Coronavirus Discussion

[purpledragonclaw]

I am so sorry @purplehaze and @trystan! 

 

Dr. Fauci is testifying today before the Senate and is warning of "serious consequences" should states re-open too early if they don't have the coronavirus under control. A lot of states are seeing spikes in new cases as well, primarily in poultry and meat-processing plants, along with health care workers.

 

I worry about the second wave once it hits, especially with the virus already mutating and children now suffering covid-related-linked illnesses in NY.

 

ETA: I'll keep you in my thoughts @olympe! Please keep us updated!

Edited May 12, 2020 by purpledragonclaw

[trystan]

11 minutes ago, purpledragonclaw said:

am so sorry @purplehaze and @trystan! 

thanks, pdc

 

11 minutes ago, purpledragonclaw said:

I worry about the second wave once it hits

i don't think i've worried about anything quite like the way i've worried about this virus.

 

i have a mantra that i try to tell myself: "control the things i worry about, and worry about the things i can control."

sometimes it even works. 

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by trystan
proofread first, then post..... again *sigh*

[Astreya]

Here's an interesting short article that shows that there are currently three major variants of SARS-CoV-2 around and how they are distributed: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/17/9241

[olympe]

Thanks for the article, @Astreya. So it says that SARS-CoV-2 mutates while spreading. That's kinda not surprising. Humans, while moving from their place of origin (somewhere in Africa), did the same. Languages, too, did the same.

[Astreya]

@olympe

It's pretty logical IMO. I definitely found it interesting that it seems that the first German case seems to have had contact to someone that spread the virus to Italy, particularly as it sounded as if he and his contacts were isolated pretty fast in Germany.

[purplehaze]

8 hours ago, purpledragonclaw said:

I am so sorry @purplehaze and @trystan! 

Thanks, PDC. She was a dear lady and will be missed.

 

Governor Hogan is supposed to be making some sort of announcement tomorrow about the first step in relaxing the restrictions. He has been very cautious so far, so I hope he will move slowly. I know I will probably go out even less than I do now if I feel like things are moving too fast.

[Astreya]

Daily update for Oberhausen, NRW, Germany:

As of today, Wednesday, May 13, 10:00 GMT+2,  my home town (population 211 000) has 58 active cases, while 184 people have recovered. All in all there have been 248 people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. 8 persons are treated in hospitals. 6 persons sadly died. 322 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 7271 Covid-19 tests in Oberhausen so far.

 

Source: https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/verwaltung/umwelt-gesundheit-und-mobilitat/gesundheit/aktuelle_informationen/informationen_zum_coronavirus/aktuelle_meldungen.php

[Daydreamer09]

23 hours ago, purpledragonclaw said:

A lot of states are seeing spikes in new cases as well, primarily in poultry and meat-processing plants, along with health care workers.

Yeah, I just recently heard about a poultry plant that processes turkey in my home state having a number of workers getting sick and testing positive for Covid19. I have an inlaw who's sister worked there and caught it. From what I heard they didn't have any rules on face masks being enforced and really only threw them on during inspections. It kind of boggles my mind how lax they were considering they're part of the food industry. One thing I've heard is that around that rural county in Ohio, it's much rarer to see shoppers in a wallmart wearing masks than it is in the capital where I'm at.

 

It does seem according to a news article that workers have been distanced more and shields were given as a result of workers catching it. So the company's taking it seriously now.

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Daydreamer09

[Astreya]

In Germany there are some severe Covid-19 outbreaks in meat-processing plants, too. The problem was addressed in the Bundestag (German parliament) today, but it appears that the politicians have some problems to really take care of the problem as there are workers-for-hire that live in slave-like conditions in privately rented houses, often in the border regions, it seems. So there are Romanian and Bulgarian workers hired by a German temporary employment agency, but at night driven over to meat plants in the Netherlands.

 

The Dutch officials seemingly rely on the German officials t take care of the workers as they like in Germany, but the German officials can't really do much as they live in private spaces and there is something about the "sanctity of private homes", so they can't just storm the houses as is is not illegal for dozens of persons living in one house. It appears that there are quite some loopholes in the laws that the meat industry is capitalising on, and in today's Q&A in the Bundestag there was at least the impression that there are some movements to address this.

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by Astreya

[Astreya]

Daily update for Oberhausen, NRW, Germany:

As of today, Thursday, May 14, 10:00 GMT+2,  my home town (population 211 000) has 56 active cases, while 187 people have recovered. All in all there have been 249 people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. 10 persons are treated in hospitals. 6 persons sadly died. 296 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 7596 Covid-19 tests in Oberhausen so far.

 

Source: https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/verwaltung/umwelt-gesundheit-und-mobilitat/gesundheit/aktuelle_informationen/informationen_zum_coronavirus/aktuelle_meldungen.php

[purplehaze]

Governor Hogan's "Stage One" plan starts Friday at 5 pm: https://governor.maryland.gov/2020/05/13/stage-one-governor-hogan-announces-gradual-reopenings-with-flexible-community-based-approach/

The statistics for the state of Maryland do show that we are doing well at the moment in most areas. https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/

Seems he is leaving a lot up to the local governments. That may be good or bad. We shall see. I know I am not likely to change what I am doing now, except I may be even more cautious about when and how often I go out.

Edited May 14, 2020 by purplehaze

[trystan]

my governor has threatened counties who reopen early by withholding federal relief funding, and called then cowardly (😮) my county is still in the "red" though, but i think places might be reopening on June 4th or 8th or something like that. (https://www.wgal.com/article/pennsylvania-gov-tom-wolf-addresses-counties-that-plan-to-reopen-early/32450941#)

 

my county numbers as of the last update (last night):  Total Confirmed Cases: 4,133; Recoveries, 1,140; Deaths, 348 (https://covid19-bucksgis.hub.arcgis.com/)

 

tomorrow i (tentatively) go back to my weekend retail part-time job, where i haven't been since March 13th, for 4 hours (hopefully), and we're not open to the public yet, so we'll see how that goes.

[Quinney]

I live in South Yorkshire, UK and coming home from work at dinnertime, it seemed like the virus didn't exist. I have to use public transport, and since lockdown began there has hardly been anyone in the bus station, the four or five people getting on the bus kept their distance. Not today. The bus ended up with a few on and it seemed no-one cared. I was the only one wearing a mask.

 

Loads of people out in groups and when I got home, I discovered that the local fish and chip shop was open, so very busy where I live.  Apparently he's just opened to test the water and see how it goes.  I think I can tell him. There's going to be another wave. Back to square one.  So sad.

[olympe]

Back to my patient/client: Results are in. She tested negative. Yay!  

Edited May 14, 2020 by olympe

[Astreya]

@olympe

That  sounds great!  So all of you really can be more than relieved!

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Astreya

[purpledragonclaw]

Great news @olympe! Thank you for the update!

 

Meanwhile Texas is seeing a spike of new coronavirus cases since re-opening, showing Dr. Fauci's prescience once again when he predicted problems with states re-opening too early. 

[Astreya]

Daily update for Oberhausen, NRW, Germany:

As of today, Friday, May 14, 09:00 GMT+2,  my home town (population 211 000) has 53 active cases, while 193 people have recovered. All in all there have been 253 people who suffered from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. 7 persons are treated in hospitals, no one of them needs intensive care. 6 persons sadly died. 282 persons are currently quarantined. All in all there have been 7930 Covid-19 tests in Oberhausen so far. There are further structured tests in care home, but fortunately so far there were no new cases in such.

 

Source: https://www.oberhausen.de/de/index/rathaus/verwaltung/umwelt-gesundheit-und-mobilitat/gesundheit/aktuelle_informationen/informationen_zum_coronavirus/aktuelle_meldungen.php

[FoxintheBox4]

Slovenia - first country to cancel pandemic restrictions, quarantine, open borders to EU citizens etc.

yay traveling, shopping, sea time ~

[trystan]

my county numbers, as of last night (i believe?)

 

Total Confirmed Cases:  4,190

Recoveries:  1,162

Deaths:  359

 

i went into my retail job today.  we do curb-side pick-up.  there were two people in a short time span who came in the vestibule area thinking we were open, and one lady asked when would be open.  honestly, i have NO idea.  and there were many calls asking if we were open-open or just curbside pick-up.  at least they called first. we had a few people who were out in the lot, placed their order, got the email that said it was processing, and then called to see if the order was ready yet.  i mean, we're good, but not that good.....

[Classycal]

People are so impatient.  

 

I do fear that everything in the US is opening too soon.  I hate to see what will happen.  It won't be good.  

Edited May 15, 2020 by Classycal

[trystan]

23 minutes ago, Classycal said:

People are so impatient.  

that they are.

 

my store is waiting for the state (PA) to say it's ok to open. at least, that's what we're telling customers.

[Kith]

In somewhat positive news, it looks like the prospects of being able to create a vaccine are good.

 

Lots of technical terms, but most of it is broken down pretty well.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Kith

[purpledragonclaw]

1 hour ago, Classycal said:

People are so impatient.  

 

I do fear that everything in the US is opening too soon.  I hate to see what will happen.  It won't be good.  

 

I'm vowing to continue to shelter in place through the end of the year if need be. I'm very fortunate that my company is not forcing anyone back into the office since we're all working from home so well. 

 

Thank you for the above, @Kith, there is always hope. We must not forget that.

 

A limited study came out from Canada that shows that heat doesn't really slow the progression of coronavirus, which is alarming given how much optimism there was around summer heat slowing this virus down. It will be interesting to see if this study is corroborated by others that come out (I'm sure other scientists are also studying the effects here).

[Lagie]

1 hour ago, purpledragonclaw said:

A limited study came out from Canada that shows that heat doesn't really slow the progression of coronavirus, which is alarming given how much optimism there was around summer heat slowing this virus down. It will be interesting to see if this study is corroborated by others that come out (I'm sure other scientists are also studying the effects here).

That doesn't surprise me. We had some very warm days here around the time we had our first cases so I figured heat wouldn't affect it much.

 

We are at 96 cases now, but thankfully no additional deaths.

[Astreya]

2 hours ago, Kith said:

In somewhat positive news, it looks like the prospects of being able to create a vaccine are good.

Lots of technical terms, but most of it is broken down pretty well.

From what I read there is one German doctor who claims to have tried out an immunisation against SARS-CoV-2 in an experiment on oneself and who claims that he got an immune reaction and is now immune to the virus. Of course this must be considered an anecdote and it lacks proper scientific studies, but this could be at least a sign that one might indeed be cautiously optimistic.

 

The problems are of course manifold anyway - one needs to make sure the vaccine is safe, and it doesn't have too severe side-effects - and of course it might be tricky to get it past the increasing number of anti-vaxxers in the end, even if there is a safe and working vaccine "soonish".

 

Edited May 16, 2020 by Astreya