"And more children in Florida are requiring hospitalization. As of July 16, 246 children had been hospitalized with coronavirus. By July 24, that number had jumped to 303."
Just to place that in context, 400 people are being hospitalized every day with the virus in Florida. More kids are being hospitalized because more people are being hospitalized. Children are fortunately still not being frequently hospitalized by the virus compared to any other group.
A valid point...but at the same time, kids will get sick, and be hospitalized, and die if things open up where the virus can spread to them. The numbers are low, but they'll add up if we aren't careful about it. Also, this is summer, when kids are probably only interacting with a few other kids on a regular basis. Get them back in school and I think these numbers could go up in a hurry.
And that's probably enough discussion in the update thread.
100 recovered COVID patients, median age 49, IQR 45-53. 60 of them had myocardial inflammation.
Yeah. We know approximately what the direct death rate is. Wankers use that as an argument that it's not that bad, and the response (I'm currently in Australia) was an overreaction. But we're still finding out what the long term/permanent effects are, and yeah, that's some fucked numbers.
100 recovered COVID patients, median age 49, IQR 45-53. 60 of them had myocardial inflammation.
Yeah. We know approximately what the direct death rate is. Wankers use that as an argument that it's not that bad, and the response (I'm currently in Australia) was an overreaction. But we're still finding out what the long term/permanent effects are, and yeah, that's some fucked numbers.
MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Another grim milestone passed: the total official deaths from SARS2 have passed 650,000 worldwide. This is significant because the highest estimate of total worldwide influenza deaths per year (outside of the major pandemic strains) is 650,000. Again, that's an estimate, not confirmed deaths. Coronavirus deaths are all confirmed, and we all know how those are undercounts.
Not that "more deaths than the flu in less time" is going to stop the "it's just a flu, bro" trolls online, because unsurprisingly a lot of them are paid Russian provocateurs intentionally spreading disinformation, including truly fake news stories in English designed to be spread by confused stupid people on social media. Interestingly this includes 'stories' about SARS2 being a bioweapon/designed in a lab/a Chinese plot/all of the above and more.
Of course, Russia is no friend of anyone, including itself. Supposedly case and death numbers in Russia have gone down by large margins - but that was after a lot of doctors got tossed out of windows.
Our final cohort included 145 patients with mild to moderate illness within 1 week of symptom onset. We compared 3 groups: young children younger than 5 years (n = 46), older children aged 5 to 17 years (n = 51), and adults aged 18 to 65 years (n = 48). We found similar median (interquartile range) CT values for older children (11.1 [6.3-15.7]) and adults (11.0 [6.9-17.5]). However, young children had significantly lower median (interquartile range) CT values (6.5 [4.8-12.0]), indicating that young children have equivalent or more viral nucleic acid in their upper respiratory tract compared with older children and adults (Figure). The observed differences in median CT values between young children and adults approximate a 10-fold to 100-fold greater amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of young children. We performed a sensitivity analysis and observed a similar statistical difference between groups when including those with unknown symptom duration. Additionally, we identified only a very weak correlation between symptom duration and CT in the overall cohort (Spearman ρ = 0.22) and in each subgroup (young children, Spearman ρ = 0.20; older children, Spearman ρ = 0.19; and adults, Spearman ρ = 0.10).
Our analyses suggest children younger than 5 years with mild to moderate COVID-19 have high amounts of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in their nasopharynx compared with older children and adults. Our study is limited to detection of viral nucleic acid, rather than infectious virus, although SARS-CoV-2 pediatric studies reported a correlation between higher nucleic acid levels and the ability to culture infectious virus.5 Thus, young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population, as has been demonstrated with respiratory syncytial virus, where children with high viral loads are more likely to transmit.6 Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased. In addition to public health implications, this population will be important for targeting immunization efforts as SARS-CoV-2 vaccines become available.
So that whole narrative that younger children aren't spreaders?
"And more children in Florida are requiring hospitalization. As of July 16, 246 children had been hospitalized with coronavirus. By July 24, that number had jumped to 303."
Just to place that in context, 400 people are being hospitalized every day with the virus in Florida. More kids are being hospitalized because more people are being hospitalized. Children are fortunately still not being frequently hospitalized by the virus compared to any other group.
I'm happy that you find an appropriate number of children are being ravaged by the disease.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
"And more children in Florida are requiring hospitalization. As of July 16, 246 children had been hospitalized with coronavirus. By July 24, that number had jumped to 303."
Just to place that in context, 400 people are being hospitalized every day with the virus in Florida. More kids are being hospitalized because more people are being hospitalized. Children are fortunately still not being frequently hospitalized by the virus compared to any other group.
I'm happy that you find an appropriate number of children are being ravaged by the disease.
Don't be a dick.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
+28
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
It looks like the second wave (not in the US - there was never an end to the first wave) has started across the world. Vietnam, for instance, who had been doing so well, now has a cluster of 95 cases in the tourist hub city of Da Nang and has recorded its first COVID-19 death. Japan has had three days with more than 1000 new cases in a row, each one of them setting records - even at the worst of the first wave there were never 1000 cases in a day. Poland and the Philippines have both just set daily records, and cases are rising again in Spain and France. Argentina is probably still in the first wave, but has just cracked a 50% positivity rate, joining Mexico, Bolivia, and probably Brazil in that worst of associations.
BTW, want to apologize for saying before to write off the entire Western Hemisphere south of Canada. I forgot that some Caribbean islands have shut down transmission and have been maintaining good quarantines to prevent reinfection. Sorry about that.
It looks like the second wave (not in the US - there was never an end to the first wave) has started across the world. Vietnam, for instance, who had been doing so well, now has a cluster of 95 cases in the tourist hub city of Da Nang and has recorded its first COVID-19 death. Japan has had three days with more than 1000 new cases in a row, each one of them setting records - even at the worst of the first wave there were never 1000 cases in a day. Poland and the Philippines have both just set daily records, and cases are rising again in Spain and France. Argentina is probably still in the first wave, but has just cracked a 50% positivity rate, joining Mexico, Bolivia, and probably Brazil in that worst of associations.
BTW, want to apologize for saying before to write off the entire Western Hemisphere south of Canada. I forgot that some Caribbean islands have shut down transmission and have been maintaining good quarantines to prevent reinfection. Sorry about that.
And of course, Trump uses the opportunity to shit on those countries.
I don't have a problem with criticism of the recent outbreaks, or either the government or the public's handling of the situation which has lead to higher outbreaks. And if those countries aren't taking significant steps (Australia is, I'd bet a lot of others are), then they should be criticized for that too.
But not from him.
He can go to the end of the pier and fuck right off.
It looks like the second wave (not in the US - there was never an end to the first wave) has started across the world. Vietnam, for instance, who had been doing so well, now has a cluster of 95 cases in the tourist hub city of Da Nang and has recorded its first COVID-19 death. Japan has had three days with more than 1000 new cases in a row, each one of them setting records - even at the worst of the first wave there were never 1000 cases in a day. Poland and the Philippines have both just set daily records, and cases are rising again in Spain and France. Argentina is probably still in the first wave, but has just cracked a 50% positivity rate, joining Mexico, Bolivia, and probably Brazil in that worst of associations.
BTW, want to apologize for saying before to write off the entire Western Hemisphere south of Canada. I forgot that some Caribbean islands have shut down transmission and have been maintaining good quarantines to prevent reinfection. Sorry about that.
And of course, Trump uses the opportunity to shit on those countries.
I don't have a problem with criticism of the recent outbreaks, or either the government or the public's handling of the situation which has lead to higher outbreaks. And if those countries aren't taking significant steps (Australia is, I'd bet a lot of others are), then they should be criticized for that too.
But not from him.
He can go to the end of the pier and fuck right off.
"See, see! They suck at this, too!" is the fun childish defensiveness we've come to expect.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
I've mostly focused on outside-the-US news for the updates thread since everybody else seems to have the US news pretty well covered. Also kinda assumed that people would pick up on the whole deal where "Vietnam has one whole death and 95 new cases" and "Japan has one thousand cases for three days in a row" when most if not all US states are way past that by now.
Anyway, depending on which tracker you're using, Mexico either has already or will by tomorrow have passed the UK for total official number of deaths. You may say something like "but excess deaths in the UK are over 60,000." Yes, but excess deaths in Mexico so far are over 70,000, so Mexico still wins by losing. However, Mexico's population is nearly double the population of the UK, so if anyone really wants to argue this anywhere, the UK still has the higher death rate per capita. Where it goes from here depends on how badly each government fails.
CDC study in relation to the Georgia summer camp that went forward with even restrictions like no positive tests two weeks out of being on camp for staff and masks for staff but not kids. Infection rates were high even among the kids.
CDC study in relation to the Georgia summer camp that went forward with even restrictions like no positive tests two weeks out of being on camp for staff and masks for staff but not kids. Infection rates were high even among the kids.
From the article:
Camp A adhered to the measures in Georgia’s Executive Order* that allowed overnight camps to operate beginning on May 31, including requiring all trainees, staff members, and campers to provide documentation of a negative viral SARS-CoV-2 test ≤12 days before arriving. Camp A adopted most† components of CDC’s Suggestions for Youth and Summer Camps§ to minimize the risk for SARS-CoV-2 introduction and transmission. Measures not implemented were cloth masks for campers and opening windows and doors for increased ventilation in buildings. Cloth masks were required for staff members.
...
On June 23, a teenage staff member left camp A after developing chills the previous evening. The staff member was tested and reported a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2 the following day (June 24). Camp A officials began sending campers home on June 24 and closed the camp on June 27. ...
Well not great, but still seems pretty reasonable. Probably should have opened windows/doors and had kids wear masks, but at least staff was wearing, everyone got tested before, and they shut everything down as soon as someone tested positive. Seems okish...
Test results were available for 344 (58%) attendees; among these, 260 (76%) were positive.
Holy shit, that got bad fast.
"The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it" - Dr Horrible
With studies showing RT-PCR Covid tests having a 67% false negative rate 4 days after initial infection, a 38% false negative rate when symptoms first appear, and a 20% false negative rate 3 days after symptom onset, having everyone tested ahead of time is clearly insufficient as a precautionary measure. They should have made the kids wear masks.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
It looks like the second wave (not in the US - there was never an end to the first wave) has started across the world. Vietnam, for instance, who had been doing so well, now has a cluster of 95 cases in the tourist hub city of Da Nang and has recorded its first COVID-19 death. Japan has had three days with more than 1000 new cases in a row, each one of them setting records - even at the worst of the first wave there were never 1000 cases in a day. Poland and the Philippines have both just set daily records, and cases are rising again in Spain and France. Argentina is probably still in the first wave, but has just cracked a 50% positivity rate, joining Mexico, Bolivia, and probably Brazil in that worst of associations.
BTW, want to apologize for saying before to write off the entire Western Hemisphere south of Canada. I forgot that some Caribbean islands have shut down transmission and have been maintaining good quarantines to prevent reinfection. Sorry about that.
Holy shit, just taking a moment to really take in the fact that Vietnam, a country with almost a hundred million people, three times the size of California, has 95 cases and 1 death in the past couple of weeks, when my county of about 70,000 has had more cases and deaths than that over the same period.
"I'm in the high-risk group," the 65-year-old president told journalists during a visit to the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
"I knew I was going to catch it someday, as I think unfortunately nearly everyone here is going to catch it eventually. What are you afraid of? Face up to it," he said.
"I regret the deaths. But people die every day, from lots of things. That's life."
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
He has never not been saying that.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
BERLIN — Thousands of largely mask-less demonstrators marched through central Berlin on Saturday chanting “We are free people” to the beat of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in a coronavirus restrictions protest that was also riddled with virus-related conspiracy theories.
The demonstration took place despite recent warnings from German health officials about a new rise in infections.
Billed as a “Freedom Day,” the protest drew around 15,000 people, according to police figures cited by German media. The demonstration was organized by Querdenken 771, a group based in the western city of Stuttgart that emerged from weekly anti-lockdown demonstrations earlier in the pandemic. Members sometimes wear tinfoil hats or necklaces in what they say is a dig at being written off as conspiracy theorists.
Those present on Saturday included a hodgepodge of science skeptics, libertarians, Germany’s far-right and constitutional loyalists, Reuters reported.
Demonstrations against coronavirus measures have taken place from London to Michigan, but the gathering in Berlin was one of the largest yet. Police used loudspeakers to urge the largely mask-less crowd to observe social distancing rules.
A good reminder human stupidity isn't limited to the Americas.
Also I meant to actually post this here since it's more than just a general discussion thing (though we should use that thread to actually discuss the matter, I'd figure) but:
One of the first school districts in the U.S. to reopen its doors during the pandemic did not even make it a day before a call came from the county health department — a student who had walked the halls and sat in various classrooms had tested positive https://t.co/gTmeoCjZkW
from the article:
A New York Times analysis found that in many districts in the Sun Belt, at least five people infected with the coronavirus would be expected to arrive at a school of about 500 students and staff members during the first week if it reopened today.
So some asshole parent sent a kid to school before their Covid test results came back?
I mean we literally had a case near where I live in North Carolina where a guy (who had been working in a workplace with several cases and was advised by his employer to get tested) stopped to eat at a restaurant on the way to get his coronavirus test, only to call them 2 or 3 days later and tell them he was positive.
So some asshole parent sent a kid to school before their Covid test results came back?
Since results are taking over a week in some places, and bosses aren’t likely to give parents a week off for a kid who might have Covid, this will happen a lot.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Update on that goddamn cruise ship: Thirty six crew infected, four hospitalized. At least four passengers infected with more tests pending, only some of the passengers have disappeared off to who-knows-where in Norway or beyond.
This is why we can't have cruise ships during the global goddamn pandemic. We already knew from experience that they're floating contagion zones.
So some asshole parent sent a kid to school before their Covid test results came back?
Since results are taking over a week in some places, and bosses aren’t likely to give parents a week off for a kid who might have Covid, this will happen a lot.
My buddy here in SC just got his results back 18 days later. So yuuuup.
So some asshole parent sent a kid to school before their Covid test results came back?
Since results are taking over a week in some places, and bosses aren’t likely to give parents a week off for a kid who might have Covid, this will happen a lot.
My buddy here in SC just got his results back 18 days later. So yuuuup.
Eighteen days?
How the fuck is that considered a useful timeframe?
You could be clean when you get tested, catch the fucking thing, and recover, before getting your results.
Update on that goddamn cruise ship: Thirty six crew infected, four hospitalized. At least four passengers infected with more tests pending, only some of the passengers have disappeared off to who-knows-where in Norway or beyond.
This is why we can't have cruise ships during the global goddamn pandemic. We already knew from experience that they're floating contagion zones.
Victoria (i.e, the Australian state where all of the infections are happening currently) has just introduced a $300 payment for casual workers who've had to take time off to self isolate while waiting for test results to come back. Except the main problem casual workers are going to face isn't the loss of income for the 3-4 days they're not working, but the risk of having their hours cut or being let go entirely by their employer in retaliation for not showing up.
It's the fastest one our unsupported and overstressed testing system is capable of.
I believe the long testing times are to some extent a product of a much overdue priority system, where tests required for say urgent hospital care the next day are being routed above those for symptomatic individuals with no known contacts. We clearly need way more tests, but, we also need to be smarter as we deploy the tests we have.
18 days is ridiculous though. At the 14 day mark they should just throw it out and send you a "test not complete" notification.
A leak reveals a clearer indication of the real count of deaths in Iran. Government statistics show that almost 45000 have died, and that, as expected dozens of deaths were known about before the first cases were reported officially.
The population of Iran is 80 million, meaning its outbreak is highly similar in apparant severity by death counts to that seen in the US.
It's the fastest one our unsupported and overstressed testing system is capable of.
I believe the long testing times are to some extent a product of a much overdue priority system, where tests required for say urgent hospital care the next day are being routed above those for symptomatic individuals with no known contacts. We clearly need way more tests, but, we also need to be smarter as we deploy the tests we have.
18 days is ridiculous though. At the 14 day mark they should just throw it out and send you a "test not complete" notification.
That blows my mind...2 weeks or more is basically useless aside from postmortem confirmation.
At our worst my wifes lab was at 48 hours give or take and are still 24-48 for all our clients and in-house testing. They have (edit: a lot in the sense of things they can do to crash ramp up) of spare capacity and aren't even pooling samples because they don't have to.
I asked why they don't partner with Duke or FSU or whomever to use that spare capacity, but apparently its politics and being close enough to capacity they want to roll out better service with sufficient testing to maybe get ahead of things for our nursing homes and health system.
This is a shitshow and I can't believe in fucking August we still don't have a handle on basic fucking testing nationwide. This is a historic failure of national leadership.
It's the fastest one our unsupported and overstressed testing system is capable of.
I believe the long testing times are to some extent a product of a much overdue priority system, where tests required for say urgent hospital care the next day are being routed above those for symptomatic individuals with no known contacts. We clearly need way more tests, but, we also need to be smarter as we deploy the tests we have.
18 days is ridiculous though. At the 14 day mark they should just throw it out and send you a "test not complete" notification.
That blows my mind...2 weeks or more is basically useless aside from postmortem confirmation.
At our worst my wifes lab was at 48 hours give or take and are still 24-48 for all our clients and in-house testing. They have (edit: a lot in the sense of things they can do to crash ramp up) of spare capacity and aren't even pooling samples because they don't have to.
I asked why they don't partner with Duke or FSU or whomever to use that spare capacity, but apparently its politics and being close enough to capacity they want to roll out better service with sufficient testing to maybe get ahead of things for our nursing homes and health system.
This is a shitshow and I can't believe in fucking August we still don't have a handle on basic fucking testing nationwide. This is a historic failure of national leadership.
The idea that we like, had positivity down to 1% of less in many areas of the US and weren't doing pool testing months after it was shown to work is just crazy.
The UK is rolling out a combined rapid test for both Flu and Covid19, which can test for both viruses in a healthcare setting and return a result within 90 minutes. This is a news article, and even they point out that false negative data has not yet been presented, but its still a potentially very valuable test, which the UK authorities imagine will be able to return ~6 million test results over the next few months.
This is particularly interesting now, because in the same article they mention the reason these tests are so important is the 'national disgrace' that only 75% of test results are returned within 24 hours and that the remainder may take up to 2 days! Which, for those of you keeping score at home is considerably less than 18 days.
As a professional numbers guy, I can confirm that 2 is, in fact, less than 18.
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
It's the fastest one our unsupported and overstressed testing system is capable of.
I believe the long testing times are to some extent a product of a much overdue priority system, where tests required for say urgent hospital care the next day are being routed above those for symptomatic individuals with no known contacts. We clearly need way more tests, but, we also need to be smarter as we deploy the tests we have.
18 days is ridiculous though. At the 14 day mark they should just throw it out and send you a "test not complete" notification.
Posts
A valid point...but at the same time, kids will get sick, and be hospitalized, and die if things open up where the virus can spread to them. The numbers are low, but they'll add up if we aren't careful about it. Also, this is summer, when kids are probably only interacting with a few other kids on a regular basis. Get them back in school and I think these numbers could go up in a hurry.
And that's probably enough discussion in the update thread.
One study, etc etc etc. But yipes.
100 recovered COVID patients, median age 49, IQR 45-53. 60 of them had myocardial inflammation.
Yeah. We know approximately what the direct death rate is. Wankers use that as an argument that it's not that bad, and the response (I'm currently in Australia) was an overreaction. But we're still finding out what the long term/permanent effects are, and yeah, that's some fucked numbers.
Good thing ECGs are coming off Medicare for GPs then
(Read: no more Aus public health funding for interpreting heart issues at your local doctor for reasons)
Not that "more deaths than the flu in less time" is going to stop the "it's just a flu, bro" trolls online, because unsurprisingly a lot of them are paid Russian provocateurs intentionally spreading disinformation, including truly fake news stories in English designed to be spread by confused stupid people on social media. Interestingly this includes 'stories' about SARS2 being a bioweapon/designed in a lab/a Chinese plot/all of the above and more.
Of course, Russia is no friend of anyone, including itself. Supposedly case and death numbers in Russia have gone down by large margins - but that was after a lot of doctors got tossed out of windows.
So that whole narrative that younger children aren't spreaders?
Uh yeah maybe we should throw that out.
I'm happy that you find an appropriate number of children are being ravaged by the disease.
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Don't be a dick.
BTW, want to apologize for saying before to write off the entire Western Hemisphere south of Canada. I forgot that some Caribbean islands have shut down transmission and have been maintaining good quarantines to prevent reinfection. Sorry about that.
And of course, Trump uses the opportunity to shit on those countries.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/coronavirus-us-president-donald-trump-says-pandemic-is-devastating-australia/news-story/a39c8281679e0d867e2ab8a32b924dfd
I don't have a problem with criticism of the recent outbreaks, or either the government or the public's handling of the situation which has lead to higher outbreaks. And if those countries aren't taking significant steps (Australia is, I'd bet a lot of others are), then they should be criticized for that too.
But not from him.
He can go to the end of the pier and fuck right off.
"See, see! They suck at this, too!" is the fun childish defensiveness we've come to expect.
Anyway, depending on which tracker you're using, Mexico either has already or will by tomorrow have passed the UK for total official number of deaths. You may say something like "but excess deaths in the UK are over 60,000." Yes, but excess deaths in Mexico so far are over 70,000, so Mexico still wins by losing. However, Mexico's population is nearly double the population of the UK, so if anyone really wants to argue this anywhere, the UK still has the higher death rate per capita. Where it goes from here depends on how badly each government fails.
CDC study in relation to the Georgia summer camp that went forward with even restrictions like no positive tests two weeks out of being on camp for staff and masks for staff but not kids. Infection rates were high even among the kids.
From the article:
Well not great, but still seems pretty reasonable. Probably should have opened windows/doors and had kids wear masks, but at least staff was wearing, everyone got tested before, and they shut everything down as soon as someone tested positive. Seems okish...
Holy shit, that got bad fast.
Holy shit, just taking a moment to really take in the fact that Vietnam, a country with almost a hundred million people, three times the size of California, has 95 cases and 1 death in the past couple of weeks, when my county of about 70,000 has had more cases and deaths than that over the same period.
A good reminder human stupidity isn't limited to the Americas.
He did have a long period where he said that he would never get sick because of how tough he was.
from the article:
so.
yeah.
People assuming that they are healthy while waiting for test results has been a frequent occurence.
It's basically the natural extension to Trump’s "Less tests, less cases" argument.
Presumed negative until proven positive.
That's fine in a court of law, regarding guilt (unless you're a Trump crony or a war criminal, apparently).
Not in the case of possible contagion.
I mean we literally had a case near where I live in North Carolina where a guy (who had been working in a workplace with several cases and was advised by his employer to get tested) stopped to eat at a restaurant on the way to get his coronavirus test, only to call them 2 or 3 days later and tell them he was positive.
This is why we can't have cruise ships during the global goddamn pandemic. We already knew from experience that they're floating contagion zones.
People doing stupid shit when they should know better though seems to be a vector for the virus to come back in a lot of countries. Like Australia, where a quarter of the people who are supposed to be self-isolating because they've tested positive weren't at home when people came to check on them and make sure they were isolating. People who have had positive tests, who know they are infectious, just off and about doing whatever, probably infecting others too. For a hot moment the rest of the world mostly had me convinced that this was a particularly American stupidity, but no, plenty of stupid selfish assholes in the rest of the world too.
My buddy here in SC just got his results back 18 days later. So yuuuup.
Eighteen days?
How the fuck is that considered a useful timeframe?
You could be clean when you get tested, catch the fucking thing, and recover, before getting your results.
It's the fastest one our unsupported and overstressed testing system is capable of.
Victoria (i.e, the Australian state where all of the infections are happening currently) has just introduced a $300 payment for casual workers who've had to take time off to self isolate while waiting for test results to come back. Except the main problem casual workers are going to face isn't the loss of income for the 3-4 days they're not working, but the risk of having their hours cut or being let go entirely by their employer in retaliation for not showing up.
I believe the long testing times are to some extent a product of a much overdue priority system, where tests required for say urgent hospital care the next day are being routed above those for symptomatic individuals with no known contacts. We clearly need way more tests, but, we also need to be smarter as we deploy the tests we have.
18 days is ridiculous though. At the 14 day mark they should just throw it out and send you a "test not complete" notification.
A leak reveals a clearer indication of the real count of deaths in Iran. Government statistics show that almost 45000 have died, and that, as expected dozens of deaths were known about before the first cases were reported officially.
The population of Iran is 80 million, meaning its outbreak is highly similar in apparant severity by death counts to that seen in the US.
That blows my mind...2 weeks or more is basically useless aside from postmortem confirmation.
At our worst my wifes lab was at 48 hours give or take and are still 24-48 for all our clients and in-house testing. They have (edit: a lot in the sense of things they can do to crash ramp up) of spare capacity and aren't even pooling samples because they don't have to.
I asked why they don't partner with Duke or FSU or whomever to use that spare capacity, but apparently its politics and being close enough to capacity they want to roll out better service with sufficient testing to maybe get ahead of things for our nursing homes and health system.
This is a shitshow and I can't believe in fucking August we still don't have a handle on basic fucking testing nationwide. This is a historic failure of national leadership.
The idea that we like, had positivity down to 1% of less in many areas of the US and weren't doing pool testing months after it was shown to work is just crazy.
Both update and comment perhaps.
The UK is rolling out a combined rapid test for both Flu and Covid19, which can test for both viruses in a healthcare setting and return a result within 90 minutes. This is a news article, and even they point out that false negative data has not yet been presented, but its still a potentially very valuable test, which the UK authorities imagine will be able to return ~6 million test results over the next few months.
This is particularly interesting now, because in the same article they mention the reason these tests are so important is the 'national disgrace' that only 75% of test results are returned within 24 hours and that the remainder may take up to 2 days! Which, for those of you keeping score at home is considerably less than 18 days.
Won't get paid doing that.