COVID-19 | Corona Virus April 2020

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frimble3

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Good job, JJLitke!

I don't go out, barely went out before. A variety of not-too-interesting things to do with mobility and balance.
However, when talk turns to filters, I keep wondering about thin sanitary panty-liners inside a mask. They're meant to stop fluids, but I don't know how useful they'd be for this purpose? Not as good as a proper N95 mask, but perhaps better than plain fabric?

One other factor for fabric masks, they may not be as good as 'real' masks, but if they save 'real' masks for medical use, and at least signal that people are aware of the risks of being out in public, they're doing some good.
Heck, let the young and trendy make a fashion statement, if they like, as long as they don't use medical supplies.
 
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Bing Z

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Another hack might be to purchase a furnace filter, break it apart and use the paper inside to slip between layers of a homemade mask. Again, not medical grade, but not a bare face, either.

You can actually buy non-N95 masks from Amazon.com these days. These are apparently small importers/retailers that buy small volumes from China. I found my sister (who has many underlying health issues) a source the other day. Takes 1-2 weeks for delivery. While they are not N95, they do use PM2.5 filters so I suppose the protection is better than masks made just of cloth.
 

cbenoi1

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A picture that says it all...

91774948_2531699070269375_7922552203833769984_o.jpg


-cb
 

ElaineA

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I saw a similar picture on Twitter the other day, and I find it nearly impossible to believe (although I don't doubt the truth of it). I live close-ish to the airport and it's not quite 9/11 levels of quiet in the air, but it's pretty damn close. Mind boggling to know how many flights are still operating that have to be nearly empty. The CO2 emissions per number of people on those planes is downright criminal.
 

cbenoi1

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I'm rechecking the origin of this picture because that's not what is happening now. It appears like normal daily traffic.

You can view the live map today here: https://flightaware.com/live/airport/KDEN

I've put Denver because it's dead center, but you can zoom out to see the continent.

Still, that's a lot of people going from point A to point B on mainland US.

-cb
 
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ElaineA

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Yes, I looked there earlier. It's stunning. But again, it's not necessarily a lot of people, it's a lot of airplanes. My sister-in-law is a flight attendant (choosing not to fly as of mid-last week). She told us the flights are all quite empty.

The quiet here might (at least partly) be related to the fact that a not-insignificant number of daily Sea-Tac flights go to Asia, and those flights have been either curtailed or reduced.
 

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Cheering you all on!
Looks like there are quite a few flights in Europe and Asia too, from that flight tracker
 

waylander

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Looks like there are quite a few flights in Europe and Asia too, from that flight tracker

London Heathrow is still open (though they have closed London Gatwick) and there are still thousands of Brits trying to get back
 

Roxxsmom

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Malaysia's Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development recently issued a series of "helpful" online posters urging women to help with the partial lockdown by not nagging their husbands. They were also advised to wear makeup and their office/work clothes at home during stay at home. Evidently, no similar order was issued to husbands re not nagging their wives or grooming themselves "properly" during this crisis.

This boggled my mind, though on reflection I could see our own country issuing such a suggestion a few decades ago, and I have little doubt there are still people in our government who would consider such advice appropriate.

And to be fair, Malaysia has taken this "helpful suggestion" down since, as it drew a lot of online criticism, and perhaps ... nags?

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/01/8250...-lock-down-malaysias-government-advises-women

My spouse and I have agreed we will both continue to shower every day, and that we will do our best not to be cranky with each other over things neither of us can control. The best thing about this lockdown, as far as we are both concerned, is no work clothes required, and (for me) no makeup, and much more leisurely morning routines for both of us.

On a more serious note, though, this situation has got to be hell for people in abusive relationships. I haven't heard much about how stay-at-home orders are affecting domestic violence rates in the US, but France has evidently reported an increase in domestic violence since this began.
 

Kat M

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Early this morning I was awakened by the sound of yelling. It was the folks upstairs. I couldn't hear anything other than—
1.) They were not having scream-sex this time
2.) He was doing most of the yelling, and I heard a speech pattern akin to "something f—ing this, something f—ing that"
3.) When she responded, yelling in kind, she was crying.
4.) Things were slamming, but they did not seem to be slamming into people.

It went on for a good 40 minutes at least.

I don't know my neighbors. I don't know if they're generally on good terms and if this was just a bad attack of cabin fever. I've never heard yelling like that before but I have heard a similar yelling and crying pattern in the summertime, when the windows are open, though not necessarily from this unit.

I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what to do.
 

BenPanced

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There was a conference call for The Day Job™'s district earlier this afternoon (put the phone on speaker and kept working); questions were submitted beforehand since there were about 750 people on the call. The first one that was answered and won't be discussed again is there will NOT be any jobs lost or people laid off as a result. We're keeping everybody on and, in fact, still hiring in some cases (we have a new department manager starting some time in the next week, so that should prove interesting). I've also guessed another question that wasn't answered and won't be discussed is "How much are we getting as a year-end bonus even though we're still doing our standard jobs in a standard schedule?"

Normally, there are ~1000 people in the building daily, ranging from regular staff to law enforcement to cafeteria to maintenance/cleaning staff. We're currently down to 55.

COVID-19 and the Minneapolis Fed: What we’re doing, how we’re working | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
 

Roxxsmom

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I don't know my neighbors. I don't know if they're generally on good terms and if this was just a bad attack of cabin fever. I've never heard yelling like that before but I have heard a similar yelling and crying pattern in the summertime, when the windows are open, though not necessarily from this unit.

I don't know what's going on, and I don't know what to do.

It's really hard to know when it's gone beyond yelling sometimes. I'd say that if it does sound like someone is being hit, or if it becomes a repeated thing, to call the cops.
 

Roxxsmom

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Fauci evidently needs a security detail now, because of threats being made against him on social media.

Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-diseases expert and the face of the U.S. response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, is facing growing threats to his personal safety, prompting the government to step up his security, according to people familiar with the matter.

The concerns include threats as well as unwelcome communications from fervent admirers, according to people with knowledge of deliberations inside the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...861a16-744d-11ea-85cb-8670579b863d_story.html

Some Trump supporters have evidently taken it very badly that Fauci sometimes had the audacity to correct their lord and master. I imagine some might also be lashing out because he has become the face of what level of coordinated response we've had so far and of the hodgepodge of stay-at-home orders issued by states. Some people are still furious about what they regard as government overreach and a response they think is overblown or a thinly veiled attempt to take away their god-given right to kill themselves and others around them.
 

Introversion

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The Pentagon warned the White House about a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds in 2017—but the Trump administration did nothing.

The Nation said:
Despite President Trump’s repeated assertions that the Covid-19 epidemic was “unforeseen” and “came out of nowhere,” the Pentagon was well aware of not just the threat of a novel influenza, but even anticipated the consequent scarcity of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds, according to a 2017 Pentagon plan obtained by The Nation.

“The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease,” the military plan states. Covid-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the novel (meaning new to humans) coronavirus. The document specifically references coronavirus on several occasions, in one instant saying, “Coronavirus infections [are] common around the world.”

The plan represents an update to an earlier Department of Defense pandemic influenza response plan, noting that it “incorporates insights from several recent outbreaks including…2012 Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.”

Titled “USNORTHCOM Branch Plan 3560: Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease Response,” the draft plan is marked for official use only and dated January 6, 2017. The plan was provided to The Nation by a Pentagon official who requested anonymity to avoid professional reprisal.

Denis Kaufman, who served as head of the Infectious Diseases and Countermeasures Division at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2014 to 2017, stressed that US intelligence had been well-aware of the dangers of coronaviruses for years. (Kaufman retired from his decades-long career in the military in December of 2017.)

“The Intelligence Community has warned about the threat from highly pathogenic influenza viruses for two decades at least. They have warned about coronaviruses for at least five years,” Kaufman explained in an interview.

“There have been recent pronouncements that the coronavirus pandemic represents an intelligence failure…. it’s letting people who ignored intelligence warnings off the hook.”

...
 

Introversion

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Why I fear the U.S. will blow past the "if we do everything perfect" predictions of total deaths.

Where America Didn’t Stay Home Even as the Virus Spread

NY Times said:
...

In Jacksonville, the sheriff’s department had to send out officers over the weekend to break up block parties. In Spartanburg, S.C., people were still going to the hardware store to buy supplies for home-improvement projects, and pictures from children's birthday parties and playdates were being posted on Facebook. And along the shorelines in Florida and Alabama, communities that rely on tourists to help drive the economy instead looked with frustration at out-of-state license plates on the street.

“I saw people this weekend shaking hands with each other,” Lenny Curry, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida’s largest city, told residents. “I understand, maybe it's just habit. But we've got to stop, folks. We've really got to stop this.”

...

I still, still see comments in social media from people who aren't taking this seriously, who think the threat is overhyped by the media and liberals. I put much of the blame for this on our Dunning-Kruger president and his months of inaction and misinformation, but really we've been marching towards this for decades. Too many Americans at this point mistrust the media and science, and are too ignorant of the latter, to take warnings from experts seriously.

I'd like to think that 2020 is one of those "step-function events" in history that changes that, that takes us from "status quo A" to a better "status quo B" where we are in better agreement over things like the value of universal healthcare, and planning for catastrophic events, but I just don't know.
 

Lyv

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And we're already here:

New guidelines for EMS in NYC show grim reality of COVID-19 pandemic

New guidance for EMS in New York City and Long Island says that patients in cardiac arrest should not be transported to the hospital if they cannot be saved in the field.

The hospitals in New York are overrun with coronavirus infections and emergency rooms are trying to minimize the number of difficult arrivals.


"It almost seems like it's never stopping, people keep coming and coming and coming and there's just no space to put them," said ER Dr. Darien Sutton.


City officials have released stark new guidance to equally overworked ambulance crews, effective immediately, if they can't resuscitate a patient in the field, they must withhold CPR and declare the person dead.


They can no longer continue to the hospital.

That's New York today, but we will see the same elsewhere.
 

Prozyan

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The GAO has been warning of ventilator shortages since the SARS outbreak of 2003 and no administration over the past two decades did anything about it.

Again in 2009, with the H1N1 outbreak, warnings were reissued and nothing was done.

Stockpiles of PPE used during the H1N1 outbreak were either not replenished or done so at a snail's pace.

This has been coming long before Trump ever got into office.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/st...ges-ventilators-medical-supplies-warned-about
 
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mrsmig

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Infuriated by this UN "Call Out for Creatives." They're seeking submissions to help in their mission to stop the spread of COVID-19.

And of course, they're not paying anything. You're working for "exposure." And here's the really fun part:

[FONT=&quot]By submitting your work to this brief you agree to grant the UN, all supporters and else anyone who wants to share this positive message, permission to use your work.[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Anyone who uses the work will be asked to credit the creator (but we cannot guarantee this)
[/FONT]

This seems particularly heartless given that "creatives" are among those taking the hardest financial hit from all the closures.
 

ElaineA

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Perhaps, but Trump had 3 years to rectify that (see: Obama Admin left pandemic playbook & warning, and Trump's own Defense Dept warning of 2017 noted above), and instead of taking it seriously, he lied about it, said it would go away "like a miracle," said we had it totally under control, called it a hoax, until it was well on our shores. Even then he dismissed it.

Placing blame on the Obama admin is all well and good and a nice little talking point for the FOXNews personalities, but the reality is Trump did nothing, not one tiny thing, to intervene in the spread before it grew out of control, to prepare with what we had, to take control of supply chains. To this day, states and localities and hospital systems are getting aced out of supplies on the open market, sometimes by FEMA, most times by foreign buyers.

It's absurd to try to point the finger anywhere but him for the abject failure of his response. He's the damn president of this country at THIS MOMENT, and has been since Jan 2017. His first and foremost responsibility is to keep this country safe and functioning, and he has failed on a colossal scale.
 

Lyv

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Boston hospitals getting ‘game changer’ machine that sterilizes 80,000 protective masks a day

A mammoth machine that can sterilize up to 80,000 N95 respirator masks a day is coming to the Boston area — a major breakthrough that could potentially provide protective masks to all Massachusetts hospitals battling the coronavirus pandemic.

Battelle’s machine uses concentrated hydrogen peroxide vapor to decontaminate N95 masks, which are in short supply around the country, desperately needed by doctors and nurses treating patients infected with COVID-19. Under normal circumstances, N95 masks are discarded after each use to maintain safety. With this system, they can be reused safely up to 20 times, according to Battelle.

The machine will arrive Saturday, according to Walsh. The system is expected to be fully operational Monday and will be staffed by workers from Battelle. The initial cost of cleaning will be about $3.25 a mask, but that figure is expected to drop as these machines are placed around the country, Walsh stated.

One hospital executive called this a “game changer” for the region in terms of getting protective equipment to critical front-line health care workers.


In late March, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization allowing Battelle to sterilize masks for Ohio hospitals at its West Jefferson, Ohio, facility. A subsequent authorization enabled it to dispatch machines to other locations around the country.
 

Roxxsmom

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But sadly for us, the current POTUS is where the buck firmly stops. He's had more than three years to rectify any mistakes or oversights made by the previous administration in this respect. He did not.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-coronavirus-masks/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-outbreak.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-national-security-council-149285

His lack of leadership in the early weeks and months of this outbreak, indeed his outright denial and minimization of the issue, is already costing us lives.

Statements that he inherited a mess from the Obama administration, or that the Obama administration are primarily to blame for our current situation, are falsified anyway.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-misplaced-blame-on-obama-for-coronavirus-tests/

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trumps-spin-on-broken-testing/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus.html

The real problem is America elected an narcissistic con man, someone not qualified to lead their country through the opening pitch of baseball season, let alone a crisis. He's spread an enormous amount of misinformation, though it's hard to know if it been bald-faced lies or a level of ignorance and cluelessness that is unforgivable in our nation's leader during a crisis, or a mixture of both. He also dragged his feet during the critical early months and weeks of the crisis, claiming conspiracy theories, creating false equivalencies with the flu, minimizing the threat, then insisting he took it seriously from the start and responded appropriately.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...rumps-false-or-misleading-coronavirus-claims/

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-h1n1-swine-flu-pandemic-spin/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-wait-swine-flu-n1h1/

He and his enablers have a lot of blood on his hands, IMO. Whether or not he is the only one who has contributed to this issue is really irrelevant. He's been in charge for the past three years.

The difference between the way he's handled COVID-19 and the way Obama handled the H1N1 outbreak couldn't be more stark.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/trump-coronavirus-obama-h1n1-swine-flu.html

Trump's lies are well documented also.

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-h1n1-swine-flu-pandemic-spin/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/31/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus-march-31/index.html

https://www.politifact.com/factchec...vel-coronavirus-really-sneaky-its-spread-us-/

I'm sort of baffled that anyone is still trying to defend Trump or his response to this pandemic. He's done little but display his ignorance and unfitness for the office he holds.
 
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MaeZe

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I remain appalled the benefit of public worn masks to prevent spread from asymptomatic persons is still being ignored. They just can't admit previous conclusions about asymptomatic spread were wrong. They don't even suggest they may be wrong.

BBC/NPR: Coronavirus: Expert panel to assess face mask use by public
This question is to be assessed by a panel of advisers to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The group will weigh up research on whether the virus can be projected further than previously thought; a study in the US suggests coughs can reach 6m and sneezes up to 8m.

The panel's chair, Prof David Heymann, told BBC News that the new research may lead to a shift in advice about masks....

...Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US, used high-speed cameras and other sensors to assess precisely what happens after a cough or sneeze.

They found that an exhalation generates a small fast-moving cloud of gas that can contain droplets of liquid of varying sizes - and that the smallest of these can be carried in the cloud over long distances.

The study - conducted in laboratory conditions - found that coughs can project liquid up to 6m away and that sneezes, which involve much higher speeds, can reach up to 8m away.
So 6 feet isn't far enough but nothing about asymptomatic spread.

A spokesperson for Public Health England said there was little evidence of widespread benefit from wearing masks outside clinical settings.

Not one ******* word about preventing asymptomatic persons wearing a mask to prevent spread.



And I might also add to the actions incompetrump is still doing to harm America. (Not sure if I don't need another nickname putting petty and Trump together. It's not just incompetence. Trumpetty?)

Apparently one million "N95" masks are coming from China to America on a New England Patriots jet.

That's good since: Coronavirus Cases Have Surged, But The US Is Refusing To Take The World’s Most Available Masks

Maybe they can slip them through customs or at a minimum, draw attention to the incompetrumpetty position.
 
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cbenoi1

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Spies, hijacks and export bans: the global battle for coronavirus equipment
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/global-battle-coronavirus-equipment-masks-tests

US buyers waving wads of cash managed to wrest control of a consignment of masks as it was about to be dispatched from China to one of the worst-hit coronavirus areas of France, according to two French officials.
The masks were on a plane at Shanghai airport that was ready to take off when the US buyers turned up and offered three times what their French counterparts were paying.

This is not an isolated incident.

Des masques pour le Québec détournés
https://www.tvanouvelles.ca/2020/04/02/des-masques-pour-le-quebec-detournes

Dimanche, une première livraison de masques KN95 en provenance de Hong Kong est arrivée au centre de DHL à Saint-Lambert, au Québec, selon le suivi de la marchandise sur le site de l’expéditeur DHL, mais hier, la marchandise avait bizarrement été redirigée vers un centre de service de DHL à Cincinnati, en Ohio.

Translation: A shipment of medical-grade masks that landed near Montreal and was scheduled for distribution got loaded back onto a plane and send to Cincinnati, OH. Zero explanation.

-cb
 
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