Coronavirus (NO POLITICAL OR SOCIAL COMMENTARY PLEASE)

[bruceames]

Yeah, there is someone close to me that uses an HIV med and I'm worried that if it is used as a cure then there will be a shortage for those who depend on it. Hopefully my worrying is for naught, but not a good idea for the president to be touting unproven drugs that others depend on for other illnesses, thus creating a run on them.

[LordoftheRings]

20200320_191540.jpg

[Lee A Stewart]

NIH director: 70K coronavirus cases could be confirmed in US by end of next week

As many as 70,000 Americans could be confirmed as infected with coronavirus by the end of next week, marking a “pretty dramatic” increase in the number of confirmed cases, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, told his employees in an agency-wide conference call on Friday.

But, Collins cautioned, “that doesn’t mean necessarily that the outbreak has exploded at an even more rapid rate.”
“It just means we’re now able to find out who’s out there, who is infected,” because “testing is now going to be much more available across the country,” he said.

As director of NIH, Collins oversees the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose own director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has become a trusted authority during the coronavirus crisis.

According to Collins, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases inside the United States currently stands at about 14,000, and, “We will probably see four, five times that number of cases a week or 10 days from now."

Johns Hopkins University reports an even higher number of currently confirmed cases in the United States, nearing 17,000. An estimated 225 Americans have died.

"When will we be out the other side of this?” Collins asked rhetorically on the Friday call. “I have no crystal ball. ... Will we be back [to normal] by July or August or September? I have no idea."

Collins made clear that “social distancing” is vital to stemming the spread of the deadly disease, even as he derided the popular phrase.

“The greatest concern we should all have is for those most vulnerable, who if they get infected could be in real trouble,” he said. “The best thing we could do to prevent that is to not be a vector ourselves, and the best way to not be a vector is to get apart [from each other].”

"We are going to have to be in this for the long haul,” warned Collins, who noted that tens of thousands of NIH employees may have been joining his discussion.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ni...cid=spartandhp

[ctujackbauer]

Originally Posted by bruceames

Yeah, there is someone close to me that uses an HIV med and I'm worried that if it is used as a cure then there will be a shortage for those who depend on it. Hopefully my worrying is for naught, but not a good idea for the president to be touting unproven drugs that others depend on for other illnesses, thus creating a run on them.

This virus exposed problems in the drug supply chain (HIV drugs included). The vast majority of generic drugs, for the USA and everywhere else, are manufactured in two places: India and China. Thankfully India didn't get hit at the same time as China, and thankfully China isolated it down to the breakdown's original area (for the most part it didn't escape out to the rest of the country). We only manufacture expensive cancer drugs and orphan/rare-disease drugs.

Unfortunately its not just generic drugs that had supply chain problems. Food, basic supplies, hospital masks/ventilators/PPE. Everything is supplied just-in-time processing or click-n-ship in normal times, but throw a bunch of demand all at one time then the whole country has a problem. JIT manufacturing might work for building cars, not so much for necessities.

[neoz]

China must be bored lol. I guess they should really stop merging diseases and playing around with them.

""If the H5N1 virus were to change and become easily transmissible from person to person while retaining its capacity to cause severe disease, the consequences for public health could be very serious," WHO said in a statement."

https://www.businessinsider.com/h5n1...utbreak-2020-2

[Underworld54]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRings

Attachment 237156

Geez, look at Iran. Why are they so high?

[rdodolak]

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory that the US Army 'brought the epidemic to Wuhan'

How China is planning to use the coronavirus crisis to its advantage

Some of China’s actions seem benign or even helpful. China is ramping up production of medical supplies and ingredients for pharmaceuticals. One commentary in China’s state media threatened that if China withheld drug ingredients, it could plunge the United States into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”

We better wake up soon...

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

I think you're replying to the wrong person.

Whoops! That was embarrassing. Post fixed.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory that the US Army 'brought the epidemic to Wuhan'

lol Oh China... They funny thing is that I wouldn't trust their numbers at all.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by neoz

China must be bored lol. I guess they should really stop merging diseases and playing around with them.

""If the H5N1 virus were to change and become easily transmissible from person to person while retaining its capacity to cause severe disease, the consequences for public health could be very serious," WHO said in a statement."

https://www.businessinsider.com/h5n1...utbreak-2020-2

I believe China is actually blaming the U.S. for the Coronavirus spread. They're claiming that we gave it to them.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/17/chinas...laming-the-us/

[Lee A Stewart]

This online calculator tells you exactly how much toilet paper you actually need to buy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/...cid=spartandhp

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

This online calculator tells you exactly how much toilet paper you actually need to buy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/...cid=spartandhp

Obviously, the more toilet paper you buy, the better chances you have of not getting the Coronavirus.

[Lee A Stewart]

[Lee A Stewart]

[Tony208]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman pushes coronavirus conspiracy theory that the US Army 'brought the epidemic to Wuhan'

How China is planning to use the coronavirus crisis to its advantage

We better wake up soon...

China can only fool its own citizens with fear and propoganda. There's a reason Hong Kong and Taiwan (who are primarily ethnic Chinese) want nothing to do with them.

There's gonna be hell to pay when this is over and the world is not as reliant on them for critical supplies.

[rdodolak]

https://www.facebook.com/thehodgetwi...4625364364600/

[Lee A Stewart]

Former CDC director: There's a long war ahead and our Covid-19 response must adapt

(CNN)Different times call for different measures. When Covid-19 hit China, I was concerned, as were many public health professionals, about what could happen and urged rapid action to understand more and prepare. But few of us anticipated the catastrophic impact the new virus has had in Wuhan, in Italy and may soon have in many other places.

For most people, there is simply no frame of reference for this pandemic. Never in our lifetime has there been an infectious disease threat as devastating to society. Never in our lifetime have we seen a rich country like Italy face the need to ration respirators. And never have we seen the fear that millions of health care workers around the world feel about being infected by the virus -- justified fear we must address.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/healt...sis/index.html

[Britbuffguy]

Originally Posted by Lee A Stewart

Illinois just announced

And it's not "lockdown." It's Shelter In Place.

So, I'm a delivery driver for Auto Parts/needs FROM Wisconsin, but most of my route is down in IL.

I see that delivery drivers are still allowed to work, but another part says people coming into the state may not be.

Anyone from IL have any idea? I haven't heard a peep from my employer yet, and I know at least 3 or 4 of us drivers hit parts of IL, the guy that does the afternoon run at my job is 100% there, where I still have a few stops in Wisconsin at the end of my route.

I also work FedEx in WI, so having to work one job but losing the other one would be pretty much a wash for me in trying to get an unemployment, so just wondering what my future holds I guess.

[BucketheadPikes]

https://www.cleveland19.com/2020/03/...gainst-covid-/

https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/s...&draw=2&rank=2

https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/s...&draw=2&rank=1

[hockeyshark91]

For this needing some good news. Do proceed with caution.

Dr. Oz: There was actually pretty big news today. There was a paper that came out yesterday that was being discussed but didn’t get the attention that I thought it would that a paper from France that the use of an old drug, the malaria drug together with the Z-Pac seemed to dramatically impact on this virus. And that could be the biggest game changer of all that can alter if we can ever become Italy… But I’ll give you the biggest fact of all. In this study they shortened the amount of time the patients excreted the virus down to six days. The norm is approaching 20 days. That completely changes the behavior of the virus. Which means it may be actually more like a flu virus in its impact on us. It’s still dangerous but now as contagious… If drug that has already been on the market for 65 years could be effective in treating a new virus, yes there are potential side effects, there are eye problems that potentially arise, we know that we use these drugs commonly. But I think it’s worth the chance. And we should be doing the study starting today! And we’ll know in six days. In the meantime the task force is going to liberalize use of these medications.

I agree that this should have been much bigger news than it was. Sure it's too early to tell if this will actually work, but a little hope doesn't hurt.
Of course, the media all but ignored this.