CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

(fair use applies)

Two new road maps lay out possible paths to end coronavirus lockdowns
By Helen Branswell
March 29, 2020

With Covid-19 racing through the country, the United States is virtually locked down. At the same time, the yearning among Americans to reopen their communities grows, as does their desire to return to some semblance of normality.

In an effort to chart a path toward that goal, public health experts laid out two new roadmaps over the weekend.

The first, from Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy expert and vice-provost of the University of Pennsylvania, suggests lockdowns could ease up in June. The second, from former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb and colleagues, doesn’t set a date, but rather outlines the evidence that communities would need to begin lifting some of the more draconian restrictions.

Both road maps are predicated on the United States sharply ramping up testing for the disease and hospitals acquiring sufficient supplies at a time of extraordinary global demand and growing shortages — both of personal protective equipment to shield health workers from infection and ventilators to help the gravely ill to survive.

The road map from Gottlieb and several co-authors, including Caitlin Rivers, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, envisions four phases. Phase 1 represents the current situation, in which the outbreak is growing. Only once certain thresholds are met — hospitals are able to cope with the flow of incoming patients and new cases have dropped in a particular area for at least 14 days — could Phase 2 begin.

During that stage, physical distancing efforts will have slowed the spread of the disease to the point at which schools and some other types of societal functions can resume, though people 70 and older and others at highest risk from the virus would still need to restrict their movements.

The report suggests counties or states may move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 — and back to Phase 1 if containment starts to erode — at different times, based on local conditions.

Rivers acknowledged that won’t be anytime soon.

“I don’t think we are close to moving out of Phase 1,” she said. “I think staying home is what we need to be doing right now. And how fast we get to Phase 2 will really depend on how effective our interventions are now and how aggressively we are able to scale up our capacities.”

Phase 3, the lifting of all restrictions, would only occur when a vaccine to prevent infection and therapeutics to save people who become infected are available. Gottlieb said he thinks vaccines might be two years away, but feels confident some therapies will be shown to work by the summer. Phase 4 would entail planning to build the country’s capacity to respond to the next biological threat.

Gottlieb, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, acknowledged some aspects of its 20-page road map report may seem unrealistic at the moment. There is, for example, an extraordinary global demand in protective gear for health care workers. But he said that shouldn’t lessen the importance of the road map.

“What I wanted to do with this was set out very clear measurable milestones and very clear objectives of what can improve when those milestones are reached,” he told STAT. “And give people something to shoot at. Because I think that reports that aren’t very granular aren’t very useful.”

Emanuel, who outlined his road map in an opinion piece in the New York Times, estimated that if spread of the virus isn’t slowed, almost one-third of Americans will be infected by early May. If Covid-19’s fatality rate is 1%, that level of transmission would lead to 1 million deaths, he noted. (There is much debate and no consensus on the fatality rate, though 1% is nearer the lower range of current estimates.)

Based on China’s response to the virus, he suggested that a national shelter-in-place order over the next eight to 10 weeks, excluding essential services workers, should, bring transmission of the virus way down.

In the interval, health officials will need to deploy “thousands of teams to trace contacts of all new Covid-19 cases using cellphone data, social media data, and data from thermometer tests and the like,” Emanuel wrote. “It would be easier to lift the national quarantine if we isolate new cases, find and test all their contacts, and isolate any of them who may be infected.”

Michael Osterholm, former state epidemiologist for Minnesota and director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said resource-starved public health departments do not currently have the manpower to operate at this scale.

He suggested if departments had the resources to hire and train thousands of newly unemployed people, perhaps this work could be done.

More broadly, Osterholm worried that neither of the new road maps adequately captured the impact supply shortages will have on containment efforts.

“I welcome these kinds of discussions. They need to happen right now. And I think they need to be aspirational, which I think both Ezekiel’s and Scott’s plans strive to be. But they also have to be based on reality,” he said.

While Gottlieb and Rivers believe testing in the United States is increasing substantially and that tests will be more available going forward, Osterholm has warned shortages of the chemicals needed for the tests loom.

Likewise, the report from Gottlieb and Rivers calls from nearly doubling the number of ventilators hospitals have at their disposal — moving from the current three per 10,000 people to a goal of five to seven per 10,000 — in its Phase 1. But every country in the world needs more ventilators now. Ramping up production of these complicated machines is not likely to be easy — and certainly not as easy as tweets instructing General Motors to start making them would imply.

Osterholm noted that Medtronic, a maker of the machines, sources 1,500 parts from between 14 and 20 countries for each ventilator.

Some of the recommendations from Gottlieb and Rivers could be easier to put in place. They suggest, for instance, that the public should be urged to start wearing fabric masks in public — not paper surgical masks that are already in short supply in hospitals, but masks that could be made at home or bought online.

“We did not and would not recommend the use of proper personal protective equipment” for the public,” Rivers said. But she noted that because people can transmit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, before they develop symptoms, having them wear masks when they are out in public might slow spread of the disease.

“We don’t think they’re going to be very effective at keeping healthy people healthy, but what they would be better at is preventing people who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic from spreading. They’re more useful for source control,” she said.

(fair use applies)

In a time of distancing due to coronavirus, the health threat of loneliness looms
By Joanne Silberner
March 28, 2020

Dan Blazer and his wife were sheltering at home in North Carolina when their neighbors, a couple in their 50s, reached out by email last week to reassure the 76-year-old and his wife that they weren’t alone. Another couple phoned to check in.

“We’re older and we’re perfectly healthy and perfectly independent,” Blazer said. Still, he’s been a bit lonely of late, and appreciated the effort.

“Knowing these people are out there makes a huge difference,” he said.

Blazer is well-aware of the effects of loneliness and isolation — he’s spent years studying it as a psychiatrist and epidemiologist at Duke University. He chaired a committee convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that last month released a 281-page report on social isolation and loneliness in older adults. That report found that loneliness is tied to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, dementia, high cholesterol, diabetes, and poor health in general. People who are lonely are also more likely to use alcohol and tobacco and exercise less.

Blazer agrees with the public health consensus — the best thing you can do for yourself and your community during the Covid-19 pandemic is to isolate yourself. But for some individuals, the side effects of doing so “could be disastrous,” Blazer said.

In its starkest sense, complete social isolation is used regularly by prisons as a severe punishment. But numerous studies show that even in everyday life, loneliness — the painful perception of not having meaningful connections with others — has serious health effects.

One of the earliest such studies was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1979. Researchers followed nearly 7,000 people in Alameda County in California over a nine-year period and found that death rates were twice as high among people who lacked social and community ties, and that was after accounting for health, socioeconomic status, smoking, level of physical activity, and other factors that could affect lifespan.

A 2010 meta-analysis of 148 studies involving more than 300,000 Americans confirmed that finding: The lonelier someone is, the higher that person’s risk of death. Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a Brigham Young University psychologist and an author of that study, said loneliness can be as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

But the loneliness that can result from deliberate self-isolation to protect oneself or others has not been well-studied.

“Psychologically, a key dimension of loneliness is that the person who feels lonely is feeling that way in contrast to a larger group,” said Jonathan Kanter, director of the Center for the Science of Social Connection at the University of Washington.

“What is happening now is different — we are all isolating simultaneously, and even feeling a sense of solidarity in it. We’re in a massive social experiment and we don’t know what extent this earlier research applies,” said Kanter.

He says “physical distancing” would be a better term than social distancing.

“There are ways to stay connected even as we isolate ourselves from each other,” he said.

The research also isn’t clear on what the timeline of loneliness looks like — how soon it sets in, how it comes and goes, or at what point mental or physical effects start to take a toll. Still, researchers are concerned that if loneliness goes unaddressed during the pandemic, it will take its toll.

“We do know chronic levels are highly predictive of these outcomes,” said Holt-Lunstad.

When loneliness does strike, it could make people more susceptible to illness. In a 2003 study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh asked 304 adult volunteers about their social activity, put them into hotel rooms, and then exposed the volunteers to a cold virus. Those with more social contacts were less likely to develop symptoms. One of those researchers also ran a study in which volunteers were exposed to a cold virus. Those who led more socially isolated lives reported more severe and persistent symptoms. And in another study, Ohio State University scientists found that the immune systems of socially isolated people were more likely to cause damaging inflammation when the people were deliberately stressed.

The evidence base for interventions to combat loneliness that could help those currently isolated is “less robust,” according to the NASEM report, largely because many studies have lacked control groups. There isn’t much research on how phone calls, video conferences, or social media platforms might compare to in-person conversations. For that matter, what about singing out the window, joining well-spaced dinosaur parades, playing Words with Friends, or even interacting with a robot programmed to chat with the elderly? Holt-Lunstad is working on a meta-analysis of medically designed interventions to combat loneliness in older adults.

Some studies have shown that excessive screen time can be harmful for young people, though those reports of harm are mostly related to the type of screen time or to interactions with strangers. The coronavirus pandemic has complicated that risk-benefit calculation, however.

“In normal times I’m really working hard to help people disconnect because I know the value of live interactions,” said Kanter, the University of Washington researcher. “Now I’ve pivoted because that’s not available.”

Kanter and other loneliness experts give thumbs up to video conferencing, chats, and calls with friends and loved ones, as well as virtual contacts with mental health workers. If needed, children can serve as their parents’ de facto IT department to help them get online.

“There’s clear evidence across a number of studies that older adults do well with being online if they see a utility to it,” said Linda Fried, dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and an author of the NASEM report.

Like other loneliness researchers, Kanter has been heartened by what he’s seen so far.

“The good news is people are doing this intuitively. They’re doing what people do when we’re deprived of social contact. I think that’s great,” he said.

Experts are encouraging the public to find new ways to feel connected. Join one of the local chat groups being formed by neighborhoods around the country, or start one yourself. Call someone every day. Sign up for an “unlonely” film club. Offer to help your neighbors — remotely — with their computers. There’s a real and documented benefit to keeping these connections going once everything settles down.

“[This situation] might be a trigger for increased awareness of how lonely anyone might be,” said Blazer, who chaired the NASEM committee. “And it might stimulate group efforts that perhaps have been on the back burner to try to reach out to people to prevent this problem.”

jward said:

Lol I believe, but won't swear to it, that was merely what is known as a gratuitous, click bait photo.
They worked together, or he wrote for her or or or

Click to expand...

Joan Jett did not die, her co-writer did.

Joe Diffie, Nineties Country’s ‘Pickup Man,’ Dead at 61 From Coronavirus (What can I say, Country music was the only radio station for 30 years. Yes, I know all the lyrics and can sing along too. Bye Joe - thanks for the music and the memories!)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I51JXpcLwk
3:37 min
Pickup Man

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdutns1wWXg&feature=emb_logo
3:15 min
If the Devil Danced (In Empty Pockets)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMiEFyTuuh8
3:40 min
Prop Me Up Beside the JukeBox (if I Die)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO696Ums1o0
3:06 min
Third Rock from the Sun

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC8ljpr6yuo
4:32 min
John Deere Green

(fair use applies)

Coronavirus: pathogen could have been spreading in humans for years, study says
Stephen Chen in Beijing
Published: 4:30pm, 29 Mar, 2020
Updated: 2:06pm, 30 Mar, 2020

• Virus may have jumped from animal to humans long before the first detection in Wuhan, according to research by an international team of scientists
• Findings significantly reduce the possibility of the virus having a laboratory origin, director of the US National Institute of Health says

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 might have been quietly spreading among humans for years or even decades before the sudden outbreak that sparked a global health crisis, according to an investigation by some of the world’s top virus hunters.

Researchers from the United States, Britain and Australia looked at piles of data released by scientists around the world for clues about the virus’ evolutionary past, and found it might have made the jump from animal to humans long before the first detection in the central China city of Wuhan.

Though there could be other possibilities, the scientists said the coronavirus carried a unique mutation that was not found in suspected animal hosts, but was likely to occur during repeated, small-cluster infections in humans.

The study, conducted by Kristian Andersen from the Scripps Research Institute in California, Andrew Rambaut from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Ian Lipkin from Columbia University in New York, Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney, and Robert Garry from Tulane University in New Orleans, was published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine on March 17.

Dr Francis Collins, director of the US National Institute of Health, who was not involved in the research, said the study suggested a possible scenario in which the coronavirus crossed from animals into humans before it became capable of causing disease in people.

“Then, as a result of gradual evolutionary changes over years or perhaps decades, the virus eventually gained the ability to spread from human to human and cause serious, often life-threatening disease,” he said in an article published on the institute’s website on Thursday.

In December, doctors in Wuhan began noticing a surge in the number of people suffering from a mysterious pneumonia. Tests for flu and other pathogens returned negative. An unknown strain was isolated, and a team from the Wuhan Institute of Virology led by Shi Zhengli traced its origin to a bat virus found in a mountain cave close to the China-Myanmar border.

The two viruses shared more than 96 per cent of their genes, but the bat virus could not infect humans. It lacked a spike protein to bind with receptors in human cells.

Coronaviruses with a similar spike protein were later discovered in Malayan pangolins by separate teams from Guangzhou and Hong Kong, which led some researchers to believe that a recombination of genomes had occurred between the bat and pangolin viruses.

But the new strain, or SARS-Cov-2, had a mutation in its genes known as a polybasic cleavage site that was unseen in any coronaviruses found in bats or pangolins, according to Andersen and his colleagues.

This mutation, according to separate studies by researchers from China, France and the US, could produce a unique structure in the virus’ spike protein to interact with furin, a widely distributed enzyme in the human body. That could then trigger a fusion of the viral envelope and human cell membrane when they came into contact with one another.

Some human viruses including HIV and Ebola have the same furin-like cleavage site, which makes them contagious.

It is possible that the mutation happened naturally to the virus on animal hosts. Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome), for instance, were believed to have been direct descendants of species found in masked civets and camels, which had a 99 per cent genetic similarity.

There was, however, no such direct evidence for the novel coronavirus, according to the international team. The gap between human and animal types was too large, they said, so they proposed another alternative.

“It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring the genomic features described above through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission,” they said in the paper.

“Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it.”

They said also that the most powerful computer models based on current knowledge about the coronavirus could not generate such a strange but highly efficient spike protein structure to bind with host cells.

The study had significantly reduced, if not ruled out, the possibility of a laboratory origin, Collins said.

“In fact, any bioengineer trying to design a coronavirus that threatened human health probably would never have chosen this particular conformation for a spike protein,” he said.

The findings by Western scientists echoed the mainstream opinion among Chinese researchers.

Zhong Nanshan, who advises Beijing on outbreak containment policies, had said on numerous occasions that there was growing scientific evidence to suggest the origin of the virus might not have been in China.

“The occurrence of Covid-19 in Wuhan does not mean it originated in Wuhan,” he said last week.

A doctor working in a public hospital treating Covid-19 patients in Beijing said numerous cases of mysterious pneumonia outbreaks had been reported by health professionals in several countries last year.

Re-examining the records and samples of these patients could reveal more clues about the history of this worsening pandemic, said the doctor, who asked not to be named due to the political sensitivity of the issue.

“There will be a day when the whole thing comes to light.”

It is so obvious to me that this came out of a lab. I remember back when this started, China was admitting to 800 cases when they locked down Wuhan. I couldn't figure out why the CCP would quarantine a city of 11 million for 800 cases?

Because they knew what it was. That is the only explanation. They had advanced knowledge of what was coming.

Then, if you go back about 800 pages ( I cannot find the story anymore but I know it's there ), There was a Chinese general giving a lecture about how it could be advantageous to release a bioweapon on the west. This talk was given, IIRC, 10-15 years ago. The result was that the CCP relieved this general of duty.

The question is, did they fire him for his repulsive strategic view?

Or

Did they fire him for an OPSEC breach, because he announced the game plan?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esO--kBng6E&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2U9cajIiRI6xU75aRTVXDm9ralEIlwC5jtRFotnZGTZzvHFBIznU1V1e0
15:38 min

COVID-19 Survivor Jim Santilli Blasts Michigan Governor For Banning Drug That Saved His Life
•Mar 29, 2020 hydroxychloroquine and zithromycin

Alicia Maria Powe

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnvyKknwZkQ
2:42 min
ICU Nurse In Her Own Words On Caring For Coronavirus Patients: ‘I’m Powering Through’ | Nightly News
•Mar 29, 2020


NBC News

Elyse Isopo, a nurse practitioner in the intensive care unit at North Shore University Hospital in New York, takes us through a day in her life as she treats coronavirus patients. She starts and ends each day by taking her temperature before caring for the hospital’s sickest patients.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWXrC_horiY
2:01 min
California hospitals under siege as ICU patients spikes
•Mar 29, 2020


CBS Evening News

California's hospitals are under siege Sunday. The governor there says the number of patients admitted to intensive care has doubled overnight. And of the 10,000 ventilators needed so far, the state has added less than half that amount. Jonathan Vigliotti reports.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyTJdAeHWDA
4:45 min
A look inside hospitals battling coronavirus
•Mar 29, 2020


60 Minutes

The 60 Minutes team faced challenges reporting on the situation inside New York hospitals now that the city is a COVID-19 epicenter. For the full report on health care workers fighting coronavirus, click here: https://cbsn.ws/39yU213

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agpoHxTQbNo
2:40 min
Already struggling farmers hit hard by coronavirus
•Mar 29, 2020

CBS Evening News

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk42BCVErQw
7:21 min
Fake COVID-19 tests seized by border patrol
•Mar 28, 2020


Fox News

Well, it is in our neighborhood. Our neighbor, across the street and down 2 houses, has all the symptoms. She says her temp is steady at around 99 degrees. She is going to "ride it out" at home until her temp rises.

29 Mar 202061

The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency authorization Sunday for hydroxychloroquine, a drug already used to treat malaria and other ailments, which has shown anecdotal efficacy against coronavirus.

The use of the drug — often paired with azithromycin — has not yet been proven in clinical trials to be effective against the disease. However, given reported success in a growing number of small, non-randomized studies; as well as testimonials from doctors and patients about the use of the “off-label” drug regimen, doctors are said to be prescribing the treatment to patients who are severely ill. Anecdotally, many doctors are taking it prophylactically.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a statement on Sunday:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to BARDA to allow hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate products donated to the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalized teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible.

Click to expand...

HHS also noted that it had “accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division, and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, for possible use in treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or for use in clinical trials.”

Earlier, the French government had approved similar drugs to treat the virus.

Amid concerns that the sudden interest in hydroxychloroquine could cause shortages, HHS noted: “Use of the donated medications is expected to help ease supply pressures for the drug, and the FDA is also working with manufacturers of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to increase production to ensure these drugs also remain available for patients dependent on them for treatment of malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.”

President Donald Trump has suggested that hydroxychloroquine could be effective, and has encouraged further study. His interest in the drug has prompted pushback from the media.

NBC News’ Peter Alexander accused the president last week of giving Americans “false hope,” and Politico’s Dan Diamond reported Sunday that the FDA decision came despite “scant evidence,” adding that “[c]areer scientists have been skeptical of the effort.”

Samaritan’s Purse Deploys Emergency Field Hospital to New York City

Samaritan's Purse is deploying an Emergency Field Hospital to New York City in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

www.samaritanspurse.org

Samaritan’s Purse Deploys Emergency Field Hospital to New York City
MARCH 29, 2020 • UNITED STATES

WE ARE BRINGING IN DOCTORS, NURSES, AND OTHER MEDICAL PERSONNEL TO ESTABLISH A RESPIRATORY CARE UNIT FOR PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM CORONAVIRUS.
Emergency Medicine

Staff members are quickly setting up an Emergency Field Hospital in East Meadow in Central Park, New York City, to provide care for patients seriously ill with COVID-19. A large Disaster Assistance Response Team, including doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel will soon be on the ground as well.

Coronavirus patients will be coming to us from the Mount Sinai Health System, and the first priority is to move patients from Mount Sinai Brooklyn and Mount Sinai Queens.

VOLUNTEERS AND STAFF ARE HARD AT WORK SETTING UP THE FIELD HOSPITAL IN CENTRAL PARK.

Today volunteers from local churches are helping our staff set up the 68-bed respiratory care unit, which was prepared especially for this response to provide much needed support and to help save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.

The field hospital, in partnership with Mount Sinai Health System and intergovernmental agencies, is expected to open on Tuesday.

“People are dying from the coronavirus, hospitals are out of beds, and the medical staff are overwhelmed,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We are deploying our Emergency Field Hospital to New York to help carry this burden. This is what Samaritan’s Purse does—we respond in the middle of crises to help people in Jesus’ Name. Please pray for our teams and for everyone around the world affected by the virus.”

The U.S. is now reporting more than 135,000 active coronavirus cases—the highest total in the world. New York City is at the global epicenter for this terrible disease, which has already killed around 2,400 people across the country.

OUR TRUCKS ARRIVED IN NEW YORK CITY ON MARCH 28.

The situation in the city is dire, with the death total increasing daily. Earlier this week, a makeshift morgue was set up outside of a Manhattan hospital, the first of what is expected to come at other local hospitals as the crisis continues to escalate.

Medical facilities are running out of beds in their intensive care units, as about 20 percent of all people who test positive in New York City are requiring hospitalization. Ventilators and critical medical equipment are also in short supply.

About 50 percent of all cases in the U.S. are coming from the state of New York, with the New York City metro area alone reporting more than 600 deaths and nearly 34,000 cases across its five boroughs.

Luther Harrison, Vice President for North American Ministries, prayed with our staff before the Samaritan’s Purse trucks left North Carolina and began the drive to New York City.

“Lord, our name is on the side of these trucks, but more importantly, Your Name is on the side of these trucks. We commit ourselves and our mission to You.”

On the Front Lines in Italy
Samaritan’s Purse is also responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. We have another 68-bed Emergency Field Hospital set up in Cremona, outside of Milan. The facility, which opened on March 20, is set up in the Cremona Hospital parking lot in order to treat an overflow of coronavirus patients.

“Our U.S. Disaster Relief team, international relief team, medical ministries—the whole organization—has come together for this response at the two epicenters of the disease,” Harrison said. “This is what it means to be the Body of Christ.

We’re all coming together to represent the Lord, and every role is important. This whole team is committed to doing all they can to help people in Jesus’ Name.”

OUR MEDICAL TEAM TAKES TIME TO PRAY FOR CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS IN THE ICU.

We have more than 65 disaster relief personnel on the ground in Italy serving in Jesus’ Name.

The death toll across Italy has surpassed 9,000 lives, which is the highest total for any nation in the world.

In addition to our two respiratory care units, Samaritan’s Purse has also responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by donating personal protective equipment, which is in short supply and desperately needed. Earlier this week, we sent more than 50,000 face masks to hospitals in North Carolina, including 10,000 to UNC Health.

Please pray for our teams in both Italy and New York City. Pray also that God will soon bring an end to this deadly pandemic.

• 
  
  

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xytW1bgB8I&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0fi-QWgrKiPXxpFuZ_Lro-L2ZO7vWJgK_ulgkLWucosUGjPyt7btVSdo4
38:08 min
Coronavirus with VP Mike Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx | The Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special Ep. 88
•Mar 29, 2020


Ben Shapiro
Vice President Mike Pence, Chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and Dr. Deborah Birx, United States Global AIDS Coordinator and Response Coordinator for the task force, join me to discuss the White House decision making process, when we can expect all of this to come to an end, and much more.

naegling62 said:

I could always just not share his information from now on. I don't need negative conjecture on his conversations. I'll just keep it to myself.

Click to expand...

No please don’t ! I’m behind the curve with some posts and when I pass anything on to anyone, I usually get the “50 questions game “ especially from my very own hub. So if I have my ducks in a row it’s much easier, up front, if I have the information straight. Thank you!

Heliobas Disciple said:

Coronavirus ‘may have been quietly spreading long before pandemic’

Virus may have jumped from animal to humans long before the first detection in Wuhan, according to research by an international team of scientists.

www.scmp.com

(fair use applies)

Coronavirus: pathogen could have been spreading in humans for years, study says
Stephen Chen in Beijing
Published: 4:30pm, 29 Mar, 2020
Updated: 2:06pm, 30 Mar, 2020

• Virus may have jumped from animal to humans long before the first detection in Wuhan, according to research by an international team of scientists
• Findings significantly reduce the possibility of the virus having a laboratory origin, director of the US National Institute of Health says

The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 might have been quietly spreading among humans for years or even decades before the sudden outbreak that sparked a global health crisis, according to an investigation by some of the world’s top virus hunters.

Researchers from the United States, Britain and Australia looked at piles of data released by scientists around the world for clues about the virus’ evolutionary past, and found it might have made the jump from animal to humans long before the first detection in the central China city of Wuhan.

Though there could be other possibilities, the scientists said the coronavirus carried a unique mutation that was not found in suspected animal hosts, but was likely to occur during repeated, small-cluster infections in humans.

The study, conducted by Kristian Andersen from the Scripps Research Institute in California, Andrew Rambaut from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Ian Lipkin from Columbia University in New York, Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney, and Robert Garry from Tulane University in New Orleans, was published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine on March 17.

Dr Francis Collins, director of the US National Institute of Health, who was not involved in the research, said the study suggested a possible scenario in which the coronavirus crossed from animals into humans before it became capable of causing disease in people.

“Then, as a result of gradual evolutionary changes over years or perhaps decades, the virus eventually gained the ability to spread from human to human and cause serious, often life-threatening disease,” he said in an article published on the institute’s website on Thursday.

In December, doctors in Wuhan began noticing a surge in the number of people suffering from a mysterious pneumonia. Tests for flu and other pathogens returned negative. An unknown strain was isolated, and a team from the Wuhan Institute of Virology led by Shi Zhengli traced its origin to a bat virus found in a mountain cave close to the China-Myanmar border.

The two viruses shared more than 96 per cent of their genes, but the bat virus could not infect humans. It lacked a spike protein to bind with receptors in human cells.

Coronaviruses with a similar spike protein were later discovered in Malayan pangolins by separate teams from Guangzhou and Hong Kong, which led some researchers to believe that a recombination of genomes had occurred between the bat and pangolin viruses.

But the new strain, or SARS-Cov-2, had a mutation in its genes known as a polybasic cleavage site that was unseen in any coronaviruses found in bats or pangolins, according to Andersen and his colleagues.

This mutation, according to separate studies by researchers from China, France and the US, could produce a unique structure in the virus’ spike protein to interact with furin, a widely distributed enzyme in the human body. That could then trigger a fusion of the viral envelope and human cell membrane when they came into contact with one another.

Some human viruses including HIV and Ebola have the same furin-like cleavage site, which makes them contagious.

It is possible that the mutation happened naturally to the virus on animal hosts. Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome), for instance, were believed to have been direct descendants of species found in masked civets and camels, which had a 99 per cent genetic similarity.

There was, however, no such direct evidence for the novel coronavirus, according to the international team. The gap between human and animal types was too large, they said, so they proposed another alternative.

“It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring the genomic features described above through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission,” they said in the paper.

“Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it.”

They said also that the most powerful computer models based on current knowledge about the coronavirus could not generate such a strange but highly efficient spike protein structure to bind with host cells.

The study had significantly reduced, if not ruled out, the possibility of a laboratory origin, Collins said.

“In fact, any bioengineer trying to design a coronavirus that threatened human health probably would never have chosen this particular conformation for a spike protein,” he said.

The findings by Western scientists echoed the mainstream opinion among Chinese researchers.

Zhong Nanshan, who advises Beijing on outbreak containment policies, had said on numerous occasions that there was growing scientific evidence to suggest the origin of the virus might not have been in China.

“The occurrence of Covid-19 in Wuhan does not mean it originated in Wuhan,” he said last week.

A doctor working in a public hospital treating Covid-19 patients in Beijing said numerous cases of mysterious pneumonia outbreaks had been reported by health professionals in several countries last year.

Re-examining the records and samples of these patients could reveal more clues about the history of this worsening pandemic, said the doctor, who asked not to be named due to the political sensitivity of the issue.

“There will be a day when the whole thing comes to light.”

Click to expand...

More ‘information’ and redirection from CCP.

So sorry world nothing to see at the lab move along.

That Samaritans Purse logo gives me the creeeps.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alCN4BJnJXw
3:21 min
Michigan ER nurse on COVID-19: 'This is truly scary'
•Mar 27, 2020


WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel 7
A Michigan emergency room nurse has taken to social media, pleading with people to stay inside amid the COVID-19 outbreak.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_sX93RHOk

mzkitty said:

Get out now !! You have your family to think about. Do it. You will get the unemployment. It's not worth it to stay.

Click to expand...

I agree. This is completely disgraceful!! Please just leave and tell them you aren’t feeling well if they give you and grief! Tell them anything!

What a terrible mess. At least I have gloves, and masks to wear plus a very clean environment to begin with. (Veterinarian offices are usually spic and span. Ours is squeaky clean due to us techs and we take huge pride in that)
I feel bad for places that are not following the basic rules of staying clean.

There is, a “whistleblower hotline” for employees not being protected, you know.... we have one in Indiana, anyway. You could always try that route(?) to get your employers “attention”....

Ragnarok said:

It is so obvious to me that this came out of a lab. I remember back when this started, China was admitting to 800 cases when they locked down Wuhan. I couldn't figure out why the CCP would quarantine a city of 11 million for 800 cases?

Because they knew what it was. That is the only explanation. They had advanced knowledge of what was coming.

Then, if you go back about 800 pages ( I cannot find the story anymore but I know it's there ), There was a Chinese general giving a lecture about how it could be advantageous to release a bioweapon on the west. This talk was given, IIRC, 10-15 years ago. The result was that the CCP relieved this general of duty.

The question is, did they fire him for his repulsive strategic view?

Or

Did they fire him for an OPSEC breach, because he announced the game plan?

Click to expand...

I think the story was he fired after the heat generated from discussing the use of biological weapons. Around this time the PLA was getting very froggy in the we are going to kick the US military’s @$$ in all kind of semi official military releases.
Something caused a change in direction and although it didn’t go away it became subtler and more Russian like just hyper reporting on advanced weapons systems.

He was fired but I don’t think they disappeared him.

There was some funny timing with Corona virus outbreak and PLA. There is a military academy in Wuhan that went into lockdown ( early video of the signs on the closed gates) at the end of December before the government locked down the city in mid Jan) Somebody in the PLA knew something it seems before the CCP seemed to know something, or maybe they were getting ‘better’ information.

naegling62 said:

I could always just not share his information from now on. I don't need negative conjecture on his conversations. I'll just keep it to myself.

Click to expand...

Please keep sharing. I appreciate hearing what your friend has to say. And the Ignore button can be your friend.

Dozdoats said:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: THE HIGHEST POINT IN DEATH RATES FROM CORONAVIRUS IS LIKELY TO HIT IN TWO WEEKS.


I'm looking at mid -May, but I'm not slowrolling.

Click to expand...

Same

There are no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs specifically for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. At present clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care, including supplementary oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support when indicated. An array of drugs approved for other indications as well as several investigational drugs are being studied in several hundred clinical trials that are underway across the globe. The purpose of this document is to provide information on two of the approved drugs (chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine) and one of the investigational agents (remdesivir) currently in use in the United States.

Remdesivir
Remdesivir is an investigational intravenous drug with broad antiviral activity that inhibits viral replication through premature termination of RNA transcription and has in-vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 and in-vitro and in-vivo activity against related betacoronaviruses [1-3].

There are currently four options for obtaining remdesivir for treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and pneumonia in the United States:

• A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored adaptive double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of remdesivir versus placebo in COVID-19 patients with pneumonia and hypoxia is enrolling non-pregnant persons aged 18 years and older with oxygen saturation of ≤94% on room air or requiring supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04280705external icon). Exclusion criteria include alanine aminotransaminase or aspartate aminotransaminase levels >5 times the upper limit of normal, stage 4 severe chronic kidney disease or a requirement for dialysis (i.e., estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <30);
• Two phase 3 randomized open-label trials of remdesivir (5-days versus 10-days versus standard of care) are open to enrollment in persons aged 18 years and older with COVID-19, radiographic evidence of pneumonia and oxygen saturation of ≤94% on room air (severe disease https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04292899external icon) or >94% on room air (moderate disease https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04292730external icon). Exclusion criteria include alanine aminotransaminase or aspartate aminotransaminase levels >5 times the upper limit of normal, participation in another clinical trial of an experimental treatment for COVID-19, requirement for mechanical ventilation, or creatinine clearance <50 mL/min; and
• Finally, in areas without clinical trials, COVID-19 patients in the United States and other countries have been treated with remdesivir on an uncontrolled compassionate use basis. The manufacturer is currently transitioning the provision of emergency access to remdesivir from individual compassionate use requests to an expanded access program. The expanded access program for the United States is under rapid development. Further information is available at: https://rdvcu.gilead.com/external icon

Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are oral prescription drugs that have been used for treatment of malaria and certain inflammatory conditions. Chloroquine has been used for malaria treatment and chemoprophylaxis, and hydroxychloroquine is used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and porphyria cutanea tarda. Both drugs have in-vitro activity against SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and other coronaviruses, with hydroxychloroquine having relatively higher potency against SARS-CoV-2 [1,4,5]. A study in China reported that chloroquine treatment of COVID-19 patients had clinical and virologic benefit versus a comparison group, and chloroquine was added as a recommended antiviral for treatment of COVID-19 in China [6]. Based upon limited in-vitro and anecdotal data, chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine are currently recommended for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in several countries. Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have known safety profiles with the main concerns being cardiotoxicity (prolonged QT syndrome) with prolonged use in patients with hepatic or renal dysfunction and immunosuppression but have been reportedly well-tolerated in COVID-19 patients.

Due to higher in-vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 and its wider availability in the United States compared with chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine has been administered to hospitalized COVID-19 patients on an uncontrolled basis in multiple countries, including in the United States. One small study reported that hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with azithromycin reduced detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory tract specimens compared with a non-randomized control group but did not assess clinical benefit [7].

Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin are associated with QT prolongation and caution is advised when considering these drugs in patients with chronic medical conditions (e.g. renal failure, hepatic disease) or who are receiving medications that might interact to cause arrythmias.

Hydroxychloroquine is currently under investigation in clinical trials for pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and treatment of patients with mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19. In the United States, several clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection are planned or will be enrolling soon. More information on trials can be found at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/external icon.

There are no currently available data from Randomized Clinical Trials (RCTs) to inform clinical guidance on the use, dosing, or duration of hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although optimal dosing and duration of hydroxychloroquine for treatment of COVID-19 are unknown, some U.S. clinicians have reported anecdotally different hydroxychloroquine dosing such as: 400mg BID on day one, then daily for 5 days; 400 mg BID on day one, then 200mg BID for 4 days; 600 mg BID on day one, then 400mg daily on days 2-5.

Other Drugs
Lopinavir-ritonavir did not show promise for treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients with pneumonia in a recent clinical trial in China [8]. This trial was underpowered, and lopinavir-ritonavir is under investigation in a World Health Organization study.

Several other drugs are under investigation in clinical trials or are being considered for clinical trials of prophylaxis or treatment of COVID-19 in the United States and worldwide. Information on registered clinical trials for COVID-19 in the United States is available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/external icon.
References

1. Wang M, Cao R, Zhang L, Yang X, Liu J, Xu M, Shi Z, Hu Z, Zhong W, Xiao G. Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro. Cell Res. 2020 Mar;30(3):269-271.
2. Sheahan TP, Sims AC, Leist SR, Schäfer A, Won J, Brown AJ, Montgomery SA, Hogg A, Babusis D, Clarke MO, Spahn JE, Bauer L, Sellers S, Porter D, Feng JY, Cihlar T, Jordan R, Denison MR, Baric RS. Comparative therapeutic efficacy of remdesivir and combination lopinavir, ritonavir, and interferon beta against MERS-CoV. Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 10;11(1):222.
3. Sheahan TP, Sims AC, Graham RL, Menachery VD, Gralinski LE, Case JB, Leist SR, Pyrc K, Feng JY, Trantcheva I, Bannister R, Park Y, Babusis D, Clarke MO, Mackman RL, Spahn JE, Palmiotti CA, Siegel D, Ray AS, Cihlar T, Jordan R, Denison MR, Baric RS. Broad-spectrum antiviral GS-5734 inhibits both epidemic and zoonotic coronaviruses. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jun 28;9(396).
4. Colson P, Rolain JM, Lagier JC, Brouqui P, Raoult D. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as available weapons to fight COVID-19. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Mar 4:105932. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105932. [Epub ahead of print]
5. Yao X, Ye F, Zhang M, Cui C, Huang B, Niu P, Liu X, Zhao L, Dong E, Song C, Zhan S, Lu R, Li H, Tan W, Liu D. In Vitro Antiviral Activity and Projection of Optimized Dosing Design of Hydroxychloroquine for the Treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Mar 9. pii: ciaa237. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa237. [Epub ahead of print]
6. Gao J, Tian Z, Yang X. Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies. Biosci Trends. 2020 Mar 16;14(1):72-73
7. Gautret P, Lagier J, Parola P, Hoang V, Meddeb L, Mailhe M, et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. In Press.
8. Cao B, Wang Y, Wen D, Liu W, Wang J, Fan G, Ruan L, Song B, Cai Y, Wei M, Li X, Xia J, Chen N, Xiang J, Yu T, Bai T, Xie X, Zhang L, Li C, Yuan Y, Chen H, Li H, Huang H, Tu S, Gong F, Liu Y, Wei Y, Dong C, Zhou F, Gu X, Xu J, Liu Z, Zhang Y, Li H, Shang L, Wang K, Li K, Zhou X, Dong X, Qu Z, Lu S, Hu X, Ruan S, Luo S, Wu J, Peng L, Cheng F, Pan L, Zou J, Jia C, Wang J, Liu X, Wang S, Wu X, Ge Q, He J, Zhan H, Qiu F, Guo L, Huang C, Jaki T, Hayden FG, Horby PW, Zhang D, Wang C. A Trial of Lopinavir-Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020 Mar 18. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001282. [Epub ahead of print]

jward said:

Correlation betweenuniversal BCG vaccination policy and reducedmorbidity and mortality for COVID-19: an epidemiological study

Aaron Miller,Mac Josh Reandelar, Kimberly Fasciglione, Violeta Roumenova, Yan Li, and Gonzalo H. Otazu*Department of Biomedical Sciences, NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, New York, USA*Correspondence to: gotazual@nyit.edu

AbstractCOVID-19 has spread to most countries in the world. Puzzlingly, the impact of the diseaseis different in different countries. These differences are attributed to differences in culturalnorms, mitigation efforts, and health infrastructure. Here we propose that national differences inCOVID-19 impact could be partially explained by the different national policies respect to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)childhoodvaccination. BCG vaccination has been reported to offer broad protection to respiratory infections. We compared large number of countries BCG vaccination policies with the morbidity and mortality for COVID-19. We found that countries without universal policies of BCGvaccination(Italy, Nederland, USA) have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies. Countries that havealate start of universal BCG policy (Iran, 1984) had high mortality, consistent with the idea that BCG protects the vaccinated elderly population. We also found that BCG vaccination also reduced the number of reported COVID-19cases in a country. The combination of reduced morbidity and mortality makesBCG vaccination a potential new tool in the fight against COVID-19. IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemicoriginated in China and it has quickly spread over all continents affectingmost countries in the world.

However, there are some striking differences on how COVID-19 is behavingin different countries. For instance,in Italy there has been strong curtailing of socialinteractions and COVID-19 mortality is still high. In contrast, Japan had some of the earlier cases, but the mortality is low despite not having adopted some the more restrictive social isolation measurements. These puzzling differenceshave been adjudicated to different cultural norms as well as differences in medical care standards. Here we propose an alternative explanation: that the country-by-countrydifference in COVID-19 morbidity and mortalitycan be partially explained bynational policies on Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)vaccination .BCG is a live attenuated strain derived from an isolate of Mycobacterium bovisused widely across the world as a vaccine forTuberculosis (TB), with many nations, including Japan and China,having a universal BCG vaccination policy in newborns 1. Other countries such as Spain, France, and Switzerland, have discontinued their universal vaccine policies due to comparatively low risk for developing M. bovisinfections as well as the proven variable effectiveness in preventing adult TB; countries such as the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands, have yet to adopt universal vaccine policies for similar reasons.Several vaccines including the BCG vaccination have been shown to produce positive “heterologous” or non-specific immune effects leading to improved response against other non-mycobacterial pathogens.For instance,BCG vaccinated mice infected with the vaccinia virus were protected by increased IFN-Y production from CD4+ cells2.This phenomenon was named . CC-BY-ND 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. is the(which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint .https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042937doi:

Click to expand...

Omg.... is THIS, what they are trying to hide??
A similarity between covid19 and TB!!??

Or Maybe my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet....?..

Our 18 month old granddaughter had a low grade fever for a week. Then it spiked but she was acting fine. Pediatrician watched her on telemed thing and said keep an eye on behavior. Next day fever up higher and baby lethargic. Dr. said take her to children's hospital in Troy (Oakland County, MI). Son said hospital was very quiet, everyone suited up. They tested for many things, found nothing, but no test for Flu or Corona because they are short of both, and baby had no respiratory problems. Sent home with no instructions about staying home, etc. All they would say is she has "a virus". Considering that we are in the new hot spot, this is not reassuring.

vestige said:

Do you have any links to these events in Europe?

If already posted on this thread I probably missed it and will simply have to read faster.

Click to expand...

The major streamers: Amazon Prime, Netflix and now Disney have all stopped providing HD level service and downgraded speeds by 25 percent.

There is talk in some countries (like the UK) of rationing the internet if things get worse but it hasn't occurred yet other than individual companies having to redirect some services.

There are issues, especially for people with kids who in some countries are supposed to have their kids signing into online classes at the same time they work from home.

Considering my housemate needs enough bandwidth to do her engineering job (keeping water treatment plants running is rather critical) and it eats enough I can't stream during work hours; I can see how this is turning into a major headache.

This is also why in Ireland, our national broadcaster is going to start having several hours of elementary school programing a day, starting today - because the government has realized that the current situation simply can't work with the low speeds that many rural people have, heck some areas still have only dial-up and/or mobile phones as the only source of internet.

mzkitty said:

View attachment 189629

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8oP4Z_xPw


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8oP4Z_xPw

Click to expand...

Hey mzkitty, you could always start a dedicated thread posting deaths of these people? The kind that’s only for their death notices without a million member replies, one for “just the facts” sort of thread. Idk... just a passing thought.

Ragnarok said:

Must be nice...

I still have to go to a work site every day. The stress is crazy because some that are working in the building STILL have normalcy bias and don't care about this. I can only relax when I am home but still hoping I didn't drag somethingin the door with me.

The higher up's in my chain-of-command are working from home and seem to have, completely, forgotten us. Have yet to even receive an e-mail saying, "We appreciate you guys".

They had a 4-6 week window to prepare for this. We didn't receive any PPE ( The head of the Janitorial services gave us 2 boxes of nitrile gloves but those ran out last week ). We didn't receive any cleaning/disinfecting supplies. I have been using the stuff I bought to protect my family and that will be all gone by the end of the week.

We had a person in the building test positive and they did not notify us for over 4 hours while the HR Manager notified HQ in Cleveland and put together an e-mail. That tells me there was no action plan because a positive should have automatically triggered a response in minutes, not hours. They did not evacuate the building. They did not disinfect both buildings on campus. When the HR rep was asked if there had been a positive, he lied and said, "No", until he could put out his "official" e-mail and notify his bosses. As I said, that took 4 hours and we all sat and walked around in a contaminated building.

We have been under "stay-at-home" orders for 5 or four days now. After 2 days, we still had not received any travel passes. I asked my boss about it and he contacted the regional manager. My boss said the regional had no clue what I was talking about. We had to go to the corporate HR manager in Cleveland to get them. What a complete cluster!

This company has 30 billion in sales and the guys above me make 6 figure salaries. I could have hired a stuffed animal and sat him in their chair and had the same result. They were completely blindsided and I am livid!

I hate to let the rest of the team down but I will not work in a building I cannot disinfect and the rest of the staff aren't even on the same page as to how serious this is. I will, probably, be using up all vacation time once MY cleaning supplies run out...

Maybe, sooner... Can't freaking believe I am using my own personal stash!

Click to expand...

Ragnarok, Really sorry to hear this period as the HR rep lies to you about this directly as an employee of the company to an employee and company, isn't there some sort of a law against that?

Ragnarok said:

Coronavirus riots to erupt 'at any moment' as Red Cross warns cities face 'social bomb'
Coronavirus riots to erupt 'at any moment' as Red Cross warns cities face 'social bomb'

Spain: ‘Youths’ Attack Ambulances Transporting Elderly Coronavirus Patients
Spain: 'Youths' Attack Ambulances Moving Elderly Coronavirus Patients

UK Lockdown Chaos: ‘Youths’ Fire Bomb Food Delivery Vans, Launch Missiles at Police
UK Lockdown Chaos: 'Youths' Fire Bomb Food Delivery Vans

Click to expand...

Why are all these headlines in Europe. putting youths in quotes ? I'm wondering if it signifies something other than what we use here for .

Ragnarok said:

It is so obvious to me that this came out of a lab. I remember back when this started, China was admitting to 800 cases when they locked down Wuhan. I couldn't figure out why the CCP would quarantine a city of 11 million for 800 cases?

Because they knew what it was. That is the only explanation. They had advanced knowledge of what was coming.

Then, if you go back about 800 pages ( I cannot find the story anymore but I know it's there ), There was a Chinese general giving a lecture about how it could be advantageous to release a bioweapon on the west. This talk was given, IIRC, 10-15 years ago. The result was that the CCP relieved this general of duty.

The question is, did they fire him for his repulsive strategic view?

Or

Did they fire him for an OPSEC breach, because he announced the game plan?

Click to expand...

General's name is Chi Haotian. Search this thread or others on TB and I bet you'll find the speech. I'll never forget the moment that I read it and determined who our enemy is. The Geneva convention was made for civilized nations. The CCP is anything but civilized.

Trivium Pursuit said:

The Geneva convention was made for civilized nations.

Click to expand...

If we were civilized we wouldn't need the Geneva Conventions.

I left my property yesterday for the first time since I began working from home>>>about a week ago. No one here is observing social distancing AT ALL. I live in a tourist town, there is a large recreational lake here. There were people on all the beaches, fishing along the shores, and teens walking with their arms around each other in groups of many more than 10. NONE of the stores in town were closed>>>this is a town of about 25,000, which has had more than 10 active cases reported. I just don't think people "get it" nor do they care. I also saw a soccer team practicing at the high school!! And there was a coach there. What the hell are people thinking!!?? When it hits this rural area>>>>outside of the town>>>I live about 30 miles out>>>>I think it is going to be MASSIVE. We have very little health care in this area and what we do have is mostly pitiful. I just dread what is coming>>>>

Good grief ioujc, where do you live anyway!!!?
That’s crazy!

Not sure if this has already been posted.

Unmasking the Truth: CDC and Hospital Administrators Are Endangering Us All

An opinion piece exposing the revolting truth about current frontline conditions in healthcare.

What we have currently in America in 2020, is the perfect storm.

“Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.” — Albert Einstein.

Click to expand...

COVID-19 has turned the world upside down, but nowhere feels quite as surreal as the frontline of healthcare in America. Healthcare workers everywhere have been too shocked or fearful of retaliation to expose the risks that we, and by consequence, all of you, are currently facing. It’s time for the dirty secrets and inconvenient truths of what is really happening behind the scenes to come to light.

Currently, few employees feel their hospital is stepping up and doing the right thing amidst our woefully unprepared situation. The exceptional hospitals are letting staff wear protection brought from home, encouraging them to wear masks around all patients, etc. But the voices of these employees are getting drowned in a sea of those from hospitals that are sending them to the slaughter. If you want to know how your local hospital is faring, ask the first employee you see in the emergency room what their current mask policy is. You may realize you don’t have an “emergency” after all.

TL;DR — Do not go to the hospital for the foreseeable future unless your life truly depends on it. Visiting most ERs right now is akin to playing Russian Roulette. Think I’m being dramatic? Please read on.

The Atrocities of the CDC
According to their own website, “CDC is responsible for controlling the introduction and spread of infectious diseases, and provides consultation and assistance to other nations and international agencies to assist in improving their disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion activities.” Ironically, this is the antithesis of what they are currently doing. Their actions are directly contributing to the rapid spread of this deadly virus. The CDC has turned away from research and guidelines from other nations and international agencies that have more experience with this pandemic.

The Coronavirus, or COVID-19, is known to be airborne. China, Italy, and South Korea know it. The World Health Organization knows it. Studies conducted in America have shown it can be airborne for up to 3 hours. Our CDC knew it was airborne when it first started to be addressed in our country as they listed it as such on their website. Within 24 hours, they had downgraded their precaution guidelines from airborne to droplet, to reflect the paltry supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) available for healthcare workers.

In response to this mockery of science and our public humiliation to the world, our hospitals quickly downgraded the protection available for workers that were knowingly being exposed to Covid-19 positive patients. With no shame, a few days later the CDC amended their recommendations to now also include bandanas or scarves as a last resort option for protection. Other countries are having their healthcare employees suit up in full Hazmat gear, and our expert infectious disease government organization is offering the recommendation of a bandana. The street cleaners in China are far, far better protected in their PPE than what is being offered to some of the brightest minds in America that are being directly exposed to this virus daily.

With workers being given equipment that is not even remotely close to adequate protection across every state, they are not only risking their own health, but also that of every patient, coworker, and person with which they come into contact in their community. Employees are being instructed to reuse disposable items for days with multiple patients, something that “way back” in 2019 would have had you fired on the spot with possible disciplinary action against your license.
This is directly contributing to the spread of the virus to other patients and staff. Healthcare employees have lost respect for the sell-outs behind the CDC. Meanwhile, there has been no outcry from OSHA or JCAHO. All we hear from these organizations is the sound of crickets, and even that sound is muffled from a far off distance.

The Dirty Secrets Behind the Frontline
Below are accounts that doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, CNAs, medical assistants, NPs, PAs, speech therapists, dietitians, pharmacists, radiology techs, housekeeping staff, scrub techs, CRNAs, occupational/physical therapists, phlebotomists, unit secretaries, paramedics, transporters, lab technicians, supply management, and sterile processing techs have shared with one another in online healthcare forums. There are so many American workers affected by this, and their exposure becomes your community’s exposure.

Every day, the outpouring continues regarding what farcical new policies are being implemented in their workplace. Every day, I think the bar has been lowered to the ground and it is impossible for the quality of care and protection to fall even further, but I am continuously proven wrong.

This is the reckless reality that is actually happening behind the scenes at hospitals all over our country today:

• Most winters, a large portion of emergency room staff choose to wear a mask at all times due to flu season. Now they are being told by management, “that’s not necessary”, in the middle of a global pandemic. Many healthcare workers are forbidden to wear masks at all unless they are with a patient that is suspected or confirmed of having COVID-19. Meanwhile, studies show that a large percentage of patients that have the virus are asymptomatic. We do not recommend for people to only utilize condoms with partners that are suspected or known to have STDs, because you cannot always tell by how they look. The same logic applies to the coronavirus. During a pandemic, you should be utilizing standard precautions, and assume that everyone has it.
• Repeatedly, workers are reporting that they were belatedly informed of being exposed to a positive COVID-19 patient, up to a week after the lab results were known. Meanwhile, if they contracted the virus but are not yet symptomatic, they have been caring for other patients, likely spreading the virus to them as well. Less ethical administrations are telling their healthcare workers that it is a HIPPA violation to inform them if patients that they previously took care of unprotected, end up resulting positive for the virus. This is untrue, negligent and criminally reckless.
• “Lucky” employees are being given surgical masks that are meant to be worn for a single procedure with a single patient for up to 3–4 hours. They are being instructed to wear this same mask for several days, the same mask across all of their patients. It is practically impossible to remove these masks and then reuse them without contaminating them. From the first time it is removed, only an illusion of protection remains at best. At worst, there is a direct exposure from contamination for the employee, patient, and coworkers.
• Many hospitals are only issuing surgical masks to providers that are working with suspected COVID-19 patients. In the worst hospitals, these masks are only given to employees working with known positive coronavirus patients. These do not provide protection against airborne exposure. For airborne, at minimum, staff should have N-95 masks, or optimally, PAPR devices.
• PAPRs are meant to be reused and are equipped with disposable hoods. Typically a hood is used by one person for one shift with one patient. Hoods are now being used at some facilities for “the season” across all their patients. There are not nearly enough PAPRs to protect all of our providers.
• Many workers are being issued a paper or plastic bag and instructed to store their mask in them between shifts for a week or longer. Which is better, paper or plastic? It doesn’t matter as it is absolutely impossible to do this without contaminating the mask, which is designed for one-time usage. This practice is akin to reusing infected needles during an AIDs epidemic on staff and patients. Whoever originally came up with this “save your disposable mask in a contaminated bag idea” should consider dropping out of the medical workforce altogether for the better good of society.
• Particularly for the more protective N95 masks, some hospitals are going a step further in their multiuse plan. At the end of the week, they gather up the one-time usage masks that have been utilized all week long with COVID-19 patients and claim to be “disinfecting” them prior to reissuing them for further use. Some staff report that their facility is planning to use UV lights, which the manufacturer 3M states will compromise the integrity of the masks, removing the element of protection. Others are spraying them down with Lysol, of which one of the main disinfecting ingredients is isopropyl alcohol. Stanford has released a study showing isopropyl alcohol significantly degrades the filtration of N95 masks. But let’s be honest, the protection these masks provide was compromised the first time they were used and removed. So what’s a little more compromise going to hurt?
• At least one facility has ruled that with patients that are positive for the virus, only doctors are allowed to use N95 masks. Other staff members are offered PPE that does not provide the needed airborne protection.
• A housekeeper was erroneously informed by the administration that they did not need to wear masks or PPE while disinfecting rooms after coronavirus patients were discharged, because “there was no risk”. The virus has been proven to live on surfaces for days and can be airborne for up to 3 hours. Thankfully, their medical coworkers informed them otherwise and fought back to support them.
• An OR nurse reported that their hospital has instructed the operating room staff to use a single disposable surgical mask all day, across all of their surgical patient cases.
• Many doctors and other OR staff report that despite the surgeon general’s proclamations, their CEO’s instructed them to continue with elective cases. Under no circumstances were they to cancel the hospital’s moneymakers. If the doctors canceled their cases, they would risk their jobs.
• A doctor at a large healthcare organization shared that its administrators have locked up all the masks and are issuing them on a case by case basis, at the discretion of the administration. Business “professionals”, rather than the medical experts are determining who gets a mask.
• In many places, to conserve PPE, nurses are being given all the extra tasks that ancillary staff normally complete: breathing treatments, labs, and to clean the rooms upon patient discharge. With all this extra work, they are still taking care of the usual amount of patients. Nurses are not taught the Environmental Services room turnover policies. This is implemented with isolation patients that have a highly contagious virus that is known to live on surfaces for days. How’s that going to work for infection control?
• Faced with employers that are unable or unwilling to offer proper protection to their staff, many have sought out their own PPE and brought it to work. MANY hospitals are forbidding workers to provide their own masks with punitive measures. One doctor even reports an administrator forcefully removed the mask off of their face. Management claims it is “spreading fear to our customers”. Meanwhile, our government preaches social distancing, advising that going out in public is dangerous and to stay 6 feet away from others at all times.
• The last straw and prompt for me to write this article, was what was reported by a Seattle nurse yesterday. At her place of employment, temperature screeners at the front door are being told to give anyone symptomatic, including employees, a “napkin” in lieu of a mask. Why are they not being sent home? To add insult to ignorance, the new policy also included stern language to remind staff that it is their responsibility to ensure social distancing is being followed, 6 feet apart at all times. Maybe I’m struggling with this concept because I’m only 5’4”, but how exactly does one take another’s temperature from 6 feet away?

leo2014 / Pixabay

Money, Masks or Morgue
In 2014, the threat of EBOLA in America caught hospitals with their pants down. It was a wakeup call that we were not prepared or stocked well enough to handle a widespread outbreak. What did administrators learn from this? Nothing, apparently. That should have been a learning moment with emergency PPE held in reserves, but the overwhelming majority of administrators across the country chose instead to use money that could have bought surplus PPE, to fund their gigantic annual bonuses. These bonuses are frequently in the millions of dollars each year, while your frontline staff is making isolation gowns out of trash bags.

In recent years, administrators have used masks as a punitive measure against employees that decline to get a flu shot (no matter the reason), under the guise of “for public safety.” If you refuse to get the flu shot, you must wear a surgical mask all day for 3–6 months. That policy went out the window about five minutes into this coronavirus debacle, public safety be damned.

When questioned regarding the absurd and woefully inadequate new policies regarding substandard PPE protection for workers, they blame the global shortage. Then why are so many hospital executives refusing to allow workers to wear their own self-provided masks in a desperate attempt to protect themselves? Administrators are unable to provide even an illusion of protection for their staff and are refusing to allow employees to provide for themselves.

Administrators, how can you sleep at night when you put forth policies that require of your staff what you are too fearful to do yourself? Why aren’t you standing with us at the front doors scanning temperatures, armed in only a cloth mask sewed and donated by the grandmas in the community? Why aren’t you walking around the ER, unmasked, to help “alleviate the fear of our customers?” At best, you are too foolish and ignorant regarding science to realize how many lives you are placing in danger. But many of you do know, and deserve to face criminal charges — you know who you are.

In the past few weeks, across our country doctors and other healthcare workers have spoken up about the current hazardous conditions and substandard care being provided. Many have been met by administration with disciplinary actions, including forced leaves of absence or dismissal. Employees that are symptomatic and highly suspected to have the virus and even a few that have tested positive, are being instructed by management to keep working. “Just throw a mask on.”

China saw many of their frontline healthcare workers die from COVID-19 before they determined the means of transmission and properly equipped staff. Italy too has tragically seen the loss of many doctors and nurses. The coronavirus is just getting started in America, and we too have already lost the lives of healthcare workers that cared for acute COVID-19 patients, including young healthy workers cut down in the prime of their life.

Healthcare workers typically have a more severe episode of sickness than the average patient due to being exposed to a higher viral load. Administrators are already starting to deflect blame, “How do we know you didn’t acquire it in the community,” they scream down from their ivory towers. Meanwhile, I keep reading heartbreaking accounts of people seeing their coworkers succumb to the virus, become intubated, be coded multiple times, and ultimately some die. These stories will keep coming and at a more rapid pace if things do not drastically change immediately.

Frontline workers are given bonuses of appreciation that consist of pens, keychains, lunch boxes, pizza, and I kid you not, sometimes a Little Debbie cake. Meanwhile, administrators are given millions of dollars for a job well done in crippling our healthcare system nationwide. Their lack of foresight and planning contributed heavily to the current healthcare crisis. We are chronically kept at staffing levels that are “just enough” with a meager supply provision that is, under normal situations, “just enough”. Each year we are squeezed tighter to maximize productivity with less because it’s “just enough” for their profit goal.

Dear hospital executives, we’ve had “just enough” of you. We are done with your elementary intimidation tactics to keep employees quiet and subservient. We are done with the ludicrous afterthought note at the end of these ghetto protocols to “KEEP SAFE!!” after being instructed on how to reuse disposable equipment. As a matter of fact, effective immediately, all hospital administrators should stop using the word “safe”. It does not mean what you think it means.

Healthcare Reboot
I keep hearing that America is the greatest country on Earth, but with a CDC that is knowingly endangering the frontline and most healthcare organizations being run by nonmedical executives that have more greed than compassion, how can we honestly claim it?

It’s been made clear that being proactive is beyond the capabilities of those currently at the helm. We’ve tried having healthcare run by business professionals and bureaucrats that don’t know a liquid from a gas. They have failed horribly, atrociously. They need to go.

Firemen are true American heroes that are known to be willing to risk their life for another. But I have never seen a fireman run into blazing flames without fire-resistant gear on. This is what is currently being asked of our healthcare workers every single day now. Every. Single. Day. Healthcare workers are passionate about saving lives, but they will save far more people if they are kept alive versus dying to save one.

I look around at this new foreign, dystopian landscape and everything has changed. Policies, protocols, even science apparently has changed because healthcare administration and the CDC were not prepared. It’s time for America to change as well, starting with a healthcare reboot.

Other than discussing these stressful changes with one another, healthcare workers are scared to go public with what is going on due to intimidation tactics. Administrators love to retaliate when their employees speak out about inconvenient truths, but the public needs to know their dirty secrets. By blowing this whistle to let you know what’s happening behind the frontlines, I am risking my job. All I ask in return is that you spread the word and push for change. We must defend our frontline.

“Your silence will not protect you.” ― Audre Lorde

Click to expand...

Trivium Pursuit said:

Why are all these headlines in Europe. putting youths in quotes ? I'm wondering if it signifies something other than what we use here for .

Click to expand...

yeah, it means muslims under 40....

poppy said:

He's probably more than a doctor. He's an epidemiologist, statistician, virologist, geneticist, and a wino on weekends. He also manufactures face masks in his spare time. It is impossible to believe all the varying opinions of health providers, politicians, gold investors, news anchors, and twits on twitter. It would drive you crazy trying to keep it sorted out.

Click to expand...

Sweetie, Naegling said he was a friend of his...we are more inclined to think the info is valid from friends who are in this type of field and we all appreciate the input, compared to msm. Why you feel the need to attack things like this is beyond us all.
In order to NOT drive you crazy in trying to keep it sorted out, may I suggest you just stop reading, and commenting, on these bits and pieces from members who are doing their very best to share and contribute in this time of uncertainty?

YOU will sleep better and this board and topic will move along much better without you sowing seeds of doubt and contention and strife. And it's okay if you want to take your ball and go home.

psychgirl said:

Good grief ioujc, where do you live anyway!!!?
That’s crazy!

Click to expand...

Maine closed a lot ofparks andbeaches for the same reason.