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Updates on [Coronavirus] Thread
Elki
get busyModerator, ClubPA mod
get busyModerator, ClubPA mod
Given the volume of discussion around this topic, we're gonna be doing things a bit differently until further notice. Instead of one thread, we'll be using two and a half threads.
This should help us have some readable threads, given the current volume of posts.
I'll be using my move posts powers occasionally, to keep things where they belong, so don't be surprised if that happens.
Edit: Burrack made a thread for lockdown resources, so you might want to look at that as well.
- An updates and information thread. News about response efforts, updates on the spread of the virus, new resources to keep track of news, political developments directly related to the virus, etc. No rumors, no twitter randos, do your best to make sure it's verified information before posting to this thread.
- A general coronavirus discussion thread. How things are happening in your town, how you're doing, how your family is doing, and other things you don't think go into the updates thread this goes in the general thread.
- The existing chat thread. There are lots of 'fun' or interesting things, posts tangentially related to the disease, cool videos, twitter posts, etc, that aren't news, or really something to discuss. Feel free to post them in the existing chat thread, because it's there for you, even if you don't usually post there. They're not all bad people. It's there, you might as well use it.
This should help us have some readable threads, given the current volume of posts.
I'll be using my move posts powers occasionally, to keep things where they belong, so don't be surprised if that happens.
Edit: Burrack made a thread for lockdown resources, so you might want to look at that as well.
Elki on
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This discussion has been closed.
Posts
The virus is officially designated SARS-CoV-2, formerly temporarily called and the disease it causes COVID-19. Since these are clunky names introduced after the outbreak was already widespread, the names haven't stuck all that well in common parlance. The virus is alternately called "novel coronavirus," "Wuhan coronavirus" (especially in Taiwan), and often just "the coronavirus" (also some racist things I will not mention). I personally have been calling it SARS2 but no one else has, so I'm not going to be picky about names here (unless you're going to be racist about it). We should know what we're talking about.
Coronaviruses are a class of viruses that affect mammals and birds, usually causing respiratory tract infections but occasionally also infecting the digestive tract. Four strains already circulate worldwide causing 15-30% of all common colds. Two other strains, SARS and MERS, were small outbreaks of novel coronaviruses with very high death rates but without being as contagious so they could be eliminated. This newest virus seems to be closely related to SARS, though not as deadly, but far more contagious.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, coughing, fatigue, and others that typically resemble to be cold or flu. The incubation period (the time between infection and the onset of symptoms) typically ranges from a day to a couple weeks. People become contagious before symptoms appear, and some people never develop symptoms. In 15-20% of symptomatic cases, however, the disease can progress from what appears to be a cold into pneumonia which can be fatal. Death rates are highest among the elderly (over 14% of those age 80 and above) and apparently nonexistent to children under 10.
Tips for protecting yourself against this coronavirus are listed below.
WHERE: Basically everywhere, even if not officially yet.
The pandemic started in Wuhan (population over 11 million), capital of Hubei province in China. Many of the earliest cases were linked specifically to Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, which despite its name was also known for selling bushmeat (wild exotic animals, usually unregulated). From Wuhan it spread rapidly through China, aided by the travel of Chinese New Year, and then via air travel around the world.
If your country claims not to have it, it's probably because they aren't testing enough for it.
WHEN: Through now, starting likely in November as the first case was retroactively noticed on the 1st of December, 2019. It might not ever end if this strain becomes the fifth worldwide circulating coronavirus strain, which it is on its way of doing.
WHO: World Health Organization, currently headed by Tedros Adhanom. They are in charge of declaring a pandemic.
The outbreak was first noticed by a group of doctors in Wuhan, who noted the disease's resemblance to SARS. A group of 8 or 10 were together in a WeChat private group discussing their findings, worried that this deadly new coronavirus might be the return of SARS. They were threatened by local police and officials who sought to suppress negative news, and this coverup cost the world valuable time that likely lead to the virus reaching a point where it could not be contained.
The face of these whistleblower doctors became Dr. Li Wenliang, a 33 year old ophthalmologist.
Dr. Li still continued to treat patients despite the admonishment and coverup, attempting to warn others before the official warnings finally came out, but soon after contracted COVID-19 and died. It is widely rumored that medical aid was withheld to ensure his death and silence him.
WHY: This coronavirus, like its cousin SARS before it, appears to be a zoonotic virus, which jumped over from an animal resevoir to start infecting humans. Most human diseases started this way, jumping over from an animal host to us, from us being in close contact with animals due to domestication or habitat loss for those animals forcing them in closer contact with us.
Specifically, both SARS and SARS2 seem to be derived from bat coronaviruses. Bats, because they fly, have a higher core body temperature than other mammals. Viruses therefore must be tougher in order to survive in bats, since fever is a reaction to help fight off diseases and effectively to any non-bat-infecting disease, bats are always in a fever state. Therefore, diseases that get transferred from bats tend to be nastier than other zoonotic diseases. Other examples for instance include the hemorrhagic fevers Nipah and Ebola.
HOW to protect myself:
#1: Hygiene - Wash your hands frequently using proper technique (see below), don't touch your face, cough and sneeze into your sleeve (elbows work), and wear a mask if available when you are sick to prevent further spread.
Proper handwashing technique:
Why is this long process necessary?
#2: Social distancing - stay away from crowds, work from home if at all possible, stay home when sick, maintain distance between yourself and others (especially those showing coughing and sneezing)
#3: If you haven't already, get a flu shot and make sure your other immunizations are up to date. It won't help directly with preventing this coronavirus, but comorbidities (including co-infections) make it much nastier. You don't want this virus AND the flu at the same time.
#4: Get enough sleep and stay hydrated. Sleep deprivation makes symptoms worse and causes diseases to be harder in most other cases, and I doubt SARS2 is any different. Being dehydrated can exasperate symptoms, and having any sort of cold or flu means water leaving the body faster (through coughed droplets, phlegm, runny noses and the like), so make sure there's enough to start with and keep replacing it. You'll recover better and faster, no matter what the illness.
#5: Have politicians who are being dumbasses (spreading conspiracy theories and false information, suggesting idiotic measures, firing your country's pandemic response team, etc.) and have an upcoming election? Vote the bums out.
Finally, don't eat bats, y'all. I don't care if it's a bit too late for this one. Living bats have important roles in their ecosystems, eating insects, pollinating flowers, and spreading fruit seeds. Dead bats are all sorts of full of diseases as mentioned earlier. You know what would make this pandemic worse? Also getting a novel hemorrhagic fever outbreak at the same time. Just leave the little winged fuzzballs alone.
Also:
DO NOT consider this OP to be all-inclusive and all the information you need. Check the links below and keep up with the news for updates, the latest findings, and warnings.
Useful links (with thanks again from @boogedyboo):
General Info
US CDC on nCov 2019
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/summary.html
WHO on nCOV 2019
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/novel-coronavirus-china
Live updates from Netherlands-based news aggregator BNO News:
https://twitter.com/BNODesk
Good video summary from the Guardian
Wikipedia pages, updated frequently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_coronavirus_outbreak
Links to separate pages by country and territory:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_coronavirus_outbreak_by_country_and_territory
Situation Reports
WHO Daily Sit-reps
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/
US CDC Case count
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html
Visualization
Updated mapping visualization by John Hopkins University
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
[Up to date, usually marking by country but also state and Chinese province]
Live updates, number tracking (no map)
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Real Time Tracking of cases in China (in Chinese)
http://3g.dxy.cn/newh5/view/pneumonia
BNO News Timeline and tracker:
https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/02/the-latest-coronavirus-cases/
[Note: the map marks individual cities but this has been falling behind as cases accelerate.]
Academic
Completed sequence of viral genome
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/MN908947
TWiV 584: Year of the coronavirus - Discussion panel of virologists about the outbreak.
http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-584/
Twitter thread keeping track of academic papers both published and preprint (biorxiv.org) on the virus.
Maintained by Dr Cevik of University of St Andrews
--
Credit to Mayabird.
The CDC also closes their data at 4pm the previous day so new stats are a trailing indicator of the current situation.
It's not some US conspiracy to protect the stock market (which clearly would not have been working).
This website https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ I have found very comprehensive. They source every update they get too.
The main thing is that it's starting to flare up in the non-Western World now. Iraq is up to 10 deaths, and Iraq has almost no functional healthcare system.
In general any nation that has a high death/case load is missing a ton of infection strings. Iraqs 10/133, Omans 12/24, Philippenes 12/187 for instance.
This means that WHO data on the US is always at least 36 hours behind, more on weekends.
But basically every piece of collected data will always be some amount of time behind because that's how statistics and time work so this is normal
Like actually normal not sarcastic normal
Thank you for that clarification.
There is currently some uncertainty in the medical community about whether or not it’s safe to take NSAIDs like ibuprofen while affected by the Coronavirus. The French health minister has advised against using NSAIDs, and some studies have indicated that NSAIDs may lead to worse outcomes, but to this point there is nothing definite.
That said, it may be worthwhile using Tylenol instead, until this is better sorted out, just to be safe. Talk to your doctor.
https://www.bing.com/covid
This one confuses me because the original read I got on this was that since NSAIDs suppress immune response, that's why it could be bad. But the whole thing about the severe damage that COVID-19 can do is because your body goes into crazy hyper immune response, destroying your own tissues in the process. I would think anti-inflammatory would be preferred knowing that.
Are there any countries providing official guidance on what to use and when to manage symptoms until you can get to a doctor? Or at least what not to do?
I suspect the answer is that the immune response does slow down COVID-19 while also tearing up your body in the process. By suppressing the inflammatory response you just let COVID reproduce more and you're banking up future damage and suffering for short term relief.
Right, current advice is to limit tylenol or acetaminophen containing products to 3000 to 4000 mg per day. This is so you don’t have liver failure and die.Many over the counter flu and cold medicines and prescription pain medicines have significant quantities of acetaminophen and this must be accounted for.
Acetominophen can be potentially fatal or cause permanent damage in doses as low as 2-3x the maximum safe dose.
Not saying not to use acetaminophen, just be careful.
Per county testing in NC is in the double and triple digits most places. Numbers are meaningless since testing hasn’t really happened.
That's accurate as of late yesterday for my county, so that's good. Our first confirmed cases came down just yesterday.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html is the CDC map if any reliability is in question from other sources
This looks right, and is suitably depressing since it's almost certain that there are a lot of cases that haven't been tested. No way is Houston just at 13 cases, but I believe that to be the confirmed number.
For dummies like me who aren't great at translating to actual dosages, a typical "extra-strength" Tylenol tablet is 500 mg, which means you should limit to 8 tablets per day. Easiest way to remember is that if you take two tablets every 5 hours or so you should be fine.
If you're taking cough medicine or something else that contains acetaminophen, check on the bottle how many mg are in a typical dose.
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Seeing how spread out the confirmed cases are all over the country really hits home how fucked we are in terms of containing this. Why we haven't immediately gone into a lock-down mode similar to France and others is just baffling.
I mean, I do know why. But it's still crazy.
EDIT - Almost 1000 new cases in the last 24 hours alone. Christ!
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there will by definition be increasing numbers every day until the spread peaks, and especially as we are catching up on testing
like, not to say it's not bad or scary right now, just trying to keep as level a head as possible about news
Chris Lu was Obama's White House Cabinet Secretary.
I say this with no glee or lightheartedness whatsoever; this has barely begun. People aren't going to be as supportive of his response in a few weeks when there may be thousands of dead.
not sure this is a coronavirus update but also polls don't show that. they show he had a little bump last week and is dropping back down
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/
You have GOT to be more clear when you decide to make a post like this. Are you referring to the 47-43 poll people were linking and discussing the other day (yesterday? It feels like a time warp. Whatever). Polls have a lag time, so anything coming out the past few days was sampling last week. Before the rapid visible escalation of this pandemic in the US. Be better than this.
With the way testing is going, this is not something we will ever find out. Only how many have died.
Sorry a bit rambly but I hate the current climate we're in and it shows how much the lower classes have been forced to ride a razors edge of survivability
I don't think polls several miles out from a national election qualify, especially when they're polls someone has just mentioned and provided no source for.
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I was under the impression that Governor Whitmer was doing a good job on Michigans reponse. So she must have just criticized Trump on television.
Trump tweets are not banned from the thread, but random insults he's flinging for reasons you don't even know aren't helpful or particularly interesting. The chimpanzee is throwing his shit through the bars again. It's frustrating, because a chimpanzee shouldn't be running the country, but there it is.
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I pimp this book out pretty often, but The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis, is a good read on just how dysfunctional the transition between the administrations was. It focuses on Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce departments but the failure to properly hand off and take the transition seriously was across the entire organization. And yeah, this is a perfect example of why this matters. Yes, the bulk of the team that attended the meeting are gone now. But more imporantly, nobody from the Trump team who attended was likely taking it seriously. And here we are.
6 more cases and a second death for Indiana.
The first death was someone over 60 with respiratory problems already.
It's ultimately a side effect of believing government does nothing but harm, which is an attitude that is incubated when government is actually operating well.
Like a schizophrenic on meds thinking everything is now fine, so they're going to stop taking them.