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Global coronavirus deaths exceed quarter of a million: Reuters tally https://t.co/iKJR7fNvwI pic.twitter.com/tEcIBBEeDq
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020
For the latest developments around the coronavirus outbreak, follow @Reuters Liveblog https://t.co/cEBwkoEQ5P pic.twitter.com/MSkVCuhFHm
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020
A substantial majority of people around the world want their governments to prioritise saving lives over moves to restart economies being hammered by measures aimed at halting the spread of the new coronavirus: global survey https://t.co/GT0LF709BT pic.twitter.com/GDpMHMzP9i
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020
Researchers in Paris say analysis of samples from 2 individuals hospitalized on Dec 2, 2019 shows they had #COVID19. Neither had traveled outside of France recently, & never to China. This pushes back the earliest non-Chinese case by well over a month.https://t.co/RT05BNb4yU
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 4, 2020
Speaking truth to power. “Based on the scientific evidence, he also doesn’t entertain an alternate theory—that someone found the coronavirus in the wild, brought it to a lab, and then it accidentally escaped.” https://t.co/0pHm0zd9ta
— Peter Daszak (@PeterDaszak) May 5, 2020
Internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Read the @Reuters exclusive: https://t.co/b5GSjmYtrH pic.twitter.com/LHCfsyshxY
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020
More than a thousand Americans died EVERY DAY IN APRIL, totaling 53,000 deaths and marking the WORST single MONTH for public health in the nation's HISTORY ??
"This is on the level of the 1918 pandemic. It’s that bad. And it’s just beginning."https://t.co/WE1Mfbjsrc— Syzygus (@psalm7115) May 4, 2020
4% of the world’s population; 28% of the world’s Coronavirus deaths. What a mismanaged disaster. What a historic failure of government. Heartbreaking and enraging. #MAGA2020
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) May 3, 2020
the same people who are saying "it's just a new york problem!" are working hard to ignore the trends in the rest of the country https://t.co/3NA9xGmytk
— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) May 5, 2020
Extracts from a long, meaty thread:
There's a lot to say about newly released projections for #COVID19 in the USA. I'll be talking about it on @NewsHour tonight. But let's take a look at some of the stark, terrible new data and forecasts.
First, new infection rates will soar in May/June, hitting 3K/day.
MORE pic.twitter.com/ztkEbJAJEW— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 4, 2020
7/
While the underlying data & assumptions used by the groups aren't yet public, it seems that prior reckonings grossly underest'ed the scale of focused outbreaks in meatpacking, assisted living centers, prisons, & the likelihood of community #COVID19 spread frm those facilities.— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 4, 2020
Your regular reminder that even the strictest "lockdown" in the US right now looks like the Von Trapps prancing around the Alps compared to much of Europe. To keep in mind as US death numbers refuse to decline. https://t.co/93beIkiMcG
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) May 4, 2020
NEW: We looked at the 27 states easing social distancing measures as of today. Only 9 of the 27 met the reopening metrics we examined, which still represent just a subset of factors to be considered for reopening. w/ Jen Tolbert and @larry_levitt https://t.co/puGWNv1c45
— Jen Kates (@jenkatesdc) May 4, 2020
A lot of hope is riding on a possible seasonal dip in #COVID19. But at @WIRED I review the latest evidence and conclude: Summer may not save us. https://t.co/PTY6QsNB53
— Maryn McKenna (@marynmck) May 4, 2020
Race for a #coronavirus vaccine: Not since the scientific mobilization to prevent polio has there been such an intense focus on vaccine development. One scientist calls it the 21st century's Manhattan Project. By @DelthiaRicks w/ quotes from @_b_meyer https://t.co/eA2AjleMAP pic.twitter.com/8NabqtMNKe
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 4, 2020
And then @SangerNYT @ddknyt @carlzimmer @katie_thomas @suilee have a dramatic deep dive on the drive for a new vaccine. The current record for "the quickest delivery of a vaccine"? Not a year, not 18 months. Four years. https://t.co/RYpIXUbnx0
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) May 4, 2020
More good news: Roche's SARS-CoV-2 Ab test received #EUA from @US_FDA. Results in ~ 18 mins & up to 300 tests can be run per hr. Greater than 99.8% specificity & 100% sensitivity in samples taken 2 wks after a PCR-confirmed infection. Roche is ramping up testing capacity.
— Luciana Borio, MD (@llborio) May 4, 2020
Armed with Roche antibody test, Germany faces immunity passport dilemma https://t.co/7XLJvXS1zd pic.twitter.com/HwlgkreWQM
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 5, 2020
NYC is now doing something really big: offering hotel rooms to people with mild/mod covid-19 who need to relocate in order to keep their household from being infected.
Patients need to be referred by one of the below health providers. This is an early phase and will be expanded. pic.twitter.com/nesna9ANmj
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) May 4, 2020
Patients will be provided with food, pharmacy, and laundry while in the hotel. There is a small clinical staff in each hotel, including EMTs, which checks in on patients daily and is on site in case of emergencies. For obvious reasons no visitors are allowed.
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) May 4, 2020
Yes the City is paying for it. They have contracts for several thousand rooms, at significantly below normal rates.
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) May 4, 2020
My new oped (no paywall) in @washingtonpost explaining serologic studies, challenges of studying seroprotection, and need for excellent social seroepidemiology of COVID-19 https://t.co/mF4kzbzK6i
— Marc Lipsitch (@mlipsitch) May 4, 2020
(Reuters) – World leaders and organizations pledged $8 billion to research, manufacture and distribute a possible vaccine and treatments for COVID-19 on Monday, but the United States refused to contribute to the global effort. https://t.co/eU83hKckx2
— Jonathan Landay (@JonathanLanday) May 4, 2020
“Models show that if 80 percent of people wear masks that are 60 percent effective, easily achievable with cloth, we can get to an effective R0 of less than one. That’s enough to halt the spread of the disease.” https://t.co/GonZ52elxG
— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) May 3, 2020
DIY masks: Finally, scientists are tackling this question – Which fabrics are best for homemade masks? They say rely on breathable/impermeable fabrics that resist hi & lo-velocity droplets. Story & quick video of hi velocity droplets hitting T-shirt fabric https://t.co/4d4dkDRQgf pic.twitter.com/8iBBw8z6mr
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 5, 2020
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers: 30 new cases, all from local infection, total 6,383 cases. 83 patients recovered, total 4,567 or 71.5% of total cases recorded. One death, total 106, case fatality rate 2.27%. O 1,710 active cases, 28 are in intensive care of whom eight are on respiratory aid. I suspect the past few days’ spike in confirmed cases had to do with when the patients were tested and thus when the results came back.
Cermet
As I’ve just discovered – seeing a MD for non-corona reasons isn’t very easy nor fast. Guess google is my first recourse and then tough it out till I either can see my doctor or gamble on an ER visit; certainly gonna wait till either it gets too serious or I get an appointmernt. Bad timing.
terben
From the Australian Dept of Health:
As at 3:00pm on 5 May 2020, a total of 6,849 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 96 deaths and 5,889 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.
There are currently 66 people in hospital care of whom 27 are in ICU.
Over the past week, there has been an average of 17 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.
There has been a steady and so far sustained decline in cases following a peak in cases at the end of March.
Of cases with a reported place of acquisition, 64% have recent international travel history, including over 1,200 cases associated with cruise ships.
To date, over 664,000 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted 1.0% have been positive.
Barbara
The perception that “only” certain people will die is based on a world with distancing and isolation. Take those things away and there is no reason to believe cases will remain concentrated in nursing homes, prisons, watehouses and meatpacking plants. That might be the case if we were aggressively testing employees moving in and out of those places so that individuals could continue self-isolating. But we aren’t. I predict that most people who can self-isolate will continue to do so.
Barbara
@Cermet: Not having any idea of the possible issue, don’t be too stalwart. E.g., don’t ignore chest pain or escalating symptoms of any kind. Call a doctor or ER first to get some advice on how to proceed, if you can.
OzarkHillbilly
DIY masks: Finally, scientists are tackling this question – Which fabrics are best for homemade masks?
WereBear
@Cermet: That sucks and is not as recognized as it should be. Part of hospitals being overwhelmed? Local issues?
And federal stupidity, currently embodied in our President of Death, continues. Even for themselves, Republicans have gone Full Death Cult by not doing ANYTHING about this travesty who is the head of their party.
Live by him, die by him, you assholes.
WereBear
This is the Darwinian force which creates, for those who can, a “self-lockdown” process.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: Whoa! I can do two layers of t-shirt, even with my lack of sewing ability. I mean, severe lack.
debbie
I listened to a BBC interview with one of the researchers about the patients found to have COVID-19 in December 2019 with no connection with Wuhan or Asia (other than maybe a sushi restaurant). This is sure to pop Trump’s and Pompeo’s balloons.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: Believe it or not, when I was a teenager I asked my seamstress mother to teach me the basics of sewing. I had no idea then how handy those skills would become in my life.
debbie
@Cermet:
There’s no option for telemedicine? Around here, even urgent care clinics have gone that route.
OzarkHillbilly
I have to disagree. The truth has never been a barrier to their preferred narratives.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
I had wondered if this hadn’t originated in Italy, and then got hauled back to ‘Gina by one of the hordes of ‘Ginese tourists I tend to see everywhere I go.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Interesting theory. I hadn’t considered that Chinese tourists might have been a vector from another origination spot.
@OzarkHillbilly: You’re correct that they’ll forge ahead regardless of the facts, but irrefutable proof that the virus originated elsewhere would underscore how full of shit the admin is to all but the hardest core MAGA chuds. My guess is they’ll stick to the “blame China” strategy regardless because they really don’t have anything else.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Colbert ran a clip last night of Pompeo answering two questions with opposite answers, so you’re probably right
But then there’s this clown:
arrieve
@Cermet: Can you do a video visit? I did one yesterday and it was surprisingly efficient. Depending on what’s going on they can do some diagnosis and write a prescription. The NP I talked to also told me when it might be necessary for me to come in, so I would have known where to go if I had to see someone in person.
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I had to take home economics in 8th grade. Mandatory public school curriculum in 1960s Ohio. I learned to work a treadle sewing machine. It couldn’t do fancy stitches or stop quickly, but otherwise it was better than the electric ones.
Besides sewing we also had to learn basic cooking, and home nursing. Hated it at the time but all three have proved useful in my adult life.
Gvg
@Cermet: that seems unusual. In my area, the largest employer insurance company will for now pay for telehealth visits which I imagine is kind of a screening and simple help advice service. For regular stuff, well you make an appointment, go, call and wait in the parking lot, smart phone based check in filling out forms, they come get you masked and you go direct to waiting room. Lots of cleaning and such both during and between patients. It’s a burden, but you can get care. A problem might be a specific doctors office. People are avoiding going and it’s causing economic problems for regular non virus healthcare. A nurse practitioner who just started a practice with a doctor about a year ago that was doing very well before, now may have to declare bankruptcy. She is in Ohio, a friend of my sisters.
Matt McIrvin
The “immunity passport” notion is pretty grim: if it catches on here, we’re going to be faced with a situation where for whole classes of people, the only way to draw a paycheck will be to go get yourself infected with COVID and hope you recover in good enough shape to work. And I guarantee that the people currently running things will regard that as A-OK.
arrieve
@OzarkHillbilly: I made some masks from a high-thread count pillowcase, based on the earlier recommendations, and they’re so effective they’re hard to breathe through. If a double layer of t-shirt material works, I’d much rather wear that. Since I suspect we’ll be wearing masks for the rest of the year, I’d love to have some that are more comfortable for walking outside. Also I’ve found the sewing itself is rather soothing. I have a machine, but I’ve been sewing by hand. It’s very zen.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: @debbie: I lived with a pathological liar for 5 years. Whenever caught in a lie, they double down with another lie. It is their go to move. It’s all they know how to do. For them, facing a truth is as impossible as breathing in water is for you and I.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: Yeah, and the boys had shop. Even then in my angst filled teens I thought it was stupid. Why not both?
ThresherK
So, they’re not bothering with a Trump property. Then again, all of Trump’s rooms are full of Secret Service agents, at 4x the standard rate anyway.
John S.
@Sab: There are three things they used to teach in school which were essential to life skills and a functional society:
Thanks to conservatives and their relentless assault on the education system, none of these things are really taught anymore. That has led to a dumber, weaker more compliant population. Effectively, people have become sheep.
This is how the Republicans continue their minority rule. This is why younger people are apathetic voters. This is why we have so much actual fake news (Fox) and rampant misinformation.
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: In my teen years we all (boys and girls) had shop and we all had home ec. The cooking part sorta stuck, the sewing part I never got a hand on, and that’s considering I have incredible fine-motor skills.
ETA: One of the home-ec things was about decorating and color schemes. That’s where I learned how much my idea of “colors which look good in a room” differ from everybody else’s, even during the shag-rug 1970s.
opiejeanne
@ThresherK: In my jr high the boys got shop and the girls got Home Ec. The first semester was cooking, and we learned to make cinnamon toast in the oven. The really good thing they taught us in that class was how to write the abbreviations of each measurement, and how a recipe works. It was very basic, we only had 22 minutes per class.
The second semester was sewing and the school machine was very touchy and the needles kept breaking. I have an idea why now, but then not even the teacher could figure it out. I made a sleeveless blouse on my mom’s machine at home, which only did straight stitching and none of this fancy zigzag stuff. When I was done, Mom checked it over and helped me redo the binding at the armholes. I got a C. Mom was very annoyed. She had won a bunch of sewing competitions at local fabric stores when I was younger, and looking back after running my costuming business, I know that her work was very good. I still have a couple of things she made for my kids, put away in case a grandchild should ever arrive.
Ohio Mom
Werebear: the New York Times has instructions for a no-sew mask made out of an old tee shirt, two layers thick.
I made one — when I wear it, I look like a cartoon character with a toothache because it is knotted on top of my head.
It stays in place and is washable.
Let’s see if my link works: https://www.nytimes.com/video/well/100000007078467/homemade-face-mask-tutorial.html
The Moar You Know
@Cermet: Same here. Dentist won’t see anyone unless it’s an emergency. My podiatrist (I’ve got a minor but annoying foot injury that will not go away) won’t see anyone. Closed the practice save for a receptionist. More seriously, my crackerjack internal medicine doc, basically my GP, quit. As in “quit medicine”. With no notice. She’s young enough she’s almost certainly on the hook for loans, but whatever the circumstance, she bailed. Kinda screwed as the practice says the soonest they can get a replacement MIGHT be July.
The doctors aren’t safe, they know it, and it’s taking a toll on them.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Cermet: Is your doctor able or willing to do a video/Zoom call? Not sure what apps I docs are required to use for those, I know (in the U.S. at least), there are HIPPA regulations about it. I hope you can be seen/treated with a minimum of possible exposure.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@opiejeanne: Same here, and I sucked at sewing although baking was always something I was good at (from having a grandma we lived with who was a wiz at baking anything, maybe.) I hated sewing and wished I could have taken shop class or auto mechanics. Sadly while my dad started teaching me and my older sister how to use tools and how paint/sand/etc when we were very small, like 4 maybe, he lost interest after a year or two…
Ohio Mom
It turns out that the China-Italy connection is factories in northern Italy that are owned, operated and staffed by Chinese which churn out Italian “luxury” goods like leather handbags.
As a result, there is a lot of travel between China as northern Italy.
WereBear
@John S.: This makes so much sense. Thanks for summing it up.
It gives us a plan of attack and defense :)
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@John S.: I decided when my daughter was about 12 or 13 that she needed lessons in how to deal with the world and basic economics (example and yes I am dating myself. check books) just because you have checks left doesn’t mean you have money to cover them. Make a budget and figure out what you actually need and what is a want but not needed for survival. When she was about 16 she and a friend were doing the , oh we will get jobs and get our own apartment. SO I sat down and sketched out how much setting up a very small apartment would actually cost, from monthly electric and water bills, cable TV, how much it costs to do the initial filling of of the fridge and dry goods and some cleaning supplies. She was shocked. The I explained car payments, maintenance, gas and insurance…good times.
Barbara
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Those regulations have been relaxed. Facetime and Skype are fine.
Amir Khalid
This YouTube video was shot a few days ago by a guy walking around Jalan Bukit Bintang, a major shopping area in KL that is really crowded most days of the week. He’s staying in an apartment in the area while he waits to continue his travels. I’ve never seen Bukit Bintang so empty.
Ohio Mom
Ohio Son finished high school four years ago, and based on that, I can tell you that my state does require both high school civics class (“American Government”) and a combination economics/personal finance class — both taught from an extreme right-wing stance. So be specific about what you wish for.
Sewing, cooking and wood shop were electives. There is so much pressure in a neighborhood like mine for most kids to take AP and other advanced classes so they can get into a competitive college that many kids skip those electives.
Ohio Son took cooking twice, in junior high and high school. He’s a picky eater and would bring his projects home for me to eat. He also took wood shop in jr high, and was terrified of the machines.
Matt McIrvin
@John S.: But the older people who DID have those classes are Trump’s core voters!
evodevo
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Yes. Cosby (yeah, I know, but his show was good in many ways) had an episode on this topic, where he tried to explain to Theo what living on his own would be like. It was a good informative exchange. It is too bad that such a brilliant performer had to have such a toxic personal life…
John S.
@Matt McIrvin: They are Trump voters for very different reasons. But if we’re going to have any kind of future, we need to stop breeding apathetic citizens who cannot think for themselves.
John S.
@Ohio Mom: We have none of it here in Florida. But this too is part of the problem — lack of a real national standard.
The GOP has been at war with the Department of Education since it’s inception, which is why they put Betsy DeVos in charge to kill it once and for all.
It’s ridiculous that every state does whatever it wants, and we all have to buy textbooks made for Texas. No other functional first world country operates this way.
Fair Economist
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It can’t have originated in Europe because the European sequences almost all descend from the Wuhan market sequence, and the rest from known Chinese outliers. Had it started in Europe there would be some more variant/older sequences there.
An early start would explain how the European epidemics got so bad so early, and why the sequences are so jumbled up geographically.
There go two miscreants
You folks are making me envious. No shop or home ec even available in the (Catholic) schools I attended growing up in the 50s & 60s (no music either). Fortunately I learned the shop part from my father and grandfather. I would have been MUCH better off going to public schools! (The Catholic part? A complete waste of time.)
laura
@Ohio Mom: I’ve modified the tee shirt mask to eliminate the ties and replace with 2 vertical slits to pull my ears through. Very comfy, no “earitation” and easy on off with no touchy the face part.
Version 2.0 will include the high tread count pillow case outer fabric with folds and an inner liner of tee shirt for comfy and the ear holes. Hopefully done in time for fashion week.
YY_Sima Qian
I am very skeptical of the idea that COVID-19 started in Europe first, was carried to China and then blew up in Wuhan. We know the general contours of the COVID-19 epidemic, I cannot fathom the SARS-CoV-2 virus being in the wild in Europe (or anywhere else) weeks and months the outbreak in Wuhan, with zero mitigation measures, and yet not cause a greatly many hospital stays and deaths until weeks and months after Wuhan’s outbreak.
It has been speculated by some virologists that the evolutionary ancestors to the SARS-CoV-2 might have jumped to humans months and years before Wuhan, but in forms not very transmissible or virulent, and thus flew under the radar. Then it mutated in Wuhan to its current form, and took off from there. This scenario may be plausible. As far as I am aware, such retroactive cases are determined by PCR, which only targets select fragments of the viral RNA. We have to wait for scientists to isolate and sequence the virus from the samples collected from these patients, if possible, and determine if they are indeed the SARS-CoV-2.
Switching topics, it is great that the NYC is finally implementing a plan to address the mild/moderate cases, and reduce intra-family transmission, even if it is voluntary. I do not know why this was not done during the upswing of the outbreak, as opposed to the down swing. They have the examples of the makeshift hospitals at Wuhan, and they had the equivalent at Javits Center and Central Park available. Could have flattened the curve more and reduced the peak, with the resulting reduction in deaths and loading on hospitals, if implemented much sooner.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I finally got that bonkers projection with the 3,000 a day dead; that was leaked so Trump can always claim that 2,000 a day dead is a good job.
Ohio Mom
John S: There is nothing more political than deciding on a curriculum. I don’t know what the answer is.
Some curriculum issues sort themselves out: everyone learns to add and subtract before heading on to multiplication and division; reading skills also have a natural progression.
But having observed Ohio’s social studies curriculum, with gems like “a public good is a business run by time government” (I kept that worksheet as evidence), I don’t know who I would trust with determining content, particularly for social studies, science (ask me what the lesson on global warming was like) and health (heavily abstinence-based).
I had a pretty straightforward, reality-based education but I grew up in New York City. My high school economics class was divided into two equal parts, the first on the history and mechanics of banking and the second on the struggles and victories of labor history.
Ohio Mom
Laura: Ear slits! Genius! Copying that in my next attempt.
ziggy
@Sab: I actually prefer a treadle sewing machine over an electric one. I’m going to have to find another good one–you have more control over the speed, and it is rather fun to operate.
Interesting that NY is implementing “isolation hotels”. This makes so much sense and I hope it catches on.
Also glad to see the news on masks and how much that protects others. I would like to see more places implement a “mask required” policy. It feels to me like the ones who don’t wear masks are the ones most likely to have Covid! It’s unfortunate that the messaging around masks has been so screwed up (exhibit A: Mike Pence).
Jay
@Cermet:
I had to do the ER yesterday, after 3 Telemedicines and 1 Skype with a local Doctor. Telemedicine sucked, the local clinic Doctor was way better, but they can’t/won’t do a lot of what they would have in clinic.
So, ER it was. At the front, they had pre screening, flu, colds, Covid, China, Loveboat, travel go right. No idea what happens after that but the entrance looked like a CBW facility.
Everybody else goes left, to the wait for screening where social distancing is in place. They call you up for the medical interview, much more thorough than the past, pulse oximeter test, temp, blood pressure.
Then you go wait in another social distancing waiting room, in front of the various ER’s, which have all been segregated by type of medical issue, they escort you into an exam room, after quizzing you again.
Everyone from the front door to the Doctor, was an armoured, shiny, brutally efficient medical machine filled with love in their eyes and care in their voices.
I was dreading the visit, had prepped with gloves, MN95 mask, none of it was needed because many of the people who fill the ER’s normally, ( because of a lack of Doctors and Clinics) were staying away, far, far away.
I didn’t get the care that I wanted, but I got way more than the care I needed, and got a diagnosis that everybody else had missed for over 2 years, along with a care program to suit it.
Funny how when all you can see are the eyes and forehead, above the mask, behind the face shield, and hear the voice, how many little signals you would have missed in normal times, are hugely amplified,
The only issue with the care, was that it was still a very, lengthy, time consuming process, with tons of waiting. 6 hours, but worth it.