BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic

[Mr. Sinister]

Dumb mother****ers

[China]

It’s Time to Hunker Down

 

A devastating surge is here. Unless Americans act aggressively, it will get much larger, very quickly.

 

The end may be near for the pestilence that has haunted the world this year. Good news is arriving on almost every front: treatments, vaccines, and our understanding of this coronavirus.

Pfizer and BioNTech have announced a stunning success rate in their early Phase 3 vaccine trials—if it holds up, it will be a game changer. Treatments have gotten better too. A monoclonal antibody drug—similar to what President Donald Trump and the former Governor Chris Christie received—just earned emergency-use authorization from the FDA. Dexamethasone—a cheap, generic corticosteroid—cut the death rate by a third for severe COVID-19 cases in a clinical trial.

 

Doctors and nurses have much more expertise in managing cases even in using nonmedical interventions like proning, which can improve patients’ breathing capacity simply by positioning them facedown. Health-care workers are also practicing fortified infection-control protocols, including universal masking in medical settings.

 

Our testing capacity has greatly expanded, and people are getting their results much more quickly. We may soon get cheaper, saliva-based rapid tests that people can administer on their own, itself a potential game changer.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally acknowledged that aerosol transmission happens and that ventilation is important. The initial bungled messaging and science around masks was unfortunate, but things have turned around; the CDC has even publicized how masks can help protect the wearer from infection, as well as lower the chances of onward transmission. The importance of clusters and super-spreading is more widely appreciated, maybe partly because of the highly publicized White House cluster, which is still simmering.

 

We have reasons to celebrate, but—and you knew there was a but—a devastating surge is now under way. And worse, we are entering this dreadful period without the kind of leadership or preparation we need, and with baseline numbers that will make it difficult to avoid a dramatic rise in hospitalizations, deaths, and potential long-term effects on survivors.

 

Almost every day, America is breaking new records in confirmed cases: They are up 40 percent from just one week ago. These cases are not confined to a region or a state; the whole nation is in the midst of a terrible surge. So too is much of Europe, where country after country is experiencing record numbers of cases.

 

This is not a “casedemic”—the false notion that we just have better testing and detection, without any real change in the underlying risk for illness and death.

 

We have little reason to count on the authorities for leadership that has the precision and scale we need. The outgoing president has refused to concede the election and has launched a flurry of frivolous lawsuits to muddy the transition, thereby making the odds of an effective federal response over the next few months less likely.

 

All of this means we desperately need to flatten the curve again before hospitals nationwide are overrun. Utah, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado, and other states are already reporting that hospitals and intensive-care units are at or near capacity. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

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Edited November 15, 2020 by visionary

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[LD0506]

This **** is never going away. If the morlocks can't figure out the arrows in the grocery store or wearing a ****in mask, we're stuck. It's amazing in a "Oh, THAT'S what peyote is like" kinda way to read all the crap online from people having their tantrump and wondering, what do they think is going to happen? I mean, seriously, they are squawking and screaming some of the most utterly insane **** imaginable and everyone else is going to just get tired of it and give in? They do, don't they

 

Wow.............

 

Oh yeah, the snark, I almost forgot.....

 

 

 

 

 

[visionary]

 

[visionary]

 

[China]

'Breakthrough finding' reveals why certain Covid-19 patients die

 

Dr. Megan Ranney has learned a lot about Covid-19 since she began treating patients with the disease in the emergency department in February.

 

But there's one question she still can't answer: What makes some patients so much sicker than others?

 

Advancing age and underlying medical problems explain only part of the phenomenon, said Ranney, who has seen patients of similar age, background and health status follow wildly different trajectories.

 

"Why does one 40-year-old get really sick and another one not even need to be admitted?" asked Ranney, an associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown University.

 

In some cases, provocative new research shows, some people — men in particular — succumb because their immune systems are hit by friendly fire. Researchers hope the finding will help them develop targeted therapies for those patients.

 

In an international study in Science, 10 percent of nearly 1,000 Covid-19 patients who developed life-threatening pneumonia had antibodies that disable key immune system proteins called interferons. These antibodies — known as autoantibodies, because they attack the body itself — weren't found at all in 663 people with mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infections. Only four of 1,227 healthy patients had the autoantibodies. The study was led by the Covid Human Genetic Effort, which includes 200 research centers in 40 countries.

 

"This is one of the most important things we've learned about the immune system since the start of the pandemic," said Dr. Eric Topol, executive vice president for research at Scripps Research in San Diego, who wasn't involved in the new study. "This is a breakthrough finding."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

 

[China]

38 percent of Americans planning on having Thanksgiving dinner with 10 or more people

 

About 40 percent of U.S. residents say they plan to gather in groups of 10 or more people this holiday season, according to a recent survey from Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center. 

 

Nearly 33 percent of respondents said they would not require friends or family to wear masks at Thanksgiving gatherings, and 25 percent said they would not practice social distancing, according to the poll. 

 

The survey comes just before Thanksgiving and amid an alarming surge of coronavirus cases across the United States. 

 

State leaders and health experts including the nation's top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned against congregating indoors with large groups of people amid the coronavirus. In addition, individuals 65 and older should exercise greater caution when attending gatherings, as COVID-19 symptoms are statistically more fatal among older adults.

 

"When you're gathered together around the table, engaged in conversation, sitting less than 6 feet apart with your masks down, even in a small group, that's when the spread of this virus can really happen," said Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at OSU Wexner Medical Center.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[China]

I have a night off from the hospital. As I’m on my couch with my dog I can’t help but think of the Covid patients the last few days. The ones that stick out are those who still don’t believe the virus is real.

 

The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is Going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100% Vapotherm. They tell you there must be another reason they are sick.

 

They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that “stuff” because they don’t have COViD because it’s not real. Yes. This really happens. And I can’t stop thinking about it. These people really think this isn’t going to happen to them. And then they stop yelling at you when they get intubated. It’s like a ****ing horror movie that never ends. There’s no credits that roll. You just go back and do it all over again. 

Which is what I will do for the next three nights. But tonight. It’s me and Cliff and Oreo ice cream. And how ironic I have on my “home” Hoodie. The South Dakota I love seems far away right now.

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

Inslee announces statewide restrictions for four-weeks

 

Gov. Jay Inslee today announced a four-week statewide set of restrictions in response to the recent rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus in Washington and across the country.

The new restrictions come as Washington sees consistent increasing daily case counts, with over 2,000 cases a day over the weekend and average cases in the state doubling over the past two weeks.

 

 

Quote

“This spike puts us in a more dangerous a position as we were in March,” Inslee said during a press conference Sunday. “And it means, unfortunately, the time has come to reinstate restrictions on activities statewide to preserve the public’s well-being, and to save lives. These were very difficult decisions that have very real consequences to people’s livelihoods. I recognize that and don’t take those impacts lightly, but we must act now and act quickly to slow the spread of this disease.”

 

The restrictions are statewide and will take effect Monday, November 16 at 11:59 PM and will remain in effect until Monday, December 14. The modified restrictions of restaurants, however, will take effect Wednesday, November 18 at 12:01 AM.
 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[China]

Coronavirus invades men’s reproductive organs, can affect their fertility

 

More men get sick and die from COVID-19 than women do and researchers at the University of Miami may have found part of the reason why.

 

According to a newly released study, COVID-19 invades some men’s testicles.

 

Researchers at the university tested the testicles of men who died from COVID-19 and found the virus inside the reproductive organs.

 

But what surprised them even more, is when they tested a living man who recovered from COVID-19, the virus was still inside his testicles.

 

“This we were very surprised with because even after the infection was cleared he had some fevers and cold that got better. Six weeks or eight weeks later, after the infection he tested negative, but the virus was still present in the testes. This was surprising because we found the virus could probably linger in the testes a lot longer than men developed symptoms,” said Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, University of Miami.

 

Researchers say this may explain why 10-20% of men with COVID-19 have testicular pain.

 

Future studies will determine whether COVID-19 impacts male fertility.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[redskins59]

 

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I wonder how other countries are reacting to the recent vaccine news here.