trunk, and took them out at the stop.
Or passenger coughed/sneezed, or kissed him, is the taxi driver going to admit some passenger kissed him ?

 

[Fermion]

He could have gotten it from someone else, he really does not know.
But if it was from a passenger, the handing over of cash or credit card would be a good way. Maybe he put passengers bags in his trunk, and took them out at the stop.
Or passenger coughed/sneezed, or kissed him, is the taxi driver going to admit some passenger kissed him ?

Wait, you guys don't kiss your taxi driver? I have been doing it wrong this whole time?

 

[gwraigty]

What it's like to get coronavirus: 21-year-old student from Wuhan reveals his three-week ordeal including 102F fever, pains 'in every part of my body' and a cough so bad 'I thought I would die'....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8004615/Student-Wuhan-reveals-like-coronavirus.html

omni

That sounds like one of the bad cases. If we can believe any reporting, most cases are mild, though I wouldn't count on it for sure. Many people will feel as though they have only a cold and won't seek medical care. You can't really blame them though. Last I knew, the CDC is instructing doctors to test only if the person recently came from China and/or had a known contact with someone with the virus. If the answer to both of those is No and the symptoms are mild, the virus may not even be considered a possibility right now. Overall, people don't usually stay home with mild cold symptoms, especially if they don't get paid when they miss work. Like the grocery store clerk who was coughing continually into her hand while she rang me up a few weeks ago.

 

[Brat]

Heck, my DIL has been down with a virus and a low-grade fever but no cough. She has been exhausted. She went to a physician today who told her that a nasty virus is going around and it takes 14-21 days to recover. She remarked that she is 'vertical' today so is improving. There is no indication that it is covid-19.

I am doing my part by grocery shopping and schlepping grandchildren. Time to lecture all to wash their hands and keep them away from the face.

 

[MichaelB]

DW just informed me her sister and BiL returned to their home in China yesterday. They left 10 days ago, could not get to Germany (their permanent residency), got stuck in Madagascar, and finally were able to get back to China, although it took 1 1/2 days of travel due to all the suspended routes and travel restrictions. Their son returned a week ago.

 

[JoeWras]

Yeah, there's a bad flu going around this year. One that the shot did a poor job protecting against.

 

[NW-Bound]

By the way, from the story told by the 21-year-old Chinese student in Wuhan, the hospitals were filled up in mid to late January, and they only gave CAT scan to people with a bad high fever. And then, it had to be really bad before they used the nucleic acid test to confirm the virus.

A lot of weaker patients died before getting any test. But before and after the Chinese young man had the virus confirmation, what helped him was the drug Kaletra, also known as Aluvia, which is an antiviral drug used for HIV.

Now, why can't they give the above drug to more people, instead of waiting for the viral confirmation? I suspect that is because the drug is in short supply. What is the stockpile of this drug elsewhere in the world? I suspect it is not that great, considering that there is no HIV outbreak for them to make a lot of this drug.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

A lot of weaker patients died before getting any test. But before and after the Chinese young man had the virus confirmation, what helped him was the drug Kaletra, also known as Aluvia, which is an antiviral drug used for HIV.

Now, why can't they give the above drug to more people, instead of waiting for the viral confirmation? I suspect that is because the drug is in short supply. What is the stockpile of this drug elsewhere in the world? I suspect it is not that great, considering that there is no HIV outbreak for them to make a lot of this drug.

Abbvie drug (Symbol ABBV), I'm a long term stockholder (even before the spin off from Abbott). Dunno if it is available as a generi or if anyone other than ABBV manufactures it. (although I think the patents on the underlying drugs Lopinavir and ritonavir are expired?) It (Lopinavir) was only found to be effective in HIV treatment in combination with ritonavir and ABBV only makes/markets the drug as a combo.

 

[stepford]

Interesting interview with CDC Director Robert Redfield over on CNN. To paraphrase, he says that their "aggressive containment" mode is only expected to delay the widespread introduction of Covid-19 into the US until sometime later "this year or next year" after which it will be "community based". They hope to develop more effective treatments during that time. Better hope they're right cause it sounds like we're ALL going to be exposed in another year or two.

 

[sengsational]

Delay was all I could see possible, given it's so far from being contained in a meaningful way. Community based sounds like distancing the federal government from it, probably because even doing a great job means disaster... it's a no-win situation. Now we'll have people migrating to communities that are better prepared to deal with the onslaught. You want to get it early, or late, but not in the middle. By definition, most people will get it at the worst time, where life saving care will be scarce. Sorry to be such a pessimist, but unless seasonality helps us, it looks like we're in for a tough year or two.

 

[2177V]

Interesting interview with CDC Director Robert Redfield over on CNN. To paraphrase, he says that their "aggressive containment" mode is only expected to delay the widespread introduction of Covid-19 into the US until sometime later "this year or next year" after which it will be "community based". They hope to develop more effective treatments during that time. Better hope they're right cause it sounds like we're ALL going to be exposed in another year or two.

I heard that story too. May be similar to the common flu which mutate every year and never goes away as noted in the following link.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5578040/

There are less than 200 coronavirus deaths compared to 250,000 to 500,000 deaths for the common flu world wide.

How it mutates is the key. If the virus mutates so that our body defenses will take care of it, then super.

On the other hand, if the virus mutates so that the death ratio increases, then we have a big problem that only a vaccine will help.

This is a time to think about washing your hands more often and cover yourself when coughing or sneezing.

 

[brewer12345]

Us hospitals are going to start testing for Corona, so I expect some positive hits. The pucker factor may ratchet up quickly.

 

[robnplunder]

There was a video of a Wuhan hospital asking for food donation b/c the facility that delivered food shut down its operation. They were surviving by food given by patients' families. Doomsday prepper shows are making sense to me now.

 

[W2R]

Us hospitals are going to start testing for Corona, so I expect some positive hits. The pucker factor may ratchet up quickly.

Oh good! I am very curious to find out how many people here have COVID-19. More information from testing sounds like a good idea (assuming the tests are reasonably priced and easily available).

I checked again today, and officially there are still zero cases of COVID-19 in Louisiana. Will that still be true next week? OK, curiosity killed the cat, but I am still ever so curious.

 

[tmm99]

How about those innovative mask ideas?

 

[Bongleur]

Any info as to whether those who survived the first phase, and were later reinfected (or not), maintained any residual immunity to the mutations, or did the latter phases bear no resemblance to the original?

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00343/full

Back to the Future: Lessons Learned From the 1918 Influenza Pandemic