Novel Coronavirus COVID-19

[SincereOnlineGuy]

 

Meanwhile:

 

Over the past 6 hours: 

 

"31 new related deaths" worldwide

"28 of those"  in the original epicenter in China.

 

and still, one death in North, South, and Central America combined outside of a small area in one state.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by SincereOnlineGuy

[gaius]

Two just dropped dead in Florida actually. One near Pensacola on the panhandle and the other further south. 

The state is like one big pre-nursing home in a lot of areas so I wouldn't be surprised if we see some Italian like numbers.

[carhill]

An Iranian lawmaker has apparently died of corona virus...

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/iranian-mp-dies-from-covid-19-report-12512732

Quote

An Iranian lawmaker has died from coronavirus, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday (Mar 7), in an another sign the disease is spreading within state institutions.

Iran is one of the countries outside China most affected by the epidemic. As of Friday, the country had reported 4,747 infections.

Makes sense given Iran's and China's mostly covert ally status. No doubt they have substantial human interaction.

Edited March 7, 2020 by carhill

[Ruby Slippers]

I asked my half-Persian boyfriend why Iran is so hard hit. He said he thinks it's because Iranians travel a lot, and a lot of Chinese students studying Islam travel back and forth to the religious city of Qom, which government didn't want to shut down because it's such a popular destination. 

[Libby1]

16 hours ago, LivingWaterPlease said:

I got the last big bottle of it at a big box store yesterday. Was 3.97 but I got it for $2 because about a half inch of it was gone due to customers helping themselves, I guess. Am sure they'll get some more in, hopefully, anyway.  I did feel pretty smug about getting it for half price, though.

Well done you!  Just a quick squoosh of dettol spray on the lever/dispenser/whatever you call it and it'll be as good as new.

While there's probably a fair bit of satisfaction to be had from lecturing others about panicking irrationally if they dare to buy a spare loo roll or hand sanitiser, I think people forget that organised, methodical "not too greedy, think of others too" prepping can also be fulfilling .  That's probably why those of us who started purchasing spares of these items few weeks ago (not to minimise your more recent successful hand sanitiser purchase) got teased for it by our friends.  Deep down, they knew they wanted to prep too...but they were so afraid of being ridiculed for it that they ended up letting the toilet roll run out completely. 

For them too, there will be prepping opportunities over the next few months as panic ebbs and flows and supermarket supplies follow suit.  The chance to buy "just add water" bread mix will come again.  Anti-bacterial handwash will slowly but surely return to the shelves like nervous deer who have been frightened away by hungry wolves, but are gradually and shyly returning to their favourite grasslands.  But let's face facts here.  People who didn't prep last month will never truthfully be able to say that they.timed their loo roll and hand sanitiser purchases just right in the great coronavirus panic of March 2020.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Libby1

[pepperbird]

19 hours ago, d0nnivain said:

I just booked a $300 per night hotel in NYC for $49.  The travel business is really hit hard because of this virus.  

I can;t get rid of this quote. sorry.

 

17 hours ago, LivingWaterPlease said:

Have been responding to posts by a naturopath who lives in Canada on a FB thread of my nephews. She says six people in her family have it.  Two, an adult and a child, are over it. She's still fighting it. And her 71 year-old mother is almost over it, From the way she posted it seems the mom has just gotten over it. She posted that her mom's symptoms were the mildest of any of theirs. 

She said it hasn't been all it's cracked up to be but they aren't fooling around with it, in that they are doing natural things to boost their immune systems.

I read an article about a newborn who had it, is over it,  and hardly had any symptoms, too. Sounds to me as if it's pretty unpredictable.

When I was in my fifties a friend of mine, same age, got the regular flu. She's a tough cookie but had to be hospitalized with it for a week. Told me she thinks she'd have died had she not. Her bf wouldn't visit her in the hospital so I went to visit her as she was moping around that no one cared enough about her to visit. 

Well, I got it. That was before I knew as much about natural treatments as I do now. But, I did treat it with echinacea for a week at home by myself. It was awful, I was miserable, but I don't think I was anywhere near death.   

I now know about more natural treatments for viruses and I'm not concerned about death from Coronavirus but I don't want to get it just as I don't want to get the regular flu, which I haven't had since that awful time so long ago. I also don't want to get a cold and have some natural products here to keep me healthy. 

Editing to add, if I go to the grocery store and don't wipe down the cart handle I'll usually get cold symptoms so I'm used to washing hands, being careful what I touch, etc. I have disinfectant wipes in my car and also hand sanitizer. As soon as I get home from being out and about, I wash my hands. But, have been doing that for a long time.

The one thing I'm doing differently is being careful not to touch my face when out and about shopping, doing business, etc.

Went to the Dr. yesterday. He's a great Dr. and very touchy. Always shakes hand with me or hugs me. But he didn't do either yesterday. Makes sense!

 

how does this person know they actually have the disease? seasonal flu and colds are really spreading around right now.Unless one is tested, there is no real way to know for sure if it's CV or something else.

Edited March 7, 2020 by pepperbird

[pepperbird]

16 hours ago, sothereiwas said:

It happens. For some 'severe' flus like the 1919 epidemic people with healthy immune systems were actually overrepresented in the final fatality count. A thing called a  “cytokine storm”: 

"A cytokine storm is an overproduction of immune cells and their activating compounds (cytokines), which, in a flu infection, is often associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs. The resulting lung inflammation and fluid buildup can lead to respiratory distress and can be contaminated by a secondary bacterial pneumonia -- often enhancing the mortality in patients.

This little-understood phenomenon is thought to occur in at least several types of infections and autoimmune conditions, but it appears to be particularly relevant in outbreaks of new flu variants. Cytokine storm is now seen as a likely major cause of mortality in the 1918-20 "Spanish flu" -- which killed more than 50 million people worldwide -- and the H1N1 "swine flu" and H5N1 "bird flu" of recent years. In these epidemics, the patients most likely to die were relatively young adults with apparently strong immune reactions to the infection -- whereas ordinary seasonal flu epidemics disproportionately affect the very young and the elderly."

[From the link in a previous post] 

that flu was also believed to be hemorrhagic in a certain percentage of the population who contracted it.

[carhill]

If the virus doesn't get you, the quarantine hotel collapse will...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51784167

 

[Beendaredonedat]

18 hours ago, sothereiwas said:

For a lot of these flu-like viruses I'm fairly certain the immune response is actually what kills people. 

Can you cite your source.  If not, this is just more fake news.  There has been no reporting (to my knowledge) that that is what has happened to those who are unfortunate enough to have contracted the corona virus.

Edited March 7, 2020 by Beendaredonedat

[Woggle]

Our neighbor works at UCLA hospital and she said that they are preparing to have thousands of cases. She said there is no information but they are prepared for the worst and they have been having a ton of people coming in with a slight sneeze who think they have it.

[Beendaredonedat]

Just sayin...

By telling people not to worry—or that we should worry “more” about the flu—we may end up eroding public trust in the media. What happens if this coronavirus proves much worse than we expected? The Chinese government is already under scrutiny for downplaying the risks. Why would US news outlets want to repeat the error?

Remember, there are vaccinations to curb the severity of the flu.  There is, at this point, no such thing to help lesson the severity of Cov19.

Discussing is one thing but downplaying it is quite another.  Stating that the flu is worse is dangerous at best.

[Beendaredonedat]

Just now, Woggle said:

Our neighbor works at UCLA hospital and she said that they are preparing to have thousands of cases. She said there is no information but they are prepared for the worst and they have been having a ton of people coming in with a slight sneeze who think they have it.

Well, from what I understand from the Dept of Health here in Ontario is that you can be carrying it without even having any readily noticeable symptoms so the USA would do well to get those testing kits into service (which they don't seem to have enough of) so that these people with the sniffles can be tested and stop the spreading.  If they just have the sniffles then they can be quarantined at home.  If they get really ill, then they can be hospitalized while using the procedures to keep it contained.

As said here:  Don't do any unnecessary traveling, don't attend any large crowd gathering, wash hands, wipe down shopping cart handles with Lysol wipes or stronger and call your local Public Health agency to discuss your symptoms BEFORE you go to the hospital so they can advise you on the proper procedures.

[Redhead14]

This is not your usual flu.  The usual flu doesn't often result in pneumonia as a normal course of development.  Corona does and that's what's killing people.  If you have an underlying condition, i.e. heart, pulmonary, you're likely screwed.  If you are feeling ill/fluish and having difficulty breathing, it's time for a trip to the hospital but don't count on coming home if you aren't really strong and healthy and have other issues. 

According to the New York Times today, there are 2773 people who are self-quarantined.  They all, however, had returned from trips to China, Japan, Korea, Italy.

 

 

[Libby1]

10 minutes ago, Beendaredonedat said:

 

Remember, there are vaccinations to curb the severity of the flu.  There is, at this point, no such thing to help lesson the severity of Cov19.

Discussing is one thing but downplaying it is quite another.  Stating that the flu is worse is dangerous at best.

Exactly.  Somebody said that in the previous 6 hours only 3 deaths outside China had been reported.  Well, maybe - but in the previous 6 hours or so before that, Iran and Italy had between them reported in the region of 170 deaths for yesterday alone.  Plus the fatality rate only tells one part of the story.  Many many more people who will ultimately recover from it spend some time in hospital.  A number of hospitals in Northern Italy have had to suspend non emergency surgery due to the demands the coronavirus outbreak is placing on health services.  

[Beendaredonedat]

We have had one case who returned from Iran by plane, took public transportation and then a train to get himself home from the airport.  Lets see what develops from him travelling near all those people while just having the "sniffles."

[Beendaredonedat]

I just now heard there are cases in every country on the planet except Antarctica.  

[LivingWaterPlease]

1 hour ago, pepperbird said:

I can;t get rid of this quote. sorry.

 

how does this person know they actually have the disease? seasonal flu and colds are really spreading around right now.Unless one is tested, there is no real way to know for sure if it's CV or something else.

I didn't ask how she knew. I figured since she's a health care professional she must know to be tested.

Just watched a video on the news of a woman being interviewed who was on a cruise ship and got it. She looks to be in her sixties (fifties possibly). She was tested three times during her ordeal. Said her only symptom was a fever of 100 degrees for three hours one evening. She reports she didn't sneeze once, let alone cough. Other than the fever she had no other signs of it and feels fantastic now.

Interestingly, her husband, who is immunocompromised (has had two kidney transplants) didn't get it at all. Both were quarantined on the cruise ship.

Meanwhile the media continues to report a new case here, a new case there. A few deaths. And lots of event cancellations.  So far, it seems a good portion of the deaths are occurring in the elderly. Was interesting to me that the lady I mentioned above wasn't a spring chick.

Edited March 7, 2020 by LivingWaterPlease

[Libby1]

7 minutes ago, Beendaredonedat said:

We have had one case who returned from Iran by plane, took public transportation and then a train to get himself home from the airport.  Lets see what develops from him travelling near all those people while just having the "sniffles."

Jesus.  We had no  cases where I live until about a week ago, and now there are several in my town alone.  Yesterday I met a friend for lunch.  She came in, hugged me and then complained that she'd come down with a bit of a cold.  I raised my eyebrows and she said "oh, it's not coronavirus..."  Oh really?  And she knows this...how?  In any event passing around even just a bit of a cold isn't a great move when there's something more vicious like coronavirus travelling about the place looking for people to latch on to.

[elaine567]

Few things I  found out.
Small children may be symptom free but can still carry large quantities of the virus in their throat for days/weeks if they have been exposed to the virus.

One of the positive cases from the Diamond Princess  is clinically  better and has had had two negative tests (three needed for discharge from Japanese hospital)
Today his test is positive again...

Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome due to Covid -19 in the "elderly" (average age 61) in one Chinese study is the killer. 1/2 the patients admitted to hospital developed ARDS, and 1/2 of the patients with ARDS died...

One theory about the Chinese youth having milder disease  is that they already had some immunity due to exposure to other Coronaviruses.
What that means for US/Europe I am unsure.
Time will tell.
 

[LivingWaterPlease]

4 minutes ago, Libby1 said:

Jesus.  We had no  cases where I live until about a week ago, and now there are several in my town alone.  Yesterday I met a friend for lunch.  She came in, hugged me and then complained that she'd come down with a bit of a cold.  I raised my eyebrows and she said "oh, it's not coronavirus..."  Oh really?  And she knows this...how?  In any event passing around even just a bit of a cold isn't a great move when there's something more vicious like coronavirus travelling about the place looking for people to latch on to.

Don't know how true it is but someone told me the sniffles is not common with coronavirus. It's a cough that could be indicative of it.

[elaine567]

6 minutes ago, Libby1 said:

Jesus.  We had no  cases where I live until about a week ago, and now there are several in my town alone.

Same here. Nothing and now a number in my "area". Quite a big area, so they may be on my doorstep or a long way away.
I think we should all be told roughly where these cases are and not left in the dark like this.
Friend told me about an acquaintance of hers. They are under "self isolation" for 2 weeks as they were in contact with the virus.
When asked about how they were getting supplies they said, 
"Ah well, we just went to the supermarket as usual..."
SMH.

[Foxhall]

In a small island country where I am living, the proper solution is to shutdown the airports for the next six weeks- no one gets out or enters the country,

this is the only possible way the virus could be contained,

It is likely to peak in the month of April and cause chaos worldwide,

I foresee 70% of the population here getting the virus, from which 5% of them will die,

the governments reaction is to hand out a few leaflets about hand washing, close their eyes and hope for the best,

what can we do

 

[Libby1]

 

22 minutes ago, elaine567 said:

Friend told me about an acquaintance of hers. They are under "self isolation" for 2 weeks as they were in contact with the virus.
When asked about how they were getting supplies they said, 
"Ah well, we just went to the supermarket as usual..."
SMH.

FFS.   I was watching Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, discussing his views about this on Channel 4 news.  He's a leading expert on the subject.  I don't want to put up the link as it'll delay the post which will just end up getting lost...but a couple of things he said.

1. (re the risk of people overreacting and comparing this to the ordinary flu)....if this virus has a fatality rate of even 1% then that makes it 10 times as lethal as the ordinary flu, and since this virus is circulating in populations that have absolutely no immunity to it, he'd expect "attack rates" to be much higher than you'd normally see with seasonal flu.  So you might have an attack rate that's three times higher and a fatality rate that's 10 times higher than ordinary flu.

2. A lot of people out there are perceiving this purely in terms of the risk it's likely to pose to them personally, rather than perceiving it from a more socially responsible perspective...which is where the behaviour of your friend's acquaintance comes in.  Dr Hatchett said he's generally healthy, but if he felt like he had symptoms but also felt well enough to go to work and shook hands with his older colleague who has a chronic medical condition...he could be responsible for that colleague's death.  So he was pressing the point of us all having some social responsibility here.

There's not really anything there that people haven't been saying throughout this thread...but a lot of it is being refuted (occasionally in somewhat aggressive or patronising terms) by people who talk as though they have some special knowledge of these issues but who seem to be saying something very different from the bona fide experts.  And when people are minimising it, they're not exactly discouraging the sort of socially irresponsible behaviour where people who aren't in an at risk category don't regard the virus as a big deal.  People who will, like your friend's acquaintance, will happily go out and about, even if they've been exposed to the coronavirus and are potentially exposing others to it.  

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by Libby1

[LivingWaterPlease]

2 minutes ago, Foxhall said:

 

what can we do

 

Anything to boost your immune system which is good advice whether coronavirus is a threat or not. Wash hands, eat healthful foods, get sleep, exercise, get plenty of sunshine and vitamin D3 (along with K) if you don't have access to sunshine, try to keep stress down (maybe the most difficult for some). 

Don't despair. There were 19 million people sickened by the regular flu in our country (USA) over the past flu season, 10,000 deaths and 180,000 hospitalizations. For some reason the media has grabbed onto coronavirus and seems to me to be trying to create fear and panic about it. Which makes sense, to me, for their work as it causes people to check the news about it a lot, thus increasing their business. 

I'm not maintaining there's no reason to be cautious or to take care of yourself. Just that I really don't believe it's going to affect most of us permanently. There will be deaths, as there are from all diseases. Taking care of our immune systems is our best defense but panic causes stress which lowers our immune systems. 

[elaine567]

When the world is going to find it difficult to meet pension and care requirements in the near future  due to ageing populations, what a bonus that a large section of the "elderly" are going to die of this virus... I doubt the UK Govt. will be really too worried... unless the economy tanks at the same time...

One professor has already said that "A coronavirus pandemic could be “quite useful” in clearing bed blocking in hospitals by killing off patients"