Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Partially true, but Italy had its first "recorded" case 10 days after the US, same with Spain...
"The 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Islands."

 

Not sure what that has to do with the math.

 

Uncontrolled observations are subject to a lot of bias that often discounts other factors or doesn't take into account where drugs don't work or where there are other adverse effects.

It remains that the president should not be touting it the way he does. It's irresponsible and the only people that should be making such decisions now that the FDA has allowed for off label use are doctors. But without large scale clinical trials that control for various internal and external factors, there cannot be any responsible scientific claim about effectiveness.

I'd choose to get the drugs, no brainer. That isn't what I am taking issue with.

 

By the way, underlying my thinking here is a concern about the extremely heightened state of fear bleeding into horror of life/death proportions, leading to extreme desperation. I am pretty sure that given your profession, you've been witness to such desperation many times over. This is what I worry about when I hear the rhetoric but don't see the science.

 

If only we would have had testing at that time. Now who was it that decided that we would not use the German tests and would not shut down ALL travel from China? And who didn't start ramping up orders for PPE and ventilators at that time? Who was in charge of making these critical decisions? Did that person listen with an open mind to everybody from senators to his own HHS Secretary or just focus on what he wanted to hear?

Who is in charge for these crucial decisions and should they be held accountable for their obvious failures to date?

 

I had my blood test today and tested negative. The results came back in a few hours. A pinprick on my finger and fast results. This needs to be ramped up

 

The US under Trump has steeply decreased funding to world health initiatives and was still at it on Feb. 10th of this year. Trump Seeks to Halve U.S. Funding for World Health Organization as Coronavirus Rages. This on top of proposed 21% cuts in the 2019 budget of the CDC and disbanding our pandemic response team by Trump.

Tax break for corporations (who bought back stock and paid dividends but now want bail outs AND to lay off workers) and cuts to health organizations that could help our response, leave us totally unprepared for this disaster. If you don't prepare for a test, you end up failing, and by the grimmest grade available - deaths - we are failing.

 

for antibody or current infection?

 

The original WHO statement about transmission outside of China refers to the fact that at that time, everyone who had tested positive had been to the Wuhan region of China. Read the WHO report and they suspected transmission to be airborne, meaning anyone who had the virus could infect others, but as of 1/23, the WHO couldn't rule out infection had a specific cause in Wuhan, similar to something like Legionnaire's disease. A week later, after multiple data points showed COVID-19 to spread person to person anywhere an infected person was located, the WHO declared an emergency.

This isn't a case of the WHO being stupid, but rather being cautious and not making definitive statements until they had verifiable facts. Imagine if Corona transmission wasn't airborne and there was only one source, such as the Wuhan water supply, and sick people couldn't infect others unless they shared liquids. It would be a different world today. And had the WHO made a statement that COVID-19 was transmitted airborne before all facts, they would have potentially created an unnecessary panic.

Speaking in definitives before all the information is gathered and reviewed might be an exercise in frustration for those with little patience, but it's generally the best course of action. This is what Fauci is trying to say in regards to the choloroquine and hydroquoroqine drug regimens. They could work, and initial signs point that they help. But until we have something definitive, the only statements should be they are showing early positive signs; not that they are game changers. Because what happens if Trump is wrong? Again, Trump may be right, and it would great if he is. But we don't know for sure, and caution is warranted.

Last, as for country medical systems, we are treating COVID-19 in a socialized way. Insurance is covering 100% of the cost, and the stimulus bill is covering treatment for the uninsured. Probably because people don't want those with COVID-19 to go untreated and/or be out in public possibly infecting people because they can't afford treatment. Makes one wonder how many people with other infectious diseases go without treatment that they can't pay for, and what makes COVID-19 different?

 

was this to test for antibodies?

 

The hike was a nice one. No social distances were violated. Siler Bald, Nantahala NF.

 

IgM and IgG. Detects antibodies and detectable infection. Weakness of the test is that it does not detect very early infections. The Polymarese Chain Reaction test is the “Gold Standard” for detecting infections according to the information they gave me. I have been under the weather for five days, off and on fever. Sore throat. Sinus infection based on telemedicine conference Thursday. So I assume not too early for detection. But, I don’t know.

 

See post 5174

 

Sorry to hear that. I'm sure it makes your mind race. Hang in there.

 

At least it answered your question about your illness earlier in the year and removed any doubt that it wasn't covid

 

America’s emergency medical stockpile is almost empty. Nobody knows what happens next.

 

India is having mass migrations out of urban centers. And India has nuclear weapons that I hope are secured. Same for Pakistan. How far down the leadership chain before a nut job gets the keys?

 

I will never swim alone again, I swear!