Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

No one could have predicted…

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Saturday / Sunday, May 9-10

COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Saturday / Sunday, May 9-10

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The numbers cited here surprised me! Apparently it takes an army of servants to keep a few thousand tourists comfy:

… Vásquez, 36, and tens of thousands of other crew members have been trapped for weeks aboard dozens of cruise ships around the world — long after governments and cruise lines negotiated their passengers’ disembarkation. Some have gotten ill and died; others have survived but are no longer getting paid.

Both national and local governments have stopped crews from disembarking in order to prevent new cases of COVID-19 in their territories. Some of the ships, including 20 in U.S. waters, have seen infections and deaths among the crew. But most ships have had no confirmed cases…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that about 80,000 crew members remained on board ships off the U.S. coast after most passengers had disembarked. The Coast Guard said Friday that there were still 70,000 crew members in 102 ships either anchored near or at U.S. ports or underway in U.S. waters.

The total number of crew members stranded worldwide was not immediately available. But thousands more are trapped on ships outside the U.S., including in Uruguay and the Manila Bay, where 16 cruise ships are waiting to test about 5,000 crew members before they will be allowed to disembark.

As coronavirus cases and deaths have risen worldwide, the CDC and health officials in other countries have expanded the list of conditions that must be met before crews may disembark…

Via commentor Ohio Mom, a blog post minutely describing The Risks – Know Them – Avoid Them:

… The reason to highlight these different outbreaks is to show you the commonality of outbreaks of COVID-19. All these infection events were indoors, with people closely-spaced, with lots of talking, singing, or yelling. The main sources for infection are home, workplace, public transport, social gatherings, and restaurants. This accounts for 90% of all transmission events. In contrast, outbreaks spread from shopping appear to be responsible for a small percentage of traced infections.

Importantly, of the countries performing contact tracing properly, only a single outbreak has been reported from an outdoor environment (less than 0.3% of traced infections)…

When assessing the risk of infection (via respiration) at the grocery store or mall, you need to consider the volume of the air space (very large), the number of people (restricted), how long people are spending in the store (workers – all day; customers – an hour). Taken together, for a person shopping: the low density, high air volume of the store, along with the restricted time you spend in the store, means that the opportunity to receive an infectious dose is low. But, for the store worker, the extended time they spend in the store provides a greater opportunity to receive the infectious dose and therefore the job becomes more risky.

Basically, as the work closures are loosened, and we start to venture out more, possibly even resuming in-office activities, you need to look at your environment and make judgments. How many people are here, how much airflow is there around me, and how long will I be in this environment. If you are in an open floorplan office, you really need critically assess the risk (volume, people, and airflow). If you are in a job that requires face-to-face talking or even worse, yelling, you need to assess the risk…

Erin S. Bromage, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Dr. Bromage graduated from the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences James Cook University, Australia where his research focused on the epidemiology of, and immunity to, infectious disease in animals… Dr. Bromage’s research focuses on the evolution of the immune system, the immunological mechanisms responsible for protection from infectious disease, and the design and use of vaccines to control infectious disease in animals.


Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    hotshoe

    It’s 1AM valley CA time. Must be 4AM for Anne Laurie? Insomnia?
    Balloon Juice is not good for insomnia ;)

    Thanks for the info!

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    While I await the Director-General of Health’s daily media conference, let me report on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Nuzul al-Quran TV address today.

    First, he announced, the movement control order AKA lockdown has been extended another two weeks, to 6 June, with last week’s conditional easing in place. Muhyiddin warns that any spike in new infections will lead to cancellation of the conditional easing. (No surprise there.) Muhyiddin also said that travelling to an out-of-state hometown for Eid is still not allowed. We may have up to 20 people in the house for an Eid gathering; but everyone must still wear masks and keep a social distance, which will discourage many people from having an Eid gathering at all.

    Muhyiddin also reports that religious authorities are preparing a standard operating procedure that will allow mosques to reopen, subject to approval of the Agong and Malay Rulers who are the formal heads of Islam here. This would also allow reopening of other houses of worship under similar SOPs.

    DG of Health Dr Noor Hashim Abdullah is now on. He reports 67 new cases, with no breakdown of local vs. imported cases; total 6,656 cases. 96 more patients recovered, total recovered 5,025 or 75.5% of all cases. No new deaths, total stands at 108 deaths. 1,523 active cases. Case fatality rate 2.14%.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Olympics: Tokyo Hunger Games could be ‘greatest ever’, says Coates

    FTFH.

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The Olympics can only be held next year if lockdown ends early enough in the year to allow training to resume and qualifiying events to be held, and in enough countries. And if travel restrictions are lifted so that competitors can leave their countries and come to Japan. And if there are enough flights; who knows how many airlines will survive to next summer on the pitiful load factors permitted by social distancing rules. It’s still  far from certain that there will even be an Olympic Games next year.

  5. 5.

    Barb 2

    Washington State’s idiots were out protesting.

    The thing is there is still not enough testing. Many stores are closed – but many of the giants are still open

    I need to go out for a weekly doctor’s appointment and have noticed that traffic is almost back to normal. Where are the drivers going. Most doctors are doing phone visits since about early March. But they are concerned that far too many are not staying home. DIY home improvement stores parking lots have been full. Target and Wal-Mart are also crowded.

    The death cult wants the churches opened as well as mass crowd events. Of course these tiny minorities take no responsibility to wear face covering. The photos of the jerks showed no face masks. Idiots – face masks can be a fashion statement. I’m treated to a weekly mask fashion show!

    My once a week clinic visit has extra rules to keep both medical staff and patients safe.

    Friday the Blue Angles and other jets did a fly over of the local hospital. Probably Seattle’s hospitals also were treated to the fly over.

    Jay Inslee continues to follow the advice of the health professionals and scientists.

  6. 6.

    YY_Sima Qian

    As suspected, contact tracing of the domestic confirmed case reported by Shulan in Jilin Province on May 7 has now uncovered a cluster there, 11 new confirmed and 2 new asymptomatic cases were found yesterday. All the new cases are close contacts of the first case from May 7, or their close contacts (so this cluster has already seen secondary infections). Online rumors on Chinese social media, unconfirmed, claims that Patient zero is actually an apparently asymptomatic case who returned from Russia, who finished his mandatory quarantine and visited a bath house. There he infected an attendant, who in turn is a close friend of the case from May 7. If true, the imported case must have passed a negative PCR screen and antibody screen at the end of his quarantine. That would also mean the May 7 case is a secondary infection herself, and the worry is that the the imported case and the bath house attendant may have seeded other clusters, too. We shall know in the coming weeks. Fortunately, although the May 7 case worked as a custodian for a local police precinct, none of the cases so far have been officers or admin staff at the precinct, but it is very early, yet. Shulan is now deemed High Risk area, all gatherings have been suspended, all public service and entertainment venues closed, residential compounds and villages are under restricted access management, only one person per household is allowed outside once per day for daily essentials, people are encouraged to work from home, rail access to the city is now severely curtailed.

    Wuhan also added a new domestic confirmed case yesterday, a severe case. The person is an 89 years old elder with multiple co-morbidities (hypertension, liver inflammation, and history of stroke). Apparently he developed fever and chills in mid-Mar., self medicated and the symptoms went away by end of Mar. He then suffered from loss of appetite and exhaustion in mid Apr. he was accompanied by community workers to a hospital for PCR and antibody screens, tested positive for both on May 7, and positive again on May 9. If he was infected in mid Mar., considering his medical conditions and history, I am amazed that he held out for so long on his own! His wife also tested positive and is currently deemed asymptomatic, his daughter tested negative.

    Harbin in Heilongjiang Province reported a new domestic confirmed case early this morning, a close contact of the cluster there and has been treated in isolation ward since Apr. 9! He tested negative on PCR 7 times over the past month, finally produced a positive result on the 8th test!

    On the good news side, a COVID-19 patient in Wuhan spent 73 days on ECMO, followed by double lung transplant, and is now recovering!

  7. 7.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I am amazed and dismayed that gyms in Beijing are open, just the kind of place for a super spreading event. My colleagues in Shenzhen in Guangdong Province also organized a badminton tournament at an indoor court. I had to shake my head, and told them they are taking an unnecessary risk.

    The new super spreading event at Seoul, centered around gay clubs, only serve to drive home the point that things should not return to normal, until vaccines are widely available.

  8. 8.

    gkoutnik

     

    New research suggests that most everyone does make antibodies, and at levels likely to confer some immunity.

    Something new to learn about – antibodies/immunity.  What does “some immunity” mean?  It works for some people, not for others?  Or provides ‘partial immunity,’ whatever that means?

  9. 9.

    Rusty

    Our 11 year old was admitted to the hospital Friday night with what they think is coronavirus induced Kawasaki syndrome like illness.  Last week he started running very high fevers (104) and other odd symptoms.  We had bunch of back and forth with the pediatrician, they tested for coronavirus (negative).  We are in upstate NY, but saw the stories out of NYC.  Friday night my wife took him to the ER for tests they couldn’t do elsewhere.  They tested and admitted him instead of sending them home. (My wife can stay with him since he is young). Since it looks to be triggered by coronavirus, the kids can be negative because the exposure was in the past.  Last night they announced three deaths from this.  Needless to say, our anxiety is high.  Thankfully detected early in ours, a lot of the young people in NYC where admitted when much more advanced.  From what they have said, Kawasaki is rare in those over 6, but they are seeing it in older children with this.  Keep him in your prayers if you lean that way.

  10. 10.

    germy

    @Rusty:  I’m glad this was detected early.  And I’m glad they admitted him. I’m sorry he’s going through this.

  11. 11.

    germy

    In case it’s not 100% clear to you, Zuckerberg censored the Project Lincoln ad on FB, but let every, single, lie-fest Trump ad go unmolested.

    Peeps, Mark is NOT on our side.

    — Pam Keith (@PamKeithFL) May 9, 2020

  12. 12.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Rusty: I hope he makes a speedy recovery!

    I have recently read about cases in NYC and in Europe, but this phenomenon has not been reported in China or South Korea.

  13. 13.

    zzyzx

    @gkoutnik:

    It means they’re scientists so they’re being very cautious in their public wording. A lot of the confusion right now is that the scientists don’t want to say anything that they don’t actually KNOW but that’s not how people normally speak so it’s being interpreted differently.

  18. 18.

    scribbler

    @Rusty: So sorry you, your son and your family have to go through this.  Sending all my hopes for a very speedy recovery your way.

  21. 21.

    Nicole

    Anne Laurie, thank you so much for posting the tweet from city Council member Levine! I saw online a news article that they were starting free antibody testing in the city, but haven’t been able to find anything about it. I signed up for a slot this week.

    Levine has done really good work trying to get information out to the public. He’s done some really good Q&A‘s that he makes available via Zoom for constituents (and also those of us who live outside of his area of representation).

  22. 22.

    Nicole

    @Rusty: Sending all the good thoughts in the world for a speedy recovery for your son. Please keep us posted.

  23. 23.

    terben

    From Australian Dept of Health:

    ‘As at 3:00pm on 10 May 2020, a total of 6,941 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 97 deaths and 6,163 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.

    Over the past week, there has been an average of 20 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.

    To date, over 827,500 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted 0.8% have been positive.’

    The numbers today are an increase in new cases of 12 since yesterday, 10 in Victoria. There has not been a COVID-19 death in Australia for 5 days.

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    @Rusty:

    So sorry to hear about your 11 y o son. Glad his mom can be with him, that has to help…

    Keep in touch, we’re all pulling hard for recovery! Modern medical science is amazing, I’m sure they will do everything they can. And experience from all over the world will be applied to his case.

    Best of luck, Rusty!!

  30. 30.

    Nelle

    Rusty, of course he and all of you in our best thoughts.  Do you have other children?  Feel free to share, as you feel comfortable.

  34. 34.

    Mary G

    @Rusty: One of the few bright spots in the clusterfuck that is the American handling of this pandemic has been that children have seemed relatively unaffected and this new discovery is terrifying. I will pray for your boy. I hope the hospital will let you visit if he has to stay long and it can be done safely. It’s so hard to stand by feeling helpless.

  35. 35.

    arrieve

    @Nicole: CityMD and the other urgent care places in NYC are also doing antibody testing — I got tested last weekend. I think my insurance covered it.

    I was negative — although I knew a positive result didn’t guarantee that I had any immunity, it would have made me a little less paranoid. But at least this means what I’ve been doing to stay healthy has worked.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The SF Bay Area is talking about phase II reopening the 18th, indoor things like manufacturing. So work is restarting with a 12 hour work week so they can space things out and keep it safe. Also got to told I am considered an essential worker because there is a real layoff at work coming. Then again that doesn’t surprise me because that was in the cards in June long before the shut down.

    Meanwhile Musk next door suing the County for FREEDOM. I swear the 1% are just jerking off in public now to take credit for the reopening.

  38. 38.

    WaterGirl

    @Rusty: Unbearably distressing for all of you.  So glad for your son that his mom can stay with him. It may be hardest on you, one step removed, unable to do anything or see your son and your wife.  Hoping you can soon look back on all of this with a sigh of relief.

  41. 41.

    Nicole

    @arrieve: A friend of mine got tested via one of the private facilities, too- I think it cost her $50.  She came back negative for antibodies, which is what I suspect will be the result for my husband and me, but as I said to him, if it comes back negative, I can fret that we’ll still get it at some time in the future.  If it comes back positive, I can fret that we’ll get long-term side effects some time in the future.  There was a depressing Twitter thread I read yesterday from Dr. Jason Johnson about younger people who will have long-term health complications as a result of Covid-19 and needing to rethink our health care system.  He compared it to polio, which led me down the rabbit hole of polio survivors and complications and I found out a sizable number of polio survivors develop complications four DECADES after having it.

    (Yes, I know, totally different virus, but I start to wonder if masks are now a permanent part of all of our wardrobe.  I passed a guy pushing a kid in a stroller yesterday and I wondered if the kid would ever know a time where people didn’t wear them.)

  43. 43.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Rusty: I can’t imagine the stress level you’re at. Hope your son recovers fully and this becomes a bad memory.???.

  44. 44.

    Mai naem mobile

    @germy: Zuck doesn’t give a shit about ideology. He’s worried about being regulated or trust busted. He’s also another tech bro ahole.who  has never been interested in history so doesn’t understand the danger of autocrats. I still fail to understand the high value of FB. Ads and data mining makes it one of the highest values corps in the world? Stuff you can get elsewhere?

  46. 46.

    James E Powell

    @germy:

    I am stunned that any Democrat would believe that any large corporation or billionaire is on our side. It’s preposterous! A few pretend to be neutral or non-Trump, but they are all about wealth as power and nothing else.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    @Rusty: Okay so I know you’re not supposed to look these things up on the internet, but it looks like there is reason for optimism here. So sorry your young one is going through this. Hang tough Dad!

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    I’m a little miffed (only slightly) at the Erin S. Bromage, piece, because she goes on and on, correctly, about how important it is to evaluate how droplets spread, and then basically ignores the single most important way of redirecting droplet sprays, universal masking while indoors as a method of “source control”, blocking droplets from infected people.
    The science for this is a whole lot better than e.g. her concern about toilet flushes, or for that matter indirect transmission through hands to face.
    Anyway, the natural experiments are running. New York and others have universal masks indoors in public places orders and are the intervention arm,, and many states do not, and are in the control arm.
    Now we just have statisticians examine death rates over the next year and efficacy will be more clear. An experiment costly in human lives, being run elsewhere in the world as well. Science!!!!

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @sdhays: I REALLY did not want Pritzker, but I voted for him anyway because, well, Democrat.  I have been very pleasantly surprised.

    Not to mention infinitely grateful that we have a Democratic governor in this time of COVID.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @WaterGirl: I’m from Illinois, but I don’t live there anymore (I have family still there, though). I wouldn’t have voted for him in the primary either, but yeah, pleasantly surprised.

    I shudder to think what things would be like if the ass that preceded him was still in office.

  55. 55.

    cain

    Rusty – healing thoughts in your family directions. I hope all will be fine and he will be home safe and healthy.

  57. 57.

    Dirk Reinecke

    Update from South Africa. We are entering day 45 of the worlds strictest lockdown. No movement aside from medical visits, essential workers and grocery shopping.

    Recently people have been allowed to exercise between 06:00 and 09:00 outside.

    Also sales of Alchahol and Cigarettes have been banned since the start of the lockdown.

    However infections keep on trending up, and very few tests are being done.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nicole:

    (Yes, I know, totally different virus, but I start to wonder if masks are now a permanent part of all of our wardrobe.  I passed a guy pushing a kid in a stroller yesterday and I wondered if the kid would ever know a time where people didn’t wear them.)

    I think the masks are going to be gone within a few months, once people realize that wearing a mask will get you punched in the face, coughed on or shot by some MAGA yahoo. Once it feels more dangerous to be careful than to not be careful, we’re just going to say “fuck it” and all get infected.

  60. 60.

    Another Scott

    BlueVirginia.US:

    Yesterday, Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-parts of Fairfax/Prince William/Stafford) posted the following, regarding data from the Virginia Department of Health showing COVID-19 cases by zip code, adjusted by VPAP by population, which I’d argue is crucial for these data to be looked at properly:

    “Thank you VPAP…for taking a shot at showing Virginia COVID data on a per capita basis by zip code so we can now see the hotspots on a smaller level. Here you go. Worst zip in NOVA – West Alexandria. Worst in state – Nassawodox. Worst zips in VA are Rural – Accomack, Dillwyn, Capron, Warsaw. NOVA is bad in Alexandria, Falls Church, Manassas, Annandale and US 1 Corridor.”

    Also see below for a few maps, including one of the entire state, as well ones focusing on Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. In addition to what Sen. Surovell posted, I’d add:

    * In general, the Eastern Shore looks really on a per-capita basis for COVID-19 cases. For instance, as Sen. Surovell points out, Nassawodox is “worst in state,” at 654.8 cases per 10,000 population. Also, Onley on the Eastern Shore is at 301.3 cases per 10,000 population, Franktown at 289.9 cases per 10,000, Accomac at 218.5 cases per 10,000, etc. Not coincidentally, the Eastern Shore is home to a heavy concentration of poultry processing plants, which are hotbeds for COVID-19 spread.

    * Dillwyn, home of the Dillwyn Correctional Center, is at 225.1 COVID-19 cases per 10,000 population.
    Capron, home of the Deerfield Correctional Center, is at 308.4 cases per 10,000 population.

    * Fork Union, which has seen an outbreak at a long-term-care facility (“Envoy at The Village”), is at 393.4 cases per 10,000 population.

    * Henrico 23075 is at 107.6 cases per 10,000 population, presumably related to the COVID-19 outbreak at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center?

    * In Northern Virginia, some hotspots are Alexandria 22305 (185.6 cases per 10,000), Dunn Loring 22027 (183.6 cases per 10,000), Springfield 22150 (134.2 cases per 10,000), Alexandria 22311 (105.5 cases per 10,000), Falls Church 22041 (110.1 cases per 10,000), Manassas 20109 (95.0 cases per 10,000), Manassas 20110 (83.5 cases per 10,000), Manassas 20111 (82.1 cases per 10,000), Woodbridge 22191 (78.4 cases per 10,000), Why are these areas so high? In part, it’s probably related to the fact that Springfield 22150 is home to the large Greenspring Senior Living Community; Alexandria 22311 is home to the Hermitage Northern Virginia Retirement Community and also Goodwin House AND also The Fountains at Washington House; Alexandria 22305…not sure exactly, but there are assisted living facilities in the area. So clearly, that’s part of the answer. But it’s almost certainly related to other – socioeconomic, etc. – factors as well; perhaps poorer communities where it’s more difficult to “socially distance,” where people work in retail, etc? Any other theories?

    tl;dr – It still looks like most infections are occurring in places where people are confined in close quarters for long periods of time. If the federal government were smart about its response to this pandemic, it would address these facts. And if grandma had wheels… :-/

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  61. 61.

    Matt McIrvin

    Erik Loomis reminds us that there’s no hope and it’s all fucking pointless:

    https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/05/how-the-pandemic-ends

    Doing all this stuff with the knowledge that the idiots in charge will just undermine it and it won’t matter, and eventually we’ll just all decide to get sick and let our loved ones die… it’s hard.

    I hate reading all those pages about rational plans for managing this thing and coming out the other side, because I know they won’t happen. Maybe they’ll happen in other countries (in some, they have). But we live in the stupidest country on earth and sooner or later, we’ll just choose to take the punch, and a million or two million Americans will die. Everyone will know people who died. Somehow, we’ll convince ourselves that was the right idea.

    It’s enough to make me just want to give up sometimes. Stop dragging it out.

  62. 62.

    TomatoQueen

    @Another Scott: I’m in Alexandria 22302. The Fountains is right on the edge of 22304/02, not 05. The prevalent Arlington neighborhoods are similarly constituted (Arlandria). These are densely populated closely packed neighborhoods with older, less expensive multi-family housing where live public service workers of all kinds, who are more likely to be exposed through work or family work contacts because they can’t Stay the Fuck Home and likely are not getting a full supply of PPE daily, and aren’t necessarily being tested. Essential folk. I don’t see how NoVA can open at this point.

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