Anonymous
Local Information on Coronavirus
The City of Santa Barbara is coordinating with the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department to receive the latest updates and emergency procedures on the coronavirus from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
As you may be aware, the CDC recently confirmed two possible cases of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California in the general public. These individuals reside in Northern California and are receiving medical care in Sacramento County. The individuals had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual. The CDC has sent a team to support the California Public Health Department to investigate these cases.
Santa Barbara Unified School District officials are closely monitoring the Coronavirus situation and are following the guidelines set forth by the county and state Public Health Departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) We will continue to update our families and staff through our website, Parentsquare and other communication channels. The Santa Barbara County’s Public Health Department has local information HERE and has established a hotline with recorded information in English and Spanish at 805-681-4373.
Los funcionarios del Distrito Escolar Unificado de Santa Bárbara continúan monitoreando de cerca la situación del coronavirus y siguiendo las recomendaciones del Departamento de Salud Pública del condado y el estado, y de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés). Mantendremos informadas a nuestras familias y miembros del personal por medio de nuestra página web, ParentSquare y otros medios de comunicación. El Departamento de Salud Pública del condado de Santa Bárbara tiene información local en su sitio web, y ha creado la siguiente línea telefónica directa con información grabada en inglés y en español: 805-681-4373.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed [Wednesday] a possible first case of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California in the general public. The individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in Sacramento County. The individual had no known exposure to the virus through travel or close contact with a known infected individual. There are no cases of COVID-19 in Santa Barbara County at this time.
California has a strong health care system and public health infrastructure. California has prepared for the potential spread of diseases, such as H1N1, in the past and is prepared and actively responding to the potential community spread of COVID-19. Contact tracing in this case has already begun.
The health risk from novel coronavirus to the public remains low at this time. While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate. From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80 percent do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization. There have been no confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States to date. California is carefully assessing the situation as it evolves.
Locally in Santa Barbara County, the Public Health Department (PHD) is working closely with its healthcare partners to assure screening, testing, and care for potential COVID-19 patients is available across the county. The PHD is providing ongoing guidance and alerts to healthcare partners in coordination with the California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthcare partners, including EMS providers, are participating in weekly teleconferences with the PHD to assure that procedures are in place at each facility to safely screen patients and protect healthcare workers and the community.
“Public Health has been working diligently to prepare for the possibility of a COVID-19 case in our county. The health of our Santa Barbara County community is our top priority and although we’ve seen a possible case of community transmission in our state, the risk to our County community remains low at this time,” shared Van Do-Reynoso, Director for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. “We will continue to keep community members and local health care providers informed as we know more.”
As in any public health emergency, the California Department of Public Health’s Emergency Operations Center has been actively coordinating response efforts across the state and preparing for possible community transmission. California continues to prepare and respond in coordination with federal and local partners. This would be the first known instance of person-to-person transmission in the general public in the United States. Previously known instances of person-to-person transmission in the United States include one instance in Chicago, Illinois, and one in San Benito County, California. Both cases were after close, prolonged interaction with a family member who returned from Wuhan, China and had tested positive for COVID-19.
As of today, including this new case, California has had 7 travel-related cases, one close contact case, and now one community transmission. As with any virus, especially during the flu season, there are a number of steps you can take to protect your health and those around you:
• Washing hands with soap and water.
• Avoiding touching eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoiding close contact with people who are sick are all ways to reduce the risk of infection with a number of different viruses.
• Staying away from work, school or other people if you become sick with respiratory symptoms like fever and cough.
For more information about COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), please visit the SBCPHD website.
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2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2) is not a “flu bug”, and the disease it causes, COVID-19, is not the flu. They both attack the respiratory system so they have some common symptoms.
Behavior like this is what causes shortages that didn’t need to exist in the first place.
“The sky is falling!”
Social Distancing! The reason to stock up on certain products now isn’t so much to avoid potential shortages in the event of an outbreak but to practice what experts call social distancing. Basically, you want to avoid crowds to minimize your risk of catching the disease. If coronavirus is spreading locally, the last place you want to be is in line at a crowded grocery store or drugstore.
New England Journal of Medicine Editorial: “In another article in the Journal, Guan et al. report mortality of 1.4% among 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity. If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.”
NEJM: ……..This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968)……..
Here’s a very interesting and informative article (or, as they say in byzarro world, “Fake news from the lib/Democrat Deep State trying to take down Trump!”): https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000/
Here’s the full article: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
“a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968)” According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Asian flu of 1957 killed 1-2 million, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 killed 1-4 million.
Wow. How have we come to this? So, hopefully, everyone already knows and does all of these precautions. I mean, who doesn’t wash their hands when they get home from the store? This is such an inflated panic. Lets everyone rush and get food and water, because its the black plague!! First, you should already have that stuff! We live in earthquake/wild fire country. Second, unless you’re elderly or ill, what are you worried about? A cold/flu? Seriously, we’re not talking about ebola here.. The media and ourselves blow everything up, every time. no matter what it is. So lame.
I actually haven’t been able to find respirator cartridges or dust masks for work. Yeah, wonder why. So your panic is affecting my health. lol
Oregon’s 1st case is a school employee. School is closed. Santa Barbara is a tourist destination. It will be likely be hard hit and we can expect a severe recession. Now is the time to plan.
Willing to bet, that our first case will come out of UCSB.
Thank You to the powers that may be, for taking our college and the gorgeous property that we gave you , that started out as a University to help Californians get an education.
Now allowing Non US citizens to get an education that they are taking back to there country of origin?
All the while, selling out to get bigger paychecks, pensions and patents?
We’re just educating other countries, as they take there education from UCSB back to there own countries. It won’t help the United States, it just makes us less relevant.
That was a mistake that we as Americans will pay for dearly.
Good luck with that.
4 new cases on West coast announced since 4 p.m. today. One in Santa Clara County (unknown origin), school employee in Oregon (unknown origin) symptoms since Feb 19th but testing just confirmed and 2 in Washington. 1 in Washington traveled in South Korea and 2nd is a student (unknown origin). With more testing being done at State vs Federal level, expect more cases. Please listen to the medical experts. The press conference from Santa Clara County officials held today was excellent. Very informative, calm and measured. It’s available online. Take care
Cleaning day: buttons on dishwasher, washing machine, microwave. Steering wheel in car and door handles inside and outside; glove compartment handle. Toilet handle. Front and back house door handles, inside and outside. Knobs on stove. Handles: cups, spoons, knives, forks, utensils. Handles on brooms/mops. Take tissues to store and use on payment pad, carts. Use tissue on anything at stores or banks that require your touch. Handle tissue carefully and throw away immediately.
A dog in Hong Kong has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus that’s killed at least 2,859 humans across the world over the last two months, World Health Organization officials said Friday 2/28.
How does merely touching a contaminated surface transmit this virus? Does it spontaneously penetrate keratinized skin surfaces, or do you still have to stick contaminated fingers into your mouth, eyes or nose? Will you continue sticking your fingers into your mouth, nose and eyes after you have pretended you have actively sterilized that array of listed surfaces? Or does this informal “sanitation” ritual simply make you feel better. What measures will you take to protect against airborne transmission of this new flu bug.
As 10:27 mentioned alcohol kills the virus. I plan on consuming as much as possible until this is all over.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with being informed and cautious. This virus is on every continent except Antarctica. It is still spreading and as the US tests more, we will see more cases.
Stock up on canned and frozen foods, handy wipes, medicines. Seeing there are 8,000 people in California alone currently being “monitored” for the virus – I’m going to assume the infection is now in the wild. Prepare for work and school closures.
Pedialyte has always been my go to for post surgical rehydration . Excellent choice @ 5 $ a bottle !
Most countries don’t have the aggressive trial lawyers medical malpractice industry that one finds in the US, if you want to compare alternate health care delivery systems. This eliminates the extraneous and costly “defensive medicine” US doctors are forced to practice allowing the health care dollar to be better targeted. French, Swiss and Italian medical malpractice systems would be the first systems when starting these health care delivery comparison studies. Move on to Scandinavian, Canadian, UK systems. Compare how many billable procedures US systems undertake for similar types of conditions, when there are no material differences in outcomes, or even superior outcomes, in each of these countries.
“Pedialyte” is nothing more than sugar, salt and water sold at premium prices. Plenty of home made recipes for the same brew, if one feels they must “restore electrolytes”, which is basically sodium – you know aka table salt. Pick your own preferences for salt, sugar and water and know at least what is going into this “magic” elixir. Flavoring and coloring are the only other added-value to the commercial “electrolyte” drinks to justify the additional price. Stay hydrated – good old tap water is just fine. Your normal food intake will “restore your electrolytes”, if you are self-treating any passing cold or flu at home.
The U.S. has less than 1 million hospital beds and almost all of them are full … a consequence of a for-profit medical system that forces efficiency, resulting in a brittle system that can’t handle sudden large influxes.
Byzarrely wrong, as always: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedialyte
You’re new here chillin, so you don’t know that responses are above the comments they are responding to (yeah, weird). I was talking about the “Millenials face mortality” comment from our byzarre byzantine very right wing commenter.
The osmolarity matters. If you’re going to DIY, follow the guidelines mentioned here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy: “A basic oral rehydration therapy solution can also be prepared when packets of oral rehydration salts are not available. A WHO publication for physicians recommends a homemade ORS consisting of one liter water with one teaspoon salt (3 grams) and two tablespoons sugar (18 grams) added[17] (approximately the “taste of tears”[18]). Rehydration Project recommends adding the same amount of sugar but only one-half a teaspoon of salt, stating that this more dilute approach is less risky with very little loss of effectiveness.[19] Both agree that drinks with too much sugar or salt can make dehydration worse.[17][19] The molar ratio of sugar to salt should be 1:1 and the solution should not be hyperosmolar.[20] The Rehydration Project states, “Making the mixture a little diluted (with more than 1 litre of clean water) is not harmful.”[21]”
Also, I’ve very well informed so I know about the dog and the rest of what you mentioned. It’s not yet clear that dogs can contract or carry the virus; the virus may have just contacted the dog’s nose from its owner or their environment: “Hong Kong scientists aren’t sure if the dog is actually infected or if it picked up the virus from a contaminated surface, she said.”
Also zinc, which is an ingredient of Pedialyte: “As part of oral rehydration therapy, the WHO recommends supplemental zinc (10 to 20 mg daily) for ten to fourteen days, to reduce the severity and duration of the illness and make recurrent illness in the following two to three months less likely. Preparations are available as a zinc sulfate solution for adults, a modified solution for children and in tablet form.” https://lifeirl.com/products/abbott-nutrition-pedialyte-nutritional-supplement-r-l51752-1-pound
Oh, and the virus found in the dog is the same organism without mutations, as far as we know. Mutation is random and undirected so the virus is not going to mutate just so it can jump to a dog … that’s not how evolution works. Rather, either the virus can already infect dogs, or after a considerable period of humans hosting the virus and being in the vicinity of dogs, with humans carrying instances of the virus with many different random mutations, one of those mutations could be able to live in dogs and then would jump to them. That’s how the coronavirus jumped from some animal to humans, and why it didn’t jump sooner and why we aren’t constantly getting hit by new viruses … we get hit when some random mutation is just right to survive in humans, and the odds of such a mutation occurring are fortunately very low.
For coronavirus news junkies, here’s a good source of (overly?) detailed information. There’s stuff here that I hadn’t seen before, like the high-risk Pope battling an apparent cold, and the unconfirmed anonymous reports of North Korea executing people who test positive (that’s certainly not beyond Trump’s love interest): https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett
Here’s another personal account, one that is rather disturbing: https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/fayko1/my_covid19_story_brooklyn/
An upside to the outbreak? Air pollution is reduced in China: https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1233824734267289600?s=20
https://twitter.com/azbrodsky/status/1233842494993031169?s=20 “A friendly reminder: people who will be high-risk patients if we get coronavirus can hear you when you reassure everyone we’re the only ones who might die.”
The osmolarity matters. JQB nailed it.
Excellent realistic balanced article on how the U.S. health care system can respond and is responding: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-preparation-united-states.html
I’m not gonna worry about it. Life is short enough already and I doubt we will see those kind of numbers. Paranoia will destroy ya.
But you have time to troll and to mislead. We saw those numbers in the 1958 and 1967 pandemics, so what’s the basis of your statement, other than ignorance and “feels”? It’s not paranoia, it’s about being factual and honest.
All I’m saying is to relax. We can panic if it gets to become serious. All we can do is just be smart and stay grounded. It’s npt worth stressing out about. That’s hardly trolling. It’s just my opinion.
Severely ill people can have trouble with taking in and keeping down normal food. Getting them to drink pedialyte-Gatorade-Powerade and etc between bouts of throwing up can be one of the only ways to get eletrolytes in them. If you can’t get that done at home then you’re off to the hospital for IV fluids in many cases.
You said a lot more than relax. “be smart” — I know what that’s like; you don’t.
Still waiting to know “what’s the basis of your statement, other than ignorance and “feels”?” You claimed “This will pass when it gets hotter outside” — how do you know? You said “Besides, the yearly flu kills far more every year” — how do you know how many this virus will kill per year? You said ” I doubt we will see those kind of numbers” — how do you know? As I pointed out, previous pandemics reached those levels. Being honest, factual and intelligent is not being paranoid or stressing out. If you don’t want to engage factual claims or defend your own claims then you should go away and surf. Doing what you’re doing IS trolling.
“I’m not gonna worry about it.” — No one said you had to worry about it. You’re free to hop on a plane to Wuhan, if that’s what you want to do. But what you are doing instead is coming here and dissing people who are concerned and are exchanging information. There’s a word for that.
You’re truly a miserable person. Delusional and paranoid too.
No, BB73, you are delusional, and you’ve shown it on many subjects in the past. If it “will pass when it gets hotter outside”, how do you explain the fact that it’s spreading in parts of the world where it’s tropical or summer, like Singapore?
Your refusal to defend your claims and instead attack me with ridiculous charges is extreme cowardice and dishonesty. You indict yourself. You have nothing to contribute, and I won’t waste more time on you.
“in parts of the world where it’s tropical or summer, like Singapore” — You have exceeded his education and ability to comprehend.
Here’s another article from the “let’s all calm down dept.”. *** https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/live-from-hong-kong-to-date-in-2020-influenza-the-flu-accounts-for-more-than-50-times-the-number-of-deaths-as-the-coronavirus-in-hong-kong/ *** After brewing for a month in Hong Kong, the Coronavirus is NOT as bad as the regular flu.
Regular flu affects 39 million every year just in the US, and only half the population even bothers getting flu shots. Some perspective please, Why the need for yet another ginned-up hysteria? We did better when we worried about fire, brimestone, the Devil and sin as our ever-present mortal punishments. Ah, the good old days. Now we have substituted those “religious” fears with the Russians, rising sea levels, corona virus, and TDS. Says something about human nature doesn’t it? is there an innate need to fear an unknown?
Corona-virus Hysteria is a mutation emanating from the original Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), first noticed in 2016.. TDS jumped to Russia Hysteria, then to Climate Change Hysteria, on to Impeachment Hysteria, and now Corona Hysteria; but strangely they all carry the exact same original DNA. Test for TDS first, take two and then call me in the morning.
It’s already here they just don’t have tests yet but will next week. It’s like a bad flu epidemic but elderly will be disproportionately affected because they typically get flu shots far more than the rest of the population. Vax is 1-1.5yrs away.
You missed the group that uses this still evolving flu incidence as evidence of political incompetence and we and it is all one man’s fault. In fact the two groups you do mention are in the same camp, in contrast to the one group you did not mention – the we are all gonna die Orangeman Bad group. Washing your hands and don’t touch eyes, mouth or nose hopefully will remain common denominator tie that binds.
“uses this still evolving flu incidence as evidence of political incompetence and we and it is all one man’s fault” — This is, of course, a lie, as is almost everything that we hear from byzarro world. The COVID-19 (not flu) incidence has nothing at all to do with it; what is offered as evidence of incompetence is the actual evidence of incompetence–like eliminating the government positions responsible for handling pandemics, reducing the CDC budget, putting in charge a guy who doesn’t believe in evolution and had a horrible record of botched health management in the state he governed, and on and on. Why do people reflexively defend the “one man”, wave away the evidence, and accuse the people who point out the evidence of being partisans when it is his defenders who are so clearly partisan? They have vastly different standards for the other party–wearing tan suits and using dijon mustard is enough to indict a President from that party. Anyway, here’s yet another piece of this evidence: https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1233149899446857729?s=20 “So here’s what appears to be chain of events:
The Trump administration repatriated infected Americans over the objections of the CDC.
HHS then sent federal workers to interact with the infected population without adequate training or protection. Then those workers went out into the public with no monitoring or testing regime in place.
And now the first US-contracted case has appeared right near one of the airforce bases where this all happened. When someone at HHS raised alarms about all this s/he was criticized for hurting morale and then ordered to another position or be fired.
This is real real real bad.”
“elderly will be disproportionately affected because they typically get flu shots far more than the rest of the population” — er, wut? Your claims are baseless and completely detached from reality.
Democrat Congresswoman Richardson claims Trump cut CDC budget by 80%. Politifact check: PolitiFact couldn’t find any news articles that verified Richardson’s claim. It’s possible that Richardson misquoted the headline from this Washington Post story: “CDC to cut by 80 percent efforts to prevent global disease outbreak.”
The story says the CDC is downsizing one of its specific efforts – its epidemic prevention activities – because money is running out. The epidemic prevention programs “train front-line workers in outbreak detection and work to strengthen laboratory and emergency response systems in countries where disease risks are greatest,” the Post reported. The CDC is cutting its efforts in 39 out of 49 countries.
It’s unclear if Richardson misread the Washington Post headline. Nonetheless, PolitiFact believes this opportunity is as good as any to remind folks to read stories before making judgements about news based on headlines…..
I’m not worried about it is all I’m saying. Exchange your info. All I did was state an opinion. It doesn’t mean I’m right. It just means that’s what I think. Maybe I’m wrong and we are all going to die from this virus. But I doubt it. I’ll see you next year this time. Just remember that I’m probably right.
Don’t worry, be happy. This will pass when it gets hotter outside. Besides, the yearly flu kills far more every year.
“Democrat Congresswoman Richardson claims Trump cut CDC budget by 80%. ” — So what? No one here claimed that. But Trump did cut the CDC budget: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-cut-cdcs-budget-democrats-claim-analysis/story?id=69233170 ” The president introduced his fiscal year 2021 budget proposal on Feb. 10, just 11 days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concerns. The spending plan included a 16 percent reduction in CDC funding from the 2020 spending levels.
In fact, all of Trump’s budget proposals have called for cuts to CDC funding, but Congress has intervened each time by passing spending bills with year-over-year increases for the CDC that Trump then signed into law.”
My son got the actual flu in December. We kept him hydrated with electrolytes using sports drinks. We were fastidious in our care of him and no one else in our house caught it. A month later my college aged daughter got a nasty vomit + diarrhea thing and we did the same thing for her. The primary goal is to prevent dehydration which can escalate into many other bad things. Sports drinks + fever reducers + hospital class hygiene will get most anyone through this thing. I’m beginning to think that the combination of excessive smoking and air pollution contributed to the severity of the virus in China. Much cleaner air and healthier living here may mean it won’t be as bad for us, I hope.
“the yearly flu kills far more every year” — we don’t yet know how many people this will kill this year; it has just started spreading. It could well be in the millions, far more than the yearly flu.
The division is between right wingers, who are stupid, ignorant, and dishonest, and the rest of us.
The Gateway pundit is known as the dumbest man on the internet: https://www.wonkette.com/jim-hoft-finally-officially-designated-as-the-dumbest-man-on-the-internet-with-reed-irvine-award
Actually I wasn’t aware of the Orangeman Bad group. Is that on TV? I’ve seen a few folks say that the other side is to blame, and they are just noise.
The severity of the virus in China is because it started in China, and had spread widely before the Chinese government acknowledged it. It’s just math, not air pollution.
It “isn’t so bad” for a guy in a hospital being paid immense attention to. And it’s one anecdote … most people don’t die, so we would certainly expect someone who didn’t die to tell about it. It’s also selection bias … no one who dies writes a story about it. Being prepared is wise.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/1st-coronavirus-death-u-s-officials-say-n1145931 First COVID-19 death in the U.S. , in Washington state. Video of President’s press conference. Before he speaks, someone else falsely claims that once you have recovered, you won’t get it again … there is already at least one case of that happening: https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-27-20-intl-hnk/h_8adfa7d440622ec4a812da0cf5726e91
Here’s another personal account of someone who contracted the virus. He’s only 21: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/to-hell-and-back-my-three-weeks-suffering-from-coronavirus
LA Times today covers something important and not talked about: the expensive and uneven U.S. health care system and the lack of medical leave available to most workers in the U.S. Countries that have both universal health care systems and medical leave have the means to effectively help people that are sick, and those that are at home still receive some income. That is not the case for many people here.
EASTBEACH, thanks for Laurie Garrett info. I saw her interviewed on MSNBC last week and have been following her coronavirus insights for several weeks here: https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett
Who knew that compulsive cleaners would have the last laugh! If that’s you, congratulations! Disinfect: buttons on dishwasher, washing machine, and microwave. Steering wheel in car and door handles inside and outside; glove compartment handle. Toilet handle. Front and back house door handles, inside and outside. Knobs on stove. Handles: cups, spoons, knives, forks, utensils. Handles on brooms/mops. Take tissues to store and use on payment pad, carts. Use tissue on anything at stores or banks that require your touch. Handle tissue carefully and throw away immediately.
She’s been a voice of practical reason in this sea of political exhortations for sure. Though I’m concerned many people won’t have the skills to process straight-dope info.
Worthy of fact-checking. Every congressional election year a new flu: * 2004 – SARS
* 2008 – AVIAN
* 2010 – SWINE
* 2012 – MERS
* 2014 – EBOLA
* 2016 – ZIKA
* 2018 – EBOLA
* 2020 – CORONA
And who can forget the granddaddy election year scare of them all: Y2K
A couple new cases in the Bay Area. Alameda County just declared a state of emergency. 124 health care workers which includes at least 36 nurses, are self quarantined at home in Solano County after being exposed to the Solano County infected person. We only have two hospitals here, so we’ll be in bad shape quickly if a medical staff exposure + self quarantine happens here.
Three new cases in Santa Clara County today. It looks like the kernels in the popcorn popper are beginning to pop. *** https://www.kron4.com/news/three-more-cases-of-coronavirus-reported-in-santa-clara-county/
https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1234161642151301120?s=20 “According to this #SARSCoV2 genetic analysis the viral strain in Washington State traces to a Chinese strain from Fujian, likely arriving in Seattle area before January 15.
If this is true, #COVID19 has been in the area, undetected, for 6 weeks. https://nextstrain.org/ncov?f_division=Washington”
The official release: https://twitter.com/skarlamangla/status/1234260334363308033?s=20
That would be a consequence of lack of testing. Much more testing is needed. Better late than never: https://twitter.com/NYTScience/status/1234228623164481540?s=20 “The C.D.C. has insisted on using its own tests to diagnose coronavirus infections, delaying results and limiting health workers’ ability to detect more infections early on. Now, F.D.A. has overruled that policy.”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there is now a second case in Santa Clara county. The person is an acquaintance of the first case. The paywall only allowed viewing of the headline and first paragraph.
We just did our regular shopping run. TJs on DLV was wiped out of TP, most basic canned goods, most types of pasta, nearly all types of pasta sauce. We got our normal stuff and a couple prepper items for the cupboard. Grocery Outlet on DLV is currently well stocked with canned goods and TP. Lots of freezer items at both places.
Having this man in charge is a huge danger to us all. It’s not just me saying this … see the comment thread on this tweet. Pence, who lies at the drop of a hat, is playing politics, doing damage control, and burying information … the first thing he did is muzzle all the health professionals. Here just fabricates nonsense about “testing” or “screening” (he intentionally conflates the two) 47,000 people: https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1234137222439260160?s=20
The first alerts about Y2K came as early as 1984; companies worked for decades fixing the related bugs, accelerating that effort as the date drew near. It had nothing to do with an “election year”. The consequences were insignificant only because hundreds of billions of dollars had been spent to fix the problems before the date when they would have been triggered. And the bit about “Every congressional election year a new flu” isn’t worthy of fact-checking because it’s completely fabricated … odd years are shifted to be even to fit the absurd framing, most of these diseases are not influenza, Ebola was first identified in 1976 and there have been numerous outbreaks up to the present day, etc. None of this as anything at all to do with elections.
NPR reports: ….”Already this flu season (which generally begins in the U.S. in October and peaks during winter months), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 15 million people in the U.S. have gotten sick with flu. More than 150,000 Americans have been hospitalized, and more than 8,000 people have died from their infection. And, this isn’t even a particularly bad flu year.
“Last year, we had 34,000 deaths from flu,” says epidemiologist Brandon Brown of the University of California, Riverside. On average, the flu is responsible for somewhere between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths each year. “And this is just in the United States,” Brown says…..”
And COVID-19 looks to be 20 times deadlier. But, you knew that. You just didn’t want to mention it while practicing your usual whataboutism.
Our firefighters, police/deputies, please be prepared for possible coronavirus calls. 25 firefighters and 2 police officers in Kirkland near Seattle are quarantined now. These were from 10 calls to Life Care Center last week, where there are infected elderly residents. Kirkland Fire Station 21 on Forbes Creek Drive has also been quarantined. There is a “stop”.
BB73 @ 10 PM – If you had been right about anything in the past, that might be a consideration.
We just need to keep watch on the Bay Area and see what they do when a few dozen cases pop up. Will their schools shut down, do businesses stay open, and what happens in the grocery stores. They’ll California’s field test. When the virus hits a community then public reaction has been swift. Hopefully we’ll stay calm, cool, and collected here.
Johns Hopkins Med, current/updated coronavirus cases worldwide (dramatic changes in recent days): https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Video from a Costco in Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley *** https://twitter.com/RGVirtual/status/1234141088555778049 *** It looks like the panic shopping at Costco has begun. Incredible. If you are not prepared by now it’s going to get tough from now on.
To stay safe we should listen to the guy who wanted to nuke a hurricane and said the French should drop literal tons of water on Notre Dame. He knows a lot about science, bigly fantastic, phenomenal. Mike Pence is on top of it, the former governor of the state that ranks 40th in healthcare quality. What a complete joke.
Canned veggies, meats, fruits are good so that you don’t have to shop often. Stock up on certain products now isn’t so much to avoid potential shortages in the event of an outbreak but to practice what experts call social distancing. Basically, you want to avoid crowds to minimize your risk. When/if coronavirus spreads locally, the last place you want to be is in line at a crowded grocery store or drugstore.
I realize this is a hard concept, but more than one thing can be dangerous. And even for those over 80, the COVID-19 mortality rate is “only” 14%.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/25/wuhan-coronavirus-safety-china/ “As China’s epidemic continues to spread, things may seem scary. Here are 10 simple precautions that can protect you from contracting the coronavirus.”
That has been curious – this flu so far is reported to not affect children. Wondering also if those who have been impacted did or did not have a flu shot this year. What other co-factors will we learn about once this sorts out in a few more months.
You might want to attend this … it could be educational. https://artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/Details.aspx?PerfNum=4305 “The future is being transformed by climate change, faster and more dramatically than we realized. Politics, technology, cities, business, even our sense of history, human rights and justice will all be changed by this massive force. But how? To what degree? Author of the critically-hailed bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth and deputy editor and climate change columnist at New York magazine, David Wallace-Wells tells the epic story of our time. He asks key questions and reminds us that everything is within our control, so long as we resist complacency. This, he says, is the moment to truly engage with what climate change really means.”
This is not a flu. While it’s important to get a flu shot, the flu shot does not and cannot give you immunity to COVID-19, any more than it can give you immunity to the measles — this is basic biology, regarding how the immune system and vaccines work.
https://www.theopennotebook.com/2020/03/02/tipsheet-covering-the-coronavirus-epidemic-effectively-without-spreading-misinformation/
Calm down, folks. It’s going to be okay…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/coronavirus-is-a-deadly-threat-%e2%80%94-but-fear-and-panic-are-more-dangerous-global-health-chief-says/ar-BB10EaAQ?li=BBnb7Kz
It says right in the headline “Coronavirus is a deadly threat” so no, it’s not going to be ok. Of course people should stay calm and not panic, but all this “calm down, folks” and “get over it” is arrogant and rude and does not help AT ALL. The article quotes the World Health Organization director as saying “Stigma, to be honest, is more dangerous than the virus itself” — certainly stigma is a very bad thing, and attacking people for being concerned is a form of stigmatization. And he says ““It’s fine to be concerned and worried” — again, that’s not the same as saying that it’s going to be ok. It’s possible to understand that it’s not going to be ok, that it’s a deadly threat, to worry and be concerned, and at the same time to remain calm and not panic.
Follow: https://twitter.com/ai6yrham?lang=en . “…we’re going to run out of nurses, EMTs, paramedics, and firefighters on the West Coast if we keep this up. UC Davis Medical Center quarantine of 124 health care workers incl 36 nurses…”
Sine law enforcement personnel invented the term “blue flu”, they have plenty of experience with work slowdowns.
The info I have read indicates that children are not a risk from this. The people at risk seem to be older with underlying health problems. If you are healthy and less than 60, your biggest risk is being trampled by people being panicked to act crazily.
Those facts about the flu season aren’t disputed, but have nothing to do with COVID-19, which is *a totally different disease* … except that the flu going around complicates detection and diagnosis of COVID-19, and having the flu AND COVID-19 greatly enhances one’s risk for serious and possibly fatal complications, which is why people are strongly advised to get their flu shot (but for some reason some people think that such warnings are a “Democrat plot to make Trump look bad”).
This page from a reliable source–the sort of people whose thoughts matter–indicates that case-fatality rate is 2.3%: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/study-72000-covid-19-patients-finds-23-death-rate However, this page (I don’t know how reliable it is) notes how hard it is to estimate the mortality rate while an outbreak is in progress. It calculates that the rate may be closer to 6%. And it notes that during the SARS outbreak, the World Health Organization estimated the rate to be 4%, whereas the rate turned out to be 9.6%: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-rate/ (the top page at this site has some interesting constantly updated global statistics on population, government spending, etc.)
https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1234569020428476418?s=20 “Complicating interpretation of #COVID19 is our record breaking #Flu epidemic, filling jospitals.” In other news, there are now 5 deaths in the U.S.: https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1234563286823264264?s=20 and “The National Association of Science Writers calls on the Trump Administration to allow government experts to speak freely about the outbreak of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 and the nation’s public health response.” https://twitter.com/sciencecohen/status/1234546157168123912?s=20
There isn’t anything in that businessinsider article that I disagree with, but I read the whole thing, and I read it honestly. For instance, “I am, of course, lucky to have survived a virus … the “coronavirus is more deadly than swine flu …
While it would be remiss to downplay the severity of an illness like swine flu or the coronavirus …”. The article contradicts everything you claim. As for panic, I have never advocated panic … I simply provide facts.
Here’s the businessinsider article referred to, since the dog’s comment containing the link was deleted: https://www.businessinsider.com/what-having-swine-flu-taught-me-about-the-coronavirus-2020-2
“It is important to remember that early on in an epidemic, there is a ‘tip of the iceberg’ phenomenon where we overestimate more severe cases and mild or asymptomatic cases go unrecognized, so the mortality seems higher than the reality,” Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases and vice chairman of the department of medicine at South Shore Hospital, wrote in a post on the Harvard Health Blog.
The coronavirus has a fatality rate of about 3.4%, but health experts predict it could be lower as more cases come to light
It could indeed be lower than 3.4% … like 2%, not 0.1% which is the flu mortality rate.
At what exact moment did the we are all gonna die from climate change become we are all gonna die from corona-virus?