WHO Director General: "The pandemic is accelerating at an exponential rate. The first 100,000 cases took 67 days. The second 100,000 took 11 days, the third 100,000 took just 4 days, and the fourth 100,000 just 2 days."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) March 26, 2020
A factory in South Korea is now making 350,000 COVID-19 test kits a day – almost as many as the country has used in the entire outbreak so far. Daily output will increase to a million next month.
https://t.co/pjr8m9oS0i— Laura Bicker (@BBCLBicker) March 27, 2020
When do countries on #Covid19 lockdown know it's safe to ease up on restrictions? What can be done to keep the virus from coming roaring back? @sxbegle packs a prodigious amount of information into this piece you must read. https://t.co/gVmZ1ufzCy
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 25, 2020
Rapid, point of care diagnostics open up opportunities for shifting to more targeted control strategies. We're not there yet, but this is another piece of the puzzle. https://t.co/wdvFLi3jIt
— Caitlin Rivers, PhD (@cmyeaton) March 28, 2020
Looking thru product information, looks like an isothermal nucleic acid amplification-based test
— Grace Vezeau (@grace_vezeau) March 28, 2020
This would be a very hopeful thing. And it might be cheaper for the federal government to establish rapid testing in every airport in America than it would be to subsidize the airlines for another several months of not flying. https://t.co/K6MGA62nJf
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 28, 2020
Let’s hope Trump doesn’t take control of them & switch production to SUV’s https://t.co/rYvpNyACmX
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 28, 2020
An idea for speeding up a #covid19 vaccine from @mlipsitch and colleagues: infect young volunteers. Story by @antonioregalado https://t.co/mrFwjGGZtT
— Carl Zimmer (@carlzimmer) March 27, 2020
.@WHO DG @DrTedros announces that in Norway and Spain, the first patients are being enrolled in Solidarity Trial comparing different #COVID19 treatment candidates
Here's @HelenBranswell with the background on the trial from when it was announced: https://t.co/a0ltaPPGjV
— Andrew Joseph (@DrewQJoseph) March 27, 2020
The clearest explanation I’ve seen of what the future of this epidemic looks like: We could see several waves of COVID-19 until we acquire immunity or develop a vaccine.
Thanks @gmleunghku for talking to @pritheworld: https://t.co/OzIXfKvXrq
— Tania Karas (@taniakaras) March 27, 2020
"Efforts to widely distribute unproven treatments are misguided at best and dangerous at worst," @drJoshS tells @cpiller in this look at why scientists are aghast at the promotion of unproven anti-malarias to treat #Covidd19. https://t.co/w78TPWFy9S
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 27, 2020
Models are models, as the old caveat goes. But governments increasingly rely on them to guide their pandemic responses. @kakape takes a look at model debates and how they're shaping policies. https://t.co/1dR1KZdms3
— Jon Cohen (@sciencecohen) March 25, 2020
So many people are asymptomatic and they’re extremely inaccurate, yet “fever detection” thermal camera systems are selling by the thousands in the US. They also make people feel safe when they shouldn’t. A cross of surveillance and disinfo – my latest https://t.co/h7wFyfwbST
— april glaser (@aprilaser) March 28, 2020
"It’s the difference between catching an invader red-handed versus going back to the crime scene & dusting for prints." — @DrewQJoseph's smart piece about the blood testing aiming to find people who were infected but never diagnosed with #Covid19. https://t.co/xVnIfbk2HO
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 27, 2020
Scientists have been able to monitor the #coronavirus pandemic faster than any previous outbreak.
Find out how #EUfunded research on gene sequencing and online sharing of data is helping them ⬇— European Commission ?? (@EU_Commission) March 28, 2020
The @ccdd_hsph COVID-19 website is live! https://t.co/bKbitw9UEv Huge thanks to Linnea DiPillo, Nikita Mahulkar, Benjamin Wallace, Rachel Sadoff, Susan Matheson https://t.co/bKbitw9UEv
— Marc Lipsitch (@mlipsitch) March 27, 2020
David C
Good morning, and thanks for my go-to morning read. In an intranet interview (NIH only) with Francis Collins, Tony Fauci put the kibosh in intentionally infecting healthy volunteers – the risk of death is not zero. He said that it was an idea that came up early, but that it was pretty much shot down.
Stay safe.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. Most Malaysians are complying with the movement control order, as it’s called here. The new-case count and new death count numbers appear to be heading in the right direction. But neighbouring countries Thailand and Indonesia are cause for concern. Thailand’s government appears to be in denial. Indonesia’s medical infrastructure is less developed than ours, they don’t have the capacity to test or treat as much of their population, and and could wind up being overwhelmed by COVID-19.
Tony Jay
Interesting but depressing piece in the Shitbag Guardian by Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet medical journal.
Basically, the British Government’s determination to ignore the warnings until it was too late and subsequent refusal to follow the WHO guidance on testing means the NHS will not be able to cope and Britain is about to take a brutal egg-pounding. Johnson’s oh so convenient diagnosis at least spares him having to smear his puffy, ‘condom in a washing machine’ face all over the PR disaster to come. Priorities!
OTOH didn’t we all do so well by standing outside and clapping? Sorted out all of the problems, that did. Undoubtedly the Greatest National Moment of People Power since the Paedogeddon Militias scourged the country clear of kiddie-fiddlers (and paediatricians) back in the 90’s.
Why the British Press isn’t hounding the fuck out of these blinkered spunk-buckets on the topic of testing – should – be a mystery, but it’s not. This is the Government they worked so hard to install, it’s their bastard offspring, they can’t bash it too hard without risking a national rejection of the brand, and then who will protect their owners from.a slightly higher rate of taxation?
These fucking people.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tony Jay:
Are you related to Betty Cracker?
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
Correction: The Thai government has not appeared to be in denial as I stated, but it has been criticised for its inept management of the situation. Per Wikipedia:
Amir Khalid
Re the thermal cameras: U of Malaya Medical Centre’s security was using them to scan people at entrances when I was there for my medical appointments.
teacherryan
@Amir Khalid: I assumed I was the only balloon juice reader in Malaysia. I’ve been very impressed by how well the gov’t and citizenry have done during this crisis. From watching out my window, though, I thought there were a lot more cars out today than I’ve seen in 10 days.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Wondering: are people holding prayer vigils for the Prime Minister?
raven
The United States is expecting a severe shortage of ventilators to help people suffering from the most serious cases of COVID-19. On March 16, 2020, a team of more than 40 engineers, doctors, medical professionals, designers, and manufacturing experts from industry launched an Apollo 13-style project to help address that need.
The team focused on designing a device that could help the sickest patients to breathe, by plugging into the oxygen source available in most hospital rooms or into a tank of oxygen. Less than one week later, the team demonstrated a working prototype.
Tony Jay
@SiubhanDuinne:
She’s down as my Plus One for the ‘Dancing On the Balls of Bastards’ jamboree I have planned for when I win big on the lottery.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@raven: Collage engineering project and not reality. I work in the medical tech industry and good god, who will touch building that because of the liability without clinical trials? The families of anyone who dies on those machines will sue the f out of the manufacture when this is done and over.
:
Amir Khalid
@teacherryan:
I’ve been commenting here for about a decade. I’m currently in USJ18. Whereabouts are you? I know you’re somewhere in the Klang Valley but I’m not sure where.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
If they can find anyone that stupid (and they will be looking) I’m sure the BBC’s senior managers will Breaking News it and fly over their Chief Political Flack to sing “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” in front of a closely packed phalanx of flag-waving Brextremists.
For the good of the nation, you understand, and not because they’re in the least biased towards the Party that appointed them to their positions of propagandasmic power.
WereBear
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: They can sign releases.
Amir Khalid
@teacherryan:
I know about the cars. The IGP has been threatening MCO violators with a few days in police lockup.
Skepticat
The emergency order for a total lockdown here in the Bahamas is scheduled to expire Tuesday, but the minister of health has just said parts of it probably will be extended. As of this morning, the Bahamas, with a population of a bit over 392,000 (not including foreign property owners like me), has ten cases, all but one in New Providence (Nassau). To avoid tempting the gods, I hesitate to mention Abaco has none—yet. The 24-hour curfew and strict controls seem to be working, and the inconvenience is minor compared to the alternative. Besides, it’s astonishingly beautiful here and I still can work online when I’m not demolishing rubble (a project that’s going well).
danielx
Good friend’s daughter is a Navy nurse on the hospital ship going to NYC, Not treating covid-19 cases, as I understand it, but rather all the OTHER stuff that hospitals can’t deal with right now. Coronaries, car crashes, etc tc.
teacherryan
@Amir Khalid: I’m in Ampang. I’m a US citizen who moved here last year for work. So far, it’s my favorite place I’ve lived – and I’ve lived on 4 continents, 19 States, and one US territory. I’m very happy to be here right now instead of in the States.
Another Scott
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Necessity is a mother, but people need to think about what a ventilator actually does. It forces air into the lungs of people who have trouble breathing on their own. It has to be at the right rate, it has to be at the right pressure, and it has to be **clean** for weeks on end. Lungs are the perfect breeding ground for infectious agents – dark, warm, wet, with teeny, tiny crevices.
A bad ventilator will kill people faster than COVID-19.
I’m sure the people working on these new designs know this, but those demanding that they cut corners to get them out NOW NOW NOW need to understand the issues.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Origuy
A friend of mine works on diagnostic systems at a competitor to Abbott. He posted about their announcement yesterday. He agrees it is a very big deal. Their systems are all over the place; urgent care clinics and doc-in-a-box facilities use them to diagnose flu. If Abbot can put out 50,000 of the cartridges that test for COVID-19 a week, that will bring testing capability to a lot more places.
VOR
There is a lot of innovation happening. The Abbott rapid test. South Korea creating a rapid test. Different groups working on new ventilator designs. I have no doubt the entire medical community is shifting to focus on this. Good things are happening in the world, they are just drowned out by the wind tunnel of dis-information coming from the White House.
germy