CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcnZt1LR5Mo
12:45 min
Bay Area Sees Spike In Coronavirus Cases As California Reopens | NBC News NOW
•May 28, 2020

NBC News

NBC News’ Jacob Ward details how more than 2,000 cases and nearly 100 deaths in California’s Alameda County have caused growing concerns among health officials amid their efforts to reopen the state.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWBQdbEp-do
40:54 min
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Holds Coronavirus
Streamed live 5 hours ago

NBC News

Watch coronavirus livestream coverage of the outbreak as COVID-19 spreads, impacting markets and daily life across the U.S. and abroad.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjLEM9tdiE
1:38 min
New Coronavirus Outbreak As South Korea Reopens, Cases Surge In Brazil | NBC Nightly News
•May 28, 2020


NBC News
South Korea saw an outbreak of 79 cases, the biggest spike in two months, as the country slowly reopens. Coronavirus continues to surge in Brazil where they’re preparing to restart the economy.

________________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCfE2Pz75ww
11:53 min
CDC Releases New Coronavirus Workplaces Guidelines As U.S. Deaths Pass 100,000 | NBC News NOW
•May 28, 2020

NBC News

Internal medicine physician and MSNBC medical contributor Dr. Lipi Roy breaks down the new guidelines released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for those returning to the workplace as the U.S. death toll surpasses the 100,000 mark.

 

[marsh]

Exclusive: Gov. Newsom’s BYD Mask Deal Profitable for Insider Dealmakers – California Globe

californiaglobe.com

Exclusive: Gov. Newsom’s BYD Mask Deal Profitable for Insider Dealmakers
Lobbyists don’t report procurement contracts, and gov officials stonewalling on public information

By Katy Grimes, May 28, 2020 6:28 am

New details are emerging about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $1.4 Billion deal for masks with BYD, a Chinese electric bus maker that is now manufacturing N95 masks. However, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic the deal has soured, as the masks failed to meet national safety and health standards.

The governor told media that the federal government held up his mask shipment, but in fact, the federal government said Newsom’s Chinese masks failed safety and health standards. The masks the Chinese company delivered failed to get the approval of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Standard surgical masks are also part of the order.

If that is not clear enough, this is the word salad that Brian Ferguson, the deputy director for crisis communication and public affairs for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, served to The Epoch Times on May 8: “The masks didn’t fail a test, but rather did not pass certification yet.”

BYD’s contract with the Newsom administration was kept hidden from state legislators and the media since the deal was struck in April, on the heels of the even stranger mask deal with Blue Flame Medical LLC – a company only recently formed by former political consultants seeking to capitalize on the coronavirus pandemic.

In March, California wired $456.9 million to Blue Flame Medical LLC for millions of masks. But once it was revealed that the state of California wired the nearly $500 million dollars for masks to a company that had been in business for three days, the state demanded its money back.

California Globe learned from a source that minutes after the money was wired to Blue Flame Medical LLC, the State Controller’s office received a call from the bank warning that the bank account the money was wired to had only been opened the day before.

As California Globe reported, the governor’s office initially refused to disclose either contract to lawmakers and journalists.

What was BYD offering that was different from Blue Flame, since neither company had any prior experience manufacturing masks, and why was the outlay of upfront money less with Blue Flame?

The Governor’s BYD $1.4 billion contract is looking like well-connected insider trading.

The Build Your Dreams company, BYD, is based in Shenzen, China. The electric bus manufacturer has a California subsidiary in Lancaster, where it employs 1,000 people.

California Globe has uncovered a trail of well-connected players in the odd $1.4 billion mask deal which seems to lead up to the cabinet level inside the governor’s office.

The prominent lobbyist who represents BYD is Mark Weideman of The Weideman Group. The governor’s campaign received $40,000 from BYD’s automotive division.

Weideman also represents Bloom Energy, a fuel cell manufacturer in San Jose, which recently retooled its facility to rehabilitate ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

Weideman also represents NextGen America, owned by Tom Steyer, Newsom’s economic recovery committee chairman whose failed presidential campaign petered out in late February.

California Globe called and emailed Weideman to ask about the BYD contract. A phone call placed to his office at 1:07 pm May 19, 2020 did not receive a response. A follow-up email sent to Weideman via his company website May 25th also did not receive a response.

Mark Weideman’s wife is Jennifer Wada, an attorney who now has a government relations business – Wada Government Relations Group. It is not common knowledge even among Sacramento insiders that Wada and Weideman are married.

Wada previously was a partner in Wada, Williams Law Group. Her former law partner is Anthony Williams, who is now Gov. Newsom’s Legislative Affairs Secretary, although news reports from 2018 also called Williams Newsom’s “chief lobbyist.”

Anthony Williams was a senior adviser for former Democratic state Senate leaders John Burton and Darrell Steinberg, and lobbied for the Judicial Counsel of California and the State Bar.

A source said the governor was able to pivot so quickly from the bad Blue Flame Medical deal to BYD because of the connections between Weideman, Wada and Williams.

In the email California Globe sent, we asked Weidemen about these close connections, and if the deal came together because of Weideman, Wada and Williams.

“Newsom and his aides singled out BYD-America, which manufactures electric buses in Lancaster and has been a beneficiary of California’s efforts to combat climate change,” CalMatters reported April 8, 2020. “Mark Ghilarducci, Newsom’s director of the Office of Emergency Services, said BYD has a direct reachback into China to be able to build a sustainable amount of monthly masks that will be coming in to assist us.’”

BYD America is a subsidiary of BYD China.

As for “Gov Newsom and his aides singled out BYD-America…” Anthony Williams is one of Newsom’s top level aides, as this organizational chart of the governor’s office shows (Williams is at the far right, below First Partner Jennifer Newsom’s staff).

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office organizational chart. (gov.ca.gov)Procurement Payola: the Financial Incentive

Lobbyists are allowed to take a percentage of procurement contracts they are involved with, which can run as high as 15-20%, according to a source. With all of the other financial disclosures lobbyists are required to report, a lobbyist clarified for us why the procurement deals are not required reporting: When lobbyists are attempting to influence legislation or lawmakers, financial disclosures are required. Procurement deals and contracts are not influencing legislation or lawmakers, therefore, these deals are not reportable.

Did Anthony Williams, Gov. Newsom’s “chief Lobbyist” and Legislative Secretary, facilitate the BYD deal? Did he receive a cut of the deal? California Globe placed two phone calls to the Governor’s office to speak with Williams, but did not receive a response back. The first call on May 22 went unanswered. The second call on May 27, 2020, was answered after 14 minutes on hold, at 10:27 am. The receptionist said she would not transfer the call to his voicemail, and suggested emailing Mr. Williams’ assistant Tammy Trinh. The email to Anthony Williams’ assistant was sent at 10:48 am. The Globe has yet to receive a reply to any of these inquiries.

“Although the company, BYD, is a major global player in the electric vehicle and lithium battery markets, it also has glaring red flags on its record, experts warn, including a history of supplying allegedly faulty products to the U.S., ties to the Chinese military and Communist Party, and possible links to forced labor,” Vice reported. “BYD also has no history of making personal protective equipment, and yet days after the FDA approval, it secured a $1 billion deal to supply masks to California.”

When Gov. Newsom made the deals to purchase $1 Billion worth of masks from BYD, it was “to combat a growing need for masks in California and to secure them before other states and countries sign similar deals,” California Globe reported.

The question is “Why did he make this deal?”

“The number of COVID-19 deaths have been much less than the 750 total deaths that occur every day in California,” Epidemiologists James Enstrom and Jeffrey Klausner said in an Orange County Register article mid-April.

“Furthermore, there is evidence that there have been substantial reductions in the deaths due to seasonal flu, pneumonia and accidents because of the almost exclusive focus on COVID-19 and the current statewide lockdown.”

California Globe, with help from Dana Point Attorney Craig Alexander, filed California Public Records Requests in April with Gov. Gavin Newsom and the involved agencies for the contract the governor made with Chinese company BYD for 200 million surgical masks. Office of Emergency Services eventually made the contract public.

We will continue to report on this topic as details emerge.

 

[Troke]

ewshttps://finance.yahoo.com/n/every-single-worker-covid-one-100000688.html

Every Single Worker Has Covid at a U.S. Farm on Harvest Eve

Mike Dorning and Jen Skerritt
BloombergMay 29, 2020
One farm in Tennessee distributed Covid-19 tests to all of its workers after an employee came down with the virus. It turned out that every single one of its roughly 200 employees had been infected.

In New Jersey, more than 50 workers had the virus at a farm in Gloucester County, adding to nearly 60 who fell ill in neighboring Salem County. Washington state’s Yakima County, an agricultural area that produces apples, cherries, pears and most of the nation’s hops, has the highest per capita infection rate of any county on the West Coast.

The outbreaks underscore the latest pandemic threat to food supply: Farm workers are getting sick and spreading the illness just as the U.S. heads into the peak of the summer produce season. In all likelihood, the cases will keep climbing as more than half a million seasonal employees crowd onto buses to move among farms across the country and get housed together in cramped bunkhouse-style dormitories.

The early outbreaks are already starting to draw comparisons to the infections that plunged the U.S. meat industry into crisis over the past few months. Analysts and experts are warning that thousands of farm workers are vulnerable to contracting the disease.

Aside from the most immediate concern -- the grave danger that farmhands face -- the outbreaks could also create labor shortages at the worst possible time. Produce crops such as berries have a short life span, with only a couple of weeks during which they can be harvested. If a farm doesn’t have enough workers to collect crops in that window, they’re done for the season and the fruit will rot. A spike in virus cases among workers may mean shortages of some fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, along with higher prices.

“We’re watching very, very nervously -- the agricultural harvest season is only starting now,” said Michael Dale, executive director of the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project in Portland, Oregon, and a lawyer who has represented farm workers for 40 years. “I don’t think we’re ready. I don’t think we’re prepared.”

Unlike grain crops that rely on machinery, America’s fruits and vegetables are mostly picked and packed by hand, in long shifts out in the open -- a typically undesirable job in major economies. So the position typically goes to immigrants, who make up about three quarters of U.S. farm workers.

A workforce of seasonal migrants travels across the nation, following harvest patterns. Most come from Mexico and Latin America through key entry points like southern California, and go further by bus, often for hours, sometimes for days.

There are as many as 2.7 million hired farm workers in the U.S., including migrant, seasonal, year-round and guest-program workers, according to the Migrant Clinicians Network. While many migrants have their permanent residence in the U.S., moving from location to location during the warmer months, others enter through the federal H2A visa program. Still, roughly half of hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

These are some of the most vulnerable populations in the U.S., subjected to tough working conditions for little pay and meager benefits. Most don’t have access to adequate health care. Many don’t speak English.

Without them, it would be nearly impossible to keep America’s produce aisles filled. And yet, there’s no one collecting national numbers on how many are falling sick.

“There is woefully inadequate surveillance of what’s happening with Covid-19 and farm workers,” said Erik Nicholson, a national vice president for the United Farm Workers. “There is no central reporting, which is crazy because these are essential businesses.”

At Henderson Farms in Evensville, Tennessee, where all the workers caught the virus, the employees are now all in isolation at the farm, where they live and work.

“We take our responsibility to protect the essential workers feeding the nation through the pandemic seriously,” Henderson Farms Co. said in a statement. “In addition to continuing our policy of providing free healthcare, we have implemented additional measures to support workers directly impacted by Covid-19, including those in isolation as per the latest public health guidelines. We are working closely with public health officials in Rhea County, Tennessee, to ensure we can continue to deliver our high standard of care as we support our workers and our community through these unprecedented times.”

One migrant worker from Mexico said seven employees at the Georgia produce farm where he works had fallen ill with the virus. The sick were asked to quarantine in a dormitory unpaid, but others who share the sleeping quarters, full of bunk beds about 3 feet (1 meter) apart, were still going into the fields, he said. He said he was afraid of getting infected, which would mean he wouldn’t be able to send money back to his family.

Critical Months

May and June mark the start of a critical few months when migrant workers head to fields in North America and Europe to plant and gather crops. Travel restrictions amid the pandemic are already creating a labor squeeze. In Russia, the government is calling on convicts and students to fill in the labor gap on berry and vegetable farms. In the U.K., Prince Charles took to Twitter to encourage residents to #PickForBritain. Farmers in western Europe usually rely on seasonal workers from eastern Europe or northern Africa.

In Canada, migrant workers often come from Jamaica, Guatemala and Mexico. They’re typically housed on farms, with two or four people sharing a room, depending on if there are bunk-beds, said Colin Chapdelaine, president of BC Hot House, a greenhouse farming company that grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in Surrey, British Columbia.

All the houses are audited and approved by regulators with guidelines for how much kitchen and bathroom space to provide, but “Covid has kind of turned that on its head,” he said.

“It’s a precarious situation if something happens and it flows through a greenhouse and you can’t pick your crop,” Chapdelaine said. “We’re taking huge precautions to make sure everyone comes in suited and masked up. You have to do all the right things and still hope for the best.”

In the U.S., migrant farm workers primarily come from Mexico and Latin America.

President Donald Trump has sought to maintain the flow of foreign workers to U.S. farms during the pandemic, waiving interview requirements for some guest workers when consular offices shut down and exempting them from a temporary immigration ban. But so far, the administration hasn’t created rules to protect the workers. Democratic Representative Jimmy Panetta of California and 71 other members of Congress urged in a letter last week that the next coronavirus relief package include funding dedicated to combating spread of the virus among farm workers.

Even before infections started to creep up, there weren’t enough workers, causing harvest issues in parts of the U.S. Some prices started to move up. A 2-pound package of strawberries is fetching about 17% more than it was last year, and a pint of cherry tomatoes is 52% higher, USDA data as of May 22 show.

So far, though, the price impact has been limited. As restaurants shuttered during virus lockdowns, many farmers lost a key source of produce demand, creating some supply gluts.

Now, stay-at-home restrictions are easing in all 50 states, and some restaurants are opening back up. Meanwhile, labor shortages could get worse as illness among farm workers deepens.

“The cost will go up, and there will be a little bit less available,” said Kevin Kenny, chief operating officer of Decernis, an expert in global food safety and supply chains. “You really will see some supply issues coming.”

Perishable crops that require more hands on labor to pick are the most at-risk of disruptions, including olives and oranges, Kenny said.

In Florida, oranges are “literally dying on the vines” as not enough migrants can get into the country to pick the crops and things like processed juice will probably cost more in the coming months, he said.

When the virus spread among America’s meat workers, plants were forced to shutter as infections rates topped 50% in some facilities. Prices surged, with wholesale beef and pork more than doubling, and grocers including Kroger Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. rationed customer purchases. Even Wendy’s Co. dropped burgers from some menus. After an executive order from Trump, plants have reopened, but worker absenteeism is restraining output. Hog and cattle slaughter rates are still down more than 10% from last year.

The produce industry could see similar problems because workers face some of the same issues. They sometimes work shoulder to shoulder. They are transported to and from job sites in crowded buses or vans. They often come from low-income families and can’t afford to call in sick or are afraid of losing their jobs, so they end up showing up to work even if they have symptoms.

“A lot of people are concerned that the summer for farm workers will be like the spring for meat packers,” said David Seligman, director of Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization based in Denver.

There’s “a lot of worker fear because of the asymmetry of power in this industry,” Seligman said. “We’re hearing anecdotal reports. Gathering information about farm workers is very hard because of how scared and how isolated they are.”

There are some key differences between the two industries. For one, farm workers spend most of their time outside, and some research has shown that the virus is less likely to be spread outdoors. Meanwhile, meat workers are piled into cold, damp factories where infectious diseases are particularly hard to control.

In other ways, farm workers are more exposed. Living conditions can be even more cramped, with close-together bunks and communal cooking and bathroom facilities that make physical distancing extremely difficult.

Plus, the workers move around so much, meaning increased chances of exposure for themselves and more chances that sick individuals can spread the illness to other communities.

In Oregon, a farm worker often may move a half dozen times during the summer, working for new growers and housed in new labor camps as they shift from harvesting cherries to strawberries to blueberries to pears, said Dale of the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project.

Nely Rodriguez is a former farm worker who is now an organizer with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Immokalee, Florida, a major tomato growing area. She said that some farms are taking steps to protect migrants, such as having buses make more trips so workers won’t be as cramped and requiring them to wear masks, as well as providing more hand-washing stations and sanitizer.

Lisa Lochridge, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, also pointed to increased measures to protect workers and said some employers even set aside separate housing to be used for a quarantine area if necessary. Cory Lunde, of the Western Growers Association, said farm owners are staggering start times, disinfecting buses and increasing distances between workers, both in the field and in packing facilities and offices.

But protection measures can be spotty, said Rodriguez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. There aren’t yet any farm specific Covid-19 safety protocols from the federal government.

Developing Guidance

The USDA is “diligently working” with the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration “to develop guidance that will assist farmworkers and employers during this time,” the agency said in an emailed statement.

“Additionally, considering the seasonal and migratory nature of the workforce, we are working to identify housing resources that may be available to help control any spread of Covid-19,” the USDA said.

Harvests take place at different times across the country, depending on the weather and the crop. That means when gathering finishes in an early state like Florida, workers will travel into areas such as Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana and New Jersey, said Rodriguez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. They’ll often make the journey on old school buses rented by employers, sitting for 7 or 8 hours at a time with 45 people crammed in.

“If there is a bunch of farm workers here that are sick, they can essentially spread this virus to other rural communities,” Rodriguez said.

Many farm workers come from indigenous communities in southern Mexico and don’t speak English or Spanish as their first language, so they don’t have adequate information on the pandemic in a language they can understand, said Bruce Goldstein, president of Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy group.

They typically don’t have easy access to coronavirus tests, and many are undocumented so they are concerned about reporting illnesses, he said.

“They’re marginalized in Mexico. They’re similarly marginalized here,” Goldstein said. “People like that are incredibly vulnerable to Covid-19.”

 

[Texican]

United States COVID - Coronavirus Statistics - Worldometer

United States Coronavirus update with statistics and graphs: total and new cases, deaths per day, mortality and recovery rates, current active cases, recoveries, trends and timeline.

www.worldometers.info

United States

Coronavirus Cases------------1,793,530
Deaths---------------------------104,542

 

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....

East Oakland Quickly Becoming Hardest Hit COVID-19 Hot Spot In the Bay Area

The Fruitvale zip code, 94601, has one of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area, and today we learn that 12 workers at the Fruitvale location of Cardenas Markets have tested positive for the virus.

sfist.com

29 May 2020 / SF News / Jay Barmann East Oakland Quickly Becoming Hardest Hit COVID-19 Hot Spot In the Bay Area

The 94601 zip code in Oakland, which is home to the largely Latinx Fruitvale district as well as the Fairfax, Jefferson, Melrose, and Jingletown neighborhoods, now has one of the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 cases in the region. And today we learn that 12 workers at the Fruitvale location of Cardenas Markets have tested positive, bringing more worry to the neighborhood.

According to county data, there are now 309 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 94601 zip code, which equates to a rate of 553 per 100,000 residents. In several nearby zip codes in East Oakland, rates are between 300 and 500 per 100,000 residents, with the next highest being 94619, which is home to the Maxwell Park and Leona Heights neighborhoods, and where there are now 116 cases, or a rate of 462 cases per 100,000 residents.

The 94544 zip code in Hayward also has a case rate that is approaching 500 cases per 100,000 residents.

Map via Alameda County Department of Public Health
Similarly, in San Francisco, the Mission District's zip code, 94110, has a case rate of 511 per 100,000 residents (380 cases total), pointing to the ongoing disproportionate impact that the pandemic is having on Latinx communities around the Bay Area and beyond. The highest rate in San Francisco still belongs to the SoMa zip code, 94103, which has had 581 cases per 100,000 residents (a total of 158 cases to date in a population of around 27,000 people).

Alameda County has 3,195 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19 to date, with 98 new cases reported Friday morning. And as of last week, the county overtook Santa Clara County for the most cumulative cases in the region.

As the Mercury News reports, a dozen previously unreported cases have now been revealed among employees at Cardenas Markets at 1630 High Street in Oakland. The Mexican-focused market chain has reported multiple cases of COVID-19 among employees across California since March, when an employee at the chain's East San Jose location tested positive. But the 12 employees at the Fruitvale location seems to represent the largest outbreak to date.

"It’s alarming that we allow activity to continue when employees are testing positive," said district councilman Noel Gallo in a statement to the Mercury News. "If Cardenas is experiencing this, I’m sure other businesses are going through it too."

Cardenas Markets' Oakland store remained open this week after first reporting six COVID-positive employees to Gallo's office last week. The store has since undergone a deep clean by a third-party company, and a company spokesperson issued a statement saying, "“Our number one concern is the health and well-being of our team members and the communities we serve. We are doing everything we can to serve local residents and families to ensure their needs are met during this extraordinary crisis."

Marin County recently noted that a spike in coronavirus cases there was linked to a number of grocery store workers — and two grocery chains, United Markets and Mollie Stone's, subsequently both agreed to offer tests to all their employees.

Across the country, grocery store workers have been among the frontline workers bearing the brunt of the pandemic, forced to work in close proximity to a range of customers every day, some of whom could be infected and asymptomatic, and leaving behind aerosolized virus droplets in their wake when they're done shopping.

According to a Washington Post investigation, 5,500 grocery workers across the country have tested positive for COVID-19, and as of this week, 100 have died.

As a result, grocery chains are coming under fire from public health officials all over for not informing employees or the public when outbreaks occur, and not following proper testing, tracing, and quarantine procedures when their employees get sick. In recent interviews with 40 workers at 30 different grocery chains, the Post found allegations of "companies [that] had not disclosed cases of infected or dead workers, retaliated against employees who raised safety concerns, and used faulty equipment to implement coronavirus mitigation measures."

Related: Alameda County Overtakes Santa Clara For Most COVID Cases, Adds 280 Over Holiday Weekend

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Coronavirus was spreading 'cryptically' in the US by February, CDC say

Increases in coronavirus-like illnesses weren't apparent until March in places like New York, California and Washington, but a new CDC analysis suggests it was here a month earlier.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Coronavirus was spreading 'cryptically' in the US by early February, CDC data reveals
By Natalie Rahhal
Published: 14:06 EDT, 29 May 2020 | Updated: 14:17 EDT, 29 May 2020

• A CDC analysis of flu-like illnesses and post-mortem testing for coronavirus found that the first US coronavirus death happened on February 6
• The person had not traveled out of the country in the weeks preceding their death, suggesting they caught it in their community on US soil
• CDC now theorizes the virus was spreading 'cryptically' in the US by early February and perhaps as early as late January

Coronavirus had already begun spreading in the US sometime between late January and early February - albeit in fits and starts - a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis suggests.

The first identified case of coronavirus in the US was confirmed on January 21, in a 35-year-old man who had traveled to Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus pandemic originated.

But soon, cases began cropping up in various other places in the US, among people who had neither had contact with that man, nor traveled to China. On February 27, the CDC announced what they believed was the first case of community spread.

Now, the agency has pooled together the results of coronavirus tests run on nasal mucus samples collected before American health officials knew coronavirus had arrived in the US and established a new timeline of its spread.

Once the World Health Organization announced, on January 14, that coronavirus was spreading from person-to-person in China, it became likely that it would only be a matter of time before it made its way with travelers to other parts of the world.

It took less than a week for the CDC to confirm that that had happened.

But at that point, there was still hope - even widespread belief - that the virus could be contained to travelers and perhaps their close contacts.

It took just over a month for that hope to be dashed, when a California resident with no recent history of travel to China was confirmed to have coronavirus.

Confirmation of that first case of so-called 'community spread' was a hair-raising moment: there was no telling how this person contracted the disease, or how many others had also already been infected.

Two days later, another non-travel infection confirmed, this one in Washington (but not tied to the first identified patient).

Local health departments keep tabs on flu activity be collecting samples and keeping from people who get tested for flu and sharing the results with the CDC.

After coronavirus spread was detected in the US, these archived samples were also tested for the new virus.

CDC's analysis of flu-surveillance networks didn't show any notable increase in cases of flu-like illness - of which coronavirus is now considered one - before that date, February 28.

But the new analysis also includes testing performed on the bodies of people who died in late January and February of suspiciously COVID-19-like symptoms.

Two deceased people who had not travelled internationally in the weeks before their deaths tested positive for coronavirus: Two unaffiliated residents of a California county who died on February 6 and 17, respectively.

Health officials also later identified a person who left San Francisco on a cruise ship on February 11.

Taken together this group of cases 'confirms cryptic circulation of the virus by early February,' the CDC officials write.

Based on these testing data and genetic analysis of samples of the virus, the CDC now believes that the virus started spreading in the US after a 'single importation' from China, occurring before the first cases were identified.

After that point, they theorize that more people arriving from Europe brought additional strains to the US, where they spread - an hypothesis that is consistent with other genetic analyses suggesting that the virus arrived in New York from Europe.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Pictured: How coronavirus changed the BRAIN of a 25-year-old patient

A radiographer in Italy started working with coronavirus patients, had a cough for one day, then lost her sense of smell. MRI scans of her brain showed how the virus inflamed olfactory regions.

www.dailymail.co.uk

(fair use applies)

Revealed: How coronavirus changed the BRAIN of a 25-year-old patient who lost her sense of smell - but hardly showed any other signs of infection
By Natalie Rahhal
Published: 11:40 EDT, 29 May 2020 | Updated: 12:21 EDT, 29 May 2020

• Loss of smell is not recognized as one of the common symptoms of coronavirus
• An Italian radiographer, 25, developed a cough for one day, and completely lost her sense of smell
• Her nostrils and chest were normal upon examination, but an MRI showed damage to parts of her brain involved in the sense of smell
• It is the first time that an MRI has captured changes in the brain triggered by coronavirus - though not all patients have them

New brain scans of a coronavirus patient reveal how the virus can change the organ and deprive people of their sense of smell.

The Italian researchers believe their study is the first to show images of these brain changes in a living human patient.

Loss of smell is the most common of a handful of neurological symptoms that doctors now believe are caused by coronavirus. Previous studies have suggested that up to 65 percent of people infected lose their sense of smell.

But the new study is the first to show through medical imaging that the odd symptom is not just a result of the virus's travel through our airways, but evidence of the virus's attacks on the brain.

The images show slight fluctuations in a area of the brain that controls our olfactory sense.

To an untrained eye, they might be too subtle to see, but to the medical experts from IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas and Humanitas University in Milan, Italy, and Boston Children's in the US, the aberrations were clear.

Images were taken of a 25-year-old radiographer.

She was otherwise healthy, until she had to start working in a ward of her hospital caring for coronavirus patients.

For a single day, the health care worker had a dry cough, but by the next day it was gone.

But she couldn't smell anything, and everything she ate or drank tasted off. The two sensory symptoms persisted, even though she never developed a fever and felt mostly okay.

Exams of her nose and chest seemed normal three days after her sense of smell vanished, so doctors performed an MRI of the woman's brain, too.

They found changes to her brain in two areas: a region called the right gyrus rectus and in the olfactory bulbs.

Olfactory bulbs take in sensory information from the nose and pass them on to other regions, including the gyrus rectus, for processing.

The way that these changes appeared in the MRI were was consistent with the kind of images the doctors would expect to see from viral attacks on the organ, so they tested the woman for coronavirus.

Her test was positive.

After 28 days, the doctors did another MRI, and could see that her brain was starting to return to normal, although the olfactory bulbs remained slightly inflamed.

Eventually, the woman's sense of smell returned and no long-term damage was seen.

Oddly, the doctors took MRIs of two other patients with coronavirus and loss of smell but did not see the ame brain changes in them.

However, the alterations to the woman's brain were consistent with those noted in previous autopsies and animal studies - hers was just the first living human brain in which the at doctors observed the virus's attacks.

'Based on the MRI findings, including the slight olfactory bulb changes, we can speculate that SARS-CoV-2 might invade the brain through the olfactory pathway and cause an olfactory dysfunction,' the study authors wrote.

What's more, the fact that the woman really developed other signs of coronavirus - like fever, fatigue or persistent cough - told the doctors that loss of smell can be not only a symptom, but the primary symptom of the virus.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

More than 40% of coronavirus cases may be asymptomatic, study finds

A new study from Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China found that about 42% of 78 coronavirus patients were asymptomatic, and tended to be younger, female and had less organ damage.

www.dailymail.co.uk

(fair use applies)

More than 40% of people with coronavirus are asymptomatic, suggesting the virus may be far more widespread than the CDC's latest estimates
By Mary Kekatos
Published: 10:30 EDT, 28 May 2020 | Updated: 18:40 EDT, 28 May 2020

• Researchers looked at 78 coronavirus patients from Wuhan, China, and found that 33 - more than 42% - were asymptomatic
• Asymptomatic patients tended to be younger (in their 20s to 40s), women and had less damage to their organs
• Patients who didn't exhibit signs such as a cough or a fever tended to shed the virus for less time, eight days compared to 19 days
• The team says identifying and isolating asymptomatic patients as early as possible is key to stopping the spread of the virus

Nearly half of all cases of the novel coronavirus may be asymptomatic, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that more than 40 percent of patients didn't experience a cough, a fever or difficulty breathing.

These patients were more likely to be younger, female, and have much less damage to organs such as the lung and liver.

Previously, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Robert Redfield, estimated that one in four patients are asymptomatic.

The team, from Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China - where the worldwide outbreak originated - says its new findings are evidence that the highly-infectious virus may be more widespread than previously believed.

For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, the team looked at 78 patients who tested positive for the virus from December 24, 2019 to February 24, 2020.

They found that 45 patients were symptomatic with signs such as a dry cough, fever, fatigue and shortness of breath.

However, 33 patients - more than 42 percent - were asymptomatic, meaning they didn't exhibit any of those signs.

Asymptomatic patients were more likely to be younger ranging from their late 20s to their early 40s, while symptomatic patients ranged from their mid-30s to early 60s.

Females also tended to show no signs of the virus with nearly 67 percent of the asymptomatic group made of women compared to 31 percent of the symptomatic group.

In addition, the group of asymptomatic patients had a 'lower proportion of liver injuries' and had a faster lung recovery at about nine days in comparison with 15 days.

'Our finding...suggests that damage to the immune system in asymptomatic infections was milder compared with symptomatic infections,' the authors wrote.

Researchers noted that because asymptomatic patients may be unaware of their disease, they likely didn't isolate themselves or seek medical are and, thus, spread the disease to others.

But, fortunately, asymptomatic patients tended to shed the virus for half as long, eight days in comparison with 19 days.

'Since patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 were relatively concealed, the fact of viral shedding detected via nasopharyngeal swabs must not be ignored,' they wrote.

'Therefore, identifying and isolating patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 as early as possible is critical to control the transmission of COVID-19.'

The team also suggests identifying close contact of coronavirus patients and monitoring them to avoid secondary transmission.

The findings come on the heels of another study, conducted by Australian researchers, that looked at passengers on a 21-day Antarctic cruise earlier this year.

Of the 217 passengers and crew members, 128 tested positive for the virus and an astonishingly high 81 percent did not have symptoms.


see:

Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Asymptomatic vs Symptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China

This case series examines clinical characteristics of patients with asymptomatic vs symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 in Wuhan, China.

jamanetwork.com

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY1gykXJQIM
The TRUTH About Vitamin D and Covid 19 | Coronavirus
•May 29, 2020 14:10 min
Doctor Mike Hansen
Vitamin D that I take: https://amzn.to/2AnlHG0

These are the ones we take, we take them in drop form, I've read that they are more easily absorbed, could be anecdotal. The first one also has Vitamin K with it which some recommend. It's a little more expensive but the bottle could last a year if you take one drop a day.

https://www.amazon.com/Absorption-Vitamin-Liquid-Support-Healthy/dp/B06Y3X5SDZ

Amazon.com: Seeking Health Optimal Vitamin D Drops, Potent 2,000 IU Dose of Vitamin D per Drop, Pure Olive Oil and Vitamin D as Cholecalciferol, High-Potency Liquid Vitamin D, Vegetarian-Friendly, 900 Drops: Health & Personal Care

Buy Seeking Health Optimal Vitamin D Drops, Potent 2, 000 IU Dose of Vitamin D per Drop, Pure Olive Oil and Vitamin D as Cholecalciferol, High-Potency Liquid Vitamin D, Vegetarian-Friendly, 900 Drops on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

www.amazon.com

Everyone should do their own due diligence and research, and also be sure that taking Vitamin D does not interfere with any medication you are taking. That could be an issue with certain medicines.

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

WOW! I had to scroll to page 2 to post the PA update. First time ever!

Pennsylvania COVID-19 Numbers

Current number of positive results, age breakdowns, hospitalizations, and more.

www.health.pa.gov

COVID-19 Data for Pennsylvania*
* Map, tables, case counts and deaths last updated at 12:00 p.m. on 5/29/2020
Source: Pennsylvania National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS) as of 12:00 a.m. on 5/29/2020
Page last updated: 12:00 p.m. on 5/29/2020

View the beta version of the Pennsylvania COVID-19 Dashboard.


Case Counts, Deaths, and Negatives

Total Cases*	Deaths	Negative**	Recovered***
70,735	5,464	366,970	65%

* Total case counts include confirmed and probable cases.
** Negative case data only includes negative PCR tests. Negative case data does not include negative antibody tests.
*** Individuals who have recovered is determined using a calculation, similar to what is being done by several other states. If a case has not been reported as a death, and it is more than 30 days past the date of their first positive test (or onset of symptoms) then an individual is considered recovered.

Confirmed Cases	Probable Case by Definition and High-Risk Exposure	Probable Case by Serology Test and Either Symptoms or High-Risk Exposure
68,765	1,970	604

Hospital Data

• View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (desktop version)
• View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (mobile version)

Trajectory Animations

• COVID-19 Trajectory Animations

Positive Cases by Age Range to Date

Age Range	Percent of Cases*
0-4	< 1%
5-12	< 1%
13-18	2%
19-24	6%
25-49	37%
50-64	25%
65+	28%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding



Hospitalization Rates by Age Range to Date

Age Range	Percent of Cases*
0-4	< 1%
5-12	< 1%
13-18	< 1%
19-24	1%
25-49	16%
50-64	26%
65+	56%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Death Data

• View COVID-19 death data

County Case Counts to Date

County	Total Cases	Negatives
Adams	241	3011
Allegheny	1870	29539
Armstrong	62	1226
Beaver	582	3637
Bedford	39	753
Berks	3988	11392
Blair	49	2723
Bradford	46	1511
Bucks	5012	19098
Butler	227	3672
Cambria	57	3692
Cameron	2	125
Carbon	234	2307
Centre	151	2045
Chester	2607	12144
Clarion	26	671
Clearfield	38	1079
Clinton	55	578
Columbia	346	1308
Crawford	30	1065
Cumberland	621	5000
Dauphin	1231	9901
Delaware	6379	20165
Elk	6	317
Erie	253	4776
Fayette	95	3207
Forest	7	78
Franklin	762	5080
Fulton	15	224
Greene	27	761
Huntingdon	228	835
Indiana	90	1367
Jefferson	7	504
Juniata	95	334
Lackawanna	1528	6086
Lancaster	3105	15609
Lawrence	76	1285
Lebanon	950	4506
Lehigh	3738	13885
Luzerne	2711	10658
Lycoming	162	2229
McKean	12	584
Mercer	107	1546
Mifflin	58	1213
Monroe	1315	5801
Montgomery	6906	33577
Montour	50	3217
Northampton	3045	13061
Northumberland	186	1388
Perry	56	728
Philadelphia	18156	56668
Pike	476	1984
Potter	4	142
Schuylkill	616	4845
Snyder	39	392
Somerset	37	1753
Sullivan	3	94
Susquehanna	109	765
Tioga	17	561
Union	57	1100
Venango	8	541
Warren	3	371
Washington	139	4227
Wayne	119	1004
Westmoreland	444	9075
Wyoming	34	468
York	991	13482

• View as a clickable county or zip code level mapOpens In A New Window

Incidence by County

Incidence is calculated by dividing the current number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported to the Department by the 2018 county population data available from the Bureau of Health Statistics. The counties are divided into 6 relatively equally-sized groups based on their incidence rate (i.e. sestiles). Cases are determined using a national COVID-19 case definition. There currently is no way to estimate the true number of infected persons. Incidence rates are based on the number of known cases, not the number of true infected persons.

Case Counts by Sex to Date

Sex	Positive Cases	Percent of Cases*
Female	38,739	55%
Male	31,292	44%
Neither	3	0%
Not reported	701	1%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Case Counts by Race to Date*

Race	Positive Cases	Percent of Cases**
African American/Black	8632	12%
Asian	1011	1%
White	19,399	27%
Other	417	1%
Not reported	41,276	58%

* 58% of race is not reported. Little data is available on ethnicity.

** Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Case Counts by Region to Date

Region	Positive	Negative	Inconclusive
Northcentral	1041	14565	17
Northeast	13000	56019	151
Northwest	484	12942	19
Southcentral	5148	47790	80
Southeast	45684	173498	944
Southwest	3408	62156	47

EpiCurve by Region

Case counts are displayed by the date that the cases were first reported to the PA-NEDSS surveillance system. Case counts by date of report can vary significantly from day to day for a variety of reasons. In addition to changes due to actual changes in disease incidence, trends are strongly influenced by testing patterns (who gets tested and why), testing availability, lab analysis backlogs, lab reporting delays, new labs joining our electronic laboratory reporting system, mass screenings, etc. Trends need to be sustained for at least 2-3 weeks before any conclusions can be made regarding the progress of the pandemic.
COVID-19 Cases Associated with Nursing Homes and Personal Care Homes to Date
This data represents long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania, including Department of Health and Department of Human Services regulated facilities.

• COVID-19 Long-Term Care Facilities Data (updated 5/26/2020 at 3:30 p.m.)

There's not as much to report these days. The riots are going to be the focus of the news for the summer (as they didn't get the mileage they expected to get from the pandemic in regards to trying to unseat Trump in Nov so they're moving on to something they hope will). Some more studies, all the great videos that Marsh posts, some figures. But I think we're in a lull, which is good. Hopefully it lasts and we don't see any resurgences of the virus with cities coming out of lockdown. Thanks for continuing your updates, it really gives a good record for later of how the disease progressed in your state. I'll continue to post updates if I find them, the articles are becoming less and less frequent as well.

HD

 

[TammyinWI]

Symptoms of the coronavirus include the need to loot, spray graffiti, and set dumpsters on fire.

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

Healthy people should wear masks only if caring for coronavirus patients, WHO says

The World Health Organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion…

nypost.com

Healthy people should wear masks only if caring for coronavirus patients, WHO says
By Louis Casiano, Fox News
May 28, 2020

"The World Health Organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion, a sharp contrast from the advice given by American public health officials who recommend everyone wear a mask in public.

“If you do not have any [respiratory] symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose, you do not need to wear a mask,” Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the WHO, says in a video on the world health body’s website. “Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough.”

The recommendation differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which urges individuals to wear a mask or face covering in public settings, regardless of infection, to limit the spread of the virus.

“We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (‘asymptomatic’) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (‘pre-symptomatic’) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms,” the CDC mask guidance says. “In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

Baller noted that masks can give people a “false feeling of protection” and noted that sick individuals should wear one to prevent transmitting the virus to others.

People wear masks in NYC amid the coronavirus outbreak

Messages to the WHO from Fox News were not immediately returned.

The CDC recommended last month that people wear nonsurgical face coverings when out in public after previously advising only health care workers and people exhibiting symptoms to do so. A new study suggests that wearing masks could cut COVID-19 cases by 80 percent if people heeded the advice.

“Universal masking at 80 [percent] adoption flattens the curve significantly more than maintaining a strict lockdown,” a group of international researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The authors noted that countries and regions — Macau, Beijing, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan — with histories of wearing masks have seen huge reductions in the number of coronavirus cases after reaching their peak.

A separate study released earlier this month divided scientists on the effectiveness of wearing masks."

 

[Tristan]

Healthy people should wear masks only if caring for coronavirus patients, WHO says

The World Health Organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion…

nypost.com

Healthy people should wear masks only if caring for coronavirus patients, WHO says
By Louis Casiano, Fox News
May 28, 2020

"The World Health Organization is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit COVID-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion, a sharp contrast from the advice given by American public health officials who recommend everyone wear a mask in public.

“If you do not have any [respiratory] symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose, you do not need to wear a mask,” Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the WHO, says in a video on the world health body’s website. “Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough.”

The recommendation differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which urges individuals to wear a mask or face covering in public settings, regardless of infection, to limit the spread of the virus.

“We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms (‘asymptomatic’) and that even those who eventually develop symptoms (‘pre-symptomatic’) can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms,” the CDC mask guidance says. “In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.”

Baller noted that masks can give people a “false feeling of protection” and noted that sick individuals should wear one to prevent transmitting the virus to others.

People wear masks in NYC amid the coronavirus outbreak

Messages to the WHO from Fox News were not immediately returned.

The CDC recommended last month that people wear nonsurgical face coverings when out in public after previously advising only health care workers and people exhibiting symptoms to do so. A new study suggests that wearing masks could cut COVID-19 cases by 80 percent if people heeded the advice.

“Universal masking at 80 [percent] adoption flattens the curve significantly more than maintaining a strict lockdown,” a group of international researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The authors noted that countries and regions — Macau, Beijing, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan — with histories of wearing masks have seen huge reductions in the number of coronavirus cases after reaching their peak.

A separate study released earlier this month divided scientists on the effectiveness of wearing masks."

You should!
You shouldn't!

You Must!
You Must Not!

It does!
It doesn't!


It's gotten to the point that this damn virus is so politicized that everything about it is propagandized.

 

[naturallysweet]

I think a big part of the problem is that the medical community is clinging to the idea that there is a very small and very strict set of symptoms for covid-19. So if you don't experience those very small symptoms then you're considered asymptomatic.

Problem is that there are about 50 different symptoms from your toes to the top of your head that covid-19 sufferers experience.

This is proving to me that our medical establishment are run by absolute idiots.

 

[poppy]

I think a big part of the problem is that the medical community is clinging to the idea that there is a very small and very strict set of symptoms for covid-19. So if you don't experience those very small symptoms then you're considered asymptomatic.

Problem is that there are about 50 different symptoms from your toes to the top of your head that covid-19 sufferers experience.

This is proving to me that our medical establishment are run by absolute idiots.

More likely the power of suggestion. We tend to blame every malady we get for anything we notice out of the ordinary. Most people blame the last thing they ate for every upset stomach they get but that is rarely the case. Often times others with them ate the same thing and never got sick. This is not some super virus.

 

[marsh]

I have stopped posting zerohedge and Breitbart articles and am just sticking to Youtube. I am too busy in the garden. ( I had let it go for a year because of Delta rats. Now I have encased all the raised beds in hardware cloth and am reorganizing.)

The link to Zerohedge is: Zero Hedge | On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Breitbart is: Breitbart News Network
If anyone wants to monitor and post

 

[marsh]

[COMMENT: Technically this is more about China than the virus itself, but there is political interplay between the two]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS0A7uU2bYA
10:16 min
China Must “Prepare for War:” Xi Jinping | India and China Military Build Up
•May 30, 2020


China Uncensored

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is telling the military, the People's Liberation Army, to prepare for war! This comes as a growing border dispute between India and China, and threats of invasion of Taiwan threaten the global order and peace. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells Congress Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from Mainland China.

_________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXF_Spjx4wc
59:06 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 203
•Streamed live 7 hours ago

Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republi

Steve Bannon, Jack Maxey, Raheem Kassam, and Greg Manz discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the Chinese Communist Party is ramping up its information war in The West. Calling in is Chris Fenton to talk about the CCP's stranglehold on Hollywood. Liz Yore calls in to discuss the situation in Minneapolis. Jack Leung calls in to give an update on the ground as to what is happening in Hong Kong.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxaMz2SifQk
1:01:02 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 204
•Streamed live 6 hours ago

Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic

Steve Bannon, Jack Maxey, Raheem Kassam, and Greg Manz discuss the latest on the coronavirus pandemic as the Chinese Communist Party is ramping up its information war in The West. Calling in is Chris Fenton to talk about the CCP's stranglehold on Hollywood. Liz Yore calls in to discuss the situation in Minneapolis. Jack Leung calls in to give an update on the ground as to what is happening in Hong Kong.

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UYihh8hA5w
22:59 min
Report from Malawi
•May 30, 2020

Dr. John Campbell (PhD, nurse)

Thank you Adam

___________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlI4dY3xLBI
29:51 min
Update and smoking
•May 30, 2020

Dr. John Campbell (PhD, nurse)

Canada Cases, 90,909 Deaths, 7,063 https://phac-aspc.maps.arcgis.com/app...

Long term care being reviewed United States Cases, 1,747,087 Deaths, 102,836 Atlanta, NYC, Minneapolis, Denver, Houston Many / some protesters not wearing masks Seemed to be ignoring social distancing Links with WHO severed NYC reopening 8th June to a new normal, back to work San Francisco extending stay at home order indefinitely Increasing cases in Mississippi, single day high CDC Virus arrived in California from China, Jan 18th – Feb 9th Memorial Day weekend at Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks Person tested positive Health officials, ‘inform mass numbers of unknown people’

United Kingdom Cases, 272,607 Deaths, 38,243 SAGE Scientists concerned about easing of restrictions COVID-19 Symptom Study https://covid.joinzoe.com 9,900 in England 11,300 new cases across the UK 17 % down on last week By combining COVID swab testing with data from the COVID Symptom Study app, we are able to estimate the number of new daily COVID cases within the community ‘This new incidence rate will be capturing the day-to-day change in the disease which means we will be able to tell the active status of the virus within the population. As a result we will know whether the infection rate is stable, falling or increasing very quickly which will influence decisions around loosening lockdown.’

(Tim Specter) Smoking 2.4 million UK study participants over 2 weeks 11% were smokers UK overall smokers = 14.7% 834,437 reported not feeling physically normal during this 2 weeks Current smokers were 14% more likely to develop the three classic symptoms of coronavirus infection - fever, persistent cough and shortness of breath - than non-smokers. Smokers were also 29% more likely to report more than 5 symptoms associated with COVID-19 50% more likely to report more than 10, including loss of smell, skipping meals, tiredness, diarrhoea, confusion or muscle pain Smokers were more than twice as likely as non-smokers to end up in hospital with severe symptoms of COVID-19 having tested positive for the disease.

China Four new imported cases United Nations Two peacekeepers die in Mali (from Cambodia and El Salvador) Italy Looking good for reopening 3rd June Inter-regional travel by Italians and Europeans alike. Portugal Gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions over the past four weeks – no new spikes Movie theatres, shopping malls, gymnasiums, kindergartens Iraq Population 38m Cases, 5,837 Deaths, 185 Country's highest single-day spike in cases India Continues to ease restrictions Cases + 7,964 = 173,763 Deaths, + 265 = 4,971 Samples borrowed by monkeys returned Brazil Cases, + 26,928 = 465,166. Deaths, + 1,124 = 27,878

 

[Plain Jane]

Thanks for continuing your updates, it really gives a good record for later of how the disease progressed in your state. I'll continue to post updates if I find them, the articles are becoming less and less frequent as well.

HD

Thanks for the support. I think that PA is a pretty good case study so I 'll keep posting as long as it seems relevant. I was just surprised at the suddenness of the drop off!

Pennsylvania COVID-19 Numbers

Current number of positive results, age breakdowns, hospitalizations, and more.

www.health.pa.gov

COVID-19 Data for Pennsylvania*
* Map, tables, case counts and deaths last updated at 12:00 p.m. on 5/30/2020
Source: Pennsylvania National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (PA-NEDSS) as of 12:00 a.m. on 5/30/2020
Page last updated: 12:00 p.m. on 5/30/2020

View the beta version of the Pennsylvania COVID-19 Dashboard.



Case Counts, Deaths, and Negatives

Total Cases*	Deaths	Negative**	Recovered***
71,415	5,537	375,731	66%

* Total case counts include confirmed and probable cases.
** Negative case data only includes negative PCR tests. Negative case data does not include negative antibody tests.
*** Individuals who have recovered is determined using a calculation, similar to what is being done by several other states. If a case has not been reported as a death, and it is more than 30 days past the date of their first positive test (or onset of symptoms) then an individual is considered recovered.

Confirmed Cases	Probable Case by Definition and High-Risk Exposure	Probable Case by Serology Test and Either Symptoms or High-Risk Exposure
69,424	1,991	616

Hospital Data

• View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (desktop version)
• View hospital dataOpens In A New Window (mobile version)

Trajectory Animations

• COVID-19 Trajectory Animations

Positive Cases by Age Range to Date

Age Range	Percent of Cases*
0-4	< 1%
5-12	< 1%
13-18	2%
19-24	6%
25-49	37%
50-64	25%
65+	28%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Hospitalization Rates by Age Range to Date

Age Range	Percent of Cases*
0-4	< 1%
5-12	< 1%
13-18	< 1%
19-24	1%
25-49	16%
50-64	26%
65+	56%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Death Data

• View COVID-19 death data

County Case Counts to Date

County	Total Cases	Negatives
Adams	245	3065
Allegheny	1897	30129
Armstrong	62	1245
Beaver	589	3720
Bedford	39	766
Berks	4002	11582
Blair	50	2777
Bradford	46	1555
Bucks	5050	19596
Butler	229	3721
Cambria	57	3809
Cameron	2	127
Carbon	235	2356
Centre	152	2078
Chester	2669	12463
Clarion	27	677
Clearfield	39	1101
Clinton	56	597
Columbia	346	1343
Crawford	29	1078
Cumberland	626	5423
Dauphin	1258	10021
Delaware	6420	20793
Elk	6	323
Erie	274	4964
Fayette	95	3276
Forest	7	80
Franklin	767	5173
Fulton	15	227
Greene	27	778
Huntingdon	230	868
Indiana	91	1421
Jefferson	9	519
Juniata	95	341
Lackawanna	1543	6166
Lancaster	3131	15889
Lawrence	79	1342
Lebanon	958	4551
Lehigh	3747	14084
Luzerne	2722	10929
Lycoming	164	2278
McKean	12	610
Mercer	107	1602
Mifflin	59	1233
Monroe	1318	5914
Montgomery	7006	34404
Montour	50	3243
Northampton	3062	13304
Northumberland	190	1418
Perry	57	759
Philadelphia	18347	58315
Pike	476	2014
Potter	4	148
Schuylkill	623	4971
Snyder	42	403
Somerset	38	1806
Sullivan	3	96
Susquehanna	109	787
Tioga	17	571
Union	59	1172
Venango	9	555
Warren	3	386
Washington	139	4370
Wayne	119	1028
Westmoreland	447	9258
Wyoming	34	486
York	1000	13647

• View as a clickable county or zip code level mapOpens In A New Window

Incidence by County

Incidence is calculated by dividing the current number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported to the Department by the 2018 county population data available from the Bureau of Health Statistics. The counties are divided into 6 relatively equally-sized groups based on their incidence rate (i.e. sestiles). Cases are determined using a national COVID-19 case definition. There currently is no way to estimate the true number of infected persons. Incidence rates are based on the number of known cases, not the number of true infected persons.

Case Counts by Sex to Date

Sex	Positive Cases	Percent of Cases*
Female	39,119	55%
Male	31,585	44%
Neither	3	0%
Not reported	708	1%

* Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding

Case Counts by Race to Date*

Race	Positive Cases	Percent of Cases**
African American/Black	8724	12%
Asian	1028	1%
White	19,634	27%
Other	427	1%
Not reported	41,602	58%

* 58% of race is not reported. Little data is available on ethnicity.
** Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding


Case Counts by Region to Date

Region	Positive	Negative	Inconclusive
Northcentral	1054	14902	17
Northeast	13056	57068	151
Northwest	512	13364	19
Southcentral	5213	48851	81
Southeast	46148	178013	956
Southwest	3441	63533	46

EpiCurve by Region

Case counts are displayed by the date that the cases were first reported to the PA-NEDSS surveillance system. Case counts by date of report can vary significantly from day to day for a variety of reasons. In addition to changes due to actual changes in disease incidence, trends are strongly influenced by testing patterns (who gets tested and why), testing availability, lab analysis backlogs, lab reporting delays, new labs joining our electronic laboratory reporting system, mass screenings, etc. Trends need to be sustained for at least 2-3 weeks before any conclusions can be made regarding the progress of the pandemic.
COVID-19 Cases Associated with Nursing Homes and Personal Care Homes to Date
This data represents long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania, including Department of Health and Department of Human Services regulated facilities.

• COVID-19 Long-Term Care Facilities Data (updated 5/26/2020 at 3:30 p.m.)

 

[marsh]

 

[naturallysweet]

More likely the power of suggestion. We tend to blame every malady we get for anything we notice out of the ordinary. Most people blame the last thing they ate for every upset stomach they get but that is rarely the case. Often times others with them ate the same thing and never got sick. This is not some super virus.

.

I'm sorry. But you're completely off base here.
This is not the flu.
Rather than play an expert on the internet with something that you have zero experience in. . You need to actually speak to people who have had completely novel symptoms for months. People who share the exact same completely novel symptoms for months with thousands of other people.

 

[Texican]

The riots across America have pushed covid to the background even though covid is still rampaging.

What will the case load will be when this is over?

Prepare for the riots will be even uglier before this is over.

Masks and gloves are worth the expense to stay safe.

Be careful out there.

Texican....

 

[danielboon]

BREAKING NEWS Massachusetts coronavirus cases: 6,768 deaths, 96,301 positive tests. Massachusetts coronavirus cases: 6,768 deaths, 96,301 positive tests 50 new deaths down from 78 yesterday

 

[MinnesotaSmith]

I think a big part of the problem is that the medical community is clinging to the idea that there is a very small and very strict set of symptoms for covid-19. So if you don't experience those very small symptoms then you're considered asymptomatic.

Problem is that there are about 50 different symptoms from your toes to the top of your head that covid-19 sufferers experience.

This is proving to me that our medical establishment are run by absolute idiots.

Nothing new for them. They did the same thing for Lyme Disease, where even people with EVERY symptom, they (the CDC) made the DNA test band criteria so restrictive, over HALF the people who clearly had it (and showed positive on a screening test to boot) were deemed negative for ever having had it.

 

[Ragnarok]

.

I'm sorry. But you're completely off base here.
This is not the flu.
Rather than play an expert on the internet with something that you have zero experience in. . You need to actually speak to people who have had completely novel symptoms for months. People who share the exact same completely novel symptoms for months with thousands of other people.

Well... That ain't gonna happen with poppy...

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

You should! You shouldn't!
You Must! You Must Not!
It does! It doesn't!
It's gotten to the point that this damn virus is so politicized that everything about it is propagandized.

So true.

But the honey badger virus itself is not. It just is, and it's still out there doing it's thing, whether or not it's politicized, propagandized or even pushed out of the news. It's still there.

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I think a big part of the problem is that the medical community is clinging to the idea that there is a very small and very strict set of symptoms for covid-19. So if you don't experience those very small symptoms then you're considered asymptomatic.

Problem is that there are about 50 different symptoms from your toes to the top of your head that covid-19 sufferers experience.

This is proving to me that our medical establishment are run by absolute idiots.

Add to that the false negative tests (which could be up to 50% of them) which even though they should know better, they rely on to dismiss an obvious COVID patient and send them home to infect more people.

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I have stopped posting zerohedge and Breitbart articles and am just sticking to Youtube. I am too busy in the garden. ( I had let it go for a year because of Delta rats. Now I have encased all the raised beds in hardware cloth and am reorganizing.)

The link to Zerohedge is: Zero Hedge | On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Breitbart is: Breitbart News Network
If anyone wants to monitor and post

Thank you Marsh for all you post. I check Breitbart pretty regularly and will start checking zero hedge. Have fun in the garden

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

The riots across America have pushed covid to the background even though covid is still rampaging.
What will the case load will be when this is over?
Prepare for the riots will be even uglier before this is over.
Masks and gloves are worth the expense to stay safe.
Be careful out there.
Texican....

COVID is definitely not gone. But the media is moving on because they have something hotter (pun intended) to report on that reflects worse on Trump and gives them more mileage.

The woo conspiracy theorist in me is thinking how convenient it is for the Deep State to use these protestors to burn down the cities and have them exposed to and then infected with COVID so that they are dead and gone when the new world order begins. Not only is there no social distancing but the screaming and shouting expels more of the virus, and to a larger area. If they all die off from covid, the Deep State won't have to deal with the risk of them turning on the Deep State once they are in power, very convenient. And you can bet they are all being tracked by their cellphones and lists are being complied. One thing we've learned from covid and 'contact tracing' is the technology is there and is being used. That part's not woo, it's established fact. After all, if even one of them gets covid, they're going to need to know who they had contact with....

HD

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

The Chinese CDC now says the coronavirus didn't jump to people at the Wuhan wet market — instead, it was the site of a superspreader event

We still don't know the origin of the new coronavirus. But according to the Chinese CDC, it isn't the wet market in Wuhan.

www.businessinsider.com.au

(fair use applies)

The Chinese CDC now says the coronavirus didn't jump to people at the Wuhan wet market — instead, it was the site of a superspreader event
Aylin Woodward
May 29, 2020, 8:49 AM

• Experts think the new coronavirus originated in bats, then jumped to humans via an intermediary animal species.
• Authorities in Wuhan, China, where the first cases were reported, initially thought that jump happened at a local wet market.
• Now, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has ruled out the market as a possible origin of the outbreak – instead, it may have been the site of an early superspreader event.
• The Chinese CDC said its tests didn’t show a link between animals sold at the market and the virus, suggesting that they couldn’t have infected shoppers.

Experts still don’t know where the new coronavirus came from.

Genetic evidence has all but confirmed that the virus originated in Chinese bats before it jumped to humans via an intermediary animal host. But where and how that happened is still up for debate.

Authorities in Wuhan, China, initially reported that the first cases of the virus emerged at the local Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. But the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that following an investigation of the animals there, it ruled the site out as the origin of the outbreak.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese CDC, told Chinese state media, “It now turns out that the market is one of the victims.”

The Chinese CDC said that samples collected from the market didn’t show a link between the animals there and the new coronavirus, suggesting that they couldn’t have infected shoppers.

The cases linked to the wet market weren’t the first in China

Wuhan authorities informed the World Health Organisation on December 31 about the unknown, pneumonialike illness that would later be identified as COVID-19.

Most of the initial 41 cases were linked to the wet market, which was closed on January 1. Given that the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003 started at a similar venue in Guangdong, China, the wet market seemed like a logical origin. (The SARS coronavirus jumped from bats to civet cats to people.)

But none of the animals at the market tested positive for the virus, Colin Carlson, a Georgetown University researcher who studies zoonotic diseases, told Live Science. If they were never infected, they couldn’t have been the intermediary host that facilitated the spillover.

A growing body of research supports the Chinese CDC’s conclusion that the outbreak’s origins were unrelated to the market. The virus seems to have been circulating in Wuhan before those 41 cases were reported: Research published in January found that the first person to test positive for the coronavirus was likely exposed to it on December 1, then showed symptoms on December 8. The researchers behind that study also found that 13 of the 41 original cases had no link to the wet market.

Similarly, a study published in April suggested that the coronavirus had already established itself and begun spreading in Wuhan by early January.

The identity of “patient zero” hasn’t been confirmed, but it may have been a 55-year-old man from China’s Hubei province who was infected on November 17, the South China Morning Post reported in

The wet market could have been the site of a superspreader event

Carlson told Live Science that the Wuhan wet market may simply have been the site of an early superspreader event, an instance in which one sick person infects an atypically large number of other people.

Other superspreader events around the world have created clusters of infections that cropped up almost overnight. In Daegu, South Korea, for example, one churchgoer infected at least 43 other people.

These instances don’t necessarily involve a person who is more contagious than others or who sheds more viral particles. Rather, the infected person has access to a greater number of people in spaces that facilitate infection. A market where shoppers interact with one another and vendors in close quarters is one such risky place.

The coronavirus also probably did not leak from a lab

Lingering questions about the pandemic’s origin have given rise to a range of unsubstantiated theories. One suggests the coronavirus may have accidentally leaked from a local laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists were researching coronaviruses.

But both Chinese and US researchers have said there’s no evidence to support that theory. The high-security lab has said it has no record of the novel coronavirus’ genome, and it follows strict safety measures.

The director of the institute, Wang Yanyi, told China Central Television over the weekend that the new coronavirus was genetically different from any kind of live virus that has been studied at the institute, according to The Journal.

Shi Zhengli, a virologist at the institute who collects, samples, and studies coronaviruses in Chinese bats, told Scientific American in March that she cross-referenced the new coronavirus’ genome with the genetic information of other bat coronaviruses her team had collected and didn’t find a match.

“That really took a load off my mind,” Shi said. “I had not slept a wink for days.”

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Here's the Global Times article referenced above:

Wuhan's Huanan seafood market a victim of COVID-19: CDC director - Global Times

www.globaltimes.cn

(fair use applies)

Wuhan's Huanan seafood market a victim of COVID-19: CDC director
Source:Global Times
Published: 2020/5/26 11:13:40

The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province and the epiccenter of the novel coronavirues, is believed to be the origin of the virus. Photos: CNS photo

The Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei Province which has come under the spotlight over suspicions that it was the origin of the novel coronavirus, is more like a victim of COVID-19, said the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as the search for the origin of the outbreak continues.

"At first, we assumed the seafood market might have the virus, but now the market is more like a victim. The novel coronavirus had existed long before,"

Gao Fu, director of the center and member of the National Committee of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said on Monday.

Gao said he had gone to Wuhan to collect samples for COVID-19 researchers in early January, but no viruses were detected in the animal samples. Viruses were only found in environmental samples, including sewage.

Gao said that the Chinese government and scientists are working hard to study the origin of virus, but it is characterized by cross-species transmission, and so far, intermediate hosts of the virus have not yet been confirmed.

Although the origin of the novel coronavirus is still not clear, some politicians in the US and other countries have continued to spread rumors, calling it the "Wuhan virus" and "China virus", even fabricating stories saying the virus was leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They claimed to seek an investigation into the origin of virus in China, and even demanded huge compensation from the country.

Wuhan was the place that first reported the epidemic, but that does not make it the source of the virus.

Virus tracing is a serious scientific endeavor that should be studied by scientists and medical experts based on science. More time is needed on studies of the virus origins, Gao said, as the novel coronavirus overturns much of what people have known and many of its patterns are beyond our cognition.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on May 19 that China supports a comprehensive evaluation of the global COVID-19 response to sum up experiences and address shortcomings after the pandemic is brought under control.

This should be led by the WHO and conducted in a science-based, professional, objective and impartial manner. China has been consistent and clear about this all along, Zhao said.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

China building secure sites to fast track coronavirus vaccine production

The country currently has five candidate vaccines undergoing trials, four of which will need high levels of biosecurity to manufacture them safely.

www.scmp.com

(fair use applies)


China building secure facilities to fast track coronavirus vaccine production
Zhuang Pinghui in Beijing
Published: 7:15am, 31 May, 2020 | Updated: 9:34am, 31 May, 2020

• The country currently has five candidate vaccines undergoing trials, four of which will need high levels of biosecurity to manufacture them safely
• The Chinese authorities are keen to begin mass production as quickly as possible

China is laying the groundwork to begin manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines as soon as they are given the green light.

Although the five treatments being developed by the country’s scientists are still months away from a full evaluation, secure facilities are already being built.

The facilities will have a biosecurity rating of 3, the second highest level, because Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is highly pathogenic and will need a secure environment if it used to make the vaccine.

Four of the five Chinese candidates are inactivated vaccines – a technique that involves killing the virus so that it cannot cause a serious infection but does stimulate an immune response and requires secure facilities.

The other Chinese vaccine, and five developed in other countries, are using genetic techniques that need lower levels of biosecurity because the actual Sars-CoV-2 virus is not used in the production process.

Phase 2 trials of the vaccines are expected to end in July, but there is a question mark over the phase 3 trials – which will need thousands of volunteers – because there have not been enough new cases in China to run trials there.

Yet Chinese regulators and developers are still keen to develop the vaccines as quickly as possible.

Yu Qingming, party secretary of SinoPharm, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group which owns China National Biotec Group (CNBG), said two facilities had been built at “wartime speed”.

Two CNBG subsidiaries – the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products – have designed inactivated vaccines that are undergoing phase 2 trials.

“The facility in Beijing has been completed and is in the process of qualifying for certification. The annual production capacity will be 100 million doses. The workshop in Wuhan has finished building the main structure … Its annual production capacity will be 80 million doses,” Yu said.

“After the two workshops begin production, they will effectively meet the need for large-scale inoculation and provide important guarantees over the availability and affordability of Covid-19 vaccines.”

Zhu Jingjin, party secretary of the CNBG, told state broadcaster CCTV last month this production capacity would meet the demands of “special population groups”, which he said included health workers, diplomatic staff, students studying abroad and people working on overseas infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative.

China has previously said it intends to vaccinate certain groups by the end of the year even if the trials have not finished.

Sinovac Research & Development, which recently received US$15 million in funding from two investors to boost the development of an inactivated vaccine dubbed CoronaVac, is also building a level 3 production facility in Beijing’s Daxing district.

The company said in a statement that it is in talks with the World Health Organisation and regulators of “relevant countries” over a phase three human trial.

The company hopes to be able to produce 100 million doses a year and plans to run production tests in July.

Drug makers whose vaccines have yet to reach the advanced trial stage are also building facilities.

Hualan Biological Engineering in Henan province and Kangtai Biological Products in the southern city of Shenzhen are both building level 3 facilities, according to the China Academy of Building Research.

The Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, whose inactivated vaccine is undergoing a phase 1 trial to check its is safe, is planning to build a similar facility later this year.

A vaccine expert who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media said the drug regulator has been cutting red tape to ensure vaccines can be approved swiftly.

“Covid-19 has changed so much. Now the evaluation and review is calculated in hours, not days,” the expert said. “Sometimes site visits are done through video meetings to ensure efficiency.”

The expert said, even with China’s release system for vaccines – which requires every lot to be chemically and biologically tested before it is released – the extra workload can be handled with the current manpower.

“I wouldn’t worry about Covid-19 production or supply. The uncertainty is the quality of the vaccine itself,” the expert said.

Tianjin-based CanSino Biologics, which has developed a vaccine with military scientists, is planning to conduct its phase 3 trial in Canada.

The vaccine, which uses a weakened common cold virus as a vector to introduce Sars-CoV-2’s genetic material into the body, will use the Canadian National Research Council’s facilities to mass produce the vaccine.

Elsewhere in the world, the US has teamed up with drugmaker AstraZeneca to make at least 300 million doses of a similar vaccine developed by the University of Oxford for delivery as early as this autumn.

American drugmaker Pfizer and German partner BioNTech, which are developing a vaccine using synthetic versions of the virus’s mRNA, hope to distribute 20 million doses by the end of this year if the US Food and Drug Administration gives it emergency authorisation.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Lake of the Ozarks pool party reveler tests positive for coronavirus

A Missouri man has tested positive for the coronavirus after hanging out over the Memorial Day weekend at Lake of the Ozarks pool bars where viral videos shot at the time showed large crowds and little social distancing.

www.foxnews.com

(fair use applies)

Lake of the Ozarks pool party reveler tests positive for coronavirus
By Robert Gearty | Fox News
Published 13 hours ago

A Missouri man has tested positive for the coronavirus after hanging out over the Memorial Day weekend at Lake of the Ozarks pool bars where viral videos shot at the time showed large crowds and little social distancing.

Camden County Health Department released on Friday a timeline of the man’s visit to Lake of the Ozarks “due to the need to inform mass numbers of unknown people.”

Revelers celebrate Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach of the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, U.S., May 23, 2020 in this screen grab taken from social media video and obtained by Reuters on May 24, 2020. (Twitter/Lawler50/via REUTERS)

Those video images prompted St. Louis County Executive Sam Page to issue a coronavirus travel advisory and to scold the pool party revelers for their “reckless behavior.” The advisory urged those who went to the Lake of the Ozarks for Memorial Day to self-quarantine for 14 days.

The person who became infected was from Boone County.

“The case arrived here on Saturday [May 23] and developed illness on Sunday [May 24], so was likely incubating illness and possibly infectious at the time of the visit,” the Camden health department said in a Facebook post.

The post said the person went to Backwater Jacks Saturday afternoon and Saturday night and to Shady Gators and Lazy Gators Pool Saturday and Sunday. The visit to Shady Gators on Saturday took place between visits to Backwater Jacks.

The man also spent an hour Sunday at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Camden County said no new coronavirus cases had been reported this week.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

I was directed to this article and the next article from Zerohedge (using Marsh's link). When the post on that site has a link to the original article, I'll use the original source.

Malaria drug and zinc, the missing link - The Conservative Woman

Malaria drug and zinc, the missing link

conservativewoman.co.uk

(fair use applies)

Malaria drug and zinc, the missing link
By Joseph Berry
May 26, 2020

MYSTERY surrounds why an anti-malaria drug is not being tested as a Covid-19 treatment in combination with zinc, which doctors say is crucial for efficacy.

As we reported recently, President Trump revealed he was taking hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) alongside zinc after reports that many doctors are doing the same to help ward off Covid-19.

Criticism of the President rose sharply after a non-randomised study published in the Lancet said that HCQ provided no benefit to hospitalised Covid-19 patients while being linked to increased deaths.

What the mainstream media did not point out is that the Lancet study failed to test HCQ with zinc. Other experts have found zinc to be vital for efficacy in this context.

Zinc, available as an over-the-counter supplement, has long been seen as an immune-system booster that helps develop immune cells, or antibodies, and can strengthen the body’s response to a virus.

American infectious disease specialist Joseph Rahimian explained that, in relation to Covid-19, zinc ‘does the heavy lifting and is the primary substance attacking the pathogen’. HCQ is said to work as a delivery systemfor zinc in fighting coronavirus.

Ironically, the Lancet study came out at the same time as it was reported that India’s premier health body had expanded use of HCQ as a preventive for key workers following three studies showing positive results.

Conflicting reports and political axe-grinding have thickened the fog of war on this, but we know a number of things:

1. HCQ has been around for decades and is a ‘safe’ treatment for malaria and other conditions including lupus and arthritis (as the BBC has acknowledged).
2. Many doctors (and India) use HCQ as a preventive measure, as President Trump is now doing. A survey of doctors by a leading American physician staffing firm found that 65 per cent would give HCQ to their own family as a prevention or treatment. The UK is now conducting trials into whether HCQ can help prevent Covid-19. Results are not expected before the end of the year, although there will be results sooner from similar trials in the US.
3. International experience suggests HCQ can be effective in tackling Covid. Reports from France, Italy and Spain point to positive results from the use of HCQ, while a number of other countries are seeing success including Turkey, Costa Rica, Algeria, Belgium and Bahrain. This month a Shanghai-based doctor reported that, in China, a combination of zinc, hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin ‘has been able to save coronavirus patients’.
4. Many prominent Americans are taking HCQ to treat Covid-19 (and recovering) even as opponents attack President Trump for following the lead of many doctors. Hall of Fame rock star David Bryan, best known as the keyboardist for Bon Jovi, tested positive and was treated with HCQ, among other things. By late April, he was said to have recovered. Former Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar has now admitted her husband was treated with HCQ after he contracted coronavirus. After his rapid recovery, Senator Klobuchar said (through gritted teeth): ‘I believe he did briefly take that drug.’

Sadly it doesn’t seem to be the priority of most mainstream journalists, and some in the scientific community, to report the facts on HCQ in a responsible manner. As political commentator Scott Adams recently pointed out, the corporate news (CNN, Fox News etc) has no credibility when it comes to reporting on pharmaceuticals. In this context, this may be partly due to politics, but it is also a result of their financial stake in drug advertising.

With regard to reporting of the Lancet’s finding about increased deaths, Adams asked whether this should be seen as a surprise ‘given that we know the HCQ can have some heart issues with people who already have heart issues. Do [elderly people who are dying from coronavirus] have strong hearts? Probably not’.

He added: ‘What they don’t do on CNN is mention that if you don’t test it with the zinc [then] I’m not sure that you’ve really tested the thing that has the most promise. Where is that [test]?’

He has a point. A number of doctors say zinc is essential.

California emergency physician Dr Anthony Cardillo said during a local television interview: ‘[HCQ] really only works in conjunction with zinc. Every patient I have prescribed it to has been very, very ill and within eight to twelve hours they were basically symptom-free and so clinically I am seeing a resolution.’

This frontline experience was backed up by a study by the New York University Grossman School of Medicine published this month. It found that those receiving the triple-drug combination (HCQ, with azithromycin and, crucially, zinc) ‘were 44 per cent less likely to die, compared with the double-drug combination (i.e. without zinc)’.

As the study notes:‘This study provides the first in vivo evidence that zinc sulfate in combination with hydroxychloroquine may play a role in therapeutic management for Covid-19.’

The above makes the question of why zinc was not used in the Lancet study more baffling. And why don’t the media note that the combination of zinc and HCQ is crucial?

As Scott Adams put it: ‘When they say the President is taking this drug that is killing people . . . it is not true. It is basically a lie . . . Both Fox News and CNN are doing something is completely illegitimate . . . I don’t know any reason you would do that other than to mislead.’

Sadly, with a Presidential election approaching, it’s doubtful whether the barrage of fake news over this treatment will be replaced by professional reporting. We can only hope that the truth – whatever it may be – will win out in the end.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Supreme Court Rules 5-4 To Uphold Pandemic Orders Limiting Church Services

Early on in the pandemic, I wrote about how governors can shutdown churches under the Constitution. On Friday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject an emergency appeal from a California church o…

jonathanturley.org

Supreme Court Rules 5-4 To Uphold Pandemic Orders Limiting Church Services
May 30, 2020

Early on in the pandemic, I wrote about how governors can shutdown churches under the Constitution. On Friday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 along those lines to reject an emergency appeal from a California church over the imposition of limits on the size of attendance at services. The church came close to prevailing. Chief Justice John Roberts joined his liberal colleagues in upholding what he said were limits that “appear consistent” with the First Amendment. The cost ruling is an indication of how courts are applying closer scrutiny to the treatment of churches as opposed to other institutions allowed to have greater numbers of people.

Last week, President Donald Trump has pledged that he will “override” state orders barring in-person religious services unless governors do so. As I have previously noted, the President is claiming authority that is expressly denied to him in our system of federalism. While I have warned such deference given to the states wanes with time, any order to reopen churches in a given state will be based on the inherent authority of the courts, not the President. The Administration can, and has promised, joined legal challenges to such state orders but it is not claiming the inherent authority of presidents to “override” state decisions. The Justice Department has warned Newsom that his order is contravening constitutional rights. However, now that the Supreme Court has ruled, any move by President Trump to “override” such orders would directly contravene the authority of the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of what the Constitution means in such conflicts.

Roberts wrote in brief opinion that the state could restrict churches to 25% of their capacity, with no more than 100 worshipers at a time. The court also rejected an appeal from two churches in the Chicago area that objected to Gov. Jay Pritzker’s limit of 10 worshipers at religious services.

In his concurrence, Roberts wrote:

“The precise question of when restrictions on particular social activities should be lifted during the pandemic is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement. Our Constitution principally entrusts “[t]he safety and the health of the people” to the politically accountable officials of the States “to guard and protect.” Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U. S. 11, 38 (1905). When those officials “undertake[ ] to act in areas fraught with medical and scientific uncertainties,” their latitude “must be especially broad.” Marshall v. United States, 414 U. S. 417, 427 (1974). Where those broad limits are not exceeded, they should not be subject to second-guessing by an “unelected federal judiciary,” which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people.”​

The Roberts decision is striking in fairly cursory treatment of the other options for the state given the obligation of the state to must show that the limits are “justified by a compelling governmental interest” and “narrowly tailored to advance that interest.” The sharp division shows, as we discussed earlier, how such deference to the states in a pandemic tends to wane with time.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that the state had failed to satisfy the high standard for review in such limits on the free exercise of religion.

“California has ample options that would allow it to combat the spread of COVID–19 without discriminating against religion. … But absent a compelling justification (which the State has not offered), the State may not take a looser approach with, say, supermarkets, restaurants, factories, and offices while imposing stricter requirements on places of worship. The State also has substantial room to draw lines, especially in an emergency. But as relevant here, the Constitution imposes one key restriction on that line-drawing: The State may not discriminate against religion.​

​

In sum, California’s 25% occupancy cap on religious worship services indisputably discriminates against religion, and such discrimination violates the First Amendment. The Church would suffer irreparable harm from not being able to hold services on Pentecost Sunday in a way that comparable secular businesses and persons can conduct their activities. I would therefore grant the Church’s request for a temporary injunction.”​

​

Here is the opinion: South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom​

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19a1044_pok0.pdf

​

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

More on the case:

Court declines to lift restrictions on crowds at church services (UPDATED) - SCOTUSblog

Last night the Supreme Court declined to intervene in challenges by churches in southern California and the Chicago area to stay-at-home orders issued as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The churches had asked the justices earlier this week to lift restrictions on crowds in time for them to hold ser

www.scotusblog.com

(fair use applies)

Court declines to lift restrictions on crowds at church services (UPDATED)
Amy Howe Independent Contractor and Reporter
Posted Sat, May 30th, 2020 9:31 am

Last night the Supreme Court declined to intervene in challenges by churches in southern California and the Chicago area to stay-at-home orders issued as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The churches had asked the justices earlier this week to lift restrictions on crowds in time for them to hold services on Sunday, when Christians celebrate the holy day of Pentecost. But the justices turned them down. The court issued only a terse order in the Illinois case that referred to the new guidance issued by the state earlier this week. But the justices were closely divided in the California case, with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote and writing a late-night opinion to explain his decision to deny relief.

The California case was filed on Tuesday by the South Bay United Pentecostal Church, which is located in Chula Vista, California – just south of San Diego. The church argued that the reopening plan outlined by California Governor Gavin Newsom and San Diego County discriminated against houses of worship by keeping them closed while allowing retail stores, offices, restaurants and schools to open. The church asked the justices to issue an order that would allow it to hold services this Sunday, May 31.

On Wednesday, two Romanian-American Christian churches in the Chicago area asked the justices to issue a similar order for them. The churches in that case argued that Illinois’ stay-at-home and reopening plan, which imposed a 10-person limit on worship services, violated the Constitution.

California (along with San Diego County) and Illinois urged the justices to deny the churches’ requests. They began by explaining that indoor worship services are different from retail stores or businesses because people are more likely to gather in close proximity for longer periods of time. Moreover, they added, the singing and speaking at worship services “increases the danger” that people who are infected with the COVID-19 virus will “project respiratory droplets that contain the virus,” passing the infection on to others. Indeed, they noted, there have been several examples of significant COVID-19 outbreaks linked to worship services.

But in any event, California and Illinois continued, there was no need for the justices to intervene because the restrictions had been lifted. In California, the San Diego County Health Department issued an order (following new guidance from the state) on May 26 that allows churches in the county, including South Bay, to hold services, as long as they limit attendance to 25 percent of their building capacity or a maximum of 100 people and practice social distancing. Although the church argues that it is also harmed by the new guidance, because its building seats 600 and its attendance is normally somewhere between 200 and 300, the state emphasized that the church had not asked for an order blocking the enforcement of the new guidance in the lower courts. Moreover, the state observed, the church could add more services if it wants to ensure that everyone can attend.

In Illinois, the order banning gatherings with more than 10 people expires on May 29; “after that date religious gatherings will no longer be subject to mandatory restrictions.” Any concerns about whether the state will limit the size of worship services after May 29 are, Illinois told the justices, merely “speculative.”

At approximately 6:30 p.m. ET, the justices turned down the request from the Illinois churches without any public dissents. In a brief two-paragraph order, the court noted that the state’s public health department had “issued new guidance on May 28,” and it added that last night’s order did not bar the churches from returning to the court “if circumstances warrant.”

The justices did not act on the California case until nearly midnight on Friday. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh indicated that they would have granted the church’s request; Kavanaugh also wrote a dissent from the denial of the church’s request.

Roberts wrote a short opinion to express his agreement with (and to explain) the denial of the church’s request. He began by noting that COVID-19 “has killed thousands of people in California and more than 100,000 nationwide,” but there is “no known cure, no effective treatment, and no vaccine.” Moreover, he added, people “may be infected but asymptomatic” and therefore can infect others unknowingly. The California order at the heart of this case, he observed, temporarily restricts the number of people who can gather in public “to address this extraordinary health emergency.”

The relief that the church had asked for – an order blocking the state from enforcing the restrictions on gatherings – faces a high bar, Roberts explained. And in his view, the church could not meet that bar. The restrictions appear to be constitutional: The state has limited the size of similar, non-religious gatherings like plays, concerts and sporting events. Although the state treats activities like grocery stores and banks differently, Roberts continued, those activities are in fact different, because they do not involve large groups of people coming together in close proximity for extended periods of time. “The precise question of when restrictions on particular social activities should be lifted during the pandemic,” Roberts reasoned, “is a dynamic and fact-intensive matter subject to reasonable disagreement.” It is also a question the Constitution has primarily delegated to politicians, which courts should normally not second-guess. “That is especially true,” Roberts explained, in a case like this one, in which the church is seeking emergency relief “while local officials are actively shaping their response to changing facts on the ground.” The idea that it is so clear that the restrictions are unconstitutional that the Supreme Court should step in, Roberts concluded, “seems quite improbable.”

In a three-page dissent joined by Thomas and Gorsuch, Kavanaugh argued that the restrictions on attendance imposed on the church do violate the Constitution. In his view, the businesses that are not subject to the restrictions – which, he noted, include malls, pet groomers, hair salons and marijuana dispensaries – are comparable to gatherings at houses of worship, and California has not shown a good reason for treating houses of worship differently. Because the church “would suffer irreparable harm from not being able to hold services on Pentecost Sunday in a way that comparable secular businesses and persons can conduct their activities,” Kavanaugh would have granted the church’s request for relief.

 

[danielboon]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1266945542132727808

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/EndGameWW3/status/1266945542132727808

 

[marsh]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmFm2N_gFTQ
21:29 min
Asymptomatic infection
•May 31, 2020

Dr. John Campbell

COVID-19: What proportion are asymptomatic? https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/04/... Between 5% and 80% of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 may be asymptomatic Symptom-based screening will miss cases, perhaps a lot of them Some asymptomatic cases will become symptomatic over the next week (i.e. pre-symptomatic) Children and young adults can be asymptomatic There is not a single reliable study to determine the number of asymptotics Population based antibody testing required

Diamond Princess https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research... 3,711 people tested 634 tested positive 18% Vo’Euganeo, (50Km west of Venice) https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m... All 3,000 people in village tested 50 – 75% asymptomatic Asymptomatics infectious represented ‘a formidable source’ of contagion 328 adults in Shanghai https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandin... 328 adults were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Shanghai Among them, 13 patients were asymptomatic at time of diagnosis No subjective symptoms 2 weeks before admission All of the 13 (4%) them were close contacts of the confirmed cases Japanese nationals evacuated from Wuhan https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1... 565 citizens had been evacuated 30.8% (7.7– 53.8%). 30 days after evacuation Asymptomatic and Pre-symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Residents of a Long-Term Care Skilled Nursing Facility - King County, Washington https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/research... CDC 76 residents categorized as asymptomatic or symptomatic at the time of testing and for previous 14 days 23 (30%) residents, antigen positive and symptomatic 13 (57%) were asymptomatic 10 of these 13 previously asymptomatic residents developed symptoms within 7 days Therefore 3 (4%) out of 76 truly asymptomatic RT-PCR) values indicated large quantities of viral RNA in asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, and symptomatic residents Symptom based screening on a particular day could fail to detect half of positive cases

Iceland https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056... Population screening, 57% symptomatic, 43% asymptomatic CDC, Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-... 13% of positive children asymptomatic Risk of transmission is thought to be greatest when patients are symptomatic since viral shedding is greatest at the time of symptom onset and declines over the course of several days to weeks.

WHO 81% of infections show mild symptoms 14% exhibit severe symptoms 5% fall critically ill Asymptomatic coronavirus infection: MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science... The extent of asymptomatic MERS-CoV (2012) cases is about 9.8% How much is covid-19 spreading via asymptomatic versus symptomatic infections? (4th May) https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-1... Mathematical models SEIIR Susceptible Exposed Infected, symptomatic Infected, asymptomatic Recovered

Therefore, need widespread antibody testing and contact tracing as soon as possible.

___________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lM_KKUWRMo
30:42 min
Air Pollution
•May 31, 2020


Dr. John Campbell

Air pollution https://appgairpollution.org/key-facts/ All-Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution 80% of people in urban areas are exposed to air pollution that is higher than WHO limits 40,000 deaths a year (rate of 25.7 p/100,000 compared to 0.4 in Sweden) Strongly linked to cancer, heart disease, strokes It affects the most vulnerable and poorest people Children are 11% more exposed

How particulates harm the heart https://www.bhf.org.uk/toxicair Remain in bloodstream for at least three months Worsen the build-up of atheroma Affect the normal electrical functioning of your heart.

Air pollution and case fatality of SARS in the People's Republic of China: an ecologic study https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/a... Case fatality rate increased with air pollution index Moderate API verses low API areas, 84% increased risk of dying (RR 1.84) High API verses low API areas, more than double risk of dying (RR = 2.18) Results were similar for short and long term exposure

Cut air pollution to help avoid second coronavirus peak (APPG) https://www.theguardian.com/environme... https://appgairpollution.org/2020/05/... It is increasingly likely that air pollution increases vulnerability to Covid-19 infection Short-term exposure of airway cells to micro particulates causes a highly significant increased the number of the ACE2 receptors Coronavirus detected on particles of air pollution Similar results for nitrogen dioxide Correlations between air pollution and death rates from COVID-19 Air pollution and Covid-19 are even more dangerous together

How air pollution exacerbates Covid-19 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20... Outdoor air pollution kills 4.2millin per year Predisposing the people who have lived with polluted air for years Particles may be acting as vehicles for viral transmission Harvard School of Public Health study https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.11... 3,080 counties in the US, long-term pollution exposure for 15-20 = years significantly higher mortality rates Heart effects Lung effects Air pollution reduced immunity, European Alliance of Public Health, https://epha.org/air-pollution-and-da...

Outsized effect in the US An increase of 1 microgram per cubic metre corresponds to a 15% increase in COVID deaths. US Environment Protection Agency limit 12 micrograms of PM 2.5s WHO guidance figure is 10 micrograms per cubic metre New York is often above this ‘safe’ limit

Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Polluted areas = chronic respiratory conditions Chronic inflammatory, even in young and healthy Predisposed to a particular infection Hotspot correlation Air pollution and case fatality of SARS in the People's Republic of China: an ecologic study https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/a... Air pollution index (API) High to low 86% increase in deaths Particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and ground-level ozone Lockdown reductions 44% in Wuhan 54% in Seoul 60% in New Delhi Milan 45Km Rome 150Km https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20...