Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

[Pies4shaw]

[eddiesmith]

[K]

"Testing failures

The signature failure of the US response to the coronavirus was the slow rollout of mass testing. Because of technical glitches and bureaucratic bungling, the US was flying blind as the virus spread through the country in February and early March.

Instead of using a test developed by the World Health Organisation, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opted to develop its own test. This wasn't particularly unusual. It’s common for nations with strong scientific expertise to develop their own diagnostics.

The CDC was indeed able to quickly develop a viable coronavirus test, but struggled to ramp up production. When it started sending out test kits to public health laboratories in early February, problems emerged immediately. Trial runs produced inconclusive results in more than half the labs, meaning the tests couldn’t be relied upon.

The CDC implemented a workaround solution, which required the labs to send tests back to the organisation's headquarters in Atlanta. This resulted in days-long delays. By mid-February, the nation was testing only about 100 samples per day.

Top researchers at prestigious universities were also hindered in their efforts to roll out their own COVID-19 tests. On January 31 Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the coronavirus a public health emergency. It was an important declaration but had unintended consequences.

Hospitals and private laboratories that usually face minimal federal regulation were now subject to new rules that required them to obtain permission from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) before using their own tests.

It wasn't until late February that the FDA relaxed its rules and allowed certain laboratories to develop and use their own tests before authorisation.
...

Asked about the testing shortage at a congressional hearing in March, Dr Anthony Fauci, the federal government's top infectious disease expert, said: "It is a failing, let's admit it."

The pace of testing has increased dramatically over recent weeks. Around 100,000 people are now being tested each day. But the surge came too late to identify emerging hotspots such as New York."

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/this-is-how-america-s-coronavirus-response-went-wrong-20200409-p54ii6.html

[Dark Beanie]

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/pete-evans-is-pushing-a-15000-device-to-help-fight-coronavirus/news-story/3aa451b8bc1f750a9056e5b1bd26365e

Pete Evans is pushing a $15,000 device to help fight coronavirus

Celebrity chef Pete Evans wants Australians to know that all they need to fight the deadly coronavirus is a $15,000 frequency machine that uses “harmonies … found in nature”.

The controversial television cooking show judge, who recently praised the work of notorious anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr, spruiked the futuristic-looking machine to his Facebook followers on Thursday night.

In a Facebook live video, Evans said the BioCharger NG, which he sells on his website, is a “pretty amazing tool” which he and his family “use pretty much every day”.

“It’ll take you down some rabbit holes … it’ll take me an hour or two to explain it,” he said.

“Just briefly, it’s programmed with about a thousand different recipes. There’s a couple on there for Wuhan coronavirus that you may be interested in.”

Seriously?
This guy should have been booted from Channel 7 years ago.

[Pies4shaw]

54: An elderly man has died at Northwest Hospital in Tasmania.

[stui magpie]

Meanwhile, New York State has more cases than any country in the world except the US, but the Governor is apparently doing a spiffing job.


Spread of the virus is interesting, see map at following link.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/16/816707182/map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus-in-the-u-s

New York and New Jersey seem to have half the cases just to themselves.

[stui magpie]

In about a month, Sweden will either be vindicated or FUBAR'd.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/10/europe/sweden-lockdown-turmp-intl/index.html

[Pies4shaw]

I think the true figure for New York is over one million cases (rather than the official number of about 165,000), based on the number of deaths.

That consistent under-enumeration of cases is replicated across the US, largely as a consequence of Trump's delays and limits in rolling out testing. The "confirmed cases" figures in the US are a farce. Just by way of example, it is inconceivable that Kentucky could have 79 deaths from 1,450 cases.

Also, it is probable that New York and New Jersey were just ahead of the rest of the US on the "infection curve". In the last 24 hours, the following daily new cases counts have been recorded, amongst others:

Mass'tts 2,151
Penns'a 1,803
Texas 1,361
Illinois 1,344
Louisiana 1,253
Michigan 1,158
California 1,141
Florida 1,128
Conn'cut 1,003
Georgia 681
Maryland 656
Colorado 547
Indiana 408
Virginia 397
Ohio 364
Alabama 339

It is a public health disaster, countrywide. At the moment, 29 States have recorded more deaths than (and in 19 of those 29 cases, at least double) the whole of Australia.

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

This reasonably bizarre (from the Guardian's blog, just breaking):

NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin has resigned from the government after he was fined $1000 by police for staying at his central coast holiday home, breaching a Covid-19 public health order.

[Tannin]

[Tannin]

[stui magpie]

[Pies4shaw]

Some more on counting in the UK, for K:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/covid-19-hundreds-of-uk-care-home-deaths-not-added-to-official-toll

Hundreds of people are dying in care homes from confirmed or suspected coronavirus without yet being officially counted, the Guardian has learned.

More than 120 residents of the UK’s largest charitable provider of care homes are thought to have died from the virus in the last three weeks, while another network of care homes is reported to have recorded 88 deaths.

Care England, the industry body, estimated that the death toll is likely to be close to 1,000, despite the only available official figure for care home fatalities being dramatically lower. The Office for National Statistics said this week that 20 people died in care homes across the whole of England and Wales in the week to 27 March.

The gulf in the figures has prompted warnings that ministers are underestimating the impact of Covid-19 on society’s most frail, and are failing to sufficiently help besieged care homes and workers.

[Wokko]

https://nypost.com/2020/04/09/china-to-reclassify-dogs-as-pets-in-wake-of-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR1oClnl3vkn_NiT2NN-xCi60sCUvEho3BCDiLmF2qA4tgUjZ6uvdUy8uZk