Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away

[Loco 3754]

Just now, Captainant said:

I'm sure we'll get those tests lickity-split, just like the four million from a couple weeks ago

Listen dude, if you want to be a sour puss, glass half empty type of  guy, enjoy.   Would you prefer that they had not worked their asses off and then released the data?  

[atomheartbevo 90650]

Fucking a Spain

 

[SydneyCarton 49504]

5 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

What did you lock in? I’ve got my app ready and am in a holding pattern...

Higher than many folks at 3.49. We had lower options at 3.25, but we are cash poor at the moment and it required bringing money to the table. The 3.49 we just have to fund the escrow, and the money from the old escrow will be mailed back to us in 30-60 days. 

[ChickenSandwich 9959]

4 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

It’s going to be World War K, a world war on Karens, the longer this goes on.   

WWW.

World War Wuhan or Wuhan World War

works on a few levels. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by ChickenSandwich

[Okie State 3889]

Higher than many folks at 3.49. We had lower options at 3.25, but we are cash poor at the moment and it required bringing money to the table. The 3.49 we just have to fund the escrow, and the money from the old escrow will be mailed back to us in 30-60 days. 

Mailed back? Seems efficient.

[SydneyCarton 49504]

3 minutes ago, Okie State said:

16 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Higher than many folks at 3.49. We had lower options at 3.25, but we are cash poor at the moment and it required bringing money to the table. The 3.49 we just have to fund the escrow, and the money from the old escrow will be mailed back to us in 30-60 days. 

Mailed back? Seems efficient.

In my experience mortgage brokers aren’t exactly...tech savvy. 

[Deej 77830]

2 hours ago, Dnaguy said:

Maybe someone has already thought this, but when I couldn’t sleep last night .... (happens a lot nowadays) .... I started to wonder what we’re going to call this whole thing.

The last one is called ‘The Great Recession’, or the 08/09 financial crisis, or the mortgage crisis.

What are we going to call this. Is this going to change the name of the last one? 

Kind of like how World War 2 turned ‘The Great War’ into WW1.

Just some meandering sleep deprived thoughts.

Maybe Great Recession 2, Electric Bugaloo

If football season is cancelled, "The Year the Fightin' Texum Bulldogs Were Denied Their Natty by the BOMC."

[Hook1997 5509]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

He’s a fucking pilot. Also, it is You’re and misinformed is one word. Miss Informed is probably a character in a teacher/student porn. And we won’t start on your run on sentence. So maybe stop lecturing other folks when you obviously can’t remember context or their professions. 
 

by the way, in case you’re curious, RayDog lives in the Philippines and TexasHammer is currently in Italy. ChiTownDoc is, wait for it, a doctor. In Chicago. 

Jesus calm down Sally.  Excuse me for not knowing he’s a fucking pilot and drinking during the quarantine.  You have a lot of quarantine anger I see, maybe go outside for a bit and take a deep breath? 

Edited March 28, 2020 by Hook1997

[horn4life 3838]

The bad news is the reality is so very, very much worse than our the charts in the US show.  Because we still have woefully inadequate testing.  We don't have the testing to determine where to send resources, and we don't have the testing ability to move testing AWAY from hospitals.  Moving testing away and producing more ventilators is the only manufacturing/technology means to help out at this point.

However there is some good news!  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/27/scientists-track-coronavirus-strains-mutation/5080571002/

The fact that there is still largely separation between the various strains in the US means that our mitigation efforts are having at least some effect on transmission.  The other good news is that the virus mutates much slower than the flu for example.  Which ultimately gives us a bit of a leg up since the virus is not changing as rapidly.  Remember the flu shot is always a guess of the strain they THINK will be the one to protect us, because of the mutations.  Without as rapid a mutation when we do get a vaccination hopefully it will be a lot less of a "guess" do to fewer mutations.

 

[SydneyCarton 49504]

2 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

Jesus calm down Sally.  Excuse me for not knowing he’s a fucking pilot and drinking during the quarantine.  You have a lot of quarantine anger I see, maybe go outside for a bit and take a deep breath? 

I don’t have any quarantine anger, you’re just a moron. You don’t know shit about the poster but youre quick to offer your unsolicited opinion that no one on this board gives a shit about. And your excuse is that you’re ignorant and drinking at 8 am on a Saturday? Fuck off, dude. Drink all you want but ignorance is rarely going to be an excuse for a free pass on this board.

[Hook1997 5509]

11 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

I don’t have any quarantine anger, you’re just a moron. You don’t know shit about the poster but youre quick to offer your unsolicited opinion that no one on this board gives a shit about. And your excuse is that you’re ignorant and drinking at 8 am on a Saturday? Fuck off, dude. Drink all you want but ignorance is rarely going to be an excuse for a free pass on this board.

Yea that post was at 8 am genius, you don’t know where I’m at....   Also was just talking in general a lot of people are stuck in other countries cause they took vacations in the last month.  Lighten up frances, I’m sure you are a fucking joy to live with.....  You are one of the most hate on everyone I feel entitled posters here, so shut the fuck up.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Hook1997

[Scary Stranger 1726]

Edited March 28, 2020 by Scary Stranger

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

46 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Higher than many folks at 3.49. We had lower options at 3.25, but we are cash poor at the moment and it required bringing money to the table. The 3.49 we just have to fund the escrow, and the money from the old escrow will be mailed back to us in 30-60 days. 

My current rate is 3.875% and I’m looking to re-fi. What a time to be alive...right before we all die.

[HenryJames 67368]

16 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Drink all you want but ignorance is rarely going to be an excuse for a free pass on this board.

New Surly motto?

[Trey3216 15452]

13 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

Yea that post was at 8 am genius, you don’t know where I’m at....   Also was just talking in general a lot of people are stuck in other countries cause they took vacations in the last month.  Lighten up frances, I’m sure you are a fucking joy to live with.....  You are one of the most hate on everyone I feel entitled posters here, so shut the fuck up.

Why the fuck are you overseas,  breh!!

[Hook1997 5509]

1 minute ago, Trey3216 said:

Why the fuck are you overseas,  breh!!

Maybe I live in Russia Breh who knows...  Trust me we have very few cases here, all is good.  Nothing to see. 

[GreenspointTexas 9969]

The back and forth between posters with name calling and pointless banter is fucking cloak room level. 
 

Some of yall have some kinda weird misplaced reaction that compels you to respond to every fucking single post

 

If we are this bored sitting at home now, i cant wait to see what this thread is like in 6-8 weeks

[Hate 20249]

1 minute ago, GreenspointTexas said:

The back and forth between posters with name calling and pointless banter is fucking cloak room level. 
 

Some of yall have some kinda weird misplaced reaction that compels you to respond to every fucking single post

 

If we are this bored sitting at home now, i cant wait to see what this thread is like in 6-8 weeks

[bigup2dahorns 3348]

[SydneyCarton 49504]

Houston/Rice ftw:

 

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/03/28/rice-university-develops-low-cost-ventilators-to-help-fight-coronavirus/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=kprc2

 

suck it, dyson. Low cost ventilator to help less critical patients. 

[Bevo 13897]

1 hour ago, SydneyCarton said:

Higher than many folks at 3.49. We had lower options at 3.25, but we are cash poor at the moment and it required bringing money to the table. The 3.49 we just have to fund the escrow, and the money from the old escrow will be mailed back to us in 30-60 days. 

So far, I've just been given the run around. Sometimes it sucks being self-employed. Hopefully, I make some progress on Monday. At this point, I'm not sure if I am locked-in or not. But, I also don't know what mortgage rates are suppose to do next week. If they go back down, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

[SydneyCarton 49504]

1 minute ago, Bevo said:

So far, I've just been given the run around. Sometimes it sucks being self-employed. Hopefully, I make some progress on Monday. At this point, I'm not sure if I am locked-in or not. But, I also don't know what mortgage rates are suppose to do next week. If they go back down, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Been in the self employed wagon, and yeah, getting a mortgage fucking suuuuuucks. Feel your pain. 
 

Our guy said rates have been rising because of demand, despite the actions of the fed. He said no shit it seemed like half of America was refinancing. 

[atomheartbevo 90650]

13 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

If we are this bored sitting at home now, i cant wait to see what this thread is like in 6-8 weeks

[LebongJames 1921]

14 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

The back and forth between posters with name calling and pointless banter is fucking cloak room level. 
 

Some of yall have some kinda weird misplaced reaction that compels you to respond to every fucking single post

 

If we are this bored sitting at home now, i cant wait to see what this thread is like in 6-8 weeks

In 6-8 weeks, I will have enjoyed my Easter service and will be getting ready to party it up on the beach for Memorial Day weekend.

[atomheartbevo 90650]

Russia is putting out some numbers.    Doubt this is by choice   Probably seeing a huge spike, so they know info or vids will be leaked   

 

[Your Mom 4972]

16 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

The back and forth between posters with name calling and pointless banter is fucking cloak room level. 
 

Some of yall have some kinda weird misplaced reaction that compels you to respond to every fucking single post

 

If we are this bored sitting at home now, i cant wait to see what this thread is like in 6-8 weeks

Who the fuck are you calling weird and misplaced motherfucker?!!  
 

[Beau Vine 55867]

4 hours ago, Thetexashammer said:

I am not joking when I say I want to get Corona. I'll be fine, and being "Recovered" is the golden passport to freedom. I may already have had it but who the hell knows.

I would add that full lockdown is completely awkward. It's just socially very difficult to do. You can understand the logic of all this and there is still a kind of mental shock when you can't order Domino's. Obviously, many people are not exposing themselves to people who are at risk, so that further lengthens to chain of events between normal behavior and illness. And of course very few have seen anyone actually get ill, it's just all in the news. And most people are conditioned to ignore the constant shrieking and hysteria from our media.

I don't dispute the need for isolation. In fact, obviously, if what you are saying is true, I would expect an Italy situation in a few weeks over there. If stores like Home Depot are open, you aren't on quarantine. So if true, conventional wisdom here predicts bad things to happen. Very bad things. We've had no restaurants, no bars, no going to work for more than two weeks, and numbers continue to rise. Supermarkets only.

Even so, imagine that the solution ends up being that everyone has to wear a mask when they go out. Do you think that's awkward? I do. It's weird. But it may be necessary for six months or a year.

During the first WWI Christmas, they had a truce. Soldiers from both sides crossed into No Man's Land and had dinner and drinks with each other and to exchange gifts. They literally had no idea what was about to happen. They couldn't conceive of it. They were not mentally prepared. There were no Aggies there.

I don't object to the criticism at all, people are behaving stupidly, but I also think almost nobody is mentally prepared for this. Isolation is a huge stressor, as is losing your job, as is losing your entire routine, literally almost every resource that keeps you alive. It's a huge personal and psychological challenge even for those who were on this early, or who are financially secure, like many of us here. To dismiss people as just being "aggy" is kind of ridiculous.

Well then quit posting stupid shit here and get out and lick some public toilet seats.

[utee94 16088]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

Russia is putting out some numbers.    Doubt this is by choice   Probably seeing a huge spike, so they know info or vids will be leaked   

 

 

[MAUFRAIS 6740]

Who the fuck are you calling weird and misplaced motherfucker?!!  
 

Shut the fuck up!

[atomheartbevo 90650]

5 minutes ago, utee94 said:

 

So do we add one zero, or two?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13731]

1 hour ago, ShaggyBevo RIP said:

NC just announced theirs yesterday and it runs thru 4/29.  As late to the party states rolls theirs out it is easily getting pushed to mid May or later.

Yes.  Seems hard to believe our shelter-in-place orders will be lifted anytime soon. I assume we will adjust as needed but I can't see schools opening up, and everyday back to normal soon.  We're still in a situation where new cases and deaths are still increasing and many of the states are still in the early stages.

We're only 2 weeks removed from 3000 (confirmed) cases in the US when many thought this was some cruise ship or Washington retirement home tragedy.  Now we're at 100,000 cases.  Some might have a friend of a friend that tested positive but most don't have a close relative or friend who is.  And at 1800 deaths, one of the deceased victims is a name on the news not even an acquaintance.

If we somehow grow another 33x times in ~2 more weeks to 3m infected and some high death count, people will panic. 

[Buzzrock 15136]

Yes.  Seems hard to believe our shelter-in-place orders will be lifted anytime soon. I assume we will adjust as needed but I can't see schools opening up, and everyday back to normal soon.  We're still in a situation where new cases and deaths are still increasing and many of the states are still in the early stages.
We're only 2 weeks removed from 3000 (confirmed) cases in the US when many thought this was some cruise ship or Washington retirement home tragedy.  Now we're at 100,000 cases.  Some might have a friend of a friend that tested positive but most don't have a close relative or friend who is.  And at 1800 deaths, one of the deceased victims is a name on the news not even an acquaintance.
If we somehow grow another 33x times in ~2 more weeks to 3m infected and some high death count, people will panic. 

Yeah people will probably make a run on groceries and dump all their stocks.

[Blackcat00 769]

17 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

What area is that for?  All of Texas?  Centex?  Because that total infection number is nuts - the metro population of austin is only 2.1 million.  Methinks those numbers are for Texas.  And what assumptions are in there?  No lockdown?  The current lockdown for two weeks?  Something else?  In short....those numbers don't really mean anything to me.

Austin/ Round Rock area. 

I'm very skeptical but its from the horses mouth. 

[Pescado_Rojo 19587]

21 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Been in the self employed wagon, and yeah, getting a mortgage fucking suuuuuucks. Feel your pain. 
 

Our guy said rates have been rising because of demand, despite the actions of the fed. He said no shit it seemed like half of America was refinancing. 

Mrs Rojo has a part time gig at a title company. Supposed to be 20-25 hrs a week doing admin type stuff. The past two weeks she's worked 40+/week. Their slowest day last week was 5 closings, and this is a 2 full time person office. She said all but one closing was for a refi. 

[Coelenterate Fuccboi 13435]

First China, and now Russia, my top two vacation destinations are closing their borders. Anyone have any recommendations for a family vacation in North Korea?

[SydneyCarton 49504]

5 minutes ago, Casual Encounter said:

First China, and now Russia, my top two vacation destinations are closing their borders. Anyone have any recommendations for a family vacation in North Korea?

I feel like you and RayDog would get along well. Have you considered the Philippines? 

[Izhmash 581]

55 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

My current rate is 3.875% and I’m looking to re-fi. What a time to be alive...right before we all die.

Do they still offer the death insurance, such that if you or your spouse die, the bank will pay off your loan?

[Telegraph_it 3379]

5 minutes ago, Casual Encounter said:

First China, and now Russia, my top two vacation destinations are closing their borders. Anyone have any recommendations for a family vacation in North Korea?

Kijongdong is very nice. The end of April and start of May is the time to visit. 

[Tailgate 3077]

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13731]

2 minutes ago, Blackcat00 said:

Cloak Room is over a few forums fuckface. 

[Blackcat00 769]

Just now, Casual Encounter said:

We just know how quickly rats multiply.

Proving your own point is fun.

[JesusSweatDuck 18113]

10 minutes ago, Casual Encounter said:

We just know how quickly rats multiply.

[Your Mom 4972]

Lighten up Francis.  That's some funny shit and not the least bit political.  

[Coelenterate Fuccboi 13435]

10 minutes ago, Telegraph_it said:

Kijongdong is very nice. The end of April and start of May is the time to visit. 

Thanks! It seems like there’s a lot of availability.

[dcar00 14972]

3 hours ago, StruggleBus said:

So Donovan Mitchell never had any symptoms, correct? Have to wonder how many of those cases are out there.

multiple millions have it/have had it at this point.  I'd say 4M+

[Coelenterate Fuccboi 13435]

9 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

Just be mindful that most of the hotels don't have very good breakfast, so bring some bars and maybe instant coffee. On the upside, I am told, the whore houses are state run so no need to worry about getting ripped off.

Is it true that they’ll let you hoist an American flag up the pole during your stay as a gesture of unity?

[Somnio 751]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

And South Austin doesn’t live in South Austin.  Wait...

Is your heart actually an atom?

[crash_davis 23470]

Nsiap. Informative discussion from the Chinese head of their CDC. This discussion on this alone can get political but I find it odd that we do not strongly follow the suggested guidelines from a country/people which have a 3 month head start in fighting the virus. 

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/not-wearing-masks-protect-against-coronavirus-big-mistake-top-chinese-scientist-says

Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a ‘big mistake,’ top Chinese scientist says

By Jon CohenMar. 27, 2020 , 6:15 PM

Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

 

Chinese scientists at the front of that country’s outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not been particularly accessible to foreign media. Many have been overwhelmed trying to understand their epidemic and combat it, and responding to media requests, especially from journalists outside of China, has not been a top priority.

Science has tried to interview George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for 2 months. Last week he responded.

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Gao oversees 2000 employees—one-fifth the staff size of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—and he remains an active researcher himself. In January, he was part of a team that did the first isolation and sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. He co-authored two widely read papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that provided some of the first detailed epidemiology and clinical features of the disease, and has published three more papers on COVID-19 in The Lancet.

His team also provided important data to a joint commission between Chinese researchers and a team of international scientists, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), that wrote a landmark report after touring the country to understand the response to the epidemic.

First trained as a veterinarian, Gao later earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Oxford and did postdocs there and at Harvard University, specializing in immunology and virology. His research specializes in viruses that have fragile lipid membranes called envelopes—a group that includes SARS-CoV-2—and how they enter cells and also move between species.

Gao answered Science’s questions over several days via text, voicemails, and phone conversations. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

George Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

 

STEPHANE AUDRAS/REA/REDUX

Q: What can other countries learn from the way China has approached COVID-19?

A: Social distancing is the essential strategy for the control of any infectious diseases, especially if they are respiratory infections. First, we used “nonpharmaceutical strategies,” because you don’t have any specific inhibitors or drugs and you don’t have any vaccines. Second, you have to make sure you isolate any cases. Third, close contacts should be in quarantine: We spend a lot of time trying to find all these close contacts, and to make sure they are quarantined and isolated. Fourth, suspend public gatherings. Fifth, restrict movement, which is why you have a lockdown, the cordon sanitaire in French.

Q: The lockdown in China began on 23 January in Wuhan and was expanded to neighboring cities in Hubei province. Other provinces in China had less restrictive shutdowns. How was all of this coordinated, and how important were the “supervisors” overseeing the efforts in neighborhoods?

A: You have to have understanding and consensus. For that you need very strong leadership, at the local and national level. You need a supervisor and coordinator working with the public very closely. Supervisors need to know who the close contacts are, who the suspected cases are. The supervisors in the community must be very alert. They are key.

Q: What mistakes are other countries making?

A: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people aren’t wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role—you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.

Q: What about other control measures? China has made aggressive use of thermometers at the entrances to stores, buildings, and public transportation stations, for instance.

A: Yes. Anywhere you go inside in China, there are thermometers. You have to try to take people’s temperatures as often as you can to make sure that whoever has a high fever stays out.

And a really important outstanding question is how stable this virus is in the environment. Because it’s an enveloped virus, people think it’s fragile and particularly sensitive to surface temperature or humidity. But from both U.S. results and Chinese studies, it looks like it’s very resistant to destruction on some surfaces. It may be able to survive in many environments. We need to have science-based answers here.

Q: People who tested positive in Wuhan but only had mild disease were sent into isolation in large facilities and were not allowed to have visits from family. Is this something other countries should consider?

A: Infected people must be isolated. That should happen everywhere. You can only control COVID-19 if you can remove the source of the infection. This is why we built module hospitals and transformed stadiums into hospitals.

Q: There are many questions about the origin of the outbreak in China. Chinese researchers have reported that the earliest case dates back to 1 December 2019. What do you think of the report in the South China Morning Post that says data from the Chinese government show there were cases in November 2019, with the first one on 17 November?

A: There is no solid evidence to say we already had clusters in November. We are trying to better understand the origin.

Q: Wuhan health officials linked a large cluster of cases to the Huanan seafood market and closed it on 1 January. The assumption was that a virus had jumped to humans from an animal sold and possibly butchered at the market. But in your paper in NEJM, which included a retrospective look for cases, you reported that four of the five earliest infected people had no links to the seafood market. Do you think the seafood market was a likely place of origin, or is it a distraction—an amplifying factor but not the original source?

A: That’s a very good question. You are working like a detective. From the very beginning, everybody thought the origin was the market. Now, I think the market could be the initial place, or it could be a place where the virus was amplified. So that’s a scientific question. There are two possibilities.

Q: China was also criticized for not sharing the viral sequence immediately. The story about a new coronavirus came out in The Wall Street Journal on 8 January; it didn’t come from Chinese government scientists. Why not?

A: That was a very good guess from The Wall Street Journal. WHO was informed about the sequence, and I think the time between the article appearing and the official sharing of the sequence was maybe a few hours. I don’t think it’s more than a day.

Q: But a public database of viral sequences later showed that the first one was submitted by Chinese researchers on 5 January. So there were at least 3 days that you must have known that there was a new coronavirus. It’s not going to change the course of the epidemic now, but to be honest, something happened about reporting the sequence publicly.

A: I don’t think so. We shared the information with scientific colleagues promptly, but this involved public health and we had to wait for policymakers to announce it publicly. You don’t want the public to panic, right? And no one in any country could have predicted that the virus would cause a pandemic. This is the first noninfluenza pandemic ever.

Infected people must be isolated. That should happen everywhere.

George Gao, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Q: It wasn’t until 20 January that Chinese scientists officially said there was clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. Why do you think epidemiologists in China had so much difficulty seeing that it was occurring?

A: Detailed epidemiological data were not available yet. And we were facing a very crazy and concealed virus from the very beginning. The same is true in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, and the United States: From the very beginning scientists, everybody thought: “Well, it’s just a virus.”

Q: Spread in China has dwindled to a crawl, and the new confirmed cases are mainly people entering the country, correct?

A: Yes. At the moment, we don’t have any local transmission, but the problem for China now is the imported cases. So many infected travelers are coming into China.

Q: But what will happen when China returns to normal? Do you think enough people have become infected so that herd immunity will keep the virus at bay?

A: We definitely don’t have herd immunity yet. But we are waiting for more definitive results from antibody tests that can tell us how many people really have been infected.

Q: So what is the strategy now? Buying time to find effective medicines?

A: Yes—our scientists are working on both vaccines and drugs.

Q: Many scientists consider remdesivir to be the most promising drug now being tested. When do you think clinical trials in China of the drug will have data?

A: In April.

Q: Have Chinese scientists developed animal models that you think are robust enough to study pathogenesis and test drugs and vaccines?

A: At the moment, we are using both monkeys and transgenic mice that have ACE2, the human receptor for the virus. The mouse model is widely used in China for drug and vaccine assessment, and I think there are at least a couple papers coming out about the monkey models soon. I can tell you that our monkey model works.

Q: What do you think of President Donald Trump referring to the new coronavirus as the “China virus” or the “Chinese virus”?

A: It’s definitely not good to call it the Chinese virus. The virus belongs to the Earth. The virus is our common enemy—not the enemy of any person or country.

[dcar00 14972]

We really need a hospitalization rate from the CDC.  I know worldometers has a serious/critical which I am going to assume is ICU.  that number is 2494.

Cases is way underreported as a result of testing and people having it and having very mild symptoms

Fatality is obviously not good but its 10-14 days out from a likely hospitalization which is the curve we are trying to bend.  recovered seems underreported as well.

getting a hospitalization rate shouldn't be difficult.   I suppose you could add fatality+recovered+serious critical which would be around 6700 in US.

 

[crash_davis 23470]

From Reddit. I guess we all should be wearing masks, but nah....

edited 10 hours ago

 

Yuen Kwok-yung, who discovered both H5N1 avian flu and SARS in Hong Kong, also agrees that universal mask-wearing is a key public health strategy, and he is among the top health authorities in China on SARS-CoV-2 along with George Gao (featured here) and Zhong Nanshan (the first to discover SARS in mainland China and hailed by the Chinese public for his competence in handling outbreaks). His March 10 interview with Caixin where he advocates wearing masks - against the WHO and many in the Chinese government's recommendation - can be found in the Straits Times and is equally insightful (unable to link here because of sub rules).

Q. Given this novel coronavirus is so "cunning", with probably many infected but asymptomatic people moving around in communities, how should ordinary citizens protect themselves?

A. We can only rely on telling everyone to wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, use alcoholic sanitiser. I had called for everyone to wear a mask when I was in Beijing, but many people disagreed, saying that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said healthy people don't need to wear masks unless they go to crowded places. Nevertheless, if people wear masks only when they feel sick, then the eight infected people on the Diamond Princess would have transmitted it to others because they were not feeling uncomfortable. Wear a mask to protect not only yourself but also others, because if you are infected but asymptomatic, you could still stop the spread by wearing a mask.

These people are highly credible, even if one is reluctant to fully trust information out of China. I see many arguing that universal mask-wearing is an anti-science, anti-public health view, and that in advocating it you are thereby disrespecting academia and the medical profession since the CDC and WHO don't support it. This cannot be further from the truth when the academic consensus in Asia is leaning toward the opposite stance, based on their own experiences and interpretation of available evidence.

 

 

level 2

jacobolus

 

129 points·9 hours ago·edited 9 hours ago

 

Not just Asian academia finds masks useful, e.g.:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440799/ (Netherlands)

Any type of general mask use is likely to decrease viral exposure and infection risk [of respiratory viruses] on a population level, in spite of imperfect fit and imperfect adherence, personal respirators providing most protection. Masks worn by patients may not offer as great a degree of protection against aerosol transmission.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19193267 (Australia)

We found that adherence to mask use [in households] significantly reduced the risk for ILI-associated infection

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub4/full (meta review of 67 studies)

Surgical masks or N95 respirators were the most consistent and comprehensive [physical intervention] supportive measures [to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses].

 

 

 

level 3

k_e_luk

 

64 points·6 hours ago

 

Thank god Germany listens:

Virologist Dr. Alexander Kekulé: Mask protection for everyone