Coronavirus Tidbits Updates # 16 3-22-20
Coronavirus Tidbits #16 3/22/20
News
Key message and perspective: Minimizing unnecessary contact with others can be an act of care and compassion…Your solitude can be a source of strength and self-reflection through this crisis. Your absence can be the gift of life to thousands of susceptible people and their families.
Good to remember: We’ll Meet Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5C4meGkNyc
Diagnostics:
? Counterfeit COVID19 tests confiscated https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/3/19/21187269/counterfeit-coronavirus-covid-19-tests-confiscated-ohare-airport
Drugs:
World Health Organization (WHO) announced a large global trial, called SOLIDARITY
It's a global megatrial of the four most promising coronavirus treatments:
remdesivir: an experimental antiviral compound
chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, anti-malaria medications
a combination of two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir;
a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir plus interferon-beta, an immune system messenger that can help cripple viruses.
Minimal data is being requested of the overburdened physicians: Date started and stopped (the day the patient left the hospital or died), the duration of the hospital stay, and whether the patient required oxygen or ventilation,
This is similar to the database and data collection being done in "CURE ID," a drug repurposing database of the FDA and NCATs, available to HCWs by CURE ID app or cure.ncats.io It's so important for docs to submit individual cases here NOW. Please tell your friends who are in medicine.
Epidemiology/Infection control:
Here are pics of health care workers' faces after wearing PPE all day: Another vivid reason of why you should STAY HOME https://twitter.com/glbryson/status/1241891369255350276?s=20
Another simple message to explain why you should physically stay away from others, from a doc in Nebraska
And here is a great dataviz of why it is critical to #StopTheSpread: https://twitter.com/SiouxsieW/status/1241430765394518016?s=20
Masks: Brilliant way to extend N-95s. University of Nebraska is using special UV lights (from their Ebola unit) to sterilize them. https://www.omaha.com/livewellnebraska/unmc-experts-develop-process-to-decontaminate-masks-used-in-coronavirus/article_d6a8df62-3c58-51fd-97c0-05ec4cc2c8d1.html
Easy #COVID19 #Scuba mask turned into a respirator - Same guys that did #3Dprinting for ventilator valve - la maschera da sub si trasforma in respiratore https://bit.ly/33FEHtT
Trending: #COVIDIOT
the thousands at the Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms...packed together on beaches...partying and drinking...and
"Hobby Lobby owner David Green is telling store managers to stay open despite the pandemic because his wife had a vision from god. He also warns they'll all have to "tighten their belts" soon. His net worth is $6.4 billion—hourly employees don't get paid sick leave. #COVIDIOT"
Clinical:
I'm told some patients first presented at ER with heart palpitations and chest tightness, not with more typical symptoms, but turned out to have #COVID19.
Tips, general reading for public:
Nails and Jewelry:
Something that hospitals have tried to do for decades to reduce hospital-acquired infections transmitted from staff to patients is to ask everybody to:
Take off nail polish and false nails. You can imagine how well that was received, but bacteria and viruses can set up housekeeping in the chips and cracks. There is no good way to scrub well under those long nails.
Trim nails short. Again, hard to clean under nails, and most folks don't always have a nail brush with them every tie they wash their hands
Limit jewelry - Hospital reluctantly allowed a wedding band, but no other jewelry that might capture bugs and be hard to clean
I know these suggestions are hard but they may save your life.
Hand sanitizer warning - As of February 29th, poison control centers have managed 3,260 exposure cases about #handsanitizer in children 12 years and younger. https://aapcc.org/track/hand-sanitizer
Why Coronavirus is worse in men: https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-03-21/why-is-the-coronavirus-more-deadly-for-men-than-for-women
Politics:
Covid-19 Is Becoming the Disease That Divides Us: By Race, Class and Age
Slurs against Asian Americans. Jokes about baby boomers dying. And blue-collar workers’ plight is nothing like the “work from home” lifestyle.
U.S. axed CDC expert Linda Quick from her job in China months before virus outbreak
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21910S
Lack of masks and Trump is not doing anything but leave it to the market:
Dir of Emergency Medicine at the largest hospital in Westchester, who told me that the hospital’s supply of PPE was so dire this week that he drove to Brooklyn and bought 1,000 masks at $6.50/mask with his own money. Where is the federal government?
"Trump’s Using ‘Chinese Virus’ to Pull a Fast One on Dems: Steve Bannon laid out the game plan: Get Democrats talking about race and identity, while Trump turns to economic nationalism"
Rand Paul: The only senator to vote against Coronavirus relief is now the only senator known to have Coronavirus.
Did not self-isolate. Exposed countless others to infection because, you know, individual liberties.
Feel good du jour:
Watch this school lunch clip. Guaranteed to help you feel better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNgCM7zp30M
Perspective
Sad, but touching in describing profound compassion and kindness as this #Holocaust survivor died of #COVID19 in Israel.
"the younger, healthier patients in the 20-bed ward have helped care for the older, more seriously affected ones, fluffing their pillows, adjusting their oxygen masks, helping them call their families.
“They’re angels,” Gemara said. “It’s heartwarming to watch.”
The 40 staffers in the ward are volunteers, she said.
Israeli Covid ward
But despite the sterile setting, she said, Even’s final hours Friday night were a time of touching compassion.
“In the unit, we were in awe as we watched the other patients care for you,” she wrote. “They so badly did not want you ever to feel alone.”
Two patients were with Even in his last moment, she said. They placed their hands on his eyes and said the Shema, a traditional prayer at the end of life."
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More selflessness from this physician, Iranian Doctor Shirin Rouhani who passed away due to Coronavirus. Due to lack of medical staff , she kept treating Coronavirus Patients till her last breath. Look closely , she herself is on the IV while treating patients. U would be remembered Shirin ! Rest in peace
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Dance of a Thousand Hands
As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart
A thousand hands will naturally come to your aid
As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart
You will reach out with a thousand hands to help others
Zhang Jigang
This dance is performed by 63 deaf dancers of the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe. The China Disabled People’s Arts Troupe was established in 1987. The disabled members, either deaf, blind or retarded, are normal workers, farmers, students and employees. You can read more here and see a clip here.
Bits of beauty:
