The Coronavirus Thread

Just adding some info from Germany to this, not to contradict you (I fully agree with your post!), but to put things a bit into perspective. Because these "up to 3 hours in an enclosed airspace" came from a laboratory ("in-vitro") study, in which they generated very small artificial aerosols that don't necessarily represent "man-made" aerosols.

Here are the findings from a study with real infected people ("in-vivo"), who were the first to catch CV-19 in Germany. Note that this happened *before* safety measures, which means no distancing and no mask. Out of all high-risk contacts, defined as >=15 minutes of face-to-face speaking distance, the study recorded 5% airborne infections.

So this is just to say, if you keep your safety distance and wear a mask, there's a high probability that you'll be fine. Avoid staying in small and badly aerated places together with other people for a prolonged time. But if you can't stay at home all the time and e.g. have to go to the supermarket, there's no reason to shit yourself, because if you follow safety measures, the real life risk seems to be quite low.

 

@james444 Thanks for mentioning that the studies were in a lab. Interesting results from Germany. As long as everyone follows the guidelines you can keep the risk low. Unfortunately this last weekend people in NY weren’t following social distancing guidelines. Gov. Cuomo jumped on them in his news conference today. Upping the fine to $1000. Everybody be safe.

 

Good example how much it would depend on the profile of testing. Testing known cases of exposure... well you are testing known cases of exposure. That not what goes into a typical statistical model or what defines the R number. And it cannot be both ways: either the models that are predicting huge # of infections are BS, or we have high mortality rate, 1.8 in the case Canada.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see some randomized testing results. I'd be surprised if it has not been happening with various groups discretely sampling from the beginning. I also think they would be more inclined to share good news if they have it.

We can't know the real R values without knowing the number of infections, but we do know that unknown value is high enough to overwhelm modern first world medical systems. In that respect the model numbers don't matter, the only one that really matters is the number of ICU beds in use/available where you live. When available approaches zero, mortality rate increases quickly.

 

https://www.uniboilusa.com/
https://www.yelp.com/biz/uniboil-monterey-park-4

Called Uniboil, I would go every once in a while prior to the shelter in place.

 

Speaking of ICU, apparently Boris Johnson was just moved to ICU after having been admitted to hospital yesterday.

Can’t say that I’ve had positive impressions of him as a politician/political leader, but certainly hope the guy pulls though. If he doesn’t, it’s going to send another massive shockwave into the world.

 

Lots of good stories about companies worldwide switching or tweaking their production lines to make essential medical supplies - e.g. hockey-gear mfr Bauer here in Canada making face shields, etc...

Audio-equipment companies are not to be left behind, it seems; here's VPI taking a temporary break from turntables:

https://www.vpidirect.com/store/p376/Donate.html#/

 

Neat insight into what you have to do to design and prototype a simple ventilator. Not a piece of cake. My friend thinks "Ford and GM have tons of cnc machines and can crank tons of ventilators out easily"

Hmmm, I don't see many cnc'd hunks of metal in these. I do find it novel that they are using the infotainment system as the compute brain.

Try again, friend, haha

 

LOL who needs CNC when you've got a shitload of 80/20 sitting around?

 

I fear this is the tip of the iceberg. Yet I pray that I'm FOS.

 

I'm so surprised how contrasting California & New York turned out. California with the biggest population in the country & it has it somewhat under control.
The difference in governors, one who immediately took action when there was a small spike & didn't wait around for things to get bad.

 

Don't have the time to go through the last 40 something pages of posts, but bear with my rant because, as a current medical student, I am beyond livid at exactly how incompetent and selfish both health care "administrators" and the upper government has been in this whole situation when it comes to managing and protecting the general public and also the people that they deem "essential" and on the "front line" AKA half the people I know, from nurses to doctors.

Some governors (especially in the South, where I am) are still trying to fight the stay at home order because to them, the economy is more important than people's lives. And other comments I have heard (I'm looking at you Lt. Governor of Texas) are about indirectly sacrificing the old and and the poor and make them keep working while to keep the businesses running so that these bureaucrats can hold on to the millions of damn dollars that they already have.

And don't get me started on all these hospital administrators who have never seen a patient in their entire lives because some of these hospitals still are letting their workers take care of patients without PPE, and God forbid that the workers make a ruckus about it because it might make the hospital look bad. There are more and more stories of people that either I know or my friends know that are first year residents, attendings, long-time nurses, etc, that are getting this virus and some that have actually died or are in critical condition because of the decisions of people who have zero clue about what is going on. Health care workers are getting thrown to the f'ing wolves here, and all the media is saying that "they are heroes" and "they are essential," which to, everybody in the health care field, is pretty much saying that they are going to be the ones that are pretty much going to be sacrificed. Anytime I see that shit, all I'm hearing is the same as when we say "support our troops," as in say that you care but do absolutely nothing to help them in the meantime especially after they come back (The VA is the bane of my existence, not because of the veterans, but because it's the epitome of how little the government gives a shit about those places that are set up for those people). The sad part is that everybody in this field is in a catch-22 because they are aware of how much they are being taken advantage of by everybody higher up, but they also know that they are the only ones who can treat these people.

Sorry if I ruffle any feathers, but it's just sad when we, as a country, have almost allowed this to happen with the people we vote in and the ignorance that they spread and how they have slowly chipped away at anything dealing with science, health, or the environment

 

^^^^ This! Big Time.

 

Saw that LA Times doesn't have a pay wall now for their coronavirus tracker:
latimes.com/projects/california-coronavirus-cases-tracking-outbreak/

Numbers are still off since testing is still catching up.

And possibly California projections are looking a little better.
https://ktla.com/news/california/re...19-deaths-and-hospitalizations-in-california/

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Was at Home Depot today to return a thermostat so my parents didn't have to. Seemed like 80%-90% of people were wearing masks/face protection at least from walking through the entrance to exit. People were standing fairly far apart and would intentionally walk apart from you if you were going to walk by them.

Swung by Popeyes afterwards, most people were wearing masks but the younger teens weren't. One group had around 5 guys and girls grouped up and only the youngest one had a mask. Could tell everyone was a little bit uncomfortable with how close they were. The Popeyes only allowed 3 people in the lobby at any time so that was nice.

Seen other restaurants stick a table in their front door so people could make an order there and then wait outside.

 

Vitamin C and D being included in treatment.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/...d=20200407Z1&et_cid=DM501456&et_rid=845942198

 

Looks like an internet doctor who happens to be selling supplements in their online store? Of course, I don't know for sure, but calling it as what it looks like. I'd be cautious about loading up on vitamins without checking facts.

 

The vitamins are intravenously applied. I would read a link before shitting on it @boredpanda . Whatever you do, don't take a bunch of high quality, high absorbance vitamins to be healthy, instead lets fear proximity of other humans for ever.

 

Ah, interesting about Vitamin C.

Initial reports were positive about shoring up your Vit D deficiency, same as every other respiratory infection, and inconclusive about C.

Ofc the problem now is that blood testing, at a doctor's, is probably more dangerous for you than Vit D deficiency, and Vit D toxicity is no laughing matter, so you have to estimate and undershoot.

For the duration, I'm taking 1000IU/day, that way if I'm wrong I'm at least not overdosing. And 1000mg of C, because there's really no point in taking more orally AFAIK.