Coronavirus Tidbits #49 5/19/20
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News Diagnostics Drugs Devices Epidemiology/Infection control Tips Politics Feel good du jour Comic relief Perspective/Poem Bits of beauty
Announcements:
First, there is now a Resources Page here for the most commonly asked questions I’m getting.
Tidbits will likely be a bit shorter and a little less frequent for the next little bit. I have been immersed in it and I need to spend a little more time on self-care, which for me means seeing the spring flowers emerge and digging in the dirt.
Happy to continue to answer your questions/concerns as best I can, so don’t be shy about that.
News
Places without social distancing have 35 times more potential coronavirus spread, study finds
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/15/social-distancing-study-coronavirus-spread/
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Families of essential workers killed by COVID-19 face loss of health care
Repeat after me. We need universal healthcare.
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Interesting, damning long read from Propublica:
Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California.
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Food waste continues, but small efforts to help with surplus in potatoes by giving out bags and bags of spuds to cut down on waste reut.rs/3fvzpqA
That works locally, but broader distribution is still a disaster.
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Another day, another injustice:
Trump Judge Elizabeth Branch cast the deciding vote in this 2–1 decision denying soap and disinfectant to people incarcerated in a Miami JAIL. Now more than 300 of them have tested positive for COVID-19. https://t.co/P5VzkRnK8x https://t.co/W4iNO4yfDH
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 18, 2020
Diagnostics:
still an incredible, negligent lack of testing.
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FEMA fiasco again re testing swabs and solution:
Fed shipment of Q-tip-style coronavirus swabs to Washington may not be usable.
Drugs:
HHS secretary Alex Azar says Trump’s ‘Warp Speed’ vaccine ‘may not be safe and effective but we’ll have it’
As one of my friends mused, I suspect all too accurately, Trump will “probably announce a successful vaccine on Oct 15. He’ll have millions of syringes all ready to inject it. The entire country will be in awe and shower praise on the conquering hero. He’ll ride on a title wave of support into a new four year term. The reports of the vaccine’s horrible effects and worthlessness will start surfacing in November. By then he’ll be prepared to shutter the news outlets and clamp down on dissidents.”
Devices:
Russia sent Aventa M ventilators to US. Then there were deadly fires from them in Russia…
The sending of ventilators from Russia to the U.S. was initially controversial because the equipment was manufactured by a subsidiary of a Russian company that was subject to U.S. sanctions, NBC News reported.
The cargo (which Russia billed as “humanitarian aid” to the U.S.) was also criticized as a cynical move by Moscow to help the U.S. in return for a relaxation of sanctions.
However, the State Department said in a statement at the time that it had paid for the cargo of equipment. Russia said that the cost of the cargo was split 50/50 — with half paid for by the U.S., and half paid for by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Moscow’s sovereign wealth fund,
Now US is donating ventilators to Russia:
“The U.S. government is donating 100 percent of the cost of the ventilators, their start-up components and their delivery expenses, which officials said totals roughly $4.7 million.”
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/us-donating-200-ventilators-russia
Can someone explain to me what is going on here? Just a money transfer to Putin from US?
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Another damning report on Masks:
The CDC’s policy change on N95 masks was not driven by new scientific research. It was driven instead by scarcity, political pressure and fear of liability. revealnews.org/article/31000-…
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— Tara Haelle (@tarahaelle) May 17, 2020
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And Trump on masks:
Epidemiology/Infection control:
Thought provoking. Some reasonable tips but…The cover pic is disturbing and misleading. She’s older (at incr risk), distancing is iffy, no masks or shields. They all handled the cooler? Who handled dishes? Makes one think about relative risk of activities.
So you really want to see your friends? Here’s how to assess the risk
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Infectious Covid virus is in stool
There’ve been reports that #Covid19 viruses may be shed in the stool of infected people. These were particles detected by PCR, and we didn’t know if these were infectious or not. Now we do know….they are. So flush the toilet with the lid closed to avoid aerosolizing it.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/8/20-0681_article?deliveryName=USCDC_333-DM28664
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Dr. James Mahoney, who delayed retirement to fight pandemic at low-income hospital, dies of COVID-19
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The price of being ‘essential’: Latino service workers bear brunt of coronavirus
buff.ly/3dLjF10 Low-paid ppl who clean floors, do laundry, serve fast food, pick crops, work in meat plants — having the jobs that keep America running has come with a heavy price.
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Prisons in Ohio have assumed an ostrich-like stance
After discovering two of the largest known outbreaks in the country… “The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction is no longer conducting widespread testing in prisons”. dispatch.com/news/20200518/…
Belmont consists of 10 dorm-style facilities, each housing more than 200 inmates who sleep in bunk beds and share kitchen and bathroom facilities.
Once five inmates in a facility test positive, the whole dorm is considered to have the coronavirus. But unless someone needs medical treatment, they remain in the dorm to recuperate, he said, adding that from one to five inmates are being sent to the hospital each day because their conditions have worsened.
Guards supervising COVID-19 inmates, Stevens said, are not provided N95 masks to protect them from infection. Instead, they get lower-grade cloth or surgical masks.
Tips, general reading for public:
StayAtHome
Wash your hands.
Rinse and repeat.
Disinfectants:
[Pls RT] Not all disinfectants are suitable for the skin. Which disinfectant preparations (suitable for the skin) have been shown to inactivate coronaviruses by 99.99% in clinical studies? pic.twitter.com/tBl3g19e7L
— Dr. Melvin Sanicas (@Vaccinologist) May 16, 2020
Politics:
On WHO spat:
In the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, the @WHO has become a battleground for political tensions. @TheEconomist has a solid take on the situation. https://t.co/VqTkBSjzY2 pic.twitter.com/Ty0xZWGh6e
— Amy Maxmen (@amymaxmen) May 17, 2020
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Watching President Obama’s graduation address tonight I think I finally understand Obamagate. It’s the scandal of having a president being able to speak with empathy, humor, insight, inspiration and in complete and coherent sentences.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) May 17, 2020
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Obama administration asked for funding to tackle future pandemics but Republicans refused
Tea Party blocked $321 million in funding for the stockpile, ProPublica finds
https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirus
Feel good du jour:
Lovely pic and happy for Rachel’s success, but I don’t understand papa’s “fight me.”
This is my daughter, Rachel Handlin. Tonight, she earned her full Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography & Media from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts, @CalArts. Rachel has #Downsyndrome.
— Jay Handlin (@jayhandlin) May 16, 2020
I am officially the proudest father on the planet.
Fight me. pic.twitter.com/t39gY58Gqf
Comic relief:
Me trying to interact with people after the lockdown and not liking it: #AcademicTwitter #COVIDー19 #memesdaily pic.twitter.com/HutIR36GNT
— The Hungry PhD (@TheHungryPhD) May 17, 2020
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“Book nerds have been hiding their faces since before it was cool,” Wheatberry Books, Chillicothe, Ohio, noted in sharing a photo of the store’s chalkboard, which reads: “Books: the original face covering.”
Perspective
My Brother’s Death Didn’t Have to Happen – Elizabeth Warren
“It just feels like something that didn’t have to happen…” “It’s always hard to lose someone you love,” she said. “But to lose someone when you have to wonder: What were their last days like? Were they afraid? Were they cold? Were they lonely? That is a kind of grief that is new to all of us.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/05/elizabeth-warren-brother-covid/611683/
Bits of beauty:
