***NON-POLITICAL COVID-19 Discussion Thread***

[JakeF]

A couple of reminders...

Originally Posted by Bwana

Once again, don't come in this thread with some kind of political agenda, or you will be shown the door. If you want to go that route, there is a thread about this in DC.

Originally Posted by Dartgod

People, there is a lot of good information in this thread, let's try to keep the petty bickering to a minimum.

We all have varying opinions about the impact of this, the numbers, etc. We will all never agree with each other. But we can all keep it civil.

Thanks!

Click here for the original OP:

Spoiler!

Apparently the CoronaVirus can survive on a inanimate objects, such as door knobs, for 9 days.

California coronavirus case could be first spread within U.S. community, CDC says
By SOUMYA KARLAMANGLA, JACLYN COSGROVE
FEB. 26, 2020 8:04 PM

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating what could be the first case of novel coronavirus in the United States involving a patient in California who neither recently traveled out of the country nor was in contact with someone who did.

“At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown. It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States,” the CDC said in a statement. “Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. It’s also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.”

The individual is a resident of Solano County and is receiving medical care in Sacramento County, according to the state Department of Public Health.

The CDC said the “case was detected through the U.S. public health system — picked up by astute clinicians.”

Officials at UC Davis Medical Center expanded on what the federal agency might have meant by that in an email sent Wednesday, as reported by the Davis Enterprise newspaper.

The patient arrived at UC Davis Medical Center from another hospital Feb. 19 and “had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition,” according to an email sent by UC Davis officials that was obtained by the Davis Enterprise.

The staff at UC Davis requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, but because the patient didn’t fit the CDC’s existing criteria for the virus, a test wasn’t immediately administered, according to the email. The CDC then ordered the test Sunday, and results were announced Wednesday. Hospital administrators reportedly said in the email that despite these issues, there has been minimal exposure at the hospital because of safety protocols they have in place.

A UC Davis Health spokesperson declined Wednesday evening to share the email with The Times.

Since Feb. 2, more than 8,400 returning travelers from China have entered California, according to the state health department. They have been advised to self-quarantine for 14 days and limit interactions with others as much as possible, officials said.

“This is a new virus, and while we are still learning about it, there is a lot we already know,” Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California.”

It is not clear how the person became infected, but public health workers could not identify any contacts with people who had traveled to China or other areas where the virus is widespread. That raises concern that the virus is spreading in the United States, creating a challenge for public health officials, experts say.

“It’s the first signal that we could be having silent transmission in the community,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “It probably means there are many more cases out there, and it probably means this individual has infected others, and now it’s a race to try to find out who that person has infected.”

On Tuesday, the CDC offered its most serious warning to date that the United States should expect and prepare for the coronavirus to become a more widespread health issue.

“Ultimately, we expect we will see coronavirus spread in this country,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “It’s not so much a question of if, but a question of when.”

According to the CDC’s latest count Wednesday morning, 59 U.S. residents have tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus — 42 of whom are repatriated citizens from a Diamond Princess cruise. That number has grown by two since Messonnier’s last count Tuesday, although the CDC was not immediately available to offer details on the additional cases.

More than 82,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported globally, and more than 2,700 people have died, with the majority in mainland China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

But public health leaders have repeatedly reminded residents that the health risk from the novel coronavirus to the general public remains low.

“While COVID-19 has a high transmission rate, it has a low mortality rate,” the state Department of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday. “From the international data we have, of those who have tested positive for COVID-19, approximately 80% do not exhibit symptoms that would require hospitalization. There have been no confirmed deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States to date.”

CDC officials have also warned that although the virus is likely to spread in U.S. communities, the flu still poses a greater risk.

Gostin said the news of potential silent transmission does not eliminate the possibility of containing the virus in the U.S. and preventing an outbreak.

“There are few enough cases that we should at least try,” he said. “Most of us are not optimistic that that will be successful, but we’re still in the position to try.”

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

It’s already that bad? I thought we had all the PPE we needed months ago.

For ****sakes why hasn’t the defense production act been put in place to avoid making this PPE shitshow worse?

You already know the answer.

Strategic National Stockpile

Experts have been warning for months of a surge of COVID cases in the fall and winter seasons. As schools start, people move indoors and the holidays arrive, a rise in coronavirus cases is expected. However, the United States’ Strategic National Stockpile is millions short of obtaining their projected PPE supplies. Currently, the National Strategic Stockpile has 115 million N95 masks—not even half the 300 million they were hoping to source before winter. The lack of a federal response has forced hospitals and facilities to fight for their own PPE. The competition among states and care facilities has placed significant stress on the supply chain, making it difficult to stockpile highly demanded equipment like N95 masks. This comes as shortages and cases rise in rural hospitals and private practices. Dr. Shikha Gupta, executive director of Get Us PPE, stated that 70% of the incoming requests from facilities that Get Us PPE has received report being “completely out” of at least one type of PPE, the most common being masks, gloves, and disinfecting wipes. These shortages come as states and large hospitals are once again competing for what little equipment they can find.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

From what I can tell, it was activated on May 14, 2020 and is still in effect.

Yeah google doesn’t have much on it. Looks like everyone thought this was a non-issue anymore. Found this though from oct. 7th...



A recent article in the New York Times investigated the use of the DPA to respond to the coronavirus and found that it was not being used to its full capacity to fix the nation’s PPE shortage.

As reported by the Washington Post, millions of dollars dispersed to the Pentagon through the DPA were given to defense contractors rather than to medical supply companies, as originally intended. What’s more, the DPA was deployed too late. In its reporting, the New York Times cited our PPE Shortage Index data for August, which showed that 77% of facilities reported that they have run out of at least one type of PPE — a huge problem as the country anticipates a second wave of coronavirus infections.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

You already know the answer.

this borders on dereliction of duty.

Positive Cases, hospitalizations and deaths were going to rise this winter no matter how well prepared we were. But...... we should have had plenty of PPE. Asking our health care workers to risk their lives over lack of PPE is totally unreasonable 9 months into this shitshow. And they can potentially spread it to other patients or bring it home to their family.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Yeah google doesn’t have much on it. Looks like everyone thought this was a non-issue anymore. Found this though from oct. 7th...

A recent article in the New York Times investigated the use of the DPA to respond to the coronavirus and found that it was not being used to its full capacity to fix the nation’s PPE shortage.

As reported by the Washington Post, millions of dollars dispersed to the Pentagon through the DPA were given to defense contractors rather than to medical supply companies, as originally intended. What’s more, the DPA was deployed too late. In its reporting, the New York Times cited our PPE Shortage Index data for August, which showed that 77% of facilities reported that they have run out of at least one type of PPE — a huge problem as the country anticipates a second wave of coronavirus infections.

I can't comment on the WaPo stuff. I'm not sure what the NYT article proves other than efforts prior to August weren't effective. There were efforts prior to August.

The DPA was invoked in April to help Medtronic and others produce ventilators. It was also invoked in April to spur 3M to make more N95 masks.

According to the government's own DFC-DPA website, funding programs were available as of May 14th.

https://www.dfc.gov/dpa

It seems the federal government has made resources available and people just aren't using them correctly, or at all in some cases.

Short of the government taking over the supply chain, I'm not sure what more can be done. And I certainly don't think the government should be doing that. Perhaps they need better legislation to hold companies accountable?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

this borders on dereliction of duty.

Positive Cases, hospitalizations and deaths were going to rise this winter no matter how well prepared we were. But...... we should have had plenty of PPE. Asking our health care workers to risk their lives over lack of PPE is totally unreasonable 9 months into this shitshow. And they can potentially spread it to other patients or bring it home to their family.

As I said in my previous post, it's not the federal government's responsibility to actually produce PPE. They invoked the DPA. Companies got money. We're still short.

Perhaps Congress should get off their asses and start holding some feet to the fire?

[Chief Roundup]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

there is no excuse to have shortages of PPE nine months into this pandemic. None.

Other than supplies for production of various PPE are also dwindling. We are having trouble restocking. Orders are 90 to 180 days behind depending on what you are ordering.

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

this borders on dereliction of duty.

Positive Cases, hospitalizations and deaths were going to rise this winter no matter how well prepared we were. But...... we should have had plenty of PPE. Asking our health care workers to risk their lives over lack of PPE is totally unreasonable 9 months into this shitshow. And they can potentially spread it to other patients or bring it home to their family.

Whose dereliction of what duty?

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

As I said in my previous post, it's not the federal government's responsibility to actually produce PPE. They invoked the DPA. Companies got money. We're still short.

Perhaps Congress should get off their asses and start holding some feet to the fire?

There was only 7 contracts for DPA and they went for vents and 3M for N95 masks.

There is more to PPE then just masks and all those are probably still being produced in China.

I said in this very thread long ago we should have taken over shuttered manufacturing plants and start making our own PPE instead of relying on China. The new administration is going to be invoking the DPA for all PPE on the first day or so.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

There was only 7 contracts for DPA and they went for vents and 3M for N95 masks.

There is more to PPE then just masks and all those are probably still being produced in China.

I said in this very thread long ago we should have taken over shuttered manufacturing plants and start making our own PPE instead of relying on China. The new administration is going to be invoking the DPA for all PPE on the first day or so.

So who is the federal government going to contract with to take over these shuttered plants? Are they going to force them to do it? Or are they just going to do it themselves, since the government apparently has some kind latent manufacturing ability?

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

There was only 7 contracts for DPA and they went for vents and 3M for N95 masks.

There is more to PPE then just masks and all those are probably still being produced in China.

I said in this very thread long ago we should have taken over shuttered manufacturing plants and start making our own PPE instead of relying on China. The new administration is going to be invoking the DPA for all PPE on the first day or so.

Originally Posted by htismaqe

So who is the federal government going to contract with to take over these shuttered plants? Are they going to force them to do it? Or are they just going to do it themselves, since the government apparently has some kind latent manufacturing ability?

Uhh yeah thats what the DPA is supposed to do, force companies to make the PPE.

We could have forced 3M to open more factories to increase PPE capacity here in the USA.

Thats exactly what we did with ventilators. The taxpayers paid the set up costs but the federal government doesn't know how to make ventilators. The government used the DPA to force GE to open up a shuttered plant and make more ventilators. Ended the ventilator shortage.

We didnt do that with PPE.

We started with a shuttered building and solved the vent shortage in 2 months time. No one can make an reasonable argument that America is not capable of making enough PPE, which are way way easier to manufacture than vents, for its citizens safety in 9 months time.


Edit:
The government pays the start up costs but the company that was forced to open, keeps all the profits. So its not like the shareholders lost money either.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

So who is the federal government going to contract with to take over these shuttered plants? Are they going to force them to do it? Or are they just going to do it themselves, since the government apparently has some kind latent manufacturing ability?

quit understanding how things work and just blame the government

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Originally Posted by O.city

Why?

You guys are worried about people’s livelihoods but not others lives?

It sucks all around. If businesses are forced to close they should be compensated. I don’t think they should be forced to close but there is obviously a reason.

The people asking them or forcing them have made wrong decisions and acted in bad faith all along the way. They’ve shot their credibility and now when shit is really hitting the fan, people are done with it.

But there’s no double talk by having any empathy for people who have lost loved ones or are sick and not doing well themselves while also realizing that financially bankrupting people is wrong as well

.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

Uhh yeah thats what the DPA is supposed to do, force companies to make the PPE.

We could have forced 3M to open more factories to increase PPE capacity here in the USA.

Thats exactly what we did with ventilators. The taxpayers paid the set up costs but the federal government doesn't know how to make ventilators. The government used the DPA to force GE to open up a shuttered plant and make more ventilators. Ended the ventilator shortage.

We didnt do that with PPE.

We started with a shuttered building and solved the vent shortage in 2 months time. No one can make an reasonable argument that America is not capable of making enough PPE, which are way way easier to manufacture than vents, for its citizens safety in 9 months time.

The DPA doesn't "force" anybody to do anything, with the exception of prioritizing DPA-related manufacturing over BAU. It incentivizes companies but it's still voluntary, AFAIK.

Like I said, perhaps Congress should get on this and figure out why companies aren't getting on board.

They certainly have time to hold hearings with big banks about student debt said banks aren't even servicing. The certainly have time to hold hearings with social media CEO's.

You'd think finding out why companies aren't taking advantage of DPA funds to build PPE would be a Congressional priority.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Like I said, perhaps Congress should get on this and figure out why companies aren't getting on board.

Well, that would take about 9 months. Do we have 9 months?

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

So who is the federal government going to contract with to take over these shuttered plants? Are they going to force them to do it? Or are they just going to do it themselves, since the government apparently has some kind latent manufacturing ability?

BRC pretty much answered this but yes they could contract with another company or force them. The government has wide authority to do what needs to be done in a crisis like this.

We also need to start making certain drugs here in the US as well that way we aren't dependent on China.