CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIjfP6Ioh-k
2:15 min
Teachers Union Authorizes Strikes Over School Reopening Plans | NBC Nightly News
•Jul 28, 2020


NBC News

The nation’s second-largest teachers union authorized its 1.7 million members to strike in districts and states where certain safety standards are not met. One Connecticut summer program thinks they figured out how to reopen safely with small classes, masks, outdoor learning and partitions between teachers and students.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSsKVdMxGkA
2:22 min
Trump Under Fire For Sharing Coronavirus Misinformation On Social Media | NBC Nightly News
•Jul 28, 2020


NBC News

President Trump retweeted a video showing a group of doctors in lab coats falsely claiming that there is a cure for coronavirus and that masks and shutdowns don’t help stop the spread. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all took the video down but not before millions had seen it.

________________________________________________
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fwoNvNHbY
2:27 min
Fauci Disputes Viral Video: ‘Hydroxychloroquine Is Not Effective’ | Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC [I do not post from MSNBC as a rule, but I thought Fauci's response should be available]
•Jul 29, 2020


MSNBC

Dr. Anthony Fauci disputed a video of doctors praising coronavirus conspiracies, explaining that scientific data and clinical trials determined that "hydroxychloroquine is not effective" to treat COVID-19. Aired on 7/29/2020.
______________________________________

[Past Post reference on the corrupt science used to dismiss hydroxychloroquine: ]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUD_wvkNhnk&list=PLRgTUN1zz_oeQpnJxpeaEkFimDeepqyWf&index=18
47:17 min
Garbage 'Science': Be Wary Of What You're Being Told
•Premiered May 28, 2020


Peak Prosperity
Man, with the major pandemic and economic risks we all have to deal with, it's so frustrating to have to waste time and energy addressing the plague of crap 'science' being dumped on us on a daily basis. It's so unnecessary. Our society knows how to do science well. But due to Big Pharma protecting its profits, or political agendas, or whatever the reasons may be -- we are not getting rigorous trustworthy research findings at a time when we need them most. Yet once again, we're find ourselves forced to wade back in the hydroxychloroquine debate. This time to respond to (or more accurately, eviscerate) the most recent study on HCQ appearing in The Lancet. Whether or not its conclusions are accurate, who knows? But its methodology is for certain shoddy as hell. Why are we still being given such poorly-constructed and shoddy results by our science 'experts'? By this time, we should have a plethora of rigorous, peer-reviewed studies giving us clear, dependable answers we can use to create smart health policy decisions. But instead, we're still being fed a daily diet of garbage 'science':
________________________ LINKS FROM THIS VIDEO: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la... https://www.theguardian.com/world/202... https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2020... https://twitter.com/Arkancideisreal/s... https://www.theguardian.com/science/2... https://melwy.com/blog/lancet-paper-o... http://covexit.com/yale-epidemiology-...

SEE ALSO yesterday's comments:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_fSz3y022o&list=PLRgTUN1zz_oeQpnJxpeaEkFimDeepqyWf&index=1
27:59 min
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riPV-7akqOQ
21:12 min
Super spreaders & second waves: News on the COVID-19 pandemic | Coronavirus update
•Jul 29, 2020


DW News

00:00 As coronavirus cases rise in parts of Europe, governments have been reimposing restrictions just as many people take their summer holidays. Europe is looking for a more coordinated response as national governments act alone to contain the virus. Many fear their countries are entering a second wave.

05:30 South Korea has been reporting an uptick in new daily cases of coronavirus. There were 48 on Tuesday, but that's still low compared to many other parts of the world. Early in the pandemic, South Korea was badly hit, but swift action brought the infection rate down dramatically. Certain groups thought most likely to infect others have been targeted for preventative measures. That includes students, and most of them seem to be listening after a super-spreader event occurred when nightclubs were allowed to open again.

12:07 Pilgrims have begun arriving at Islam's holiest site in Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the start of Hajj. This year's pilgrimage is dramatically downsized due to the coronavirus. Numbers are limited about 10,000 Saudi residents. 13:47 After rescuing some 94 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, Malta is reporting that at least 65 of them have tested positive for the coronavirus.

14:04 US President Donald Trump has repeated his defense of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, even after his son was blocked on Twitter for retweeting a post in favor of the drug. Doctors say there is a lack of evidence it is effective.

14:29 Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam has warned the city is on the verge of a large-scale outbreak of the coronavirus that could overwhelm hospitals. Authorities have implemented strict new measures, which they say are to curb the spread of the disease. The new regulations include a ban on public gatherings of more than two people and mandatory face masks in public places.

17:55 What if you're in love, but can't express it in person because of travel bans? Some lovelorn couples have started a campaign they're calling "Love Is Not Tourism", hoping governments will help them.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W42TN5IShc
5:39 min
Coronavirus: Trump says "many doctors" think hydroxychloroquine is successful in treating COVID-19
•Jul 28, 2020


Global News (Canada)

U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his praise for the unproven anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, telling reporters “I happen to believe in it” and saying that “many doctors” think it is successful in treating COVID-19.

__________________________________________________
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIrR-KmNdIA
5:24 min
White House press secretary discusses the president's controversial comments on COVID-19
•Jul 29, 2020


CBS This Morning

As U.S. COVID-19 deaths near 150,000, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss President Trump's controversial comments on hydroxychloroquine, which has been deemed not effective by medical professionals, and his retweeting of a video that contains mixed messaging on masks.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwkvTBgTO7A
6:57 min
What Does America’s Coronavirus Response Look Like Abroad? | NYT Opinion
•Jul 29, 2020


The New York Times

The United States leads the world in Covid-19 deaths, nearing 150,000 lost lives. The unemployment figures brought on by the pandemic are mind-boggling. The Trump administration’s slow and haphazard response has been widely criticized. But what does it look like to young people around the world, whose governments moved quickly and aggressively to contain the coronavirus?
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5qC_ja1cl4
2:51 min
21 States Are In Coronavirus Red Zone As US Death Toll Passes 150,000 | TODAY
•Jul 29, 2020


TODAY
Nearly half of all U.S. states are seeing a dangerous rise in coronavirus cases, and the nation’s death toll has passed 150,000 as concerns grow about reopening schools. NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reports for TODAY from Los Angeles.
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
CDC COVID test kits are inaccurate, shocking results revealed in a NEW study
by: Sara Middleton, staff writer | July 27, 2020

(NaturalHealth365) When the current global pandemic began, first there were concerns about a lack of sufficient and widespread COVID testing. Next, there were concerns about a lack of ventilators and other medical equipment (although it didn’t take long for reports to come out about ventilator-injury and how the rush to intubate patients was ill-founded in many cases). More recently, we’ve heard about some state labs delaying or not even releasing negative tests as a way to project an image of so-called local “spikes,” as well as reports about contaminated CDC test results.

In the next evolution of the pandemic, we now are hearing troubling concerns about the accuracy of COVID testing. As states ramp up their quarantine policies, this is certainly going to be an important issue to watch closely.

CDC COVID testing kits plagued with problems like contamination and low level accuracy
A scientist by the name of Dr. Sin Hang Lee, the current director of Milford Molecular Diagnostics in Milford, CT, recently released a paper titled “Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in cellular components by routine nested RT-PCR followed by DNA sequencing.” In the paper, he details how he examined a sample of official COVID tests to determine their accuracy.

He took 20 COVID test results from the Connecticut State Department of Health and re-examined them.

Here’s a quick summary of his major findings:

  • Of the 10 negative tests, he determined that 2 of them (20 percent) were actually positive.
  • Of the 10 positive tests, he determined that 3 of them (30 percent) were actually negative.
  • This means 5 out of 20 tests were inaccurate. 25 percent of the COVID tests in his official sample – about 1 in 4 – were wrong!
Dr. Lee also discovered evidence of mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggesting that the virus may already be changing.

His study is small, to be sure. As an aside, it’s also worth mentioning – and we’re not quite sure how to wrap our heads around this information – that Dr. Lee graduated from a medical school in Wuhan, China several decades ago, according to an online bio from a recent 2016 medical conference in Las Vegas.

Still, his findings are telling. And to think that contact tracing is based on this information. This means you could be forced to quarantine in your home for 14 days – or face fines up to several hundred dollars – all based on a test result that may not even be correct.

As states buckle down on who can come in and where visitors can go, we have to ask: when and how will COVID testing become more accurate?
Here’s a much more PC-explanation about the issue with COVID testing from Penn Medicine, when asked about its accuracy: “Since COVID-19 tests are new, knowing the accuracy is challenging. The accuracy and predictive values of SARS-CoV-2 testing have not been evaluated, and the accuracy of testing depends on which test is used, the type of specimen tested, how it was collected and the duration of illness.”

Penn Medicine goes on to note that no diagnostic test is 100 percent accurate. Of course. But is a 25 percent inaccuracy rate acceptable for making widespread public health policies?

Take the state of Massachusetts, for instance. Gov. Charlie Baker just released updates to the state’s coronavirus travel rules, which includes a fine of $500 per day if someone fails to comply with their self-quarantining policy upon entering MA or is unable to provide proof of a negative COVID test.

There’s a famous aphorism known as Hanlon’s razor:

Do not attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity. In other words, bad things happen sometimes, but it’s often because people did not think things through properly or were ignorant – not necessarily because they were being bad on purpose.

We’d like to believe that Hanlon’s razor applies to the response to the COVID pandemic from many of our public health officials. We’d like to believe that the major snafu of CDC test results aren’t maliciously designed, but rather ill-founded and short-sighted.

We’d like to believe in the near future that there will be increased transparency, better data, and more ethical solutions and policies to help manage this pandemic. But, we have our justifiable doubts, based on past performance, as it relates to corruption government “health” agencies.

As always, we’ll be watching these developments closely.

Sources for this article include:

Boston.com
MSN.com
Pennmedicine.org
Int-soc-clin-geri-.com

 

lonestar09

Veteran Member

Delta’s Updated Mask Policy Bans This Type of Face Covering


"Any mask with an exhaust valve is not approved as an acceptable face mask for customers traveling on any Delta operated flight.”


By Cailey Rizzo
July 28, 2020

Delta Air Lines is getting even more strict with their mask rule, now requiring that face-coverings worn by passengers be a specific type.

The airline's newest policy reads, “Any mask with an exhaust valve is not approved as an acceptable face mask for customers traveling on any Delta operated flight.”



Face masks with exhaust valves are designed for people working in industrial environments to protect workers from hazardous particles. But the CDC’s face covering recommendation is not meant to protect wearers from particles coming in, instead, they function to protect those near the wearer from breathing in any potentially harmful particles.

Face masks with exhaust valves have almost the exact opposite effect. The exhaust valve can act like a jet — sending virus droplets out at high speed and in highly concentrated quantities. If a person has COVID-19, wearing a face mask with a valve could actually endanger the people around them.



Still seeing a lot of these masks out there, it's confusing, because they are called N95- but the ones with the **valves** or openings on the front are NOT safe, and may actually propel your germs further!! @SFFDPIO @SFPD @sfgov @LondonBreed @MyrPressOffice https://t.co/xHxNy28EUz
— SFDPH (@SF_DPH) May 4, 2020

Even a basic cloth covering will suffice to board a Delta flight. And plastic face shields are allowed, but they will not act as a replacement for a face covering. If you find yourself at an airport with an inappropriate face covering, the airline will provide one.



Face coverings are now required during check-in, in Delta Sky Clubs, at the boarding gate, on the jet bridge and onboard the aircraft, except during meal service.

Delta flight attendant


Courtesy of Delta Air Lines

Additionally, passengers seeking face mask exemptions for a medical condition now must go through a rigorous pre-boarding process to earn clearance. Their virtual “Clearance-To-Fly” process happens between the passenger, a Delta agent, and a third-party medical professional and can take up to an hour to complete.



The airline is serious about implementing face mask rules. More than 100 passengers have already been temporarily banned from Delta for refusing to don a face mask. “If you board the plane and you insist on not wearing your mask, we will insist that you don’t fly Delta into the future,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview earlier this month.
 

Mixin

Veteran Member
Indiana
Franciscan Health recruits, treats patients in COVID-19 clinical trial to help stop virus
by: Aaron Cantrell
Posted: Jul 28, 2020 / 08:11 PM EDT / Updated: Jul 29, 2020 / 05:05 AM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS — Franciscan Health is recruiting and treating patients in a clinical research study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of an antibody treatment drug, LY-CoV555, in patients with early mild to moderate COVID-19 illness caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2.

The Eli Lilly and Company sponsored study, called the BLAZE-1 Study, is looking for people 18 and older who recently tested positive for the virus, showed symptoms, and aren’t hospitalized. “The antibodies are basically proteins that our body use to fight off infections with,” Franciscan Health’s Director of Critical Care Services Dr. Imad Shawa said.

Researchers say LY-CoV555 is an antibody therapy engineered from one of the first individuals in the U.S. to recover from COVID-19 and is specifically designed to attack SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Laboratory studies have shown that LY-CoV555 binds with high affinity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and neutralizes its ability to infect cells and replicate.

If a person is eligible and decides to participate, Franciscan Health’s research staff will perform specific tests and procedures to monitor the patient’s health and how their body reacts to the LY-CoV555 antibody treatment. “Hopefully this will have some impact and if it does that will be at least something to fight off this deadly virus,” Dr. Shawa said.

The study drug is being compared to a placebo, and both the study drug and the placebo will be administered as a single-dose intravenous infusion. Participants will be randomly selected to receive the placebo or the study drug. Franciscan Health Indianapolis and Hammond are two of 24 hospitals across the country chosen to be research sites, and two of three in Indiana.

If you have tested positive and exhibited symptoms for COVID-19 and wish to participate in this study, call (833) 277-0197 or visit JoinCOVIDStudy.com to learn more.

 

lonestar09

Veteran Member

JetBlue Deploys Ultraviolet Cleaning Robot at JFK Airport in Fight Against Coronavirus
It’s a device that looks like a blend between a beverage cart and a robot, but it is meant to help continue the fight against coronavirus.

Published July 29, 2020 • Updated on July 29, 2020 at 11:23 am

JetBlue will become the first airline in the US to use new cutting-edge UV light technology to help fight the coronavirus at JFK Airport in New York City and
...



What to Know
  • JetBlue has become the first airline in the country to use new cutting-edge UV light technology in its cleaning efforts as a means to fight the coronavirus.
  • JFK Airport in New York, along with Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, have been selected to pilot the new UV system to treat surfaces in JetBlue aircraft interiors.
  • JetBlue will be using the system while continuing with other cleaning methods. In clinical studies, ultraviolet light has been found to be capable of significantly reducing certain viruses and bacteria, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, when properly used at certain levels.
It’s a device that looks like a blend between a beverage cart and a robot, but it is meant to help continue the fight against coronavirus.
On Wednesday, JetBlue has become the first airline in the country to use new cutting-edge UV light technology in its cleaning efforts as a means to fight the coronavirus.

JFK Airport in New York, along with Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, have been selected to pilot the new UV system to treat surfaces in JetBlue aircraft interiors.

Honeywell’s new UV Cabin System is being used as part of a pilot by JetBlue Airways marking the first time a U.S. airline has implemented the technology. The robotic system can traverse an aircraft cabin in less than 10 minutes.


The Honeywell UV Cabin System is roughly the size of an aircraft beverage cart and has UV-C light arms that extend over the top of seats and sweep the cabin to treat aircraft surfaces.


JetBlue will be using the system while continuing with other cleaning methods. In clinical studies, ultraviolet light has been found to be capable of significantly reducing certain viruses and bacteria, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, when properly used at certain levels.


“With the safety of our crewmembers and customers our first priority, JetBlue’s Safety from the Ground Up initiative is maintaining a layered approach to safety by ensuring healthy crewmembers, providing flexibility, adding space, reducing touchpoints, and keeping surfaces clean and sanitized,” said Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue’s president and COO. “As we look to add additional layers of protection by utilizing cutting-edge technology, we have identified the Honeywell UV Cabin System as a potential game changer when it comes to efficiently assisting in our efforts to sanitize surfaces onboard.”


Honeywell has delivered eight of the devices to JetBlue at two of the airline’s focus cities, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. These two locations kicked off a 90-day pilot program.


“JetBlue took an immediate interest in this new product when we demonstrated it for them just a few weeks ago, and now JetBlue is receiving our first systems,” said Mike Madsen, Honeywell Aerospace president and CEO. “We’ve ramped up production quickly on the UV Cabin System, and our company is working on a range of solutions to help make passengers more comfortable about flying.”
Honeywell’s new UV Cabin System is being used as part of a pilot by JetBlue Airways marking the first time a U.S. airline has implemented the technology. The robotic system can traverse an aircraft cabin in less than 10 minutes.

The Honeywell UV Cabin System is roughly the size of an aircraft beverage cart and has UV-C light arms that extend over the top of seats and sweep the cabin to treat aircraft surfaces.
JetBlue will be using the system while continuing with other cleaning methods. In clinical studies, ultraviolet light has been found to be capable of significantly reducing certain viruses and bacteria, including SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, when properly used at certain levels.

“With the safety of our crewmembers and customers our first priority, JetBlue’s Safety from the Ground Up initiative is maintaining a layered approach to safety by ensuring healthy crewmembers, providing flexibility, adding space, reducing touchpoints, and keeping surfaces clean and sanitized,” said Joanna Geraghty, JetBlue’s president and COO. “As we look to add additional layers of protection by utilizing cutting-edge technology, we have identified the Honeywell UV Cabin System as a potential game changer when it comes to efficiently assisting in our efforts to sanitize surfaces onboard.”

Honeywell has delivered eight of the devices to JetBlue at two of the airline’s focus cities, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. These two locations kicked off a 90-day pilot program.
“JetBlue took an immediate interest in this new product when we demonstrated it for them just a few weeks ago, and now JetBlue is receiving our first systems,” said Mike Madsen, Honeywell Aerospace president and CEO. “We’ve ramped up production quickly on the UV Cabin System, and our company is working on a range of solutions to help make passengers more comfortable about flying.”
 

TammyinWI

Talk is cheap
DISCUSSION: Mandatory face mask issues​

ACT NOW: Mandatory Masks Endanger Your Health and Your Liberties. Tell Your State and Local Officials to Make Mask-Wearing Voluntary.

OUR STAND
  • As the United States begins to re-open from lockdowns, jurisdictions are instituting measures that dictate how people are able to participate in society. One of the most common is compulsory mask-wearing.
  • Officials throughout the country are seeking policy guidance on masks from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has flip-flopped its position on face coverings several times since March but is now recommending that everyone wear a mask in public.
  • State and local authorities are taking varying approaches in what their emergency mask orders stipulate and how they will be enforced. Rules differ by state and are constantly changing. However, to date, only a handful of states don’t have any mandatory mask measures.
  • Though CDC’s policy guidance encourages the use of face masks, there is substantial evidence showing that masks are harmful and a lack of evidence showing they are effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus. Studies show that wearing a face covering reduces blood and tissue oxygenation — which can be deadly — while increasing carbon dioxide levels. Mask-wearing can also increase the risk of infection and the spread of viral illness, hinder detoxification that occurs via exhalation, impair the immune system and cause many other ailments, both physical and emotional. Moreover, some masks have been found to contain known carcinogens, which put people at risk from inhaling toxic chemicals and having them come into contact with their skin.
  • Lawsuits are now being filed throughout the country to challenge mandatory masks. Despite evidence of harm and questionable evidence of benefit, fall 2020 school guidelines across the country are calling for mandatory masks. Public school systems (e.g., San Diego, California) are concerned that mask requirements in the classroom will spark even more legal battles.
  • It is unethical and unconstitutional to force healthy citizens to abide by measures that can result in physical and emotional harm and that impinge on their ability to move freely throughout society without discrimination. For those with deeply held religious beliefs, mask mandates violate their ability to abide by natural law and follow their convictions to walk in faith, not fear. As such, the decision to wear a mask is a highly personal one and should not be universally mandated; measures that are meant to protect the community as a whole are ineffective if they hurt individuals in that community. Please email and tweet your lawmakers now and urge them to do their part to make sure that mask-wearing is voluntary, not mandatory.
Email your state and local officials to let them know wearing a mask must be a choice.
The decision to wear a mask is highly personal and should not be universally mandated; measures that are meant to protect the community are ineffective if they hurt individuals in that community. Please email and tweet your state and local officials now and urge them to do their part to make sure that mask-wearing is voluntary, not mandatory.

 

raven

TB Fanatic

Delta’s Updated Mask Policy Bans This Type of Face Covering


"Any mask with an exhaust valve is not approved as an acceptable face mask for customers traveling on any Delta operated flight.”


By Cailey Rizzo
July 28, 2020

Delta Air Lines is getting even more strict with their mask rule, now requiring that face-coverings worn by passengers be a specific type.

The airline's newest policy reads, “Any mask with an exhaust valve is not approved as an acceptable face mask for customers traveling on any Delta operated flight.”



Face masks with exhaust valves are designed for people working in industrial environments to protect workers from hazardous particles. But the CDC’s face covering recommendation is not meant to protect wearers from particles coming in, instead, they function to protect those near the wearer from breathing in any potentially harmful particles.

Face masks with exhaust valves have almost the exact opposite effect. The exhaust valve can act like a jet — sending virus droplets out at high speed and in highly concentrated quantities. If a person has COVID-19, wearing a face mask with a valve could actually endanger the people around them.





Even a basic cloth covering will suffice to board a Delta flight. And plastic face shields are allowed, but they will not act as a replacement for a face covering. If you find yourself at an airport with an inappropriate face covering, the airline will provide one.



Face coverings are now required during check-in, in Delta Sky Clubs, at the boarding gate, on the jet bridge and onboard the aircraft, except during meal service.

Delta flight attendant


Courtesy of Delta Air Lines

Additionally, passengers seeking face mask exemptions for a medical condition now must go through a rigorous pre-boarding process to earn clearance. Their virtual “Clearance-To-Fly” process happens between the passenger, a Delta agent, and a third-party medical professional and can take up to an hour to complete.



The airline is serious about implementing face mask rules. More than 100 passengers have already been temporarily banned from Delta for refusing to don a face mask. “If you board the plane and you insist on not wearing your mask, we will insist that you don’t fly Delta into the future,” CEO Ed Bastian said in an interview earlier this month.
and you still think this is about protecting the wearer
 

lonestar09

Veteran Member

July 29, 2020 / 9:21 AM / Updated 10 hours ago
U.S. Treasury makes $10 billion loan available to postal service as part of coronavirus relief

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday it has reached a deal with the U.S. Postal Service on the conditions of a loan of up to $10 billion that was included in recent coronavirus relief legislation.


The head of the service said the borrowing would push off an “approaching liquidity crisis,” but not solve its financial problems.

“The Postal Service, however, remains on an unsustainable path and we will continue to focus on improving operational efficiency and pursuing other reforms in order to put the Postal Service on a trajectory for long-term financial stability,” recently appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement.

President Donald Trump nominated Dejoy to bring the service’s finances in line and he is pushing to cut costs even if it means delaying deliveries.


The service does not need to borrow at the moment, but the money will now be available should the financially strained agency have to access it, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

“While the USPS is able to fund its operating expenses without additional borrowing at this time, we are pleased to have reached an agreement on the material terms and conditions of a loan, should the need arise,” said Mnuchin.

Already saddled by a large pension and healthcare burden, the service had seen revenues decline from the rise of private delivery companies and email well before the coronavirus pandemic hobbled the U.S. economy.

Once the coronavirus pandemic gripped the country, people began relying on the mail more for delivering goods bought on-line and, in many areas, to vote safely in elections. Congress included the lending in recent legislation meant to blunt the economic pain of the pandemic and keep the postal service operational during this time of extra demand.


The USPS Board of Governors approved the loan agreement in principle on Tuesday and expects to develop formal loan documents in the coming weeks, according to the service.

(This story corrects to remove reference to federal funding in paragraph 7, clarifies Trump’s role in selection in paragraph 4)
 

lonestar09

Veteran Member


LA City Council Proposals Would Pay COVID-Positive Angelenos To Self-Quarantine


By CBSLA StaffJuly 29, 2020 at 5:52 pm

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The Los Angeles City Council is considering plans to pay Angelenos who test positive for COVID-19 to stay home.


A motion introduced Wednesday by Councilmember David Ryu would establish a $25 million “wage replacement program” for any Los Angeles resident – regardless of income, immigration status, or criminal record.


To be eligible, individuals would have to agree to self-isolate and provide public health information to Los Angeles County contact tracers, Ryu said.



The councilman’s proposal cited data showing communities of color, low-income communities and immigrants are more likely to become infected with COVID-19 and suffer from a higher mortality rate.


They are also more likely to work in essential jobs that cannot be done from
home and interface regularly with the public, according to Ryu.


“The only way out of this crisis is through increased testing and staying home if you’re sick,” Ryu said. “If we want to bend the curve, we need to make it possible for everyone to stay home when they’re sick – no matter their income or immigration status.”


Similarly, Council President Nury Martinez introduced a motion Wednesday asking for a report on a plan to provide up to $50 million in direct paycheck assistance to help low-income families with rent, food and other expenses.


Martinez says the “Right to Recover” motion aims to emulate a program that assists working-poor Latinos in San Francisco’s Mission District to pay them to stay home when they get infected with COVID-19.


“While Latinos are dying at twice the rate of White Angelenos in L.A. County from COVID-19, many of the safeguards meant to assist, including Federal Relief, are not reaching poor, immigrant Latinos and others, who often work as essential workers or simply do not have medical insurance or Paid Leave and cannot afford to stay home,” said Martinez.


Martinez’s motion recommends tapping the Federal CARES Act funding L.A. received to provide up to $50 million for her proposal.


The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
(CARES Act), signed into law by President Trump in March, excludes undocumented immigrants from receiving aid.
 

lonestar09

Veteran Member

Trained dogs were able to sniff out Covid-19 infections with 94% accuracy: study
Published Fri, Jul 24 2020 12:39 PM EDT
Updated Tue, Jul 28 2020 11:10 AM EDT

Dogs have smell receptors up to 10,000 times more powerful and accurate than humans. That allows certain trained dogs to sniff out diseases like cancer, malaria and viral infections.

Now, according to German researchers, trained dogs can sniff out coronavirus infections.

A new study, which was piloted by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, the Hannover Medical School and the German Armed Forces found that, if properly trained, dogs were able to discriminate between human saliva samples infected with SARS-CoV-2 and non-infected samples with a 94% success rate overall.

The hope is this method of detection could be one day be used in public areas such as airports, sporting events and other mass gatherings (in addition to laboratory testing) to help prevent future Covid-19 outbreaks, according to researchers.

To conduct the study, researchers trained eight dogs from Germany's Armed Forces for one week. The trained dogs sniffed the saliva of more than 1,000 people that were either healthy or infected with the virus. Samples infected with Covid-19 were distributed at random and neither the dog handlers nor the researchers on site knew which ones were positive.

In a YouTube video about the project, Maren von Koeckritz-Blickwede, a professor at the university, who conducted the study, says they think dogs are able to do this because the metabolic processes of an infected person "completely change."

"We think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients," she says.

While more research is still needed, Von Koeckritz-Blickwede says the next step is to train dogs to differentiate Covid-19 samples from other diseases like influenza.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while dogs can get infected with Covid-19, there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus.

The study was published in BMC Infectious Diseases on July 23.
 

Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

U.S. records a coronavirus death every minute as total surpasses 150,000
Lisa Shumaker
Thursday, 30 July 2020 01:09 GMT

One person in the United States died about every minute from COVID-19 on Wednesday as the national death toll surpassed 150,000, the highest in the world

The United States recorded 1,461 new deaths on Wednesday, the highest one-day increase since 1,484 on May 27, according to a Reuters tally.

U.S. coronavirus deaths are rising at their fastest rate in two months and have increased by 10,000 in the past 11 days. (Graphic: The scale of coronavirus deaths)

Nationally, COVID-19 deaths have risen for three weeks in a row while the number of new cases week-over-week recently fell for the first time since June.

A spike in infections in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas this month has overwhelmed hospitals. The rise has forced states to make a U-turn on reopening economies that were restricted by lockdowns in March and April to slow the spread of the virus.

Texas leads the nation with nearly 4,300 deaths so far this month, followed by Florida with 2,900 and California, the most populous state, with 2,700. The Texas figure includes a backlog of hundreds of deaths after the state changed the way it counted COVID-19 fatalities.

While deaths have rapidly risen in July in these three states, New York and New Jersey still lead the nation in total lives lost and for deaths per capita, according to a Reuters tally.

Of the 20 countries with the biggest outbreaks, the United States ranks sixth for deaths per capita, at 45 fatalities per 100,000 people. It is exceeded by the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

US passes 150,000 coronavirus deaths amid fresh surge in cases
Six months after first cases emerged in US, hospitals are under strain in multiple states

Jessica Glenza and Joanna Walters in New York
Wed 29 Jul 2020 16.04 EDT

The US has crossed the threshold of 150,000 confirmed deaths from Covid-19, just six months after the first cases were diagnosed in China and with the outbreak far from under control.

The American death toll is the highest in the world by a significant margin and reached 150,034 on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University world coronavirus tracker.

More than 4.3 million people have been infected with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. As the summer has worn on, outbreaks have spread across America’s sun belt, the region from Florida to southern California, and look increasingly likely to spread into central states. Meanwhile, some early centers of the pandemic, such as New York City, have brought the virus under significantly more control.

The pandemic has rewritten nearly every aspect of daily life in the United States. Economic activity depressed by public health restrictions and virus outbreaks brought the jobless rate above 11% in June. Restaurant, museum and cinema closures are rolling as states try to reopen, see outbreaks, and again restrict activities.

Schools, once thought certain to reopen in the fall, are grappling with how to make buildings safe for teachers and students. This week, the nation’s second-largest teachers union authorized local strikes as a “last resort” bargaining chip when districts fail to put coronavirus safety measures in place.

Meanwhile, many of the measures most fundamental to bringing the virus under control have continued to be challenges thanks to a fumbling and anemic federal response, led by the Trump administration.

Widespread outbreaks and week-long delays in test results have undermined contact tracing. Those fundamental failures have had knock-on effects, as outbreaks have reached nursing homes and continued to fill intensive care units with the most vulnerable, ill and resource-intensive patients.

As the coronavirus spread accelerated in March, and without federal leadership, state governors and hospitals began scrambling for ventilators and personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and gowns for frontline medical workers, who were in many places short of supplies and who themselves began dying from Covid-19.

The politics of a pandemic


Politics has taken a central role in how the pandemic has been tackled. The president initially downplayed the virus and predicted it would disappear – then, despite the US becoming the world’s pandemic hotspot, he urged businesses and now schools to reopen before the sustained decline in cases that federal health experts recommend.

Some mitigation methods, such as widespread use of face coverings in public, have been undermined by the president, who only recently supported their use.

The president’s controversial shunning of mask-wearing and promotion of dubious treatments for the virus has also publicly set him against his own health specialists, including Dr Anthony Fauci, who has been the nation’s top infectious disease expert to six presidents.

Trump has touted the restrictions he placed on travel to the US from China and then parts of Europe as evidence his administration has handled the outbreak well, despite the limited effect those measures have had as the virus spread.

The surge of infections followed a rush to reopen for business in many states, without accompanying mandates or even official recommendations to wear face masks and practice social distancing.

States such as Florida have kept their economies open despite full hospitals, but there are signs the strategy will not be enough to bring the economy back to the record highs of pre-pandemic days. Last week, for the first time in months, there was an increase in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits.

Public health experts are also concerned about the levels of infection in states such as Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky, while the surge in Florida along with Texas, Arizona and California in June and July has strained many hospitals.

Coronavirus has had a hugely disproportionate impact on Black, Latino and Native Americans, significantly exacerbated by racial disparities in chronic health conditions, access to affordable and quality doctors and hospitals, and disparities in income, housing and risk of exposure in the workplace.

A global push is on to develop a vaccine and the US has some promising trials under way, even as public health officials anticipate any plan to equitably distribute a potential vaccine will face blowback.

In the meantime, the most senior federal health officials, such as Fauci and the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Robert Redfield, have warned the outbreak in the US is far from under control, has a “disturbing” trajectory and has brought America “to its knees”.

All of this has put pressure on Congress to pass another coronavirus aid package, one that includes funding for schools, unemployment benefits and hunger relief. But as of now, there is still a gulf between the parties, with Republicans proposing to cut expanded unemployment aid to $200 per week. Meanwhile, with a gap in aid, observers are predicting a wave of evictions could come to pass.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

Dr. Fauci: Wear goggles or eye shields to prevent spread of COVID-19; flu vaccine a must
The nation's top infectious disease expert spoke to ABC News live on Instagram.

Caterina Andreano
July 29, 2020, 5:26 PM

Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Wednesday that Americans should consider wearing goggles or a face shield in order to prevent spreading or catching COVID-19.

"If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it," the nation's top infectious disease expert told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton during an Instagram Live conversation on ABC News.

When asked if we're going to get to a point where eye protection is recommended, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases responded, "It might, if you really want perfect protection of the mucosal surfaces."

"You have mucosa in the nose, mucosa in the mouth, but you also have mucosa in the eye," he continued. "Theoretically, you should protect all the mucosal surfaces. So if you have goggles or an eye shield you should use it."

He noted that goggles and eye or face shields are "not universally recommended" at this time, "but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can."

The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 662,000 people worldwide so far and more than 16.8 million people across the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Currently, the United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 4.3 million diagnosed cases and over 150,000 deaths.

Fauci watching Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana

Fauci called out four states by name that are struggling to get the virus in check. He and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, addressed these states in a call with governors Tuesday.

Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana are among those that "are starting to show that very subtle increase in percent positives among the total tested, which is a surefire hint that you may be getting into the same sort of trouble with those states that the southern states got into trouble with. So we're watching that really carefully."

Birx has toured those states in the past week, meeting with officials in each state.

Dr. Anthony Fauci to @DrJAshton: "Look at the number of deaths—that's the worst we've had in respiratory outbreak in over 100 years, since the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu. And we still have a ways to go." Coronavirus updates: 150,000 dead in US pic.twitter.com/MQEgRKgh6P
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020

Fauci on testing window after exposure

Fauci also discussed when people should get tested for COVID-19 if they believe they've been exposed to the virus, since there are no official guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health on when to get tested.

"That question came up at the task force meeting yesterday and we asked the same thing and we said there's no real recommendation," Fauci said. "I would think that five [days] is good. I might even go a day or so early because the incubation period of when you get symptoms is about five days."

The window Fauci recommended is "no earlier than three [days] or no later than five or six."

Fauci looks ahead to flu season


As the summer transitions into the fall, Fauci also discussed the oncoming flu season.

Fauci said he hopes wearing masks will help limit the spread of influenza as well.

"It is inevitable that we're going to have some degree of flu," he said. "I'm hoping that the wearing of masks and other coverings are going to not only protect us against COVID-19, but also help protect us against influenza."
MORE: Fauci's concerned about Midwest reopening: 'Can't afford ... another surge'

He said two circulating respiratory viruses really "confuses the situation" since symptoms of the novel coronavirus and flu are so similar.

"Go out there and get your flu shot when the flu vaccine becomes available," he urged.

While encouraging everyone to get a flu vaccine, Dr. Fauci tells @DrJAshton he hopes masks and other coverings "are going to not only protect against COVID-19, but also help protect us against influenza. So we may find a secondary benefit of the lessons that we've learned." pic.twitter.com/bI9E8if1xa
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 29, 2020

Fauci on his personal life

Fauci chalked up his own good health to genetics, which he said was probably inherited by his father, who lived to 97. The 79-year-old has joked about his own age, most recently when he struggled while throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals' home opener.

He gets up at 5 a.m. every morning, grabs juice or eggs and will drink two "very strong" double espressos as he tackles his email. He works late, tries to squeeze in a run -- he noted he used to run marathons in his younger days -- and then will work "well into the night."

"Sleep is the one thing that's really suffered in all this," he said.

He also joked about his baseball card, featuring his opening pitch last week, which is breaking sales records: "It's a combination of humbling and really embarrassing. ... Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle are looking down from heaven at me and saying, 'Are you kidding?'"

As he's about to turn 80 years old, Dr. Anthony Fauci shares his fitness routine with @DrJAshton—and says "sleep is the one thing that's actually suffered in all of this." Coronavirus updates: 150,000 dead in US pic.twitter.com/GaiOqlabIq
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
This is unconscionable, dare I say 'murder'. How can a state outlaw a possible cure to COVID? Doctors should be allowed to prescribe a medication that is currently being used in the USA without State interference. And what is based on? A political agenda? Certain people making more money with a more expensive drug instead of a generic drug that costs pennies? Someone should take this all the way to the Supreme Court (NOT that they will necessarily be helpful based on the most recent cases as posted in this thread a few days ago).



(fair use applies)

Ohio bans hydroxychloroquine in treatment of COVID-19

By: WHIO Staff
Updated: July 29, 2020 - 6:29 PM

Ohio is banning the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19 beginning Thursday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

ODH spokeswoman Melanie Amato said the drug is not an effective treatment for COVID-19, Ohiostatehousenews.com and others are reporting. Amato said that Board of Pharmacy rule 4729:5-5-21 of the Administrative Code will go into effect Thursday, banning its distribution.

The rule prohibits selling or dispensing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.

A few days ago, new information was made public about the success of hydroxychloroquine. Some of that information called it a cure for COVID-19.

Medical professionals attending an America’s Frontline Doctors Summit in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday addressed the media and the U.S. public about the country’s fight against COVID-19, OhioStatehousenews.com reports. A few of those professionals, including Dr. Stella Immanuel, spoke out against the current accepted virus treatment and the need to wear masks.

The FDA has cautioned against using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients.

From the Ohio Department of Health: On July 30, 2020, Board of Pharmacy rule 4729:5-5-21 of the Administrative Code goes into effect. In general, the rule prohibits all terminal distributors (including pharmacist, prescriber clinics, out-of-state pharmacies, and institutional facilities) from selling or dispensing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. Please be advised that this rule replaces emergency rule 4729-5-30.2 and that all approvals for the use of these medications made under that rule are no longer applicable.

The implementation of the rule is based on the following developments:

  • June 15, 2020: Based on ongoing analysis and emerging scientific data, FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization to use hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 in certain hospitalized patients when a clinical trial is unavailable or participation is not feasible. The agency made this determination based on recent results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery. This outcome was consistent with other new data, including those showing the suggested dosing for these medicines are unlikely to kill or inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19. As a result, FDA determined that the legal criteria for the EUA are no longer met.
  • July 1, 2020: A summary of the FDA review of safety issues with the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is now available. This includes reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues, including blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
I'm glad he's making this public and pronounced. Who ever thought it would come down to what state you live in in the USA as to what medications you were allowed to receive? :shk:


(fair use applies)

Gohmert tells 'Hannity' he will use hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus: 'My doctor and I are all in'
Lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19 during White House screening prior to Trump Texas trip

By Victor Garcia
50 mins ago

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told "Hannity" Wednesday that he will soon begin a treatment regimen featuring the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine after testing positive for coronavirus earlier in the day.

"My doctor and I are all in," Gohmert told host Sean Hannity from quarantine. "And I got a text just before I came on from a dear friend, [a] doctor, who just found out he had it, and he said he started a HCQ [hydroxychloroquine] regimen, too.

"So zinc, erythromycin, and hydroxychloroquine," the congressman added, "and that will start just in the next day or two."

Gohmert was scheduled to travel to Texas with President Trump aboard Air Force One Wednesday, but tested positive at the White House during routine screening prior to the trip. Attorney General Bill Barr, who encountered Gohmert Tuesday while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, tested negative for the virus Wednesday.

"He [Trump] called me from Air Force One on the way home tonight and I said ... 'Mr. President, if you would not [have] invited me to go with you to West Texas, I would never have known I had the coronavirus,'" Gohmert said. "That's what I got tested for it and then I found out I had it."

The eight-term Republican, who has frequently refused to wear a mask while performing his duties, denied reports that he berated staffers who do wear masks in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.

"I got a tiny little taste of what you and the president get every day," Gohmert told the host. "The left went nuts."

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
Maybe some good news! One can hope....

(fair use applies)

UCF study shows coronavirus pandemic in Florida may peak next month
July 29 2020

A new study from the University of Central Florida finds that coronavirus cases in Florida may peak next month.

Starting early next month, UCF's departments of Statistics and Data Science and Computer Science project the state's curve will begin to bend in a better direction with fewer cases pushing the total up.

Dr. Shunpu Zhang tells WESH 2 News the projections, if they hold true, would mean new case numbers will decrease slowly toward the end of this year, then fall off more substantially.

"By December or January 2021, that's the time probably we're going to see a faster drop," Zhang said.

The recipe for the projections includes current data and standard epidemiology practices mixed with new artificial intelligence technology.

UCF PhD student Dong Dong Wang said the research has led to a confident prediction but It's still bound by only the data collected so far. That means the impact of schools reopening or tourists visiting in the coming weeks or months don't factor into the findings.

Still, he said he expects the projections to hold, or possibly be bolstered by other changes.

"I think the system will keep this stable trend. if we did soemthing to change this system, like a vaccination, then probably this decreasing trend will be faster and the situation will be better,” Wang said.

"Our prediction is based on the data, not just a hope, but it's from the prediction we see hope," Zhang said.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

Coronavirus: German officials 'very concerned' by rising cases
28 July 2020

The head of Germany's public health agency has said he is "very concerned" by rising infections in the country.

"We are in the middle of a rapidly developing pandemic," Lothar Wieler, head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), told reporters.

Mr Wieler said Germans had become "negligent" and urged people to wear masks and respect social distancing and hygiene rules.

In the past week the country has recorded 3,611 new infections.

The warning comes as countries across Europe grapple with new infections and the problem of travellers moving across the continent for the summer holidays.

On Tuesday Germany issued a travel warning for three regions in Spain - Aragón, Catalonia and Navarra - which have seen a recent spike in infections.

It comes after the UK imposed a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from Spain - a move Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called "unjust".

Germany announced on Monday a programme of free, mandatory coronavirus testing for travellers returning from a list of high-risk countries. The list currently includes Brazil, Turkey and the US, and officials said it will be updated daily.

What did Mr Wieler say?


At a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Wieler asked people for the first time to wear a mask outdoors if they cannot maintain a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres (5ft).

Previously the guidance had been to wear masks indoors in public.

The head of the RKI said Germans must stop the virus once again spreading "rapidly and uncontrollably" by following hygiene and distancing measures.

"We don't know yet if this is the beginning of a second wave but of course it could be," Mr Wieler said. "But I am optimistic that if we follow the hygiene rules we can prevent it, it's up to us."

How is the virus spreading in Germany?

Overall, Germany has recorded 206,242 cases and 9,122 deaths.

These numbers - in particular the death toll - are lower than many other European states, and Germany has won praise domestically and internationally for its rapid response to the pandemic and its mass testing programme.

But in recent days cases have jumped. New recorded infections increased by 633 on Tuesday, nearly double Monday's rise of 340. Over the last week the country has reported an average of 557 new infections daily, compared with about 350 in early June.

Moreover, the rise is widespread, with counties across the country reporting new cases. An RKI official said that only a few weeks ago nearly 150 counties were reporting no new infections, compared with only 95 counties now.

How are other European countries doing?

On Monday, Belgium reduced the size of its social bubbles to five people after a rise in cases.

Authorities in the city of Antwerp have imposed a night-time curfew on all but essential workers and have mandated that everyone aged over 12 must wear a mask in public.

The head of the RKI said Germans must stop the virus once again spreading "rapidly and uncontrollably" by following hygiene and distancing measures.

"We don't know yet if this is the beginning of a second wave but of course it could be," Mr Wieler said. "But I am optimistic that if we follow the hygiene rules we can prevent it, it's up to us."

How is the virus spreading in Germany?

Overall, Germany has recorded 206,242 cases and 9,122 deaths.

These numbers - in particular the death toll - are lower than many other European states, and Germany has won praise domestically and internationally for its rapid response to the pandemic and its mass testing programme.

But in recent days cases have jumped. New recorded infections increased by 633 on Tuesday, nearly double Monday's rise of 340. Over the last week the country has reported an average of 557 new infections daily, compared with about 350 in early June.

Moreover, the rise is widespread, with counties across the country reporting new cases. An RKI official said that only a few weeks ago nearly 150 counties were reporting no new infections, compared with only 95 counties now.

How are other European countries doing?

On Monday, Belgium reduced the size of its social bubbles to five people after a rise in cases.

Authorities in the city of Antwerp have imposed a night-time curfew on all but essential workers and have mandated that everyone aged over 12 must wear a mask in public.

Spanish officials are still hoping to get the UK to reverse or amend its quarantine order in a bid to save its embattled tourism industry. New infections remain high in the north-east, although nationally the outbreak remains under control, with few new cases emerging in other regions.

Nations in southeastern Europe are the continent's worst-affected.

Kosovo reported a record rise of almost 300 new infections on Tuesday, and its public health officials have warned that hospitals and health workers are overwhelmed by the number of cases.

Romania meanwhile has recorded more than 1,000 new cases for the seventh day in a row. The country now has more than 47,000 infections.

Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia are also struggling to contain outbreaks.

But Slovenia and Croatia have reported few infections compared to neighbouring states, and from Tuesday UK travellers can head to Slovenia without having to quarantine when they return.

Meanwhile, in Malta, more than two thirds of a group of 94 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean by the country's coastguard have now tested positive for the virus. The migrants - thought to be from Eritrea, Morocco and Sudan - will remain in quarantine at a reception centre.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

Study: Over Half of Mumbai Slum Residents Have Coronavirus Antibodies
John Hayward
29 Jul 20200

A study commissioned by the city of Mumbai revealed on Tuesday that over half of the people living in its famously crowded slums have antibodies for the Wuhan coronavirus in their blood.

As with seemingly all other news about the virus, both supporters and critics of the Indian government claimed the data vindicates their position.

WION News reported the results of the study accompanied by an observation that infections appear far more prevalent in Mumbai than expected, but “deaths in the sprawling slums have not exploded,” so city officials took the data as evidence their approach to the pandemic was correct:

India is already the third worst-hit country after the US and Brazil, with nearly 1.5 million cases though experts have previously said the lack of testing could mean the true tally is much higher.

Blood tests on 6,936 randomly selected people conducted by Mumbai’s city authorities found that 57 percent of slum-dwellers and 16 percent of non-slum residents had virus antibodies.

Mumbai, where about 40 percent of the population lives in slums, has reported just over 110,000 infections and more than 6,000 deaths so far.

A survey performed in May found 30 to 40 percent of Mumbai’s slum residents had coronavirus antibodies, so the 57 percent figure provided by the new study represents a substantial increase that approaches the much-discussed “herd immunity” threshold.

Another study found 23 percent of the comparably populous Indian capital of New Delhi have developed coronavirus antibodies, a figure also considered surprisingly high by researchers compared to hospitalizations and fatalities in the city.

“There is some comfort in this evidence of widespread asymptomatic transmission, which exceeds detected cases significantly, because the big takeaway is that a lot of people getting Covid in India are none the worse off for it,” the Times of India (TOI) editorialized on Wednesday.

TOI chastised “non-cooperative” residents from outside the slums of big cities for making it difficult to compile accurate infection and antibody data.

“This is unconscionable,” TOI declared. “Overcoming this virus depends on significantly increasing our body of knowledge about it.”

Jayaprakash Muliyil, head of an advisory committee at the Indian National Institute of Epidemiology, greeted the new study as evidence the slums “may have reached herd immunity” and suggested that if “people in Mumbai want a safe place to avoid infection, they should probably go there.”

Muliyil credited containment measures with reducing the number of deaths from the coronavirus, but appeared dubious that any quarantine regimen could truly prevent the disease from spreading in crowded areas.

“The virus does its work. The virus doesn’t worry about your quarantine and it is much more efficient than your efforts to contain it,” he said.

Herd immunity is an elusive concept that suggests a disease will die out once a sufficiently high percentage of the population has been exposed to it and developed antibodies. The exact level of exposure necessary to develop herd immunity is difficult to determine and is different for various diseases, but it is generally thought that 50 to 80 percent of a given population must become infected. Some virologists fear the Wuhan coronavirus could be one of the diseases for which herd immunity is never developed naturally.

Time is another vital aspect of herd immunity. The theory holds that an infection must spread fairly quickly for the population to develop antibodies against the current strain and choke the virus into submission. This is why some epidemiologists are critical of mitigation strategies that cause a virus to spread slowly and inexorably.

India’s data could help develop an understanding of whether herd immunity is a concept applicable to the Wuhan coronavirus, and if rapid spreading through the densely-populated slums proves to be more, or less, dangerous in the long run than a slow, contained spread through the upper-class regions of Mumbai and New Delhi.

As CNN pointed out, India has a fairly low coronavirus mortality rate overall despite a large number of reported infections and poor sanitation in the packed slums, where “residents live cheek-by-jowl in tiny homes with no running water, and share toilet facilities with several other families.” The slums of Mumbai currently feature 627 active virus containment zones.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi regards India’s high recovery rate and aggressive testing regime as signs of success and may begin relaxing pandemic restrictions in the next few days.

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Heliobas Disciple

TB Fanatic
(fair use applies)

WHO warns that waiting to achieve herd immunity to the coronavirus will kill a lot of people
Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
Published Wed, Jul 29 2020 3:09 PM EDT Updated 6 Hours Ago

Key Points
  • Herd immunity is necessary to really contain a virus, according to epidemiologists.
  • That is generally achieved once enough people either get vaccinated or survive the virus so they have the antibodies to fight off new infections and the virus doesn’t have enough new hosts to spread.
  • Most scientists think 60% to 80% of the population needs to be immune to achieve herd immunity, the WHO said.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday advised public officials against trying to achieve so-called herd immunity to the coronavirus by allowing it to rapidly spread throughout their communities, saying it will overwhelm hospitals and kill a lot of people.

Herd immunity is necessary to really contain a virus, according to epidemiologists. That is generally achieved once enough people either get vaccinated or survive the virus so they have the antibodies to fight off new infections and the virus doesn’t have enough new hosts to spread.

Most scientists think 60% to 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated or have natural antibodies to achieve herd immunity, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said on a live Q&A streamed across multiple social media platforms. “Whatever that number is, we’re nowhere near close to it, which means this virus has a long way to burn in our communities before we ever reach that,” he added.

Simply waiting for herd immunity to happen by allowing the virus to spread, as some opponents of social distancing measures have suggested, is dangerous, he added.

“The idea that we would have herd immunity as an objective, in some sense, it goes against controlling the disease because if you were to say, ‘We need to have a herd immunity of 70% and we should let the virus spread until we get to 70%,’ we’ve seen what happens,” he said. “Hospitals get overwhelmed. A lot of people die.”

Even if people don’t die from the disease, there are still long-term problems, Ryan said. “Anyone who looks at patients who are severe with Covid realizes this is a very severe, multiorgan disease that stresses many systems in the body, the cardiovascular system, the neurologic system. And we have to assume in milder cases a similar process is happening at a milder level.”

Young people with Covid-19 have left hospitals healthy, only to experience problems 10 or 15 weeks later, he said.

“They can’t run. They can’t exercise, they are out of breath, having coughing fits,” he said. “Who wants or needs that?”

The coronavirus has a wide range of symptoms, according to infectious disease experts and doctors who treat patients. Some people can be asymptomatic, where they never develop symptoms, while others get mild symptoms or severe symptoms that require hospitalization and even intensive care.

“We have to come to grips that Covid might kill me but it could also debilitate you over a significant period of time. And therefore we have to take it seriously. We have to take protecting ourselves and protecting others seriously,” he said. “At some level, we have the right to potentially risk harm to ourselves. We have no right to risk harm to others.”

The comments come as the coronavirus has spread to more than 16 million people worldwide and killed at least 660,881, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s nowhere near the levels needed to slow transmission, experts say.

Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said it is unlikely the coronavirus will ever be eradicated.

While the virus may not totally disappear, it’s possible world leaders and public health officials could work to bring the virus down to “low levels,” he told the TB Alliance.

“I think with a combination of good public health measures, a degree of global herd immunity and a good vaccine, which I do hope and feel cautiously optimistic that we will get, I think when we put all three of those together, we will get control of this, whether it’s this year or next year. I’m not certain,” he said.

But, he added, “I don’t really see us eradicating it.”

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john70

Veteran Member
Florida Department of Health Updates New COVID-19 Cases, Announces Two Hundred Sixteen Deaths Related to COVID-19 | Florida Department of Health

Test results for more than 88,200 individuals were reported to DOH as of midnight, on Tuesday, July 28. Today, as reported at 11 a.m., there are:

  • 9,446 new positive COVID-19 cases (9,384 Florida residents and 62 non-Florida residents)
  • 216 Florida resident deaths related to COVID-19

On July 28, 12.26 percent of new cases** tested positive.”
............all of the retesting really helps the positive per cent rate

FREE TESTING……….TEST POSITIVE ONCE
AND YOU MUST RETEST EVERY WEEK UNTIL YOU FAIL TWICE IN A ROW

we do not keep track of of RETESTING

EACH POSITIVE TEST COUNTS THE SAME………………..in the COVID19 GAME


TESTING THE SAME PERSON……...over and over……...5,8,11 TIMES


BUT……………...IT IS GOING TO RAIN THIS WEEKEND………………..

SO………………...NO TESTING FRIDAY TO SUNDAY

MAY TEST ON MONDAY IF THE SUN COMES OUT



There are a total of 451,423 Florida cases*** with 6,333 deaths related to COVID-19.”



deaths related to COVID-19”

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19…………..

TO DIE FROM COVID-19

YOU CAN DIE FROM ANYTHING

IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA WE LIST WHAT CAUSED YOUR DEATH


…………..and we list everything RELATED to your death


…………..AND…………...IF COVID-19 IS ANYWHERE ON THAT LIST


………….COVID-19 could be 8th on the list………..ON THE BOTTOM…..AN AFTER THOUGHT


GOOD NEWS………………...YOU WIN---WE WIN


YOU ARE COUNTED AS 1 OF “6,333 deaths related to COVID-19.”


IT IS COUNTED IN THE NATIONAL U.S.A. COVID-19 GAME


YOUR HOSPITAL, YOUR COUNTY, YOUR STATE, GETS A LOT OF MONEY


IF YOUR DEATH IS “ related to COVID-19.”
 
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Melodi

Disaster Cat
(fair use applies)

Dr. Fauci: Wear goggles or eye shields to prevent spread of COVID-19; flu vaccine a must
The nation's top infectious disease expert spoke to ABC News live on Instagram.

Caterina Andreano
July 29, 2020, 5:26 PM

Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested Wednesday that Americans should consider wearing goggles or a face shield in order to prevent spreading or catching COVID-19.

"If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it," the nation's top infectious disease expert told ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton during an Instagram Live conversation on ABC News.

When asked if we're going to get to a point where eye protection is recommended, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases responded, "It might, if you really want perfect protection of the mucosal surfaces."

"You have mucosa in the nose, mucosa in the mouth, but you also have mucosa in the eye," he continued. "Theoretically, you should protect all the mucosal surfaces. So if you have goggles or an eye shield you should use it."

He noted that goggles and eye or face shields are "not universally recommended" at this time, "but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can."

The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 662,000 people worldwide so far and more than 16.8 million people across the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Currently, the United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 4.3 million diagnosed cases and over 150,000 deaths.

Fauci watching Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana

Fauci called out four states by name that are struggling to get the virus in check. He and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus task force coordinator, addressed these states in a call with governors Tuesday.

Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana are among those that "are starting to show that very subtle increase in percent positives among the total tested, which is a surefire hint that you may be getting into the same sort of trouble with those states that the southern states got into trouble with. So we're watching that really carefully."

Birx has toured those states in the past week, meeting with officials in each state.

Dr. Anthony Fauci to @DrJAshton: "Look at the number of deaths—that's the worst we've had in respiratory outbreak in over 100 years, since the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu. And we still have a ways to go." Coronavirus updates: 150,000 dead in US pic.twitter.com/MQEgRKgh6P
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020

Fauci on testing window after exposure

Fauci also discussed when people should get tested for COVID-19 if they believe they've been exposed to the virus, since there are no official guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health on when to get tested.

"That question came up at the task force meeting yesterday and we asked the same thing and we said there's no real recommendation," Fauci said. "I would think that five [days] is good. I might even go a day or so early because the incubation period of when you get symptoms is about five days."

The window Fauci recommended is "no earlier than three [days] or no later than five or six."

Fauci looks ahead to flu season

As the summer transitions into the fall, Fauci also discussed the oncoming flu season.

Fauci said he hopes wearing masks will help limit the spread of influenza as well.

"It is inevitable that we're going to have some degree of flu," he said. "I'm hoping that the wearing of masks and other coverings are going to not only protect us against COVID-19, but also help protect us against influenza."
MORE: Fauci's concerned about Midwest reopening: 'Can't afford ... another surge'

He said two circulating respiratory viruses really "confuses the situation" since symptoms of the novel coronavirus and flu are so similar.

"Go out there and get your flu shot when the flu vaccine becomes available," he urged.

While encouraging everyone to get a flu vaccine, Dr. Fauci tells @DrJAshton he hopes masks and other coverings "are going to not only protect against COVID-19, but also help protect us against influenza. So we may find a secondary benefit of the lessons that we've learned." pic.twitter.com/bI9E8if1xa
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 29, 2020

Fauci on his personal life

Fauci chalked up his own good health to genetics, which he said was probably inherited by his father, who lived to 97. The 79-year-old has joked about his own age, most recently when he struggled while throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals' home opener.

He gets up at 5 a.m. every morning, grabs juice or eggs and will drink two "very strong" double espressos as he tackles his email. He works late, tries to squeeze in a run -- he noted he used to run marathons in his younger days -- and then will work "well into the night."

"Sleep is the one thing that's really suffered in all this," he said.

He also joked about his baseball card, featuring his opening pitch last week, which is breaking sales records: "It's a combination of humbling and really embarrassing. ... Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle are looking down from heaven at me and saying, 'Are you kidding?'"

As he's about to turn 80 years old, Dr. Anthony Fauci shares his fitness routine with @DrJAshton—and says "sleep is the one thing that's actually suffered in all of this." Coronavirus updates: 150,000 dead in US pic.twitter.com/GaiOqlabIq
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020

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This is exactly what Nightwolf said months ago...along with a N95 mask if you have one or but the face mask (which you can make from cutting a large plastic water bottle in two) may be as or more important than just a surgical mask - goggles (and he has some for making jewelry)are even better.
 

Mixin

Veteran Member
I may have discovered why Regenstrief numbers were so different from the state's numbers; I believe they come from INPC.
The Indiana Network for Patient Care research database (INPCR), managed by the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE), represents one of the largest health information exchanges in the country with over 100 separate healthcare entities providing data which includes: major hospitals, health networks, and insurance providers.

They are in the process of updating their dashboard and now show comparisons of IN testing to that of INPC:

7.29 Reg Testing.jpg

Recent hospitalization numbers (Regenstrief):

7.29 Reg Hosp.jpg
 

Mixin

Veteran Member
Some numbers from IN dashboard; total cases are 64,229 and total deaths are 2733.

7.29 Cases Demo.jpg7.29 Deaths Demo.jpg

I'm not sure which dashboard these numbers are from. The graphs are posted on the IN site but there's a link to Reg. The first one shows admissions and the second one shows how many people are hospitalized on a given day. I flagged the lowest reading before the 'surge' on each one.
7.29 Admits Low.jpg7.29 Census Low.jpg
 

Mixin

Veteran Member
They talk a lot about obesity being a comorbidity but I haven't found any numbers. This is from Regenstrief. The top one shows numbers for each one of what seems to be the top 8 comorbidities. The red bar shows the percentage of people with that disease among all Covid+. The dark blue bar shows the percentage of people with that disease among all hospitalized and the light bar shows percentage of people with that disease among all ICU admits.

The lower right pie chart shows the recovery rate (71%) has decreased and the active rate (25%) has increased as the cases have gone up. The % of deceased has gone down slowly to 4%.

7.29 Reg Recovered.jpg
 
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