Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) (SARS-CoV-2) [2020]

[Davros]

After the first cases appeared in Washington in January, the president insisted that the US had "pretty much shut [coronavirus] down" and said "it's going to be fine".
Nearly a month later, he claimed that cases were "going substantially down, not up" just days before he number of confirmed infections reached 1,000.
In late February, he claimed the virus "would disappear" as US infections reached 4,000, then slammed reports of the outbreak as part of a "hoax".
By the time the Covid-19 spread had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with nearly 14,000 cases confirmed in the US, forcing the president to declare a national emergency, he said he had "always known" about the threat.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Tack onto the end of that.

Mar23 - 44,850 cases... 'we'll be opening up very very soon, sooner than people think'

 

[zed]

Its missing his greatest quote 26 feb
"When you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."

WRT the economy

the lieutenant governor of Texas went on Fox News to argue that he would rather die than see public health measures damage the US economy, and that he believed “lots of grandparents” across the country would agree with him.

What say you grandparents, your country needs you step forward and make the sacrifice

WRT china and the numbers, confirmation they are BS
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-lockdown-has-china-really-beaten-coronavirus

TLDR
Basically to make the numbers low, they are not testing ppl showing the symptoms, number cant go up if you dont test for it right?
Even If ppl were positive then they are not counted if they are asymptomatic

remember they made a great show of creating hospitals in a week or so, this was all for an image. Why could they not just convert existing factory/hotel/school etc
and then closing them weeks later, all for the image, now its like we have solved it, and any cases we get come from other countries
Their 'economy uber alles' is prolly even greater than the trump administrations

I believe they are just going for the herd protection route, as its the best for the economy approach

 

[Gubbi]

Trump on keeping economy closed: "That causes other problems, and maybe it causes much bigger problems than the problem we're talking about now." (Public health experts disagree.)

The problem for Trump is that his entire presidency is buoyed by the stock market, everything else in his presidency has been a disaster. If the economy doesn't recover before november he won't be reelected; He is willing to kill everybodys grandparents to make sure he is. Are anyone surprised ?


Cheers

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Actually anti-malaria drugs outside the USA can be bought OTC. Even though there are side effects the death must have been a overdose.

Yeah. The US view filtered through the FDA isn't an accurate picture of medication. Self-medication of course has risks, but so does medical-services prescribed medication. Anyone who'd have a reaction to a drug will have it whether the drug is prescribed or not. The only thing drug control can ensure is purity of product and prescribed dosage (that people may ignore an OD), and purity of product for OTC can be handled other ways.

It's important to look at medication across the board, as different nations have different takes and yours might be either too tolerant or too strict in some matters.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

​

He is literally the personification of everything wrong with this country and the Party that supports him is a close 2nd in that regard.

Too political for this sub-forum. Discussion of Trump administration belongs in RSPC. This thread is for US approach to dealing with Covid19.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

WRT china and the numbers, confirmation they are BS
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-lockdown-has-china-really-beaten-coronavirus

Basically to make the numbers low, they are not testing ppl showing the symptoms, number cant go up if you dont test for it right?

If the numbers are always those who show symptoms, then a drop in number is a drop in cases. Even if there's 10 million asymptomatic carriers now, the number of people at risk and in hospitals would be accurate and dropped and levelled off.

I believe they are just going for the herd protection route, as its the best for the economy approach

If that were true, there would have been ongoing exponential growth and huge death numbers that they wouldn't be able to hide.

This article is actually saying that asymptomatic people aren't being counted, and that may be 50% of the current reported rate or even more. It's also a crap article with numerous reference to 'opinions on the internet'. The take home is more that China might be relaxing containment too early, but if that's true, we'll hear about it as the number of infected grows exponentially once again. And also, that asymptomatic people can be numerous which conflicts with data elsewhere suggesting it's a small proportion. Has the virus evolved to a weaker version?

 

[zed]

I just saw a news report mentioning a small study. On 20 patients it improved symptoms in 6 (reduced the virus present in a nasal swab), 3 went to intensive care, 1 died.

this sounds like they went to intensive care & died from from the drug, I'm 99% sure this is not the case, Im sure this was caused from covid-19.

from wiki
Overdose

Due to rapid absorption, symptoms of overdose can occur within a half an hour after ingestion. Overdose symptoms include convulsions, drowsiness, headache, heart problems or heart failure, difficulty breathing and vision problems.

Hydroxychloroquine overdoses are rarely reported, with seven previous cases found in the English medical literature. In one such case, a 16-year-old girl who had ingested a handful of hydroxychloroquine 200mg presented with tachycardia (heart rate 110 beats/min), hypotension (systolic blood pressure 63 mm Hg), central nervous system depression, conduction defects (QRS = 0.14 msec), and hypokalemia (K = 2.1 meq/L). Treatment consisted of fluid boluses and dopamine, oxygen, and potassium supplementation. The presence of hydroxychloroquine was confirmed through toxicologic tests. The patient's hypotension resolved within 4.5 hours, serum potassium stabilized in 24 hours, and tachycardia gradually decreased over three days.[18]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxychloroquine#cite_note-18
Thus from the 10s or 100s of millions (perhaps billions) of doses theres been 7 (now 8) reported overdoses, BTW take a handful of any pill and see what happens

PLEASE DO NOT TAKE PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR.

obviously

btw By coincidence (perhaps) I was listening to the latest history hour podcast BBC, apparently hydroxychloriquine was invented in china (inventor won noble prize in medicine) under orders from Mao shi-dung

 

[Malo]

Too political for this sub-forum. Discussion of Trump administration belongs in RSPC. This thread is for US approach to dealing with Covid19.

Only US approach? I thought this was the general COVID-19 thread for anyone.

 

[BRiT]

It should be for every country, but the talks shouldn't focus on the political aspects.

Pointing out how stupid some of the responses have been is not political. Showing the stupidity in the responses by some in the US GOP is not political either.

Saying the US GOP is what's wrong with the country is Political. That should be done I RSPC.

Or that's how I view things.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sorry, yes for everywhere. Just US talk needs to be about Covid19 spread and containment in the US without getting into the politics. That discussion can be held in a new thread in RSPCA.

 

[AlphaWolf]

this sounds like they went to intensive care & died from from the drug, I'm 99% sure this is not the case, Im sure this was caused from covid-19.

It was never my intent to make that case, but it should be noted in that small sample the number going to intensive care was a significant increase over normal. Maybe that's down to bad methodology or just luck in a small sample size, it certainly isn't a number which would suggest you should try this yourself.

 

[manux]

India under complete lockdown for 3 weeks. Nobody allowed to come out from home. Infected count doubles in new york every 3 days. Last I checked it took average of 19days from infection to death for those who die. It's going to get really bad in new york in 2-3weeks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India declared an extensive lockdown on Tuesday, a day after the authorities grounded all domestic flights.
Mr. Modi said the decree would take effect at midnight.
“There will be a total ban of coming out of your homes,’‘ Mr. Modi said.
“Every district, every lane, every village will be under lockdown.’‘“If you can’t handle these 21 days, this country will go back 21 years,” he said.
“The only option is social distancing, to remain away from each other,” he said. “There is no way out to escape from coronavirus besides this.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Tuesday that the rate of infections in the state is doubling about every three days.
“We haven’t flattened the curve, and the curve is actually increasing,” he said, adding that the state could need as many as 140,000 hospital beds, an increase from the 110,000 that officials projected earlier in the week.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/world/coronavirus-updates-maps.html

 

[BRiT]

More about Trump's crazy advice and people following it and ending up worse off, even dead.

Her husband is dead & she's in the ICU after ingesting chloroquine:

"We saw Trump on TV -- every channel -- & all of his buddies and that this was safe," she said.
"Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure."

She implored @VaughnHillyard: "Educate the people"

The couple did not have coronavirus symptoms but took the chloroquine phosphate as a preventative measure. They feared contracting coronavirus.

The couple each mixed 1 tsp of chloroquine phosphate w soda.
-Within 20 minutes, they began experiencing severe sickness & called 911
"I was in the pantry stacking dog food and I just saw it sitting in the back shelf and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?’ And it was."

Hillyard interviewed her from her hospital bed over the phone:

"This is the most horrible day of my life. And
it feels like, like my heart is broken and it’ll never mend. It’s just broke--dead. Like my husband."

"I’m 61. My husband is 68. We’re healthy. No, no, underlying--no diabetes or lung issues. Nothing."
"Oh my God. Don't take anything. Don't believe anything.

Don’t believe anything that the President says and his people because they don't know what they're talking about. And don't take anything--be so careful and call your doctor. This is a heart ache I'll never get over."​

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1242241046815354881

 

[manux]

I believe the person who died ate some aquarium cleaner which has all kinds of things. In other times I might mention something about darwin or perhaps florida.

 

[N00b]

More about Trump's crazy advice and people following it and ending up worse off, even dead.

Her husband is dead & she's in the ICU after ingesting chloroquine:

"We saw Trump on TV -- every channel -- & all of his buddies and that this was safe," she said.
"Trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure."

She implored @VaughnHillyard: "Educate the people"

The couple did not have coronavirus symptoms but took the chloroquine phosphate as a preventative measure. They feared contracting coronavirus.

The couple each mixed 1 tsp of chloroquine phosphate w soda.
-Within 20 minutes, they began experiencing severe sickness & called 911
"I was in the pantry stacking dog food and I just saw it sitting in the back shelf and thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that the stuff they’re talking about on TV?’ And it was."

Hillyard interviewed her from her hospital bed over the phone:

"This is the most horrible day of my life. And
it feels like, like my heart is broken and it’ll never mend. It’s just broke--dead. Like my husband."

"I’m 61. My husband is 68. We’re healthy. No, no, underlying--no diabetes or lung issues. Nothing."
"Oh my God. Don't take anything. Don't believe anything.

Don’t believe anything that the President says and his people because they don't know what they're talking about. And don't take anything--be so careful and call your doctor. This is a heart ache I'll never get over."​

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1242241046815354881

Sorry, but where has Trump said people should self-medicate with chloroquine?

It's just dumb people doing dumb things. Medical drugs are not candy. It's not Trump's fault.

You can hate him any way you want. Fine with me. But this is not on Trump.

Chloroquine has been successfully used in treating covid-19. There are a lot of studies on pubmed already, i.e. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32173110

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's so wrong on so many levels. How can someone hear about a medicine for tackling symptoms and interpret it as a preventative*? And why does Trump et al provide bogus advice? It's not their place to give medical advice unless as part of the Governmental strategy, and any advice should be very carefully worded by the experts. And then why did they have some already? And did they read the label? And did they check the 'use by' date?

So it was a treatment for fish. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...oroquine-attempt-prevent-coronavirus-n1167166

The toxic ingredient they consumed was not the medication form of chloroquine, used to treat malaria in humans. Instead, it was an ingredient listed on a parasite treatment for fish.
​

The couple themselves are sadly in good part to blame, for stupidly thinking a parasite treatment for fish is appropriate to take as a human medication.

* Edit: Okay, it's been presented as a preventative, but Trump didn't say it works, not in that interview, but that he felt good about it and it should given a chance, suggesting people get a prescription from their doctors. That weights the blame even more with the couple who failed to understand the original message and then start consuming animal treatments.

It's also very interesting how different reports skew the information to favour their agenda. Those anti-trump state the couple consumer chloroquine, whereas another report says they consumed 'fish tank cleaner' and 'fish tank solvent'. Both are partially true, with selective representation to paint a different picture. That's why I largely avoid the press!

 

[AlphaWolf]

Sorry, but where has Trump said people should self-medicate with chloroquine?

It's just dumb people doing dumb things. Medical drugs are not candy. It's not Trump's fault.

You can hate him any way you want. Fine with me. But this is not on Trump.

Chloroquine has been successfully used in treating covid-19. There are a lot of studies on pubmed already, i.e. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32173110

While the guy who jumps off a bridge is an idiot it doesn't mean it's a good idea for people to be telling others that jumping off bridges is a treatment for COVID-19.

There's room for both to be wrong.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

While the guy who jumps off a bridge is an idiot it doesn't mean it's a good idea for people to be telling others that jumping off bridges is a treatment for COVID-19.

That wasn't what was said though. The advice was get a prescription from your doctor for the anti-malaria drug, as the drug is already FDA approved for that purpose. They didn't follow the advice but went with their own theory based on a weak understanding of science. Similar to those, "alcohol kills coronavirus so I'll make my own sanitiser out of Vodka," remedies that aren't scientifically sound and won't work.

As alcohol was unavailable, I found some 'bioethanol fuel' that in theory is 100% alcohol. However, reading the label I see it's denatured, so not appropriate to make a self-made hand sanitiser with as I don't know the effects of the other ingredients on the skin. Of course, now we're not going out I don't need to worry about it, but I proceeded to research acetone as an alternative which I thought should work, and found confirmation of that, and I have 100% acetone already.

If you don't understand what you're doing, you should defer to people who do. A person giving advice can't really be held accountable for someone misunderstanding it and acting independently based on their misunderstandings without going to any lengths to validate their choices, unless the message is really poor and misleading.

 

[rcf]

Here's a very short list of airborne diseases:

Tuberculosis: present in 25% of world population, infects 1% of world population per year, with 1.5 million deaths per year
Pneumonia: 450 million cases per year, with 4 million deaths per year
Measles: 20 million cases per year, with around 70,000 deaths per year
Pertusis: 16 million cases per year, with 50,000 to 200,000 deaths per year
Aspergillosis: 14 million cases per year, with 600,000 deaths per year
Meningitis: 8.7 million cases per year, with 380,000 deaths per year (10% to 15% of cases lead to brain damage)
Influenza: 3 to 5 million severe cases per year, with 650,000 deaths per year
Cryptococcosis: 958,000 cases per year, with 625,000 deaths within three months after infection

So, why is human civilization coming to a halt while going crazy with fear due to a disease that will probably cause much less damage than any single disease listed above?