the no-nonsense, nothing-but-the-facts-m'am C19 thread

[user4]

That's an awfully big stretch, Guardian folks. Some random gas stations, etc. I have seen no stores with such signs. In fact, many of the stores around here emphasize you should wear a mask when in their establishment.

here in MA by law we must wear a mask to enter any establishment that is selling food or drink.

nevertheless, in areas of the country where the risks are much lower there eventually is going to be a reaction to the heavy handed control from their governments. The worst thing that can happen is that the people simply ignore their government's hollow edicts.

[J Rorick]

They already are.

[NotDutra5]

The appointment of Moncef Slaoui as the head of Operation Warp Speed one day followed by the announcement and presumed PR bump for Moderna and the realization of the fact that he was head of Moderna was a bit eyebrow raising for me.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/18/coro...-holdings.html

and....on cue and as Hal Hollbrook said to Dustin and Bob "follow the money"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/moderna...-announcement/

In all, four of Moderna's top executives netted a total of $30 million in stock transactions in the past few days, including the company's top legal officer, its top scientist and its chief financial officer, the SEC filings show.

[jeremyp]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...641_story.html
In the developing world COVID is not predominantly deadly for the old.

"In Brazil, 15 percent of deaths have been people under 50 — a rate more than 10 times greater than in Italy or Spain. In Mexico, the trend is even more stark: Nearly one-fourth of the dead have been between 25 and 49. In India, officials reported this month that nearly half of the dead were younger than 60. In Rio de Janeiro state, more than two-thirds of hospitalizations are for people younger than 49.

Analysts say the emerging data suggests many of the problems that have long troubled the developing world — intractable poverty, extreme inequality, fragile health systems — are increasing vulnerability to the disease. In countries with more poverty and fewer resources, people who might have survived elsewhere are instead dying."
"Brazil's health ministry has recommended using the anti-malarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat even mild cases of COVID-19 - treatments President Jair Bolsonaro has pushed for."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...153335764.html

[jeremyp]

Anti-viral drug remdesivir cuts recovery times in coronavirus patients.
Complete results from the research, which was carried out by US government agency the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), were published by leading medical periodical the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study found that remdesivir, injected intravenously daily for 10 days, accelerated the recovery of hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to a placebo in clinical tests on just over a thousand patients across 10 countries.
NIAID director Anthony Fauci has said preliminary evidence indicated remdesivir had a "clear-cut, significant and positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery".
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/brazil-world-highest-coronavirus-cases-live-updates-200522235119619.html

[Master403]

The study is at
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007764

[Conor Dary]

Meanwhile....


C.D.C. Test Counting Error Leaves Epidemiologists ‘Really Baffled’

The Centers for Disease Control has been lumping together tests for active coronavirus with tests for recovered patients, boosting testing totals but muddying the pandemic’s course.

Stunned epidemiologists say data from antibody tests and active virus tests should never be mixed because diagnostic testing seeks to quantify the amount of active disease in the population. Serological testing can also be unreliable. And patients who have had both diagnostic and serology tests would be counted twice in the totals.

“It just doesn’t make any sense; all of us are really baffled,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida.

Whatever the reason, the numbers are fueling Mr. Trump’s frequent — and inaccurate — boasts that the United States is doing more testing “than all other countries combined,” a claim that the fact-checking website PolitiFact has declared “pants on fire wrong.” Governors rely on testing in deciding how far to go in reopening their economies. With all 50 states moving to reopen, accurate tracking is essential.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/u...tests-cdc.html

[tandfman]

Headline and sub-head:

Nike Turned Away a Public Health Official From Its Warehouse Days After a Worker With COVID-19 Died


The Health Department received a complaint that a Nike warehouse wasn’t being cleaned thoroughly or allowing for social distancing. Its inspector wasn’t allowed inside. Twenty-one workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at Nike’s Memphis locations.

https://www.propublica.org/article/n...-covid-19-died

[Atticus]

The Health Department received a complaint that a Nike warehouse wasn’t being cleaned thoroughly or allowing for social distancing. Its inspector wasn’t allowed inside. Twenty-one workers have tested positive for COVID-19 at Nike’s Memphis locations.

Oooh, Uncle Phil (or more precisely,John Donahoe) has some 'splainin' to do.

[gh]

that link wouldn't work for me, but this one does

https://www.propublica.org/article/n...-covid-19-died

[Master403]

Meanwhile....

C.D.C. Test Counting Error Leaves Epidemiologists ‘Really Baffled’

How could "epidemiologists" not have known the source of the data? Please reread my post 406. Everyone has known all along that all these tests are getting lumped together by CDC and some, maybe most, states.

Check the link. NYT filed this under politics. It certainly wasn't news.

Next they'll be shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that New York, unlike almost every other jurisdiction, is counting suspected cases in their total.

[Halfmiler2]

The Friday (5/22/20) early afternoon numbers:

Worldwide: 5,128K (+5%) cases & 333K (+1%) deaths
The USA : 1,578K (+1%) cases & 94,729(+1%) deaths
New York: 361K (+1%) cases & 23,083 (+0%) deaths
NYC Only : 199K (+0%) cases & 21,003 (+0%) deaths
New Jersey:153K (+1%)cases & 10,985 (+1%) deaths
Bergen Co.: 17,653(+0%)cases & 1,515 (+0%) deaths

NYC numbers include probable as well as confirmed deaths. New York State numbers do not yet include new daily death numbers today.

.

The Saturday (5/23/20) early afternoon numbers:

Worldwide: 5,261K (+2%) cases & 340K (+2%) deaths
The USA : 1,608K (+2%) cases & 96,283(+2%) deaths
New York: 361K (+0%) cases & 23,195 (+0%) deaths
NYC Only: 199K (+0%) cases & 21,086 (+0%) deaths
New Jersey:153K(+0%) cases & 11,081 (+1%) deaths
Bergen Co.: 17,668(+0%)cases & 1,521 (+0%) deaths

NJ new deaths dropped under 100 from the peak number of 460 on 4/30. NJ new cases were only 443 down from the peak of 4,391 on 4/16. Hospitalizations dipped under 3K from the peak of 8K.

Bergen new cases were only fifteen and new deaths were only six. My little town of Haworth (3.5K population) has had 38 cases and 2 deaths - both senior citizens and one with underlying health issues.

[gh]

and in the we're not out of the woods yet department...

Study estimates 24 states still have uncontrolled coronavirus spread

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/st...4tA7u?ocid=sf2

[Conor Dary]

Not by a long shot.....more on that Imperial study...

Roughly speaking, any state that’s a shade of purple shouldn’t even be thinking about reopening yet. This mainly includes the South and the Great Lakes region, precisely the places that are most aggressively reopening right now. This does not bode well.



https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-dr...midwest-south/

[Halfmiler2]

Interesting that Georgia is not one of the 24 states.