[News] Coronavirus

A place to discuss the now-global coronavirus outbreak.

FeralMonkey wrote:

I noticed a sizable dent in tonic water when I went shopping yesterday.

Please tell me there isn’t some internet rumor that chugging quinine-laced beverages will keep the virus away.

I assume it's people just drinking more at home.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

I assume it's people just drinking more at home.

This.

I doubt you could find more than a handful of people in the store who could tell you the difference between tonic water and sparkling water.

FeralMonkey wrote:

I noticed a sizable dent in tonic water when I went shopping yesterday.

Please tell me there isn’t some internet rumor that chugging quinine-laced beverages will keep the virus away.

I'm relying on G&T's to keep the coronavirus news away.

My ex would mix tonic with juice all the time, roomie does it, too. I figured it was a Canadian thing.

My county in Virginia is under order now.

https://fairfaxcountyemergency.wpcom...

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Shamelessly stolen from LouZiffer in Slack.

[Dinosaurs]

T-rex needs a blonde wig.

No wait, T-rex needs to be a Dromeosaurus (about a meter tall, with tiny hands) with a blonde wig.

FeralMonkey wrote:

I noticed a sizable dent in tonic water when I went shopping yesterday.

Please tell me there isn’t some internet rumor that chugging quinine-laced beverages will keep the virus away.

I personally haven’t encountered it in the wild, but a recent episode of Knowledge Fight played a clip of it being talked about on Infowars, so it is apparently out there to some extent.

So Hungary voted to allow the government to rule by decree. With no time limit on the law, nope I see no issue with this what so ever.

160,000 confirmed cases in the US. 3,000 deaths. Almost 1,000 deaths in NYC alone.

765,000 cases globally. Every time I look, it's climbed faster than I expected it to, even knowing that it's accelerating.

ruhk wrote:
FeralMonkey wrote:

I noticed a sizable dent in tonic water when I went shopping yesterday.

Please tell me there isn’t some internet rumor that chugging quinine-laced beverages will keep the virus away.

I personally haven’t encountered it in the wild, but a recent episode of Knowledge Fight played a clip of it being talked about on Infowars, so it is apparently out there to some extent.

Just listened to today’s episode at work, and Jones is doubling down on Tonic water being “proven” to fight the coronavirus, among a few other common items the “globalists” don’t want people to know about.

Gremlin wrote:

I've read that the drawback of CPAPs for this is that they aerosolize whatever you're breathing out. Based on research from fighting SARS, BiPAPs can be used, but you need to use a breathing tube rather than a face mask. I'm assuming they're using that instead of just a CPAP with a face mask?

(And, of course, COVID-19 is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2.)

There are a lot of other contraindications against using cpaps as well, with the first being that some people can’t take it. The second is people with low blood pressure have a higher incidence of going into arrest during use.

It does work to force fluid down to the lower lobes of the lungs so gas exchange can occur more efficiently. There not silver bullets for this virus though. They might work effectively in a small subset of the population, particularly the younger and healthier afflicted with severe symptoms, but I’d be surprised if it were any more effective at all for the elderly.

People argue that we cannot afford M4A/single payer/universal health care, but I argue that we cannot afford NOT to invest in it.

I don't have any hope of it though with either a Trump or a Biden administration. At the very most, we would get a minor improvement to the ACA, but I have my doubts about that too.

Of course, I would love to be proved wrong.

onewild wrote:

So Hungary voted to allow the government to rule by decree. With no time limit on the law, nope I see no issue with this what so ever.

Isn’t Hungary in the EU? Isn’t that a big no-no for membership?

This is pretty wild behaviour from an organisation that seems more concerned about politics and funding than saving lives. Here's a video showing a WHO official's mishandling of questions regarding Taiwan's (non) membership of the body.

Formosa TV English News

A senior WHO official has raised hackles in Taiwan by appearing to dodge questions about Taiwan''s exclusion from the world health body. During an interview via video chat with a Hong Kong media outlet, Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist, remained silent for about ten seconds when asked if the WHO should reconsider Taiwan''s membership. After their video hook-up appeared to be disconnected, the interviewer called him back. This time Aylward declared that if he had contracted the coronavirus, he would want to be treated in China. When Aylward was asked about Taiwan, he stalled for close to ten seconds, and avoided a reporter’s question, but the reporter persisted.

Here's additional context from an article I posted previously:

Taiwan says WHO failed to act on coronavirus transmission warning

Taiwan is excluded from the WHO because China, which claims it as part of its territory, demands that third countries and international bodies do not treat it in any way that resembles how independent states are treated.

The WHO’s relationship with China has been criticised in the past, with some accusing the organisation of overly praising Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak despite allegations local officials had initially covered it up.

Taiwan said its doctors had heard from mainland colleagues that medical staff were getting ill — a sign of human-to-human transmission. Taipei officials said they reported this to both International Health Regulations (IHR), a WHO framework for exchange of epidemic prevention and response data between 196 countries, and Chinese health authorities on December 31.

Taiwanese government officials told the Financial Times the warning was not shared with other countries.

“While the IHR’s internal website provides a platform for all countries to share information on the epidemic and their response, none of the information shared by our country’s [Centers for Disease Control] is being put up there,” said Chen Chien-jen, Taiwan’s vice-president.

“The WHO could not obtain first-hand information to study and judge whether there was human-to-human transmission of Covid-19. This led it to announce human-to-human transmission with a delay, and an opportunity to raise the alert level both in China and the wider world was lost,” said Mr Chen, an epidemiologist by training who was health minister at the time of the Sars outbreak.

China’s health ministry only confirmed human-to-human transmission on January 20, after the WHO said in mid-January there might be “limited” human-to-human transmission but stepped back from this view on the same day.

FeralMonkey wrote:

I noticed a sizable dent in tonic water when I went shopping yesterday.

Please tell me there isn’t some internet rumor that chugging quinine-laced beverages will keep the virus away.

I seen a guy that had like 12 cases of seltzer water.

Urns in Wuhan Prompt New Questions of Virus’s Toll

The families of those who succumbed to the virus in the central Chinese city, where the disease first emerged in December, were allowed to pick up their cremated ashes at eight local funeral homes starting last week. As they did, photos circulated on Chinese social media of thousands of urns being ferried in.

Outside one funeral home, trucks shipped in about 2,500 urns on both Wednesday and Thursday, according to Chinese media outlet Caixin. Another picture published by Caixin showed 3,500 urns stacked on the ground inside. It’s unclear how many of the urns had been filled.

People who answered the phone at six of the eight funeral homes in Wuhan said they either did not have data on how many urns were waiting to be collected, or were not authorized to disclose the numbers. Calls were not answered at the other two.

Some families said they had been forced to wait for several hours to pick up the ashes. The photos circulated as mass deaths from the virus spiked in cities across the west, including Milan, Madrid and New York, where hospitals were erecting tents to handle the overflow as global infections soar.

According to Chinese government figures, 2,548 people in Wuhan have died of the virus. The announcement that a lockdown in place since January would be lifted came after China said its tally of new cases had hit zero and stepped up diplomatic outreach to other countries hard hit by the virus, sending some of them medical supplies.

Two locals in Wuhan who have lost family members to the virus said online that they were informed they had to be accompanied by their employers or officials from neighborhood committees when picking up the urns, likely as a measure against public gatherings.

“I was told by district government to wait until further notice on when I can pick up my father’s ashes,” one Wuhan resident using the name “Xue Zai Shou Zhong,” meaning “snow in hand,” posted on Weibo. “There is a staggered arrangement for urn collecting.”

My Wife's friend shared a video she watched where someone who claims to be a NY doc on the front lines starts off an hour long video saying everything we know is wrong and that it's transferred by hand contact to the face.

I highly doubt this guy and his video. I have not seen it but am basing it off interviews with infectious disease experts I have watched earlier this month who mentioned they measured how much of the virus was pouring out but curious if anyone has the truth here to refute or somewhat believe the NY doc.

Hobear wrote:

My Wife's friend shared a video she watched where someone who claims to be a NY doc on the front lines starts off an hour long video saying everything we know is wrong and that it's transferred by hand contact to the face.

I highly doubt this guy and his video. I have not seen it but am basing it off interviews with infectious disease experts I have watched earlier this month who mentioned they measured how much of the virus was pouring out but curious if anyone has the truth here to refute or somewhat believe the NY doc.

A) I'm wary of anyone on the front lines making an hour long video, unless it is more stream of consciousness. I would figure they need sleep.
B) Didn't we know that was a transmission vector? Or was it saying that's the only real vector?

I'd be curious to know what the specific claims are. Touching your face after touching an infected surface is a method of transmission but not believed to be the sole method.

But honestly, right now, anything that starts off with "everything we know is wrong" sets off my bullsh*t detector something fierce.

Also after Dr. "Soap wash your fruits/veggies", I'm being more reserved on what to believe.

I'm not sure if this is the video, and I can't vouch for its authenticity, but it does seem worthwhile:

https://vimeo.com/399733860

The doctor in this video doesn't say that everything we've heard is wrong; he just very heavily emphasizes the need to keep our hands away from our faces.

Isn't hand to face the primary way to transfer the disease, so that cant be the part everyone are wrong about.

Whenever someone says "everything we know is wrong", and "we" are basically the entire world, I'd be extremely skeptical in any case.

Virus was spreading in rural Georgia at the end of February. Again speaks to how widespread the transmission is and how in the dark we still are.

Badferret wrote:

Virus was spreading in rural Georgia at the end of February. Again speaks to how widespread the transmission is and how in the dark we still are.

My sister lives in rural Georgia a fair amount NE of Atlanta; she's a heavy smoker who has had at least two collapsed lungs, proudly has no health insurance BECAUSE OBAMA, drinks and parties constantly, and is very much "the liberal media lies" and I suspect even Fox News isn't completely reliable so she's probably more OANN in her idiocy. She was completely sure two weeks ago the restaurant she part-times at was never going to close because this wasn't a big deal, and I have no doubt she's still partying with her biker buddies at crappy bars in the middle of nowhere and some dumbass in that group has COVID.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Badferret wrote:

Virus was spreading in rural Georgia at the end of February. Again speaks to how widespread the transmission is and how in the dark we still are.

My sister lives in rural Georgia a fair amount NE of Atlanta; she's a heavy smoker who has had at least two collapsed lungs, proudly has no health insurance BECAUSE OBAMA, drinks and parties constantly, and is very much "the liberal media lies" and I suspect even Fox News isn't completely reliable so she's probably more OANN in her idiocy. She was completely sure two weeks ago the restaurant she part-times at was never going to close because this wasn't a big deal, and I have no doubt she's still partying with her biker buddies at crappy bars in the middle of nowhere and some dumbass in that group has COVID.

Sounds like most of my neighbors here...

This

lunchbox12682 wrote:

Also after Dr. "Soap wash your fruits/veggies", I'm being more reserved on what to believe.

Also this

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'd be curious to know what the specific claims are. Touching your face after touching an infected surface is a method of transmission but not believed to be the sole method.

But honestly, right now, anything that starts off with "everything we know is wrong" sets off my bullsh*t detector something fierce.

Yeah she confirmed it's this Doc price you linked to Philuciper https://vimeo.com/399733860

I have not watched it yet and so I was going off of 2nd hand knowledge but agree after mr soap your veggies suggested to my wife she shower with her food first I am trying to stick to confirmed experts as the internet is 99.99999999 full of dumbasses.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'd be curious to know what the specific claims are. Touching your face after touching an infected surface is a method of transmission but not believed to be the sole method.

But honestly, right now, anything that starts off with "everything we know is wrong" sets off my bullsh*t detector something fierce.

The story of the 60 folks that held a choir practice in a town an hour north of Seattle in March 10th seemingly debunks the notion that touching your face of the surest transmission. Despite not touching each other, only using their own sheet music, and trying to Stan apart, 45 of the 60 are now infected, with 2 dead.

The theory is that singing forced droplets out farther and produced more airborne contagion. Of course, maybe that just spread to virus to everyone’s sheet music, and touching of ones face was still the primary method of infection.

The more important moral of that story is that the leader of the choir pushed for practice because schools were open, no shelter orders were given, and they had zero cases in their town.

One night changed all that. One night. It’s the story that solidified my decision not to go back into work. You can’t trust that anyone is not infected. And when it pops, it snags a lot of folks in the vicinity.

We keep waiting for it to get bad in our own community before acting, even though that has led to locking down entire counties. Seven days ago Missouri had fewer than 100 cases. We have over a 1000 now. But this was predictable the moment the first case was discovered. Had we shut down the state at that moment, we might have stopped the spread here. There is no stopping it now.

The thing that frustrates me is how many of these countries, states, and communities are waiting until it's too late--with the way this disease spreads and the shortage of tests, by the time you detect your first case and people are showing symptoms, it's entirely possible that you've got widespread pre-symptomatic community transmission.

Florida is one of the worst offenders here: spring break was clearly a nexus for spreading the disease, but they didn't close the beaches and tried to ban travelers from New York. It was way too late for that.

But it's been a pretty consistent theme: the countries that were on top of the crisis and pulled the trigger early (often because a neighbor went catastrophic) are doing better than the places that waited until symptoms were widespread or the hospitals were flooding.

https://www.stltoday.com/entertainme...

6 a.m. — CHESTERFIELD — Eight employees of Annie Gunn's restaurant in Chesterfield contracted COVID-19, the restaurant owner said. None of the workers had reported any symptoms before the restaurant closed on March 19.

Missouri announced its first case March 7th. This was the cost in waiting to act. How many did those eight infect in the last 12 days?

Chesterfield is one of the larger cities of St. Louis County, a major part of the metro area.

And no, our governor still sees no reason to force people to stay home.