Wuhan Coronavirus: Megathread -

[Shaved Kiwis]

Looks like Pence is really starting to hit his stride. Thank fuck they got that shit sorted and cancer lady can get her meds. But now apparently they are tracking yet another ship...

Yes, I read on the CDC website a few days ago under their Mythbusters section that, no, animals/pets can not contract the coronavirus. Cut and dry, just like that. No, well, we're not sure yet, some testing still needs to be done. Or whatever.
So imagine my surprise when the very next day I read that someone's dog (somewhere) had contracted the virus. If you don't know, just say you don't know! Don't lie and say you have the answer because when you get caught lying, you lose most of, if not all, your credibility!

The best info available atm states that animals CAN be low level carriers to the point that they can test positive but not enough to infect people at least according to the doctors in Hong Kong. But who the fuck even knows!? And even if you do know it can mutate at any second. I'm not getting rid of my cat no matter what though.

Given that "Patient Zero" in Italy is rumored to be a Pakistani Migrant who blew off quarantine, everyone is going to start taking borders more seriously. Those governments that don't will feel the peoples wrath.

Really convenient to blame some smelly Paki when diseased Chinks were gloating about infesting all of Europe right when this plague hit. Let's not do this shit you guys. MAINLAND FUCKING CHINA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PLAGUE FULL STOP even if this guy was the first person in Italy.

 

[whatever I feel like]

So, what are the odds on fans actually being allowed to attend March Madness?

 

[EmuWarsVeteran]

Looks like Pence is really starting to hit his stride. Thank fuck they got that shit sorted and cancer lady can get her meds. But now apparently they are tracking yet another ship...

The best info available atm states that animals CAN be low level carriers to the point that they can test positive but not enough to infect people at least according to the doctors in Hong Kong. But who the fuck even knows!? And even if you do know it can mutate at any second. I'm not getting rid of my cat no matter what though.

Really convenient to blame some smelly Paki when diseased Chinks were gloating about infesting all of Europe right when this plague hit. Let's not do this shit you guys. MAINLAND FUCKING CHINA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS PLAGUE FULL STOP even if this guy was the first person in Italy.

Well why not blame china AND pakistan? Fuck it. While we're at it. Let's just get bombing the bastards, we're gonna fix our demographics oldschool. Ww3: who's with me?! No one ... oh only the Italians and French? And the french surrendered. Hey italy could you please hold the west bo- changing sides. Huh? Yeah figures.

 

[simulated goat]

All the evidence of pet contagion rests on one powderpuff doggo who was trapped inside with an ill owner for weeks. The dog's case seems to be mild. I think if people heed the Petco letter, wash hands and refrain from slobbering all over their pets the potential for infection is likely pretty low.

 

[repentance]

Third death in Australia - another resident of the aged care facility in question.

Also those dumb pigs fighting over TP got charged.

Worth noting that the youngest death in Australia so far was a 78 year old. Those who have died to date were 78, 82, and 95. It would be interesting to know their general state of health prior to infection.

 

[Salade Nicoise]

Further info by local kiwis would as always be apreciated. Remember to stay safe but not go paranoid. And do remember to trat yoself, mental health is health!

Without wanting to sound like a Feels Fag too much... ^ this. I went to a friends place last night for some beers, obnoxious singing along to classic rock and general shit-talking. It felt good, and my mood is markedly improved today. Was refreshing to be with good folk where the end of the world wasn't on the agenda.

Worth noting that the youngest death in Australia so far was a 78 year old. Those who have died to date were 78, 82, and 95. It would be interesting to know their general state of health prior to infection.

Yeah it'd be safe to assume at that age there had to be some other co-morbidities in play. Fuck, at this rate being aged 75+ is basically a co-morbidity.

 

[PepsiVanilla]

Pet parents,

I'm Dr. Thomas Edling, a 25-year veterinarian with a special interest in infectious and zoonotic diseases and a member of the Petco Pet Wellness Council. I work regularly with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to understand how various health concerns may affect pets and the broader pet industry, and I am closely monitoring the currently evolving outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. I've partnered with Petco to create a dedicated collection of the most important things people should know about pets and COVID-19.

Nothing says credibility like referring to your clients as "Pet parents."

 

[Iuz]

Colorado health officials work to make sure COVID-19 doesn’t affect low-income, minority communities disproportionately

Past research on pandemics show inequities by race, ethnicity and income groups in everything from the level of exposure to the pathogen, to health care outcomes

coloradosun.com

Archive: https://archive.md/wip/CGeMI

Well at least Colorado's Health Officials have their priorities straight.

"While Colorado as a whole scores well in experts’ national rankings of public health emergency preparedness (more on that shortly), past experience in addressing broad health challenges shows there will be pockets of the state facing extra health and daily living threats, said Glen Mays, chair of the Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy in the Colorado School of Public Health. Lower-income communities with fewer public resources and higher uninsured rates, or immigrants of color who fear contact with authorities because of documentation issues, are two examples."

Spoiler: Article

Michael Booth@MBoothDenver
Special to The Colorado Sun

andemics come for us all in equal measure, right? Aren’t we all equally vulnerable?

Not exactly.

As the first cases of coronavirus arrive in the state, Colorado health and social services officials say they are striving to make sure lower-income residents and people of color are not disproportionately impacted by the illness and potential economic disruption.

As of the afternoon of March 6, Colorado had reported eight coronavirus cases, most in patients who had recently traveled to highly infected areas. So far, no so-called “community” transmissions are reported, but public health officials expect they will show up. It’s too early to tell the extent to which Coloradans will be impacted.

UNDERWRITTEN BY TOBACCO-FREE KIDS ACTION FUND

OUR UNDERWRITERS SUPPORT JOURNALISM. BECOME ONE.
Other pandemics inform concerns about COVID-19
National and international studies of past pandemics have revealed inequities by race, ethnicity and income groups in everything from the level of exposure to the pathogen, to health care outcomes during and resulting from treatment, to loss of income and vulnerability to emergency health expenses. A study of the 2009 H1N1 virus outbreak published in the American Journal of Public Health documented major gaps in complications and hospitalization rates among Blacks, Hispanics, Indigenous people and whites, in areas as widespread as Boston, Chicago and Oklahoma.

A woman is screened for the coronavirus, COVID-19. (Provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
In Oklahoma’s H1N1 cases, for example, 55% of black patients were hospitalized, compared to 37% percent of indigenous people and 26% of whites. The study discusses possible reasons for the disparities in exposure and severity levels during outbreaks, including racial gaps in the levels of uninsured, over-representation of lower-income and people of color in use of public transit and denser housing, and people of color getting antiviral drugs prescribed less frequently.

While Colorado as a whole scores well in experts’ national rankings of public health emergency preparedness (more on that shortly), past experience in addressing broad health challenges shows there will be pockets of the state facing extra health and daily living threats, said Glen Mays, chair of the Department of Health Systems, Management and Policy in the Colorado School of Public Health. Lower-income communities with fewer public resources and higher uninsured rates, or immigrants of color who fear contact with authorities because of documentation issues, are two examples.

“It boils down to these communities being less protected, with fewer resources to be deployed to screen and identify a threat,” Mays said. “When a new thing happens, you have to make choices every day. Ultimately, that means someone’s not going to get served.”

MORE: Amid coronavirus fears, the CDC told schools to plan for remote learning. That’s harder than it sounds.

Potential school closures alone raise troubling equity issues, acknowledged Dr. Mark Wallace, public health director for Weld County and board chair of Sunrise federally qualified health clinics in northern Colorado. Around the world, at least 300 million children are now missing school because of coronavirus lockouts.

“We have to be aware that we’re going to leave a bunch of children out in the cold where they won’t get an education, they won’t get food, and they won’t have access to school health centers. It ripples through very quickly,” Wallace said.

There are numerous potential unequal outcomes from a coronavirus pandemic in Colorado:

• With this virus most deeply affecting elderly patients with underlying conditions, skilled nursing facilities like the one in Washington state that has seen early U.S. fatalities are some of the most vulnerable spots. The majority of skilled-nursing patients in Colorado are low-income and their care is paid through Medicaid.
• Differences in outcomes can be affected by lower-income residents being more likely to live in public and/or multi-unit housing, and having reduced access to (high-quality, or any) health insurance and health care.
• Rural residents may have initial advantages in an outbreak from living in relative isolation, but also could face more barriers to effective care once a virus does reach their communities. Small local hospitals can quickly be overwhelmed — some rural Colorado hospitals have just a couple dozen beds or less at any given time — and local emergency services may need outside aid to handle higher volumes of cases.
• Lower-income residents with people-oriented service jobs, such as restaurant or retail workers, often don’t have paid sick leave, and could still feel compelled to go to work even if symptomatic, in order to stay employed and support families. That may not only endanger their own health, but circulate the virus within the broader community.
• Working families without child care backup may send symptomatic children to school instead of keeping them home, as recommended by health authorities, further spreading the illness.
• People without documentation may lack health insurance and may avoid seeking medical attention even at lower-cost clinics, for fear of coming in contact with immigration authorities or other bureaucratic hassles. The new federal “public charge” rule, blocking legal status for many families who use public aid, is likely to make some residents fearful of seeking care or giving names to people performing epidemiology investigations and tracing contacts.
• Families with high-deductible health insurance or lacking insurance altogether may either avoid seeking health care, or face surprise bills in the thousands of dollars for hospital quarantines over which they have no control. Stories have already landed of patients ordered to hospital isolation and coming home to $3,000 bills for ER visits, inpatient rooms, radiology and more.
• Public transit such as RTD, relied upon disproportionately by lower-income communities and communities of color, can be disrupted by worker illness shortages and changes to operations mandated by viral countermeasures.
• Quarantines and home isolations ordered by public health officials to contain outbreaks can lock working-class families away from jobs, and daily needs such as groceries and prescriptions. Emergency planning needs to include local human services agencies and nonprofits to fill gaps in delivering food, prescriptions and even emergency rent money to affected populations, Colorado public health officials said..
• Schools and other institutions have a widely varied range of available resources to take emergency measures, including remote learning through tablet or laptop devices, extra sanitary cleanings of school rooms, buses and equipment, and more.

“One thing is very clear: we are pretty far from the goal of equal protection when it comes to protecting people from large-scale disease outbreaks, like what coronavirus could become,” Mays said. “Where you live determines to a strong degree how protected you are from hazardous events like novel coronavirus.”

In addition to his position at Colorado School of Public Health, Mays directs the National Health Security Preparedness Index, created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The index tracks multiple measures of states’ preparedness for public health threats, and ratings show how states vary from each other and improve or decline over time.

Colorado scores well on the Preparedness Index
The index factors relevant data such as the number of epidemiologists per 100,000 population, strength of networking among public health agencies, institutions and nonprofits, and whether all hospitals participate in a formal emergency preparedness coalition.

Colorado does well, scoring a 7.1 on the index compared to the national average of 6.7. Colorado’s public health system has won praise in past events, such as a listeria outbreak transmitted by locally grown cantaloupe that killed dozens of people in 2011. Western neighbors score higher than average as well, including Utah and Nebraska, Mays noted.

Still, the national map points out potential inequities looming in future outbreaks, Mays said. States with higher poverty rates, those with larger populations of people of color, and larger rural populations score lower on the readiness index, and could face increased challenges from pandemics. Alaska and Nevada scored the lowest nationally.

The San Luis Valley takes in six counties and 3,000 square miles of mostly rural country where an already-understaffed local public health force is already working to address opioid addiction and overdoses, teenage vaping, and elevated suicide rates.(Nina Riggio, Special to The Colorado Sun)
“There are pretty clear geographic patterns to the data that correspond with some of the same demographic factors that drive inequities in access to health care and access to health outcomes generally,” Mays said. For example, the 2019 Colorado Health Access Survey results pointed to continued disparities among Coloradans in health care coverage and ability to cover medical bills, according to location, race, income, immigration status and other variables.

“The state lines mask a lot of inequity at the local level,” added Mays. Think of the San Luis Valley in southwestern Colorado, Mays said, with a higher proportion of Hispanic residents, lower incomes and lower local-government budgets. An already-understaffed local public health force there is already working to address opioid addiction and overdoses, teenage vaping, and elevated suicide rates, among several pressing issues.

Coronavirus cases will stretch them even further, Mays believes: “There are a lot of competing needs.” Communities like some in the San Luis Valley “tend to have multiple health threats that are ongoing crises.”

MORE: Colorado’s other pandemic: The 1918 flu and the lessons learned — or maybe not — for coronavirus

And while Colorado’s rural areas have planned well for health emergencies, they don’t always have the public health personnel needed to execute as quickly as urban areas, said Theresa Anselmo, executive director of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials. The understaffing got worse in the years of public health budget cuts following the deep 2008 recession.

Public health leaders expect to soon have authorization to take coronavirus testing kits out to remote locations or homes, Anselmo said. But in a county health office with one to three overall employees, who can do that once the virus reaches the community?

“They don’t have the surge capacity. There just aren’t warm bodies to do that,” she said.

Public health planners spend a lot of time discussing how any given emergency might result in a “difference in disease burden in different communities,” said Dr. Bill Burman, director of Denver Public Health. “How can our activities mitigate that? Equity is right at the center of our planning and implementation.”

A most recent example for Denver came with a hepatitis A outbreak that disproportionately impacted people experiencing homelessness or seeking shelter space, Burman said. A handful of Denver cases in late 2019 indicated a long-feared outbreak had finally arrived. Hepatitis A can be passed from one person to another by sharing contaminated food and other objects; poor hygiene increases the risk of transmission. A Denver Post report said hepatitis A had “swept through homeless shelters and street encampments in other U.S. cities since 2017, sickening about 22,000 people and killing 216—especially people who are vulnerable because of substance abuse and poor health care.”

Denver Public Health and allied nonprofits deployed mobile health units to administer free hepatitis A vaccinations at locations where vulnerable populations gathered, from downtown parks to riverside encampments and day or night shelters. “Anywhere where someone told us would be a reasonable place to meet persons at risk, we went there with vaccine,” Burman said.

The public health community also works hard on communication and targeted messaging—in the hepatitis A outbreak, for example, a general community warning wasn’t needed, and Denver Public Health primarily communicated through one-on-one health visits, nonprofit allies and word of mouth.

Another looming question is the future cost of any coronavirus vaccine, now under development and expected to be available in the next year or so. Public health officials can’t yet promise that any or all coronavirus vaccinations will be free once a vaccine appears, Burman said, though making it free to everyone who needs it is certainly a goal. State officials moved last week to make sure coronavirus testing would be free for patients with suspected cases. National and state leaders have also discussed new measures that would make all coronavirus testing and treatment free of charge to the patient.

The issues raised by potential school closures, job absenteeism, lack of paid sick-leave and social services for shut-in families will all be on the table if coronavirus hits Denver hard, Burman added. “We as the broader community need to be thinking about the specific ramifications of isolation or institutional closures,” he said. “A lot of equity issues rise there very quickly, and that’s not something our office can deal with on our own. We’re starting to ask those questions and reach out.”

Weld County Health is working with school superintendents and many other public and nonprofit officials to address equity concerns before they occur, Wallace said.

“Schools are incredibly vital to our populations who are more vulnerable—that’s where those kids are fed every day,” he said. “Look at our county’s largest school district—a significant number of our children are getting two meals a day Monday through Friday at school.”

Food insecurity complicates the issue
Colorado’s organizations fighting food insecurity say they also are meeting early and often to be proactive in an outbreak, but they note that people are going underserved even before a new emergency.

Lynne Telford of the Care and Share Food Bank in Colorado Springs, which provides food to 267 pantries and meal sites in 31 southern Colorado counties, says her staff has just begun thinking about their response to an outbreak.

“We’re really good at reacting and we might make changes that limit human contact, such as leaving food outside the doors of the food bank.” But Telford is also realistic and says that “we’re not getting food to everybody who needs it now.”

Students from the Denver Green School help with the harvest of the adjacent Sprout City Farms garden. A portion of the food is used by the school cafeteria, while the rest is shared or sold within the community. (Handout, Meg Caley, Sprout City Farms)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommends that people stock up with a two-week supply of water and food before a pandemic hits. But for families in Colorado already struggling with food insecurity, that may be difficult, if not impossible.

“People are starting to grasp the reality of the situation,” says Joel McClurg, policy and communications manager for Colorado Blueprint for Hunger, a food security advocacy program backed by the Colorado Health Foundation. “Most people getting SNAP [supplemental nutrition assistance program, formerly food stamps] work in retail or hospitality, and if there were to be effects, it would hit them first if stores and restaurants close temporarily and workers are not paid.”

Others at risk of going without a paycheck include employees for small businesses, and hourly wage earners such as child care providers and home health aides.

Wallace said two keys to effective policy and practice in a fast-moving situation like coronavirus are to be flexible in response, and for all parties to keep vulnerable groups and their potential reactions in mind when making decisions. The main Sunrise clinic in Evans, for example, is next to one of the county’s primary homeless shelters, as well as the Global Refugee Center. Medical staff can work with shelter staff on best practice for containing illness, and for communicating changes to vulnerable clients.

One automatic reaction might be to close a shelter that has an illness case, Wallace said. Yet that can create far more problems than it solves. People locked out of a shelter may double or triple up in cramped quarters elsewhere—the opposite of the goal in pandemics.

“If there’s someone who is sick, go in there and help them mitigate without leaving someone out in the cold for the night,” Wallace said. “It takes a lot of stepping up. We’ve got to be more comfortable working in a gray zone.”

That includes county officials holding preliminary talks with large and small employers of lower-wage workers, urging them to avoid cutting off paychecks to workers who call in sick, Wallace said. There doesn’t appear to be any state law protecting workers in such cases, but civic leaders can try to appeal for employer patience and compassion, he suggested.

The public health emergency decisions have to be made with wider social problems in mind, Wallace said, and he believes Colorado health leaders are doing that well.

Choices made with coronavirus “have to be relevant,” he said. “We have an obligation to residents of our community to make it relevant, and not just make a cold decision and say, ‘housing is not my problem.’ It is.”

Freelance writer Michael Booth wrote this story for The Colorado Trust, a nonprofit that advocates for health equity statewide.

CORRECTION: This story was updated March 7, 2020, at 9:51 a.m. to correct the number of pantries Care and Share Food Bank in Colorado Springs serves. It provides food to 267 pantries and meal sites in 31 southern Colorado counties.

Honestly, I think Congress should not just pay for testing and treatment, but cover leave due to illness in this case fore people stay home and charge that bill to Emperor Xi as well. We can also add estimated economic damages and Tariff away if Xi refuses to play ball.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

Every country in the world should charge Winnie the Xi for this mess.

 

[RodgerDodger]

I remember my college military history professor said that Americans were spoiled because they never had to live through war time conditions like the rest of the world during ww2, thats why our tanks are automatic instead of manual and most american armament depends on tons of hours of work before use. the idea of never having a supply chain and spare parts has never been a problem in the US.

its amazing how much shit places are out of. outside of the gas shortages from before i was born, i don't think there has ever been such a widespread thing in the US, outside of hurricanes and dumb shit like that, but even then those are pretty few and far between and the businesses can usually prepare for that shit.

Also its pretty amazing how no one follows China anymore, no one gives a fuck about their numbers. They apparently said the infections are slowing down. but i also heard someone on /x/ say the Chinese already cremated 6 million people so far this year, so who knows whats happening

And this dude was a "Professor of Military History"? Really? I suppose what they say is true, "those who can, do. those who don't know jack shit about anything, teach". At least at the College level.

Just to understand, When the US has fought wars in the 20th Century and beyond, extended supply chain and spare parts is and always has been the problem they face. This was completely baked into the US war planning and operations during WW2. If you look at the various tanks of the war for example, you will notice a huge number of extremely exotic German designs. If you dig down further you would be hard pressed to find more than 5 or 6 individual specimens of any given model German tanks out of the entirety of their armored forces, that were built exactly the same, all with the same parts. The Germans were making constant production changes every day. This meant that often tanks and similar machines had to be sent back to the factory for service. While the Brits weren't quite that bad, they like the German's maintained a habit of frequent production and design changes throughout the production lifecycle. Whereas the entire US production system was predicated on the core problem that what was being produced was being sent to the far corners of the earth, with no ability to readily bring it back for repairs or modifications. So every unit produced had to work. It had to be the same as and share all core components with others of its kind. And it had to be field servicable with a minimal amount of tools. This is why there are not the vast variants of US Sherman Tanks like there are of German Panzers. Those building them knew they were being sent to remote places in Europe, Africa and the Pacific. The US Army and Navy procurement system maintained fairly rigid version controls. And mandated extensive testing before rolling major changes out. The Problem that your professor says the US has never faced, was the exact problem that the US perfected solving. (The actual problem that the US has never faced in war is material resource constraints. Since the US is largely resource and energy independent within its own borders.)

As for stores being cleaned out. Any time the news reports the Northeast is going to be hit with a Blizzard it happens.

 

[Shaved Kiwis]

Every country in the world should charge Winnie the Xi for this mess.

He can keep his money. The only payment I want from him is a pound of flesh or a pint of blood.

 

[RodgerDodger]

Worth noting that the youngest death in Australia so far was a 78 year old. Those who have died to date were 78, 82, and 95. It would be interesting to know their general state of health prior to infection.

78, 82 and 95... their general state of health at that age is simply "not dead yet". Begining in your late 70's even when in seeming good health, any change, trauma, injury or illness can lead to a systemic cascade of escalaing problems that will rapidly lead to death. Your body can no longer absorb the punishment it once could. You are in an ever narrowing state of equilibrium, and anything can tip it over the edge.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Every country in the world should charge Winnie the Xi for this mess.

They should, but you want to know who I want to see go after him the most?

China

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

All the evidence of pet contagion rests on one powderpuff doggo who was trapped inside with an ill owner for weeks. The dog's case seems to be mild. I think if people heed the Petco letter, wash hands and refrain from slobbering all over their pets the potential for infection is likely pretty low.

How old was the dog, though? Elderly dogs, like humans, are at a higher risk of dying from the flu. I'd imagine Corona-chan is much less kind to old dogs.

Some breeds have a lot of respiratory problems. An English bulldog would suffer more from this than a pom.

 

[simulated goat]

How old was the dog, though? Elderly dogs, like humans, are at a higher risk of dying from the flu. I'd imagine Corona-chan is much less kind to old dogs.

Some breeds have a lot of respiratory problems. An English bulldog would suffer more from this than a pom.

The only photo I saw it looked pekinese or shihtzu, one of those long hair googly eye types. No idea as to age.

 

[Sissy Galvez]

More good news out of Iran! Dang, this will hopefully clean Iran of a lot of horrible Islamist terrorists.

Iran: Coronavirus Kills the 'Butcher of Tehran'

Mohammad Abolghasem's Basij milita took part in the bloody suppression of last year's pro-democracy protests

legalinsurrection.com

 

[Rudy Russo]

Outside China:

25030 confirmed / 487 dead / 2820 recovered

21184 / 406 / 1923 yesterday

Iran:

5823 confirmed / 145 dead / 1669 recovered

4747 / 124 / 913 yesterday

USA:

424 confirmed / 17 dead / 8 recovered

322 / 14 / 8 yesterday

 

[tehpope]

Every country in the world should charge Winnie the Xi for this mess.

Hang him out to dry and live stream it for the world to see. 24/7 feed while the body rots. Play it in Times Square during prime time and rush hour. China should be shun from the international community but they won't cause "muh cheap labor", among other things.

 

[dopy]

too bad we don't have banners like some forums, this would be A&H's banner rn

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I got a quick question. If you don't have a preexisting condition, how long does it take for the immune system to stabilize/recover after successfully fighting off an illness? So like hypothetically, if someone's recovered from the flu, how long should it take for their body to be strong enough to take on another illness?